5 Mental Exercises to Optimize Performance
Are you preparing for a Jiu-Jitsu competition? The time leading up to your BJJ competition can come with anxiety and even a fixation on what the outcome could be. Whether you want to accept it or not, preparation of the mind is equally crucial to succeeding in your BJJ tournament — and life.
You want to have your mind in the right place before, during, and after your Jiu-Jitsu competition. To help you out, we have compiled five mental exercises that could help with preparation. These mental exercises have been proven to aid not just in BJJ but other martial arts as well as life.
1. Auto Suggestion
This is a practice similar to repeating a mantra, where one repeats a positive statement multiple times to help influence and change behavior. As the pro-football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott would say, “If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.”
Here are some quick tips to help you put together the perfect phrase:
- Use the Present Tense
- Say what you want or can do - NOT what you don’t want or can’t do
- Keep it positive and motivating
- Dream Big!
For example, repeating “I am confident in my abilities.” As you continue to repeat this, you should feel any nerves start to settle and increase confidence. Our minds work in interesting ways, and often when our brain hears something repeatedly, it will start to accept this as reality.
2. Reframing
Reframing is a practice in neurolinguistic programming (or NLP). We can alter how adverse events like losing or feeling anxious affects us by changing how we talk about them.
Simple tweaks in the language we use can help us see things positively and constructively. For example, if you’re nervous, you might be thinking that you’re a coward for feeling this way.
Instead of thinking that, you can reframe your emotions by accepting that the competition means a lot to you. There’s nothing harmful or dishonest about that.
3. Self-Talk
There are many ways you can talk to yourself but lets look at these two: Instructional and Positive; not that there’s always going to be a difference. Instructional self-talk is when you give yourself simple instructions before you turn to the mats.
For example, instructional self-talk may be in the form of you reminding yourself to:
- Pull guard with the lapel and not your opponent’s neck
- Shooting in with one knee on the mat for stability
- Attempting only moves you’ve mastered in competition preparation
Positive self-talk is a bit different in that you remind yourself of the best things that can come out of competition. You can repeat sentences that sound like:
- “There’s no losing. Just lessons.”
- “My team will still be my team, win or lose.”
- “Me giving my best is more than enough.”
4. Visualization
Every athlete has used visualization at some point, whether they knew it or not. Many Gracie Barra athletes swear by this technique. And it can be a good compliment to strengthen your auto suggestions.
When you visualize, you play out several scenarios in your head, allowing you to anticipate moves and prepare for them in training. Visualization is can be most effective before competition.
One thing to be careful of is visualizing the outcome of a match. It is also not a good idea to imagine several matches ahead.
Just imagine yourself leaving it all out on the mats. Take it one match at a time.
5. Making Your World Seem Smaller
In more ways than one, this is similar to reframing. But, to get an idea of what this looks like, imagine being in your BJJ competition. Here, you learn that there are 12 people in your weight class. That could be about six matches for you.
What seems more manageable psychologically? Is it thinking of the six matches? Or is it thinking of the tournament as being one match six times? The latter, right?
Navy SEALs use language this way to prevent themselves from being overwhelmed during BUDs (Basic Underwater Demolitions) training. By reducing tasks to their most minor units, things become easier on the mind; this carries over to performing better and being more relaxed.
Compete. Learn. Grow.
Apply these five mental exercises, and you’ll perform better on the mats without ego and fixation. On top of that, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel, regardless of the result.
If you haven’t competed in a BJJ tournament yet, let CompNET be your stepping-off point.
Check out our event calendar for the latest tournaments!
Blog Written by Veronica Street - Gracie Barra Blue Belt
Sources:
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach-blog/setting-the-mind-to-boost-athletic-performance/
https://www.theemotionmachine.com/4-mental-exercises-olympic-athletes-use-to-gain-that-extra-edge/