The optimal competitive state

Every player has a state in which they play best: activated just right, neither too tense nor too flat. Getting to know this optimal competition state and producing it deliberately is one of the finest mental skills of the expert.

The special thing: this point is different for everyone. One plays best highly charged and full of energy, another calm and composed. Too much tension makes you hectic and cramped, too little makes you tired and unfocused. Your task is to find your own optimal point — through observation: how did you feel when you played particularly well?

The most important tool for producing this state is a fixed pre-match routine. A consistent sequence before the match — warming up, a few breaths, a short visualization, the familiar phrases — switches you into competition mode. It works twice over: it takes decisions off your hands and gives security, because it has already worked many times.

And here a rethink that changes a lot: nervousness before an important match is not an enemy. The pounding heart, the tension — that is energy your body provides to make peak performance possible. Whoever reads the nervousness as a positive sign and uses its energy, instead of fighting against it, plays better.

Your competition state is like the operating temperature of an engine. Too cold and it doesn't run smoothly, too hot and it overheats. The pre-match routine brings you to exactly the temperature at which you run best.

Think back to two or three of your best matches: how did you feel before and during them — rather calm or rather highly charged? That is a clue to your optimal state. Build a fixed pre-match routine from it that brings you there (e.g. warming up, a few deliberate breaths, a short visualization, your phrases). And practice the reframing: the next time you're nervous before an important match, tell yourself that this energy helps you — and use it.