Do you play tight and tense during games?
Many athletes I work with in one-on-one mental performance coaching play tense. They get stressed out and worried about what will happen, and this results in physical tightness when they play.
The tighter and more tense they are, the less likely they are to play well.
So, one of the main things we work on is getting them to stop being so tense when they play.
And in this article, that’s exactly what I want to help you do as well.
What Causes Tension During Games
Tension stems from stress and anxiety. The more you worry about what will happen and how well you’ll play in the game, the tighter you will feel.
But where does this stress and anxiety come from?
Well, as a mental performance coach, my job is to help athletes figure out how their thinking is hurting their play and work to get their thinking to help their play.
And it’s this thinking that is driving the stress and anxiety. That is one of the main ways thinking negatively impacts athletic performance.
The type of stressful and anxious thinking I’m referring to is thinking about how badly you want to play well, worrying about what will happen, what other people will think and so on.
All of this outcome-oriented thinking (thinking that is focused on what will happen) drives stress and anxiety and creates tense play.
Anxiety and Control
When we worry about what will happen, it’s natural for us to try and control the situation. Especially when we think about how much we want to avoid a negative.
The more we think about something bad happening, the more we will try to control the future to make sure the bad outcome doesn’t occur.
Unfortunately, when you try to control the outcome in sports, this creates tense play in the moment.
You are trying to force the outcome, instead of allowing it to happen.
Let’s look at the example of a tennis player who’s anxious about double faulting on their serve.
They see double faulting on their serve as one of the worst mistakes they can make. In their eyes, double faulting is giving away points to their opponent.
This makes the idea of double faulting something they stress and worry about. They desperately want to avoid double faulting.
Not only because they don’t want to give points away, but also because they know how frustrated they get with themselves when they do double fault.
So, what do you think happens when they serve? Are they nice and loose and relaxed, or are they tense?
They will be tense because they are stressing about not double faulting, and so they try to force the serve to be good. The desire to control the outcome creates tension. Tension that increases their chances of double faulting.
That is the most frustrating part of it all. The more you try to force the outcome you want, the tighter you play. And the tighter you play, the worse you will play.
By trying to force the outcome, you are causing the outcome you are trying to avoid to happen.
This is why we must eliminate tight play from your game.
Strategy to Stop Play Tight & Tense During Games
What is the opposite of tight and tense play?
It’s loose and relaxed play. Play where you don’t focus so much on the outcome and you don’t stress about the future.
You trust yourself and your skills and you allow yourself to relax into the moment and just play.
That is a beautiful state to be in as an athlete, but admittedly a very difficult one to attain.
To get yourself to the point where you can let go of the outcome and stop trying to control the future of your performance, we need to take a two-part approach.
The first part is using a routine to help you relax in the moment.
The second part is proactively building your confidence to increase trust.
Learning to Relax into the Moment
Stress and anxiety are all about us trying to control the outcome. When we try to control the outcome, we are not focused in the present moment. And we are definitely not relaxed into the moment.
When I say relaxed into the moment, I mean being fully present and allowing whatever will happen to happen.
Now, I don’t want you to think I’m saying you shouldn’t care about the result. That would be a stupid thing for me to recommend.
You’re competing because you want to win.
But there is a big difference between wanting to win and stressing about winning. In fact, stressing about winning is a quick way to leave with a loss.
Allowing the result to happen means you are focusing more of your energy on the process of your game and what you need to be doing in the moment, instead of constantly thinking about what the future will be and how the game will turn out.
When you are able to do this, you will see a huge improvement in your level of performance and a reduction in the tension you experience while performing.
To relax into the moment, we need a plan in place to do so. The plan will involve tools you can use to generate a calm and relaxed state.
The first tool you can use is mindfulness meditation. You should perform mindfulness before the game begins.
Mindfulness is all about being present. When you are in a mindful state, your attention is completely centered in the present moment. When your mind is present, you are more relaxed.
I recommend performing a ten-minute mindfulness meditation as part of your pregame routine.
The next two tools you can use help you relax while playing. They are count breathing and using performance objectives.
Count breathing is a great way to calm your mind in the moment. What you can do is breathe in for a count of five and breathe out nice and slowly for a count of ten. Do this whenever you are feeling tense.
Performance objectives are great for keeping your attention in the present moment and off the outcome or a previous mistake. Most tension is created by worrying about what may happen in the future or by you trying to control the future.
If you can keep your attention in the present moment, on what you can control, tension will be reduced. Performance objectives are a great way to do so.
Proactively Building Your Confidence
When you are playing in a tight and tense state, this is caused by fear and stress about what will happen. This reveals a lack of trust in yourself and your skills.
If you fully trusted yourself, there would be no need to worry about the future. You would fully trust the game would go the way you want it to.
That is the type of confidence you need in order to fully relax into the present moment and play with less tension.
Which is why, in addition to the strategy outlined in the previous section, you also want to be working on your confidence so that, over the long-term, you trust in yourself more and more.
The greater your trust, the less tense you’ll be.
I’ve written an in-depth article on how to build proactive confidence in sports if you’d like to learn more about how to build this level of trust.
Final Thoughts
To stop playing with so much tension, your goal needs to be to play in a calmer and more relaxed state.
To play in such a state, we first must recognize the impact stress has on our performance. Specifically how stress leads to trying to control the outcome. And how such control leads to tense play.
Once we recognize that, we can switch our attention onto getting ourselves relaxed in the moment and building proactive confidence long-term.
Now, if you’re interested in a more personalized approach to letting go of tension and helping you stop playing so tight, then click here to schedule a free introductory call about mental coaching, or you can fill out the form below.
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.
