Mike’s Tips:

Enjoy the competition! Some of the fondest memories are made at competition. You won’t be able to compete forever, so take advantage of this opportunity.

You or your coach should have a rope kit for each of your ropes! Wire cutters, spare cables, screwdriver, handles, etc.

Have a consistent warm up and stretches. Don’t make any drastic changes based on what you’re seeing on the floor.

Spend time visualizing your routines and speed runs going very well.

You should wind down your intense training the week or two before competition

If you are not hitting a freestyle skill at least 8 out of 10 times, take it out of your routine. The potential gain of those points is not worth the likely loss of points from a miss.

If you have a bad run, move on to the next event. Don’t write off the rest of competition because of one bad event.

Michelle’s Tips:

Fuel your body. Get in bed before 9 or 10pm and sleep. Make sure to eat enough food and drink enough water.

Get to know the event center. Find the warm up area, staging area, etc. Get a visual for where you will be at every moment during the day

Have fun! Acknowledge and embrace the events the don’t go well, but remember that there will always be more competitions.

Smile and be there for your teammates!

Nate’s Tips:

I want to underscore and add to a couple of points Mike and Michelle made.

The first is, perform what you practiced. When you get to the arena, fall back on all of your training. Don’t make changes, because introducing a last minute variable opens up the opportunity for lack of focus and misses. I’m speaking from personal experience here—during my first Junior Olypmics I decided it would be a good idea to change my speed rope length and handles right before my run. That was not a good run. Performing what you practice also removes unnecessary cognitive load. Think of your mind as a dinner plate—is it full of 10 small portions of different food? Or do you have three main power foods and plenty of empty space? Try to give yourself this empty mind space so that you can leverage it to be calm, or to ‘fill the plate’ by focusing your attention on a few critical variables (i.e. your next run, communicating with your team calmly, etc.).

The other is eat and sleep. It seems so obvious, but often the most cliche advice is cliche for a reason. Sleep and food are both fuel for your body. Are you going to drive your car with a half tank of the worst quality gas? Or are you going to show up with a full tank of premium gas? We know food is necessary fort he body, but if you want detailed statistics and a medical approach to what happens in your brain when you get too little sleep, check out the book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.

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