Your state unlocks your skills…
Think about this… you work so hard, right…?
In practice most of the time, as your skill improves, you move and play in the way you want.
Then come game time… things don’t quite look and feel like they do in practice.
Now there might potentially be many reasons for this, but I highlight here one that is very influential and also easier to be aware of.
Your state.
Your state is a combination of mind, body and emotion.
We can talk of them as if they are separate things. However, they are not. They are one connected system that is only separated through language.
So your state refers to the condition that the connected system of your mind, body and emotion is in.
Think of a car… perhaps an F1 car… its condition determines the car’s performance. The quality and precision of the whole vehicle… how it is fine-tuned and adjusted plays a pivotal role in how the car can perform.
Your state is much the same.
Optimal state.
In sport psychology, you will learn about your optimal state.
This state is found when we measure your anxiety or tension levels with that of your performance.
According to the model, there is a level of tension that is necessary for performance to be optimal.
That tension level is referred to as the optimal state for performance.
So how do we know what our optimal state is? What tension level is necessary?
Here are a few steps you can use…
Become aware of your state before and during a performance. This is so that you can start referencing and tracking your state.
To help you identify what that is… remember a time when you played at your best… what state were you in?
From the tracking start identifying what works and what does not.
Explore and build your routine through things like music, mindfulness, breathing and journalling to help you optimise your ability to get into your optimal state.
Curious about a journal that is designed specifically for performance?
Here is the Performance Formula Journal (Currently South Africa Only)