Does your son or daughter perform well in practice but have difficulty translating it to the field of play?
We see it all the time. Here are 3 common reasons why
Fear Of Competition
Fear of competition itself tends to be the most common reason for an athlete having issues translating their good performance in practice to the field of play. But why would someone who performs well in practice fear competition? For one thing, practice is a very different environment than the hostile landscape of opponents, crowds, and expectations. For the majority of young athletes, it takes more to earn game-day confidence than merely showing up to practice and performing well in front of your peers and coaches. Most need to feel like they’ve gone the extra mile in developing themselves as individuals in order to feel deserving of letting things fly in the game or match.
Stage Fright
Performing in front of large groups of people bothers a lot of people whether its football, wrestling, or public speaking. Regular team practices will be hard pressed in terms of time to address factors like referees, jeers from opposing fans, and the sheer volume of the arena. If performing in front of large groups is impeding an athlete’s performance, they must find a way to rehearse their skills under such conditions ahead of time.
Fear Of Injury
The fear of getting injured is always there but is worse for some than others especially if they’ve been hurt in the past. Another problem is – the more afraid you are of getting hurt the more likely it is to happen.
How We Can Help
Our Sports Performance Sessions are designed not only to address the general and specific needs of the athlete from the standpoint of Strength and Conditioning, but psychological fortitude as well.
Game-Day Confidence
The old school mantra “Work Before Play” is still alive and well. In this case, do the work to earn your game-day confidence. There are few things more affirming to one’s abilities than watching numbers stretch upward on the personal record board. One of the big impacts of strength training is that the numbers speak for themselves. With rare cases of natural ability set aside, the overwhelming majority of athletes must earn their progress workout by workout, inch by inch. All those little wins, records, and milestones quickly add up to a whopping boost of confidence and a desire to test oneself on the field, arena, or mat.
Rehearsing The Game
A noisy arena and hostile crowd in combination with high expectations can be difficult to address in team practice but is built right into the process of our Sports Performance Sessions. Performing big lifts in front of a group cheering you on is the natural state of affairs in this facility. The noise, cheers, and spotlight do a good job of recreating what its like to perform in front of a crowd – because you’re doing just that! In short, you get used to being put on the spot while maintaining your focus and composure. You also get a taste of what it feels like to be successful in front of an audience which not only helps you overcome stage fright but makes you excited to get on the stage! Being excited about competition has an enormous impact on translating practice to performance.
Armor Building
Getting hurt is the worst and you can never eliminate the likelihood of injury entirely. But you can do A LOT to decrease that likelihood by building your body in the weight room. In our Sports Performance program you can expect your athlete to build lean functional muscle, improve balance and coordination, support joint function, and recover faster all of which dramatically decreases the likelihood of season-ending injury. Our progressive approach to strength training addresses the fear factor of injury as well. As the athlete makes progress and sees what their bodies are capable of doing and recovering from, the less afraid they will be of getting injured.
So What’s The Next Step
All of our student athletes start the same way – through a no-obligation orientation session where we can get to know them, determine their starting point, and answer all of your questions on scheduling and pricing!
Give us a call/text at 484-356-6442
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Fill out the form below to schedule an appointment!
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