Avoiding Mental Sabotage: How to Channel Pre-Race Anxiety

Updated OnSeptember 11, 2017
Written by
Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D. And Andre Bekker

Welcome Your Pre-Race Jitters

The goal is to embrace any pre-race jitters as helpful to your race. Look at your pre-race stress as helpful to your performance. Keep these tips in mind:

  • Embrace the pre-race jitters as your body's way of preparing for action and it's natural to feel this way.
  • Remind yourself that pre-race butterflies are one reason you love racing—to feel excited and amped up.
  • Welcome the added adrenaline or excitement and perform with confidence and composure.

Overcoming Pre-Race Anxiety

If you feel you have pre-race performance anxiety, you'll want to overcome this. This takes more work as it's often rooted in fear of failure. The place to start is to uncover what causes your anxiety or worry. What's the fear that's holding you back?

Here are some of sources of pre-race performance anxiety:

  • Focus on outcomes or result
  • Excess mental chatter or negative self-talk
  • Fear of failing
  • Worrying about what others might think
  • Not performing up to expectations
  • Poor training leading up to a race
  • Worrying about the quality of one's warm up
  • Worrying about performing well in the "big race"

Tips for Coping with Pre-Race Anxiety

  1. Warm up properly. Make sure you get your heart rate up close to lactate threshold. This will relieve a lot of anxiety.
  2. Do a reality check with your own fears. "Why am I here?" Hopefully to have fun and enjoy the day.
  3. Try putting your fears aside by focusing on something more pleasant.  Do visualization—visualize yourself executing the race according to plan.
  4. Focus your mind on something else. Some athletes work themselves into a state of anxiety as they stand around and worry about results before the race even starts. Observe others, be calm and relaxed, you have prepared for this.
  5. Focus on success instead of worrying about avoiding failure. You cannot win during warm-ups or in the opening minutes of a race. Ask yourself, "What do I need to do to perform my best today?"

Summary

Your goal is to welcome pre-race jitters as they are a natural reaction to racing. When it is time to perform, stay calm and slow down. Don't rush; take your time during your warm up or pre-race routine. This is a good time to give yourself a pep talk with statements of confidence and composure, such as "I know how to race; and I trust in the training I have done in order to get the job done today!"

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