Welcome back to the raising unstoppable girl athletes podcast. I'm coach Bri and elite competitor coach for female athletes. And I am so glad that you are here. Today's a special episode. This is an athlete tip. Episode. So athletes, I am talking to you. Our topic today is all around how to not play down to your competition. So has this ever been you 

you are going out to play a team or it can be compete against somebody and you feel like you ?Are not playing your best. Like you're playing down. Maybe they're not a team or, a competition level. That's. Challenging you in some way. And so you find that you're actually playing down to a level that you're not wanting to be, and you're just making silly mistakes and maybe you're not as focused and you're like, what is going on? This should be an easy game or this shouldn't be this difficult, but now I'm not playing well. If that's you, we're going to talk about why this happens and how you can prevent this from happening, how to not play down to your competition. 

Now, before we get into it, I'm going to give a shout out to an athlete in our community. So this athlete just recently came through the elite competitor program. Her name is Sloan slow, and if you're listening super proud of you and Sloan is a swimmer. And she mentioned this the other day, she was talking about her sport and she says, now I actually have tools to not get down on myself when I'm not performing my best. Okay. So this sounds familiar, right? You. 

You might not always perform your best. I have tools to knock it down to myself when I'm not performing my best. I am more easily able to get out of the cycle of negative self-talk and negative thought. I know that even if I'm not performing my best, it is important to act. And remember that I did the best I could at that moment and I should be proud. 

And so that was one of Sloan's takeaways after going through the elite competitor program, which is our signature mental training program for athletes to learn the foundation of mental skills so that they can play and compete to their potential in. Their sport to level up and have fun. And so Sloan, I'm so proud of you because that negative self-talk in that spiral is so common for athletes. And sometimes athletes have no idea how to get out of it. It's like you think one negative thought about yourself. You're maybe you're not playing how you want to play or performing how you want to perform. 

And then you just go into this spiral of like, I'm the worst? What are people thinking of me? And then all of a sudden you start to. Perform poorly and Sloan. And the fact that you're able to get out of this cycle more easily. And the fact that you know how to recall and remember that, Hey, all I can control is my focus, my efforts. And that is what I can be proud of out there. That is huge. And it's only going to continue to help you in your sport. So nice job, Sloan, super proud of you. 

All right, athletes. Let's talk about this. 

If you've ever played down to your competition, first of all, this is why this happens. Let's kind of figure out like what's going on here. , this really does come all down to focus into preparation and athletes sometimes play down. If the competition is not as high as what they're used to or what they're being challenged by, because. 

One, they don't take the competition as seriously. So in your mind, if you're looking at this competition, like, okay, well, I've got nothing to worry about. I'm just going to go out and do my thing. and so be it, what happens is you're actually not preparing your mind or preparing your body to do what you need to do out there. And so you get out there and you're just kind of like, you know, vulnerable to whatever now is going to happen in that competition, which is probably a lower speed of game, lower energy. 

And you're starting to make silly mistakes because you're not focused and you're not prepared. There is none of this. Like you're not taking on the skills of the other people that you're playing against know that that doesn't happen. It all really comes down to you. It's not their fault. It's yours. It's your responsibility to show up and play your best regardless of, who you're competing against. 

Because the best athletes actually show up and play their game no matter who they're playing, like it really doesn't matter who the competition is. It could be somebody that is. Potentially way more skilled and higher level than them, or it could be somebody that's not as skilled in a lower level than them, or anywhere in between. 

Athletes who are prepared and who have trained the physical and mental part of their game, show up with consistency and they play their game every single time. And so when you don't get your body and your mind prepared to play a game like this, you actually end up playing worse, you lose focus, you get lazy, you just kind of  think that things will just somehow get better. When in reality, your competition is probably capitalizing on the fact that you are not as focused and you're not as prepared. 

And they're probably playing really well. Right. And it's just kind of like becomes this, teeter-totter where like you are just kind of in this spiral of not playing well. And then your competition is like, Ooh, here we go. Here's an opportunity. And then they. I start playing better. And that's when the frustration sets in. And you know that when you are frustrated, when you're playing, you probably play worse. So it's kind of like this spiral. 

So, how do we avoid all of this? The first thing is I want you to prepare how you would any other big or normal competition. You need to prepare the same way. It doesn't matter who you're playing. And in fact, it's actually a little disrespectful to not prepare in the same way for competition who you think might not be as good. 

And so those things that the athletes in our program, , they prepare for competition by doing a few things. First of all, may visualize. And visualization doesn't have to take very long. In fact, it could take just a couple of minutes where you sit down and quiet place. , before you compete a cave and be like at home or on your way over to that competition, or maybe you can carve out like 60 seconds away from your team or, by yourself to visualize what you want to have happen. 

