How Can I Deal With Pressure Better?

There are many strategies to help deal with pressure. One that we have found successful for numerous athletes is to incorporate more pressure situations into practice. What this means is that you plan to have situations that simulate competition and also situations that are uncomfortable or ‘test-like’, so you keep yourself on your toes in training. For example, Olympic kayakers will have ‘test sets’ that they are required to do on a regular basis. These ‘test sets’ help to make training more competition-like and help to prepare for the pressure of competition, in addition to giving an accurate indication of where the paddlers are at in their physical training (i.e., are they hitting the desired times?). The practice of putting yourself regularly in these situations means that competition is not such a unique situation and the gap between what you experience in training is a lot closer to what competition is like.