4 Tips to Mentally Prepare for Big Games

Welcome to the Success Starts Within podcast. A podcast dedicated to teaching you all the tools and techniques you need to master the mental game and take your performances to the next level. Here's your host Eli Straub. I'm going to go over four tips that you can apply to get prepared for a big game. Now big games can be interpreted in whichever way you'd like, right? It could be a playoff game. It could be the first game of the season. It could be your first game on varsity or your first college game. Or maybe it's a game that you're playing in summer ball in front of college scouts. Big games are exciting. But they can also be games where we let our emotions and our stress and our fear get the best of us. So the first tip that I have for you is that you need to remember that it's the same. Now what I mean by that is the game is the same. When I talk to athletes in one-on-one coaching, I work to separate the environment from the actions that they are taking. Now the environment is different. The consequences might be different, especially if there are scouts there or this is your opportunity to play into when a starting role, you know, the consequences of what's going to happen will be different. But what you're doing is the same. If you're playing basketball. It's the same game of basketball. If you're a baseball player, it's the same game of baseball. It's going up there. It's the same swing. You might face a different type of pitcher, but what you need to do is the same. If you're a soccer player, it's the same. The reason I think that this is such an important thing to remember is that big games become troublesome for us when we allow the game itself to get bigger, to where we feel like we have to do more, to when we feel like we have to do something special because it's a bigger game when the reality is the only reason the big game will affect you is if you allow it to, by the way, you're thinking about it. So you have to remember what you're going out there to do. It's the same as it's always been. And what this will do is provide you with confidence. When I think to myself, "Okay, I have to do really well in this big game." I haven't been in a whole lot of big moments like that before. I'm going to have a really difficult time having confidence in that situation. But if I remind myself, "This is a new environment, but what I'm doing is the same." I trust myself to shoot the ball. I trust myself to make a good decision out there. I trust my swing out there. I trust my serve out there. No matter what sport I play, if I trust those parts of my game that I've done throughout my entire career, when I approach that big game, it's going to be easier for me to fall back and rely on those things. Now I'm providing you with these tips today under the assumption that your emotions will be elevated during this big game. And so I'm not trying to provide you with tips that you can use to completely change how you feel because the reality is we have to look at it and we have to say the facts are there that I'm probably going to be stressed. I'm probably going to be a little scared of messing up. So how do I manage that? And this first tip is a great solution for that. It's a great way to be working toward a solution at the very least where you say, "Hey, look, the environment might be bigger. I might be stressed about what happens, but at the end of the day, I'm doing the same thing I've always done and I trust myself to go out there and execute on those things." Now the second tip that I have for you is that you need to be careful with half-tos and shoots. Now even with what I was just saying when I was going through some examples of how I might think I was using the words "have to." I have to play well today. It's a big game. I'm playing in front of scouts. I have to play well. This is my opportunity out here to win a starting role. I have to show coach what I can do. Now on the surface, those thoughts can seem motivating. They can seem like you're telling yourself what you need to go out there and do, but really what ends up happening, especially when we're going into a big game, is that the half-tos and shoots turn into stress. They turn into forcefulness. They turn into you trying to do too much instead of just playing within yourself and trusting yourself and letting your skills take over. So we need to be careful not to be thinking I have to do this or I should do that because at the end of the day, of course, you want to play well in these games. But as I'm going to talk about in the next tip, everything that we focus on needs to be in our control. When we start saying I have to do this or I should do that in terms of the results, that's where we're going to find ourselves playing with too much anxiety, too much fear, too much stress. Now again, you're going to feel natural anxiety and worry and fear because it's a bigger game, but you're only amplifying that by thinking I have to do this or I should do that because it's a big game. So instead of thinking that way, how should you think in these big games? Well, number one, like I was just saying, you need to remind yourself, okay, trust myself to go out here and execute my skills because it's the same thing that I've always been doing in terms of what I actually need to do and the actions that I need to take out there. And then the next thing that you want to do is just remind yourself, you know, I'm going to give full effort, of course, and I want to play well, but I can't control that. So I have to accept whatever's going to happen, but I'm going to work my hardest to position myself to be successful. And that transitions me into tip number three. You want to set controllable goals for the game. When we're saying I have to do this or I should do that, it's generally about the result like I was just saying, but it is okay to say, you know, I should give full effort today or I have to be focused in today's game. When we say those kinds of I have to and I should, those are fine because those are what I refer to as controllable expectations. So as you go into a game, a big game especially, but again, this is true for