Let me remind you from my first pressure tip that pressure affects ALL athletes negatively, even world-class athletes.  It tenses you up and hurts your ability to think strategically.  If you want to perform better, you want to minimize those effects, right?

Why do us athletes feel pressure in the first place? What is pressure and where does it come from?  Simply put, as humans, we attach more meaning, more importance on certain events than other events in our life.

Here’s a simple example in sports: a baseball pitcher throwing a ball in practice is not near as important as throwing the same ball, from the same distance and for the same purpose at the end of a close game.  The act is the exact same in both instances.  One event just has much more meaning to the player. You’re with me on that, right?

So, logically, if we could reduce the meaning or importance of the event, then we reduce the pressure, right? And we perform better.

How do we do that? Well, we take advantage of a little psychological trick called “comparisons.”  This is something that you already do very well.   It’s a powerful function of your mind that can be used to overcome pressure!

Here’s what I mean… you might think that a rock the size of a car is big, right? But put it next to a meteor hurtling down toward earth and that makes that car-sized rock insignificant in comparison now doesn’t it?

What we want to do, is to reduce the meaning of the important event by thinking of something much MORE important and with much MORE meaning.  This makes the pressure so much smaller and your body WILL respond to that perception by relaxing some.

In real life competition when feeling pressure, here’s what you do:  You remind yourself that in the big picture of your life, this pitch, this serve, this shot, this kick is really next to nothing.
Your life is so much more meaningful than this event.

Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks had one of the most pressure-packed situations ever at the 2015 super bowl on his last play.

Here’s what he said just days before the game:

“Football doesn’t define me.  My Faith is the number one thing in my life.”
Can you see how one play, even in the biggest game on earth, is still not as meaningful to Wilson as his faith. It makes that one play less pressured for him than if he didn’t make that comparison.  I’m sure he thinks of this every day which is why he also said:

“ I never play scared. Never have, never will.”

That’s what you want!!  You may say that I picked a bad example because he ended up choking and his team lost. That’s besides the point.  Sports has it’s ups and downs and reducing your pressure doesn’t guarantee success.  I promise you though, he got to where he is because he knows how to handle the pressure.  He’s done it so many times.

“It’s Just A Game. Nothing’s different.” 1-27-15 – pre-Super Bowl interview

For you…At the moment of pressure in competition, find something that is more important or meaningful than this event and compare it.  Prepare your mind this way, in advance.

A loved one?  Your purpose in life?  Your ultimate career? How about a game or match coming up that’s even MORE important?  There’s always something more important to direct your mind to and compare to to reduce the pressure in this moment.
Let’s do this.
Craig Sigl mental toughness trainer