Athletes in every sport use psychological preparation as a tool to enhance their performance. Psychological preparation has many different forms and is directly related to personal preference. Some athletes like to listen to music while others use mental imagery. It is up to the athlete to determine what works best for him.

Enjoy the performance - if you find it dull, then you may need to psych yourself up or focus on performance rather than outcome goals. If you are so stressed that you do not enjoy the performance, implement stress management techniques. Execute, analyze and improve skills in practice. In competition perform thought-free - trust all that hard training. Only analyse your performance after the event. If you make a mistake during performance, forget about it and focus on executing the next skill properly. Dwelling on past mistakes will distract you from good performance of present skills. Use pre-competition rituals, on- site psych plans and refocusing plans to block distractions, prepare for all eventualities, and keep your performance flowing.

Here are some simple steps you can take to increase the likelihood that your competitive experience will be as smooth as possible:

• Plan your season-if you live in a part of the country that has bad winters don't plan a marathon for March when you won't have heavy mileage under your belt.
• Imagery-use your mind to see yourself perform your event successfully. See yourself make the basket, clear the pole, or effortlessly move through the water.
• Eat-good foods that allow your body to operate at peak efficiency...not the time to try something new.
• Concentrate-on one shot at a time. You can't think of what will happen three rounds from now if you can't make it through the first round.

Athletes psychological preparation concepts:

• Identificaton of personal short-term and long-term goals
• Identification of external obstacles
• Identification of internal difficulties
• Strategies to over come the obstacles and difficulties
• Identification of specific intervention techniques (i.e. relaxation, visualization etc.)
• Psychological monitoring and control of psychic states

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