Unlocking Your Optimum Mindset for Peak Performance

Sport is where humans meet robots. Data analysis, smart technology, and machines monitoring every part of your athletic performance (heard about carbon monoxide testing and cyclists?) have all been tools to ensure humans perform at their very best and we will see this at the Paris Olympic Games. However, what happens when you’re on the start line and you’re shaking with nerves? Your knees are knocking and your legs feel like jelly? That’s when the AI can’t help you, only you can learn how to get into the best frame of mind to perform at your best. How?

First of all – we’re all different! We all perform at our best in very different ways. Maybe you’re Simone Biles, zen-like calm and composure. Perhaps you’re Novak Djokovic, all anger and aggression at perceived critics. Or are you more of a Usain Bolt, joking and laughing? And what about Andy Murray, who always seemed at his best when shouting and screaming on court to get his emotions up?

We all react differently to pressure, and we all have different ways of being at our best. Step one, is figure out your optimum mindset. Think of it like a physical hat – give it a colour, some decoration, then link that with how you need to feel when wearing it.

Step two: how do you go about putting on that hat? In my time on the British Rowing Team, some athletes love listening to loud music, for some it’s cross words, for others it’s chatting and distracting, for others it’s obsessively reading the race plan over and again. Figure out your way of feeling at your best, and methodically go about taking those steps.

Step three: make sure you can be authentically you, at your best, when it matters. Don’t try to be an all-conquering hero, or a heavily edited model on Instagram, or a colleague at work who you think has it all, but in reality is probably struggling as much as everyone else.

Just be you. That’s all.