And the best visualizations include all five senses. So you sit and you literally picture yourself out there on the court or the field or the beam or the mat, wherever you compete in the pool. And you see and feel you yourself doing what you want to do. So you're seeing yourself. Play well. You're seeing yourself execute on the things that you practice, you feel what it feels like? Not only like what the ball feels like in your hand or the beam or the water, but you also experience the emotions of what it feels like to play your best and play in the zone. 

We've all had those moments where we have played really well. And we're like, oh my gosh, that was the best I've ever played. And likely that came with a certain feeling, right? Maybe it's a feeling of calm, maybe it's you feel really proud. Maybe you feel on fire, you feel confident. And so you really want to, when you visualize Tryon, 

Get that feeling back in your body so that you are preparing. And your body and athletes in our program know this, your body and your mind when you visualize actually your body doesn't know the difference between real and imagined. And so when you're visualizing, you are actually putting your body in this state where it actually thinks that it's competing, which is why visualization is so influential. 

It's so effective. And so being able to visualize this in really great detail is super important. Even visualize like the competition, maybe visualize. How they might be playing in visualize yourself. playing against them, how you want to play. So the more detailed you can get the better. 

The other thing you can do, that's really effective is pick a focus and pick a goal and stick to it and make this goal, or this focus process oriented. When I say process oriented, I don't, I don't want you to say something like my goal is to score 25 points in this game. Okay. You can have those goals, like kind of as north stars, like, I would like to score this many points, but you don't want to make that your sole focus because some of that is out of your control. 

Right? So when I say process oriented, I mean, things that are related to. Two things in your control, like your attitude, your effort. So maybe if your goal is to score 25 points in a game, like yeah. That's a bigger goal that you have. What are the things that allow that to happen? If we're playing a sport like volleyball, you are responsible for getting points, getting kills. 

Then getting available for every single set would be something that directly relates to that outcome. And so your goal isn't necessarily to get 25 points in this game, your goal is to get available for every single set. And that is what you're gonna focus on. Right. Or maybe your goal is to hold your finish, hold your platform. Maybe your goal is to have tight shapes or  gymnastics, pick one thing that is a hundred percent in your control, not related to anybody else and have that be a focus that you go into this competition with, because that will help keep you grounded right now. 

Here's another big thing. Be in the present moment. Okay. This is tip number three. If I were to number these number one is visualize, prepare like how you would prepare any other competition. So that includes visualization. Pick a focus and a golden stick to it. And then number three is be in the present moment. 

If you are playing every single moment in the present moment, you are going to stack those altogether and you're going to play well. If you are worried about the past, about what happened, any mistakes or like, oh my gosh, I haven't been playing well, or you're worried about the future. What if we lose this game? Because I'm not playing well. 

you're not in the present moment and you play your best when you are in the present. So the moment that you feel your energy, shifting your focus, shifting to something other than what you should be doing in that moment. You stop, you take a breath and you bring it back, right? You need to own the present moment. 

And it's as simple as that. Right. And you're going to notice that throughout your game, you're gonna be like, oh, you know, it's a little bit slower. So maybe I'm getting a little bored and unfocused, Katie. All right. It's happening. My focus is shifting. I'm gonna take a deep breath, get back to this present moment. What do I need to do in this moment to own this moment and play my best in this moment. 

And then do it. All right. And you might have to do that over and over and over again in a game like this. So that you don't fall into this,  negative, , or spiral or not playing to your potential. Okay. So that is what I want you to focus on so that you do not play down to, your competition who is maybe a little bit lower than you. And the last thing I'll leave you with is you control decide ahead of time. You're going to control the tempo and you're going to control the energy. 

Don't let someone else control it for you. A lot of times we go into competitions and we just kind of like, let what happens happens. No, like you actually have control over that. You decide I'm going to control the energy. I'm going to control the tempo. We're going to play my game when I get out there and go in with that mindset. And that's going to help you elevate your play and play to your potential when you're playing against really anybody. 

All right, athletes. Okay. To recap. Prepare how you would prepare for any competition visualize. Pick a focus, pick a goal, stick to it, be in the present moment. As soon as you feel that you're not in the present moment, recognize it. Take a breath, get back to the present moment. And then at this bonus tip. 

You control the energy, you can control the tempo and that's going to help you play to your potential no matter who you're playing. Alright, athletes. I hope that this was helpful for you. Continue to tune into these athlete tip episodes that you can help be the best player that you can be in your sport and in your life. I'll see you in the next episode.