My Personal Guide to Dealing with Anxiety Before Competing

Everyone at some time in their life will experience anxiety. As for athletes, this anxiety can arise in the weeks leading up to a competition. For me however, anxiety would creep around months before a competition, and it left the moment I stepped into the ring. Most of the fighters I've spoken with about this performance anxiety have let me know that I'm not the only one who gets a sick feeling when thinking about their upcoming fight. So I hope this personal guide reaches those who, like me, have trouble dealing with performance anxiety or wish to handle it better.

Step 1: Accepting you are anxious and understanding that it is totally normal.

I remember before my very first fight, one year ago, the feelings of anxiety would come at the most random times. They would take away any appetite I had and give me strong urges to lay down. At the time I didn't realize it was normal to feel like this, so I thought it was my brain telling me I wasn't training hard enough. This lead to more training on top of training which can sometimes do more harm than good. But after doing some research and talking to some people about why these feelings would occur, I quickly found out it was pretty common. This alone helped me out so much. It became more of an obstacle in fight preparation rather than a problem.

Step 2: Find a few coping methods that work for you.

The goal of these coping methods is to bring you to a more relaxed mental and physical state. To "clear your head" more or less. You want to get to a point where you can think about your fight/competition with a calm mind and body. This is going to help you figure out what it is about your fight that worries you. Giving you a new understanding of how you think, what you fear, and what you can spend more time on. Two coping methods that I have found to be helpful are

running and meditating.

Running is my go-to when it comes to performance anxiety. Some good music and constant movement really help me to relax and pick my brain. Especially when I run a more scenic route. But be careful not to overdo the distances, take into consideration the amount of training done on a regular basis to make sure you don't over-train.

My favorite less active method of coping is meditation. A big part of the meditation that I do is visualization. Once I get my mind calm enough, I will walk myself through the fight. I focus in on positive happenings and positive outcomes. Negative thoughts may arise but you have to flood them out with positive thoughts. And whenever your mind wanders off, as I'm sure it will, focus on your breathing. Breathe deep into your stomach and exhale through your nose. Do this until your mind is calm enough to visualize the event again. I usually spend anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes meditating.

Step 3: Understand that the anxious feelings may never totally disappear, and remember why you do what you do.

As I'm writing this blog I'm having feelings of nervousness about my upcoming fight. However, my approach to dealing with these feelings has totally changed since the beginning of last year, and I feel much better because of that. When the feelings get worse I remember WHY I ever started doing martial arts, and who I do it for. That thought alone gives me the courage to continue, regardless of any feelings I might have. If your WHY isn't strong enough to overcome those feelings, you might want to choose a different hobby.