Emotional Regulation

Start by normalizing nerves. Anxiety, nerves, pressure, and self-doubt are normal for athletes—especially when something matters. Emotional regulation isn’t “be tougher,” it’s a trainable skill you practice like any other performance skill.

Know your best performance emotional zone. The goal isn’t to feel nothing—it’s to recognize the emotional state where you compete best, and use cues/routines to return to it when you drift.

Track where stress shows up (body + thoughts). Identify your early warning signals:

• Body: sweating, tight shoulders/jaw, stomach pit, heart rate spike, shaky hands

• Mind: racing thoughts, catastrophizing, replaying mistakes, worry loops

Once you can spot it early, you can intervene early.

Name the common performance emotions. Fear of failure, fear of judgment, performance anxiety, pressure to meet expectations, self-doubt, and frustration after mistakes are common—and they’re signals, not verdicts.

Catch “stinking thinking” and “future tripping.”

• Stinking thinking = habitual, distorted thoughts (“I’m not good enough.”)

• Future tripping = living in imagined outcomes (“If this goes badly, everything is ruined.”)

Most performance anxiety lives in the future, not the present.

Ask: Present, past, or future? Athletes commonly:

• Compete in the future (worrying about what might happen)

• Get stuck in the past (replaying a missed shot too long)

The fix is learning to return to the next moment.

• Use the “Is it real?” filter.

• Is this a fact or a story?

• Do I have evidence right now?

• Does this thought help or hurt my execution?

If it hurts execution and isn’t real/evidence-based, it doesn’t deserve attention.

HALT check: regulate the basics first. A lot of “mental spirals” get worse when needs aren’t met:

• Hungry

• Angry/Agitated

• Lonely (need support/connection)

• Tired

If one is off, fix it (fuel, reset, connect, rest) before trying to “power through.”

Box breathing = a controllable reset. Box breathing is a practical tool to downshift the nervous system and return attention to the present. The target is not only calmer thoughts, but also reduced physical tension (heart rate, shoulders, stomach, breath).

“See the tape through” = replace ‘what if’ with ‘what’s next.’

• Identify the next controllable action

• Define what strong execution looks like right now

• Focus on behavior, not predictions

You can’t control outcomes, but you can control the next rep/point/routine.

Alter Ego technique: step into your performance self. Not “being fake”—being intentional.

• Create a name/character

• Choose 3–5 traits you want under pressure (calm, confident, relentless, logical, composed)

• Pair it with a physical cue (tap racket, towel, breath, bounce feet) to “switch on”

The long-term objective: build consistency so you can show up as your best self regardless of pressure, competition level, or life stress—through awareness, tools, and repetition.