Competing 'In The Moment'

While watching the Australian Open Tennis an interview with Venus Williams came on where she talked about how she plays and lives in the moment. Between matches she doesn't think about who she is playing next or the pressure she will have to deal with and more importantly she doesn't think about mistakes she made in the previous match or what she should have done better if she loses. When she is playing she focuses on only the point she is playing and rarely lets mistakes affect her focus.

Although tennis is obviously a different sport to gymnastics, there are similarities and Venus describes the ideal way to approach high pressure competitions. The way she talks about it makes it seem easy but as many athletes know it is not. The difference between being successful in minor competitions and taking that next step up to winning Olympic and world medals in gymnastics is how gymnasts mentally deal with the pressure. Do you think this ability to deak with pressure is genetic or learnt through experience? Can it be learnt? As a sport psychologist I obviously believe it can be taught but some athletes are naturally better than others. There have been many times during my coaching and watching of gymnastics where gymnasts who have the most talent and potential during training but can never seem to reproduce this during important competitions. Some examples in Elite Gymnastics I can think of are Tatiana Groshkova, Ksenia Afanaseyeva, Vanessa Atler, Anna Pavlova, Mo Huilan, Daria Zgoba, Irina Krasnyanska, Yang Bo (there are so many!).

If only more athletes could learn to deal with pressure like Venus Williams, Roger Federer, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin etc. So how do you coaches out there help your gymnasts who can't deal with the pressure of competition or if you're not a coach how do you think the elite gymnasts who have problems performing in major competitions should be helped? I look forward to reading your ideas!

A montage I thought suitedthis post well, it highlights how some deal with the pressure and how some do not...