Photo: Snapped! by Becca Clark
We all get a bit nervous while waiting behind the curtains to go on stage! Your heart may beat faster, than normal, your hands might get sweaty or you may feel nauseous. This pre-competition anxiety, or competitive state anxiety, is totally normal and can actually energize you and keep you focused.
The only time it’s detrimental is if it affects you to the point that your skills are impacted. Usually, competitive state anxiety will occur when the demands of your routine/performance are greater than your perceived ability.
Here are 12 ways to help you feel less nervous:
1. Mentally & Physically Prepare
Get familiar with your schedule before competition day. Know when you compete, where, how to get there and plan how early you need to wake up to get ready. Giving yourself enough time to sort things out will eliminate that source of stress.
Also, doing a thorough warm up before getting onto the practice mats will ensure your body is ready to start tumbling, stunting and running the routine as a whole.
2. Cognitive Restructuring
This refers to changing your usual ways of thinking to reduce negative thoughts that cause physical anxiety symptoms, like butterflies, sweaty palms, shakiness, etc. Change the way you think of the performance, or the competition as a whole. Try to make yourself excited or don’t hype up the competition as much as you have. Even if it’s a major national competition or Worlds, trick yourself into thinking it’s just a fun, easy performance at a small local event.
3. Goal Setting
Focusing only on larger goals like winning the competition or getting a bid can be overwhelming and place more stress on you than if you’re focused on smaller process goals. Think about the tiny steps you need to take in order to reach that end goal. These may be things like ensuring you’re fully warmed up, making sure your shoes are tied on tight, sticking your tumbling pass, doing sharp motions, communicating with your stunt group, and more.
You also may want to create goals that allow you to compete with just yourself, instead of other teams or gyms. For example, instead of winning 1st place, you could change your goal to hitting YOUR OWN routine perfectly. Since you’re one member of a team, unfortunately you need to rely on others to do their jobs perfectly to win. This can’t always happen so the best you can do is focus on doing the best YOU can.
4. Positive Self-Talk
Hype yourself up by telling yourself how amazing and capable you are! Positive affirmations create positive thinking and an overall positive, confident state of mind.
You can say things like “I have hit my stunt 100 times and can hit it again no problem,” “I am excited to compete and show everyone my skills,” “I am prepared to go full out” or “Sticking my tumbling is easy for me.”
5. Confidence Boosters
The more confidence you have, the less nervous you’ll be! Confidence creates calmness. Think about your past successes, like the routine you hit perfectly last practice, or how much energy you had during your last full out that you didn’t even feel tired.
6. Relaxation Training
Relaxation techniques can include listening to music, doing yoga, meditating, visualizing your routine in your head or doing progressive muscle relaxation. These activities will assist in reducing the physical symptoms of anxiety to help you feel calmer.
7. Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises are also a form of relaxation training. Deep breathing can get rid of butterflies, slow down your heart rate and reduce the tension in your muscles. Pairing it with positive thoughts, such as reminiscing on good experiences you’ve had can make it even more effective. Practice makes perfect with this one, so do it often for it to be most effective come competition weekend.
8. Distractions
You don’t want to distract yourself too much, but small distractions like chatting with teammates, listening to music or playing a game will reduce pre-competition anxiety by temporarily overwriting your negative thoughts.
9. Focusing Only on What You Can Control
Avoid focusing on the size of the crowd, who may be watching, the colour of the floor or how good other teams are. These are all things you cannot control no matter what you do – so no need to spend time worrying about them. The only things you can control are your preparation and your own skills in the routine.
10. Task, Not Outcome
Focus on the task at hand, not the end result. Don’t waste energy thinking about whether you’ll hit, or win or lose. Re-direct your thoughts to be only about the components of your routine. Thinking too far into the future will prevent you from staying in the present moment, which can negatively impact your tumbling and stunting.
11. Compete Like You Don’t Care
Competing like you don’t care doesn’t mean being lazy. It means to enjoy the performance and have fun without fixating on how good or how bad you do. The routine will not be the most important thing you do in your life, so lighten up a bit and don’t stress yourself out so much.
12. Don’t Fear Failure
Similar to the previous point, fixating on the potential of performing poorly will only increase nervousness. Failing will never be fun and you should always try your best, but keep in mind that with every mistake or bad performance comes a lesson. By failing, you/your team will be able to identify your strong and weak points.
As you know by now, pre-competition anxiety doesn’t need to be a problem – you just need to identify coping strategies that work for you. Cheerleading is just as mental as it is physical, if not more mental, so tackling your nerves will only ever create positive outcomes.
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