The Biggest Mental Error In Competition

By Terry Rady

I’ve seen it one too many times, a young come up who’s on a mission to beat someone in particular. These people are full of energy, piss, vinegar, and a fight. It’s a special mental state everyone experiences in this sport, but learning to utilize it is key.

The aforementioned kid is usually the one distraught by the 4th event, mainly because things have collapsed and not gone his way. The person he was out to destroy is typically a veteran who’s been through this a time or two. This person is calm, not screaming for every competitor. They aren’t up running around talking to everyone, they aren’t cheering for every single person after every event. Reason why? Their Mental state.

Having a calm mental state is everything in this sport. People forget that this is a competition at the end of the day, there will be 1 winner. Yes, cheering for your friends is great. But sitting down and bringing your heart rate down is move valuable to the overall competition than cheering for your competitor. I notice this in the women’s classes the most, there are a select few who don’t cheer and guess what? They’re pros, Liefa Ingalls in particular sat and calmed herself down after every event at the Arnold this past year and she won it against a stacked class. The high energy mental state is usually where people make easily avoidable error because they’re not completely focused on the task at hand, they’ve been sinking energy into everyone else and not themselves.

Not cheering for everyone doesn’t make you an asshole, not running around and getting in people’s faces to finish a lift doesn’t make you a dick. It makes you smart. Sit your ass down, listen to calming music and bring your heart rate down. Why? ENERGY. There are 5 events, energy is a limited resources and wasting it because you want to be the good guy who finished 2nd was a wasted competition, unless you’re just in this to make friends. There are only two people who are made out of energy and that’s the Hadge brothers, and their coach, but they’re anomalies anyway.

You can give all the hugs and kisses you want at the end of the competition, but until you have completed all events, don’t waste a single ounce of energy on someone who isn’t you. You didn’t train log clean and press, and then 5 set of 5 running, clapping and screaming for 25 feet. You trained for this competition because you want to succeed for you. Not them, remember that. This energy is for you.