How to Deal With Anxiety on Game Day
Whether you are playing sports, preparing to perform, or going to sing in front of an audience, it is almost impossible to control pre-game shivers.
This is fine. Actually, this was to be expected.
On roller derby site The Apex, figure skater and psychiatrist Veloskitti explains that anxiety before a game is normal and natural. After all, higher stakes trigger higher emotions, and there is no good way to completely get rid of the anxiety associated with a gaming day.
Instead, you should address this issue directly.
Veloskitti offers five tips to help you deal with anxiety before you step out on the track (or step out on the field, or step on the stage). Some of these tips, such as “make a daily routine,” should be put into practice well in advance of the game day:
You can do it in different ways – it can be what you eat and how far from practice, or it can be something like music. I have a couple of playlists of the day that I listen to in advance, depending on whether I need to be more pumped up or less pumped up, and I usually listen to one of them in the car when I drive to workout. This means that when I play them on game day, my brain connects them with practice and forces me to stick with the same way of thinking.
However, my favorite piece of advice has to do with the idea of ”chunking”. Instead of worrying about whether you’ll be on top of your game or performance, focus on doing one action at a time.
This, of course, starts with a routine – maybe you are listening to the same music, maybe you are eating the same snack (another suggestion from Veloskitti), maybe you are wearing the same clothes or equipment.
Then you warm up. It’s easy to do, right?
Then you ask yourself how you are going to take the next most important step. When I sang a solo at a jazz concert last week, I reminded myself that the next most important step would be to establish rapport with the audience. I could break it down even further: go on stage with confidence, pause to smile and look at the audience (even if the light is too bright to see their faces), introduce yourself, tell a joke that worked with the previous audience. , etc.
Then you move on to the next important step. There will be variables at this stage that you cannot control: an opposing team, an audience that is not laughing, a microphone that is not tuned to the correct level, even if it was ok during the sound check. This is fine. You have a song to sing, a job to do, a speech to give, a piece to complete, and your job is to get to the end of this next activity.
Then, compliment yourself on what you did well. As Veloskitti says:
Instead of getting annoyed that you weren’t able to eliminate that muffler, focus on making contact with the muffler.
Focusing on what you did right – “positive reframing” if you need a psychological term – will remind you that these unexpected variables shouldn’t negate your entire game.
At this point, it’s time for the next piece: another jam, another song, moving from a prepared speech to questions and answers from the audience. Think about what you did right during the last snippet, and how you can decide what went wrong (“can I have some more ukulele on the monitor, please?”).
Then repeat until it’s over and it’s time to shake hands with a group of people and go eat pizza.
If you are involved in a team sport or often talk / sing / perform in front of people, how do you deal with anxiety on game day? Do techniques like routine, snippets, and positive reframing work for you, or do you have a different set of tips and tricks?