How did you do in your last race? Were you happy with your result? Do you know what you need to do to improve? In this article I want to tell you about what I think is one of the most important exercises you can do to help you continue getting better at your sport – Competition Profiling.
There are far too many athletes who go into competition with only one goal (usually to win) and come away feeling as if they have performed very poorly because they did not achieve their goal.
Having a competition-profiling sheet, which you can fill out after each time you compete, will allow you to not just have a singular goal but will provide you with an opportunity to analyse your whole performance. You can also use it to determine what improvements you have made since the last race and what you need to do going forward into the next one. This is a fantastic exercise to allow you to see overall improvements over time.
I have a detailed form available on my Going In The Zone programme that I use with all my clients but here are some questions you should ask yourself after every race:
- How do you feel about your overall performance in this race?
- Did you have performance goals before the race? What were they?
- Which performance goals did you achieve?
- Which performance goals did you not achieve?
- Looking at the answers to the questions, what actions are you going to take for your next race that can help you improve your technical, tactical, physical and mental fitness components.
If you are not sure how to improve aspects of your technical, tactical or physical ability talk to your coach. If you feel you need to improve your mental fitness like better concentration, confidence, motivation, anxiety control or mental toughness and ability to suffer then consider signing up to a programme like my Going In The Zone or just sign up to my newsletter where you will get lots of tips and advice.
