If you play sports, whether it is golf, tennis, pickleball or some other sport, then you understand the mental game that is of equal importance to the physical game.

As a life coach and a clinical hypnotherapist, I coach others on changing their mental game. I teach clients that you can have full control over your mental and emotional state, even though this might seem impossible at times.

When your mental and emotional state is in alignment with your physical body, your performance goes up exponentially. So how do you mentally and emotionally prepare for the win?

I experimented with this recently when I played in a Pickleball tournament. For those of you who are not familiar with Pickleball, it is similar to playing tennis but on a smaller court. The racket is about the same size of a racquet ball racket but hard like a ping-pong paddle. And the game is played with larger hard whiffle balls (with holes). The game is usually played with 4 people (two on each side-doubles). This is a sport that is becoming very popular and I just discovered it less than a year ago.

A week before the tournament, I began my mental and emotional preparation. I enjoy meditating first thing in the morning before getting out of bed. For me it is the perfect quiet time when my mind is calm and relaxed, before the hustle and bustle of the day begins.

During my meditations, I invoked the key elements to winning the game as I mentally and emotionally prepared to win the tournament.

1. Intent:

I asked myself, what is my intent? What do I want to accomplish by playing in this tournament? Why do I want to win? What would winning the game bring or give me in my life?

For me, it would bring recognition (being noticed) because I am new to this sport and new to playing with those around me. For me it would be a renewed belief in myself; a new self-confidence. It would be an accomplishment and also confirmation that this mental preparation works and a process that I could trust.

2. Feel: 

I then asked myself, how do I want to feel when I win. Notice I do not use the words…”if I win”. When you allow words of doubt or inconclusiveness to be part of your vocabulary, you leave a door open to not fulfilling your goal. In the mind, it always wins and you have to stay with that belief that you will win. Your mind might be good at winning conversations in your head, it might be good at playing the silent treatment to others, it might be good at cutting down others with criticism…it will win the mental game that you are good at.  But winning the game takes intentional control over the mind to direct it to win the right game.

For me, I wanted to feel the camaraderie of my fellow players and feel inclusive to the pickleball club. I wanted to feel proud of my accomplishments.

3. Imagine the Game: 

I then began, over the days leading up to the tournament, to imagine what my game could look like. I imagined dominating the playing field with my partner. I imagined winning the game in straight sets. I imagined having comfortable leads in the score. I even imagined what it would feel like to have such a commanding lead in the game…relief, excitement, calmness, confidence.

4. Align Body to the Mind: 

It is natural to feel nervous when you are about ready to play a tournament. If your body is nervous and tense, the muscles won’t work as well because you are stiff. Your mind will be focused on being nervous and not focused on what it needs to do to hit every shot to the best of your ability with sharpness and precision. 

Through repetitive meditation and practice, I have learned how to lower my heart rate and change my body from feeling nervous to feeling calm in less than 30 seconds. It takes practice but it is possible. 

One way to do this is to tie the feeling of calm to taking deep meditative breaths in. By breathing in deeply, this signals the subconscious mind to begin relaxing the body immediately. It becomes an automatic response that is done on an unconscious level. So, when I consciously breathe in deeply and release my breath slowly, my body automatically slows my heart rate and relaxes my muscles. When I am relaxed, my reaction time and eye/hand coordination improve. 

Throughout the tournamanent, I made a conscious effort to “go with the flow” and not get flustered. Things will happen along the way and I consciously allowed myself to pivot and remain calm.

5. Surrender: 

One of the key elements is to surrender. This does not mean to give up or that it is out of my control. This means to surrender to the circumstances knowing that whatever happens will be perfect. Winning the game does not always mean coming in first. This tournament was my first pickleball tournament with mixed doubles and only the second tournament that I had ever played. But because I mentally had prepared as well as practiced the game physically, I knew that I would do my best and that I was ready. And I allowed myself to enjoy the journey of whatever was about to happen. 

So how did it end? My partner and I won the tournament in straight sets. 

I went home and personally celebrated this milestone. Because the last important step in “Winning the Game” is to celebrate! The brain and body love praise. When you celebrate the awesome job you did, the brain and body remember and work towards re-creating this good feeling. Why do you often see winning athletes do better and better? It is the alignment of mind and body. Athletes who find themselves in a slump stay there until they can realign their mind and their body back to winning the game. 

By applying these simple steps, anyone can prepare for any game or sport that they enjoy. So enjoy the journey to winning your game!