Michael Phelps is the most famous swimmer of all time. However, if you knew him as a teenager, you’d never see it in the tea leaves. Competition destroyed Michael. He’d get nervous, overthink, and flail during big moments.

Pressure is powerful. I’ve worked with dozens of students who are unable to perform under a crunch. This is a regular occurrence for competitors in every sport, speech and debate included.

How did Michael Phelps move from an anxious kid to become the most decorated Olympian in history? Key to his success are two tools which are essential for all students. Today’s post covers the first one.

Problem: Cognitive Clutter

In 1984, a seminal study was done looking at what caused people to choke under pressure. Experimenters took subjects and had them practice a simple game where a ball was set on a board while participants held a board with rods on its edges. They were then told to roll the ball into a hole on the board without dropping it. Through a series of 5 experiments, the researchers simulated situations of pressure in order to make the participants more conscious of their performance. The researchers found the following,

“According to this model, situational demands for excellent performance (i.e., pressure) cause the individual to attend consciously to his or her internal process of performance, and this consciousness disrupts that process and harms the performance. The results of the experiments were generally consistent with that model. Performance of a skill task was lowered by directing the individual's attention to his or her internal performance process and by dispositional self-consciousness.” [1]

In other words, the more each subject analyzed their performance, the worse it got. This happens in speech and debate tournaments all the time: an otherwise proficient competitor enters an out-round and lets their mind wander. They’re wondering if the opponent has a tricky aff case. They’re wondering if they’ll make it to finals. They’re thinking about the outcome before the round has even started.

This is a mental snag, and we’re going to explore it more deeply in future posts. For now, here is one of the simplest ways to reorganize your mind.

Embracing Routine

When Michael Phelps got on the diving block before his races, the race wasn’t about to start. It had started the moment he got out of bed. Michael had eaten the exact same meal, performed the exact same stretches, and listened to the exact same song before every race.

After this routine, the perfect race was just the next thing on his checklist.

Your brain follows hundreds of different routines all the time. When you get out of bed, you don’t think about how you do it. When you brush your teeth, you’re rarely thinking through each tooth and how to best clean it. You’ve done these things so much that your brain has made them automatic.

Routines aren’t just for swimmers. At tournaments, you should develop a personalized routine that brings your mind into focus. Here’s the one I would use before serious out-rounds:

• Listen to my out-round playlist. I had a specific set of songs in a specific order I’d listen to while performing in out-rounds.

• Head to a bathroom, splash cold water on my face.

• Look in the mirror, and recite my mantra.

• Dry my face off, look in the mirror, nod, and play a specific song.

• Walk to my competition room.

• Set up my flow-pad, pens, and binder in the same way, every time.

And the round began. This routine, coupled with some breathing techniques always brought me to a mindful place of focus before big performances.

Speech and debate is a mental game. Routines help you organize your headspace, so that when you intend to perform well, you do. So create a routine for competition days. When you’re distracted, what will you do to bring your mind into focus? Obsess over the details and follow them to the letter. Once you do, you’ll notice how much easier it is to be your best.

Next time, I’ll introduce you to a tool you can incorporate into your prep routine.

[1] Roy F. Baumeister, Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, 1984, Published by the American Psychological Association, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1984, Vol. 46, No. 3,610-620 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6707866/