Six Mental Skills that Will Separate the Winners and Losers at Super 32
Super 32 is the toughest high school wrestling tournament in the country. In years like this year, there is no arguing this fact. Nearly every athlete who shows up is elite in their local community, has the potential to be elite nationally, and is doing what it takes to be elite physically. In other words, every wrestler who shows up works hard and thinks they are capable of finishing on the podium.
Therefore, every wrestler will wrestle someone capable of beating them. In fact, someone who is a favorite to win will lose to someone they are not supposed to on paper. While this is obvious on the surface, what’s not so obvious is that as much as the athletes think they have control over their chance of winning, they really don’t have as much control as they think.
Injuries, bad calls, bracket placement, timing of matches, among a host of other things are completely out of the control of the athletes. However, there are still things the athletes do control. There is a reason why some wrestlers seem to always win the super close matches and others seem to always struggle to eke out the nail biters. This is the result of controlling what’s controllable and reducing the impact of what’s not under one’s control.
In other words, it’s not the physical skills that provide athletes with an edge in close matches, it’s their mental skills.
The 6 Mental Skills Athletes Need on Competition Day
When it comes to these mental skills, competition day requires focusing on just a few. There are 6 skills in particular that will separate the best from the rest. Performing these mental skills without mental lapses during the process of execution is often what turns a nail biter in one’s favor.
These game day mental skills include:
- Starting the day by focusing on task and performance goals instead of ego goals.
- Leveraging visualization techniques to train the mind to believe success is inevitable before and in between matches.
- Maniacally stepping through the same pre-match routine before every match using the three zones of focus.
- Getting in the optimal zone of intensity during a match.
- Manage fatigue using body language and self-talk that makes you look and feel like you will win.
- Leveraging one’s strengths in high pressure situations.
Everyone knows you can’t be great without the physical tools. However, it’s a fact that being a physical specimen is not enough. If you want to be a winner in an environment where all the competitors are other winners, you must be mentally sharp, psychologically savvy, and use fanatical focus with these 6 mental skills.