This article will delve into more of the applied psychology of performance. As you may or may not know, I was previously the psychologist for the Saudi Arabian National Tae Kwon Do team some years back and have since been hired to deliver a number of seminars and training sessions with other martial artists, athletes, performers, as well as the occasional corporate function! I wasn’t sure which section to put this in, whether it was science, applied life skills or martial arts, so I’ll keep this fairly general and not overly sport-specific, allowing you to apply it to your own training and lifestyle.
First of all, I’d always say it’s important to identify the goal; is it a sporting event, a performance, a presentation, or even something like a driving test? Knowing what the end goal is gives you an indication of how to formulate your preparations. I’d always advise examining the conditions of the event itself. For instance, if it’s a competition, let’s take a look at what’s involved; there will be people watching and does your training account for this? Probably not, but it can absolutely play a huge factor in how you perform.
Preparing for the conditions, not just the event
One of the most overlooked aspects of preparation is that we often train for the activity itself without adequately preparing for the environment in which we’re expected to perform it. We might practice the physical skills, refine our technique and become increasingly proficient at what we do, but how much of that preparation accounts for the actual conditions on the day?
If you’re a martial artist, for example, you might spend hours perfecting your techniques in the dojo. However, the conditions of a competition are very different. You’re wearing your competition gear, you’re surrounded by other competitors, there are officials present and of course, there’s an audience watching. There may be noise, distractions and the added pressure of knowing that your performance matters. Suddenly, you’re no longer just executing a technique; you’re doing so in an environment that can influence your concentration, your confidence and your physiological response.
This is why I would always encourage people to acclimatise themselves to the conditions in which they’ll be expected to perform; if you’re competing in a particular uniform or set of equipment, then train in it. If you know there will be a crowd, introduce crowd noise into your training environment. If possible, practice in a venue that resembles the one you’ll be using on the day. The idea is to make the unfamiliar as familiar as possible.
There is a psychological benefit to this; when we encounter an unfamiliar environment, our attention is naturally drawn towards it. We notice the noise, the people, the surroundings and the fact that we’re being observed. These things can become distractions because we’re not accustomed to them. By exposing ourselves to similar conditions during preparation, we can reduce some of that pressure and free up more of our attention for the task itself.
You can even take this a step further by using crowd noise as part of your preparation outside of active training. For example, you might listen to recordings of a noisy sporting arena whilst going through your usual training routine. You could also play these sounds while sitting quietly or lying down, allowing yourself to become familiar with the auditory environment without having to perform a physical task at the same time. The purpose isn’t to eliminate every feeling of nervousness or to convince yourself that the real event will be exactly like your training, but rather to increase your familiarity with the conditions, so that when the day arrives, fewer things feel completely new or foreign.
Mental Rehearsal
Of course, we can’t always recreate every aspect of the environment in which we’ll be performing. We might not have access to the competition venue, an audience or the equipment we’ll be using. This is where mental rehearsal becomes particularly useful.
In an example I’ve used previously in an article I wrote about VR, imagine you’re preparing to run a race; you can mentally take yourself through the entire experience, from the moment you arrive at the venue to the sound of the starting gun, the first few strides, the rhythm of your breathing, the movement of your arms and legs and finally crossing the finish line. The more detailed and realistic you make this experience, the more useful the exercise can become.
Mental rehearsal isn’t simply a matter of daydreaming about success. You’re deliberately practicing the experience in your mind, where you can visualise the environment, imagine the sounds around you, rehearse your movements and anticipate the challenges you might encounter along the way. You can even practice how you’ll respond if something doesn’t go according to plan.
Interestingly, mental imagery isn’t necessarily a passive process; research into motor imagery has demonstrated that mentally rehearsing a movement can activate some of the same neural networks involved in physically performing it. In other words, when you mentally run a race from start to finish, your brain isn’t simply watching a film; it’s engaging with a representation of the movement itself. This is one reason mental rehearsal can be a useful addition to physical practice.
I think of this as preparing yourself holographically; you’re building a more complete representation of the experience, rather than focusing exclusively on one isolated component. You’re not just rehearsing the physical actions, the sensory environment, the sequence of events, but also your response to the pressure surrounding them.
The more realistic your rehearsal, the more you can familiarise yourself with the experience before you encounter it in real life. You can imagine the crowd, the noise, the anticipation and the sensations associated with performing. You can also rehearse maintaining your composure when you notice your heart rate rising or when something unexpected happens.
This doesn’t mean mental rehearsal will perfectly replicate the real event, nor does it replace physical training. It means you can use your imagination as another tool in your preparation. You’re giving yourself an opportunity to practise the experience before it happens.
In Part 2, I’ll relate this to how this applies to non-athletes!