all games. You want to make sure that you're setting controllable goals for yourself that if you stick to those things, they position you to be successful and to have a good game because again, it's a big game. Of course, you want to play well. So a couple really simple examples of this are to give full effort and to have a good attitude. That might not seem like it's complex enough or detailed enough to be enough for a big game. But the truth is if you give full effort and you have a good attitude and then you, you know, you work to just allow your skills to take over. You don't try to force too much. You remember that it's the same, they are the same actions that you've always taken. You're giving yourself a great chance to perform well in these big moments because again, remember why big games can be difficult. They're difficult because we view them as more important and the more important we view them, the more stressed we get, the more we try to force a good outcome. So in other words, the more we get in our own way. So set simple controllable goals for yourself and this is what you need to focus on when it comes to the I have to's and I should. So go on back to my previous tip. I'm not contradicting myself because in that tip, I was referring to the half to's and the shoulds that are about the result. Now I'm saying, hey, set controllable goals for yourself, set expectations for yourself that you can make sure you do that are about effort attitude. Maybe you want to say something along the lines of your techniques, such as being balanced or, you know, staying inside the baseball when you're swinging or making sure that you're scanning the field and soccer, you know, sticking to your routines when you play. When you focus on those controllable goals, again, it gives you a great chance of being successful but it also gives you this feeling of, okay, I can quiet here and I can do that. That's within my control. That's attainable. That's manageable. I can go do that. Which again, is going to help you if you're not used to being in these bigger moments. So the big moment doesn't make you feel quite stressed or feel as overwhelmed. Now, the last tip that I have for you tip number four is that reactions matter. They honestly matter more than the result when you're playing in these big games. This is going to come in a few different ways just in terms of how this has applied to your game. I mean, first and foremost, you don't want to allow a mistake at the beginning of the game, especially if you're nervous and when you're nervous, it is more likely that you're going to make a mistake at the beginning of a game. You don't want that to completely derail your performance because of how you respond. But also, we don't want you to have your confidence drop or have anger and frustration take over because it's early in the game or even if it's mid game and you make a mistake and you think, "Oh, I suck. Now we're going to lose. Now I'm going to lose." Because the truth is you might be in a similar situation later in the game. A great, great example of this is baseball because baseball or softball with hitting. Your first or second at bat in a big game. Of course, it matters. But you have to be really careful with how you respond because you could get out your first to at bats, but then that third at bat, you're up to the plate in a big moment and you have to come through. If you're first to at bats, resulted in you getting upset at yourself and having a lot of negative self-talk and your confidence drops and your frustration rises and now you're going into that third at bat, try to force a good hit. You're not in a great position to be successful and to come up clutch in that moment. Really pay attention to how you react in these moments. One thing you might notice through or with all these four tips that I've shared is that they are not unique to a big game. They help in a big game, absolutely, but they're not unique to a big game. If you go into every game and you remind yourself that the actions that I'm about to do today are the same. And I don't want to think too much about how I have to play well and how I should play well. I just want to focus on the controllables. I need to stick to these controllable goals because I know they position me to be successful and you even include in there your attitude. And then you say, I'm going to pay attention to my reactions. I'm going to do everything I can to play well, but I accept that I'm not going to be perfect. So I'm going to pay attention to how I respond to things throughout the game to keep myself in a good mindset. That overall is a fantastic recipe to play well. No matter what. out of the game. And that's why it works for big games because my philosophy is we need to mentally approach big games in the same way that we do normal games because at the end of the day, it's the game you're about to play. And this game that you're about to play is always most important game because it's the one that matters to you right now. And it's honestly the only one that you're doing right now. So what I've provided you with is a framework to be successful in any game and naturally that is going to help tremendously in these big games. Now, if you're interested in a more personalized approach to helping you manage your emotions or manage your mindset in big games and also just in general, I do offer a one on one mental performance coaching program where I will work directly with you on improving your mental game. I've put a link in the description below to learn more about that program if you'd like. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and please feel free to share it with any athlete you know would benefit from learning how to manage their emotions and their mindset in big games. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening and I wish you the best of success in all that you do. If you want to hear more mental game tips, subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the success starts within YouTube channel, follow Eli on Instagram, the handle is @elistraw, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter at successstartswithin.com.