The relation among performance, skills and mistakes

In many cultures, there are sayings that remind us how important it is to learn how to react to negative situations and mistakes. It is said, for example, “When a door closes, a door opens,” while Americans like to repeat, “It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, but how quickly you get back up,” and the Japanese state, “Fall seven times, get up eighth.” These statements highlight that in order to succeed, one must develop a full awareness of how frequent it is to make mistakes and how equally relevant it is to react constructively.

There are no shortcuts, for mistakes cannot be eliminated; one must necessarily make mistakes, as during an obstacle course in which at every moment one is aware that it is possible to make mistakes, to slow down, to make a great effort to overcome an obstacle even if one is well prepared and knows the course.

Then if this is the way to go, it is necessary to prevent mistakes from becoming alibis used to confirm to oneself the impossibility of overcoming one’s current limits, with the effect of leading to a reduction in commitment, since “There is nothing to do anyway,” or “Yes, there would be a lot to do, but I am not talented enough,” or even “I am an unlucky guy, when something can go wrong, it will happen to me for sure.” It is therefore necessary to build, through daily activity, a work culture that considers error as an integral part of the improvement process.

One way of accepting errors is to implement certain behaviors that allow one to move from a hitherto unsatisfactory performance to an effective one. These simple actions involve:

1. After a mistake take a deep breath and immediately imagine what to do in the next moment.
2. When one is too preoccupied with the competition to begin, one should imagine a positive past performance and let oneself feel the sensations while doing this exercise.
3. During the warm-up one has to find the feeling with the sporting implement or medium one is using, (ball, racket, weapon, boat, ski, bicycle) one has to feel that that object is really ours and part of us.
4. During the warm-up, one must also feel that the body is preparing for the competition and take pleasure in those sensations that say we are preparing well.
5. One has to mentally imagine, if it is running to feel that the legs are turning as I expect them to or if I feel them too stiff insist on stretches so as to release unnecessary muscle tension. In relation to other sports we need to identify which exercises best highlight whether we are ready, and dedicate ourselves to feeling the right sensations for us before the start of the race.

These are just a few concrete examples of what an athlete can do to learn how to guide himself to put himself in the optimal mental condition before and during competition. Following these pointers, everyone can build his or her own path of pre-race physical, technical, and mental preparation.