Nerves

I had an interesting discussion with an athlete regarding psychology today.

The conversation come up because she was saying that she is sometimes prone to panic attacks while racing, particularly in the swim, that is despite her being a very experienced triathlete. It doesn't happen every time, but when it does it can really derail her day. On top of that she gets very bad pre-race nerves.

It is an issue that is very, very common among athletes. We do all this training to get ourselves physically ready to race, but all too often the thing that sabotages us is our own minds.

Obviously you don't want to eliminate nerves and stress entirely. Those nerves give you an important pre-race short of adrenaline and help keep you focuses. However, if the nerves and stress get too strong they can move to panic and that is a different kettle of tofu.

Unfortunately, while nerves and race anxiety are a common problem, there is no common answer. What works for one person may not work for another, and it depends a little on when the panic sets in.

For me I used to get very nervous the night before a race, but once I was racing I was usually okay and I enjoyed myself. The key I learnt for myself when it came to controlling nerves was to focus on my preparation to remind myself that I was ready. This meant things like preparing lists, race visualisation, detailed race plans etc. All these things help remind me that I had done the work and I was ready for race day. During the race itself the main thing I used to tell myself was to stay in the moment, focus on what needs to be done and in the immediate future, don't get too far ahead. I found that helped me a lot during my races.

For the athlete I was talking too, her panic attacks have tended to occur during the swim leg. So for her the relaxation techniques are a bit different. For her, it is all about staying calm in the swim, maintaining breathing and stroke rhythm. Once you lose your breathing it is then very easy to get into a panic. This in turn means you aren't breathing well, which exacerbates the panic. It can get out of control quickly and so for the athlete one of the keys is to bring the breathing back under control to break the cycle of panic. Techniques for controlling the breathing can be things like getting your own bit of water and slowing everything down, focusing on the breathing. If necessary you can do a bit of backstroke or breaststroke to help you get the air in. Once things have calmed down you can get back to the swimming. For her visualisation and a detailed race plan for the day probably wouldn't hurt either. Of course like everything, whether or not these techniques will work depends a lot on the individual.

In the end, nerves and panic really are common problems, you see them at every race. However, if you suffer from bad nerves it doesn't have to control your race day. Instead if you know you sometimes get a bit nervy, plan for it accordingly and have techniques ready that will work for you.

It is a cliche, but this is one of those times where the old saying, failing to prepare is preparing to fail is very true.