To wake up or to work up?

Cold feet before a competition? That is a common thing. All sports people feel anxious before a competition, some to more, some to lesser extent. It all depends on the personality of the sports person and on the importance of the competition they are getting ready for. These emotional changes occur already the moment they are nominated for a particular competition and last until the last training before the competition. Everyone has gone through a similar situation and we may say that we feel it most intensely directly before the competition.

Sports competition conditions

We can say that they are emotional states a sports person goes through during a sports fight from its start to its end. There are several things that have an impact on sports people during a fighting match, such as the running score and results of the match; partial successes and failures in a match; anticipated result of the match; effects of trainer or coach on the sports person; opponent; referees; spectators and the overall atmosphere of the match.

Condition after a competition

There are also other emotional states which may last for several hours, receding gradually after a while. Only seldom does it happen that they would last out until the following day.

Activating your organism

The degree to which sports people feel activated before a performance unfolds the following emotional states.

1. High activation you might know under the term “pre-start fever“. It may either have positive effects on sports people, such as a healthy desire, or negative ones, usually demonstrated by anxiety or fear.

No matter if this condition impacts the sports people positively or negatively, what we might notice in them are states like: overall lability; disorientation; uneasiness; insecurity; loss of control over one’s behavior; non-reacting to trainer’s instructions and forgetfulness.

If the sports people are not able to take control over their emotions in a match, they start of eagerly, rashly fighting their opponent, unable to follow the tactics, their movements seem frantic and technical faults are piling up. All this may result in reluctance to fight until the match finishes because they are physically and psychologically exhausted.

2. Low activation or also “pre-start apathy” is the direct opposite of high activation. Sports people are prone to this condition following a high activation or this apathy might result from their lowered activity.

We can observe the following tendencies of sports people in relation to this condition: the trainees make quite a phlegmatic, even disinterested, impression; they do not react to the trainer’s instructions; they yawn; their speech is slow and movements are restricted and uncoordinated and they are not even able to do a proper warm up.

This condition is reflected in weak performance during the fight; these sports people are not exhausted after the match because they did not give it their maximum effort. This pre-start apathy is induced by over-training or bad experience emerging in their mind from previous matches.

3. Lowered activation or otherwise a state of self-complacency. This state is quite dangerous because the sports person looks like he/she is alright but that is not quite the case in reality.

Underestimating your opponent or the fighting match alone may also cause an unexpected loss. It really does not matter whether you are facing a strong or a weak competitor, you simply need to view him as an opponent and that’s about it. You have to get yourself ready for each opponent equally good; you have to know their strengths and weaknesses and follow them in your preparation for the match. “The lies we tell other people are nothing to the lies we tell ourselves.” Next time you will be facing your opponent, do not take notice of them being strong or weak. View them as your opponent whom you want to defeat.

Reaching the state of the so called optimum activation.

4. Optimum activation is a state typical for sports people who are well trained, strong-minded and balanced.

Sports people in this state are ideally tuned in for the match; they feel pleasant emotions, think positive and are in good physical shape; they trust themselves and want to win. They are able to keep up a high pace and are consistent with the tactics they picked before the match. They give the course of the fighting match their maximum focus, can promptly react to changes during the match and are determined to follow their goal. r