You’ve done all the training. For months you’ve been waking up at the crack of dawn, logging the miles, running the drills. You’ve been watching your nutrition and monitoring hydration. You’ve done everything right. And now, it’s the day you’ve been waiting for, the big race, the championship game, the final meet. Whatever sport you play, you know what it’s like to have a goal and train for that one event for months. But, sometimes the hardest part of the training is not physical at all, it’s mental.

Pre-competition nerves are normal and, in some cases, can be really beneficial. If you aren’t feeling some sort of nerves or adrenaline before a competition, then you should really reevaluate your competition goals. For many athletes however, nerves can take over and lead to the start of a downhill spiral in performance, which has nothing to do with physical ability.

It all starts when you see much bigger, stronger players on the opposing team, the other runners have legs that go for miles, or swimmer in the lane next to you has shoulders as broad as a bear. Your first thought is, yikes! I can’t compete with that. You begin to doubt your training program. You wish you had logged some more miles or hit the weight room a few more times. You feel inferior and basically defeat yourself before the event even begins. From here, you are fighting a losing battle. You’ve already convinced yourself that you can’t compete, so the body responds with sub-par performance.

This happens to athletes all of the time. Coping with nerves is crucial to performance. Keeping your head in the game, even when things start looking grim, can change the final outcome. Just when you think it’s all over, with mental toughness, you can still find yourself on top. You need to practice this though. Just like you prepare your body to compete, you must prepare your mind. It’s actually not as hard as you think.

Practice with athletes who are better than you. Practice keeping the mental toughness to go out and put in %100 every time. Practicing with athletes who don’t meet your standards can be good for self-esteem, but will only bring your standards down in the long run. Put yourself through a tough workout and practice mentally pushing yourself to go further. Have a phrase that you repeat to yourself to remind you of your goals. Finally, have confidence in your training. Know that what you did to prepare is enough. On competition day, don’t focus on your opponent and spend energy worrying about their abilities, focus on yourself.

Mental focus can be hard to keep, especially as things start to deteriorate. But, with practice, you can train your mind to stay on track and keep the focus solely on you. Mental toughness and discipline can be the winning factor and can even overtake physical toughness on any given day.