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3 Ways to Stay Focused When Match Day Goes Sideways
By Gabby Franco
Can you remember a time before your match when everything went wrong? Either your firearm malfunctioned, a piece of equipment broke, you forgot something, you got injured or self-doubts started to creep in?
You’re not alone. Situations like this happen to all athletes, whether in sports or in everyday life. As an Olympian, USPSA competitor and a mom, I’ve been there, too. (Learn more about Gabby’s firearm journey here.)
This is why it’s important to learn how to react to situations that are out of your control. Otherwise, they can easily disrupt focus and influence your performance.
Michael Phelps — the most decorated Olympian of all time — serves as a great example of someone who prepared for adversity. One of his strategies was to black out his goggles, which helped him to rely on his other senses when vision was impaired. After an incident at the 200m butterfly final during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps said, “If I didn’t prepare for everything that happens, when my goggles started filling up, I’d have probably flipped out. That’s why I swim in the dark.”
Many people will say you shouldn’t think about negative situations because you can “jinx” the event. But what’s best to achieve peak performance?
Preparing for adversity is one of the most powerful tools any athlete can have. Let’s look at three strategies that will help you stay on top of your game when the unexpected happens.
1. Accept the Reality and Adapt
One of the first things you can do when things start going sideways is to acknowledge your feelings, identify them and accept them as they are.
Take, for example, your gun malfunctions and there are just a few minutes to fix it before it’s your turn to participate in the competition.
Your heart rate increases, a warm feeling fills your body, you start sweating and you’re frustrated as you rush to fix it. You’re uncomfortable with this chain of events, and your mind begins to spiral out of control.
Best practice: Take a few slow, deep breaths and accept your feelings and thoughts as natural biological reactions to the circumstances. Feeling frustrated and anxious is normal, but you can adapt. Realize this is a natural reaction, and not your identity or who you are. Don’t fight it. Accept it and go with the flow.
Accepting your feelings reduces the chances of feeling worried about how you feel. You put that feeling into perspective to implement strategies to manage it.
2. Distance Yourself from Intrusive Thoughts
Once you have understood how you feel, being aware of your thoughts becomes a lot easier. You know what you are experiencing is natural, and most people in your position would have similar biological reactions.
However, intrusive thoughts continue to creep in. You think you might not have time to fix your gun in time. You’ll need to borrow another gun you’re not familiar with and it might ruin your competition. Or you begin to have self-doubt.
Best practice: Pay attention to these thoughts, and realize they are counterproductive and make the situation worse. Instead of “trying” to stop your thoughts — which often fails — distance yourself from them. Reframe thoughts such as, “this is a catastrophe,” into “I’m having the thought this is a catastrophe.” Recognize those thoughts might have some truth and value in them, but they are not your identity.
Thank your mind for bringing such awareness and do not fight the thoughts. Take decisive actions to focus on solving the problem in front of you. This strategy promotes critical thinking as you observe these thoughts without letting them control you.
3. Remain Focused on What’s at Hand
Anxiety and stress often lead to shallow breathing and hyperventilation, among other effects, because your body releases stress hormones when it senses danger.
Here are two strategies you can use to center yourself and remain focused.
Box Breathing: Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose for a count of four seconds. Hold it for four seconds, exhale through your mouth for four seconds and hold it again for four more seconds. Repeat this process as needed if it feels good and you don’t feel dizzy.
5-4-3-2-1 Grounding: Identify five things you see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one you can taste. This technique can be very useful as it helps you shift your attention from intrusive negative thoughts to a present-moment focus.
Control What You Can
It’s true we cannot train for everything that could go wrong during a match. But we can always strive to improve our attitude towards challenges.
Remember the question I asked at the beginning of this article? Think about how these strategies could have changed your reaction — and maybe even the outcome.
Besides sports and competition, where else do you think you can use these techniques?
(One of the best ways the above techniques can be put into practice is during sessions at the range. A reminder, August is National Shooting Sports Month® — take the +ONE Pledge today and see how Gabby gets friends and family out to the range.)
About the Author
Gabby Franco is a former Olympic shooter, internationally recognized speaker, author and high-performance coach. She made history as the first female shooter to represent Venezuela at the Olympic Games, competing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics after earning silver at the 1999 Pan-American Games.
She is widely known for her participation in the History Channel’s “Top Shot” and her book Troubleshooting: Mastering Your Pistol Marksmanship, offered in both English and Spanish. As the founder of AMP Mindset, Gabby integrates her competitive experience and academic training to deliver practical, results-driven mental strategies.
To learn more about Gabby and her multi-faceted role as an Olympian, competitor and mom, take a look at an extensive profile published here.