Preparation of your body and mind for performance through what is called self-regulation.

Physical Control

Triad with three Aspects:

Physical, Cognitive, Environmental

1.Spend time increasing your awareness of your activation and how it affects your stress responses in all situations.

2.Increase this awareness during practice and performances.

What You Need To Do

Without this awareness you will not be able to adjust or control your activation and anxiety levels you will be at the mercy of luck and situation.

Understanding Activation Levels

Normal Level: your body operates during most of your daily activities

Relaxed: Below normal

Performance: Peak Zone

Tense: Past Peak Zone

4 Levels of Activation

Tense

Performance

Normal

Relaxed

Levels of Activation

Normal and relaxed are on the left side of the “U”

Performance level top of the “U”

Tense level right side of the “U”

“Tense muscle cannot be a relaxed muscle”

Relation to the inverted “U”

Relaxation

Biathletes:

Combines endurance cross country skiing with rifle shooting.

They can lower their heart rate and calm themselves in order to sight the target.

Know how to calm yourself at a moments notice will help you in the heat of battle and allow you to have better focus.

**** Research show poor performance results MORE from being too tense, not too relaxed.

Why does Relaxation Matter?It Helps Performance

Fight or flight response:

Pumps adrenaline into body causeing HR and breathing to go up; can increase your tension.

Relaxation Response:

Opposite; caused your HR and breathing to go down, thus, allowing muscles to relax.

Fall asleep quickly at night

Conserve energy before competition

Rejuvenate your mind and body during time off (half time/breaks)

Rest while traveling in bus, van, ect.

Hasten recovery from workouts/competitions

Hasten recovery from injury

Allow you to enjoy yourself

Stay relaxed during competition

Knowing Relaxation techniques can help you to:

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

Progress through body to recognize the difference between tension & relaxation

Breath Control

Slow, diaphragmatic breathing will trigger a relaxation response.

Imagery

Creating a “resource room” or “safe place” in your imagination will give you a retreat to relax.

Autogenic

Practice experiencing the poser of the mind in relation to the body: heaviness of limbs, warmth of limbs, slow heart rate, slower and deeper breathing, etc.

Award at first, but practice will make it easier and more successful.

Different Relaxation Techniques

video Link

Hypnosis: Focused attention while in a deep, relaxed state. Some have referred to it as a guided meditation.

Misunderstood due to the stage shows. There is nothing mystical or supernatural about hypnosis.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is NOT Hypnosis is

A natural state of mind that is different from you normal waking state and from being asleep

Giving hypnotist you coorperation

A state of deep relaxation in which you are highly suggestible

An avenue to plant suggestions into your mind in a powerful way

Possible (and easy), to do to yourself to harness its power for improved performance

A means of unlocking abilities that you have always had.

Mysterious and creepy

A super natural foce

Giving up your control over your own actions

Being dominated by the power of the hypnotist

Being put to sleep or sleepwalking

Brainwashing

Very difficult

A means of giving you abilities that you didn’t already possess

Hypnosis

Fixation: requires attention and focus

small object

Relaxation & Receptivity: Deeper relaxation

Implement Suggestions

Positive self statements

“I am strong and efficient.”

“Waking Up”: Coming out of deep relaxation (or “trance-like” state)

Four Steps of Hypnosis:

Breathing

Increases breathing rhythm and use imagery

Stretch and Exercise

Pre-competition workout

5-10 hours before workout

to decrease anxiety and increase arousal

Music or videos

watch or listening to inspirational music/videos

Energizing verbal cues

self talk

Powerful words: “Explode”

Strategies to ensure increasing Arousal Level

Getting energy from environment

The sun, national anthem, etc

Transferring energy

Reframe negatives in energizing positives.

“Butterflies mean I am ready!”Pep talks

short and sweet

Bulletin Boards

Quotes, Signs, Reminders

Energizing Imagery

Mentally Focus

Strategies to ensure increasing Arousal Level

Trigger: like a switch that tells your body to adjust its activation state .

Activation/Anxiety Triggers

Practice building an association between your mind and body with the trigger and your activation level

When you reach your performance level, gently suggest to your self the trigger you have chosen while focusing on the comfortable relaxed feeling produced by the trigger.

Establish one trigger that can be used to adjust the activation level in your body to a performance level immediately, anytime, anywhere, and in any situation

Practice

Words •“ready”, “up”, “relax”•Clenched fist•Number said repeatedly•Visualizing colors•Red increases activation•Blue decreases activation

Trigger Examples

It must be practiced and used frequently to be effective

Trigger cannot replace the practice and mastery of the actual physical control skill

Reminder