Set your mind on a positive note is an important factor before every single game. When we think about the stuff like we are having a bad day, it’s raining today or I just didn’t have a good morning when I woke up because the thought of my dog being alone for the day while I will be out and so on is not going to help your performance.
Setting up your mind before the game is important, so we can be mentally ready and won’t get surprised by the situations that might come up.
How to correctly prepare yourself?
Imagine we have already worked out in the gym, trained on the court throughout the week, we have also regenerated and toned the muscles so that the body is properly prepared for the match. More or less everyone has some kind of rituals that help them mentally. Surely you have noticed that, for example, tennis players always store a water bottle in the same place or wipe themselves with one side of a towel, and so on.
There is another thing that can help us to better manage the preparation and the match itself, and that is to reflect in your head every single situation of how the match can go. We need to include this scenario when we are completely calm and we can focus on it. Surely you have a light workout at least a day before the match or in the morning before the match, so that the body is ready for the match which usually takes place in the afternoon. Morning training is followed up by lunch and then relax so the body calms down and that’s when it is advised to “train” your mind and imagine the scenario of the game, point after point so nothing can surprise us. Of course, there may be some situations that no one counts on in advance, but you can mentally set yourself to 80-90% the way it will all go and we should do this all in a calm state, ideally lying in bed with our eyes closed imagining all the situations. The course may be different for every single person but in most cases, it starts how we walk in to the stadium or when our bus parks in front of the stadium…getting out, taking our bag, walking through the front gate, etc. Follows up by a coffee or a snack, favorite drink (we are imagining all as if it was real). For example, the exact moment how, the person is handing you the coffee, how we stir it up and so on. We then come to the dressing room where we do the rituals as we are used to…we put on the equipment, jersey, sneakers, football boots, protectors, we warm our fingers and knees. The coach has a short speech (meeting) and then we enter the playing area where we go to warm up. After the warm-up, the teams are greeted, the referee whistles and the match can begin. We project a couple of game situations (we imagine how we perform a movement when we have the ball on our feet or hands), which could occur as if the match should take place as if we were really on the field. After the match, we celebrate the victory or we have to deal with the loss. We go to the locker room where we take a shower and the match day is over for us.
It’s all about mental training. Of course, this is something extra that we can do to be mentally strong. This will make it easier for us to deal with situations that may arise. It takes time and systematic training and maybe it will help you feel more comfortable and confident during the match.
