When Does Your Game Begin?
Mindset Made Simple Tip #313 - Watch or listen HERE - https://youtu.be/0t9VW-xOrUE?is=bJnc1P1gcMYob-JJ
When does your game begin? At the opening whistle? The first pitch? The starting gun?
What about your performance?
Does it begin when the conductor raises the baton? When you step onto the stage? When your name is called? Or does it begin long before any of those things happen?
Think about the morning of an important event.
You wake up and something feels different. Maybe your stomach is unsettled. You're more alert than usual. Your mind is already running through what lies ahead. You haven't put on your uniform, laced up your shoes, or picked up your instrument.
But something is happening. Your body may already be preparing for what's coming.
Tomorrow is a big day around here. My son will start the day with the Suburban League Cross Country Championship, only to return home, take a shower and get prepared for the Copley Marching Band Invitational. Not that you will be there, but if so, look for me parking cars for 5 hours before their performance (beats the concession stand any day 😉).
As we look ahead to the big day, I thought about what my son will experience tomorrow…from start to finish. Then I wondered how the start of his day will impact the remainder of all that is to follow.
That’s what took me back to a fascinating 2026 study I ran across as I was preparing for my Psychological Aspects of Sport course. It was published in Psychoneuroendocrinology and examined 190 elite athletes across seven sports, including soccer, swimming, track and field and judo. Researchers measured the athletes' cortisol awakening response, the natural increase in cortisol that typically occurs during the first 30–45 minutes after waking. They compared what happened on competition mornings with what happened on rest mornings.
The results? The athletes experienced a significantly greater increase in cortisol after waking on competition days than on rest days.
And since the pattern wasn't significantly different between individual- and team-sport athletes, I figure it pertains to our awesome marching band, too!
Why does a waking increase of cortisol matter?
Cortisol often gets labeled as the "stress hormone," which makes us think something
negative is happening. But cortisol also plays an important role in regulating energy availability, metabolism, and our responses to demands.
The researchers suggest that the elevated morning response is consistent with the body anticipating competition.
The study doesn't tell us whether having a larger cortisol response makes someone perform better. It also doesn't tell us exactly what these athletes were feeling. But it raises a fascinating point.
Your body doesn't necessarily wait for the competition to begin before responding to its demands. The competition ramps up before the competition!
And the competition begins in our thoughts well before the gun as well! It makes me wonder how our team has been approaching tomorrow morning’s meet.
They were here last night for their weekly team dinner and seemed relaxed and excited to compete. The coaches were talking about placing, the competition and times. They have a great plan, the “hay is in the barn,” as Coach Driscoll says and they have made great strides as the season has progressed. It’s been fun to watch!
But between last night and tomorrow morning, I wonder about their anticipation. Are they talking about the race this morning, this afternoon… well in advance of the starting line? Are they worrying about times, visualizing the course or feeling a little different because this meet has the word “championship” attached?
And since we "must" win our own band competition, has that changed our appraoch?
Tomorrow will see two very different performances. One involves athletes pushing their bodies to the limit. The other involves musicians coordinating attention, timing, movement, and precision.
Both require preparation, focus, and the ability to respond under pressure. And for both groups, the performance experience begins well before the official start.
Think about how often this happens in everyday life, too. The presentation you have to give tomorrow. The difficult conversation you've been anticipating all week. The interview you've been preparing for. The important decision you know is coming.
The anticipation is real, even when the event is still hours or days away.
We don't have to be physically performing for our bodies to begin responding to what we expect and here's where our mental performance skills become important. We notice something different happening in our bodies, and we immediately start interpreting it. "My stomach is a mess. I must be nervous." "My heart is pounding. I need to calm down." "I can't stop thinking about tomorrow. This is going to be a disaster."
But consider another possibility.
What if those sensations aren't automatically warning signs? What if some of them are part of your body's response to an upcoming challenge?
That doesn't mean every sensation is helpful, or that all arousal improves performance. It means we need to be careful about the meaning we assign to what we're experiencing. A racing heart doesn't automatically mean we're going to fail. Butterflies don't mean we're unprepared. Feeling activated doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. And when we decide that those sensations are a problem, we may create another challenge for ourselves: trying to eliminate them before we can perform.
Because we know we don’t have to feel perfect to perform.
A few weeks ago, I shared the story of one of my swimmers who believed she needed to feel a certain way to race her best. We explored how waiting for the perfect feeling can become another obstacle to performance.
This new research adds another layer to that conversation.
Our bodies may be responding to competition long before we decide whether we feel ready for it, and that's worth thinking about.
If we expect every competition morning to feel like an ordinary Tuesday, we're probably setting ourselves up for some unnecessary frustration.
Important events can produce different responses. The question isn't always, "How do I make this feeling go away?" Maybe a better question is: "What is my body responding to, and what do I need to do next?"
One of the most valuable mental performance skills we can develop is awareness. We can't choose every physical sensation that shows up, but we can become more intentional about how we interpret and respond to it.
The next valuable skill is choosing how we interpret what we notice! In this case, a perfect example is that those butterflies in your stomach aren't necessarily a sign that something is wrong. They're often a response from your sympathetic nervous system, which activates when your body anticipates a challenge. As part of this response, blood flow is redirected away from digestion and toward the muscles that may need it most. That fluttering feeling in your stomach? It may be a sign that your body is mobilizing resources to help you perform!
Same sensation. Different interpretation. And potentially a very different response!
That's where our Notice, Choose, Commit, Repeat (NCCR) process comes in.
NOTICE: Something feels different. I'm more energized, restless, excited, or tense than usual.
CHOOSE: I can interpret these sensations with curiosity instead of immediately assuming they're a problem. I can choose a useful response.
COMMIT: What matters right now? Perhaps it's eating breakfast, getting to practice, reviewing the plan or simply being present with my teammates.
REPEAT: As the event gets closer, my sensations may change. I can check in again, adjust when useful and return my attention to what matters.
Notice what we're doing here. We're not trying to control every physical response. We're learning to work WITH our bodies instead of automatically fighting what we feel. And sometimes the most effective response is to recognize that we're activated, accept that it's part of the experience, and continue preparing.
Before your next important performance, pay attention to the anticipation. Not just in the moments immediately before you begin, but throughout the hours leading up to it.
Ask yourself:
1. When did I first notice something changing? Was it the night before? When I woke up? On the drive? During warmups?
2. What did I notice? My breathing? My stomach? My energy? My thoughts? My attention?
3. What meaning did I give it? Did I interpret the sensations as excitement, readiness, pressure, or a problem?
4. What was important for me to do at that moment? What could I choose that would help me continue preparing?
Over time, you may discover that your body has patterns you've never really noticed. And understanding those patterns can help you approach important events with greater awareness and intention.
Coaches, parents and leaders, we can help with this, too. Instead of automatically telling someone to calm down, ask what they're noticing and what they need for the task ahead.
We don't need to turn every sign of anticipation into a problem that needs solving.
Sometimes we simply need to help performers recognize what's happening and move forward with purpose.
Because whether you're waiting for the starting gun, standing on the sideline, or preparing to play the first note...
Your body may have started preparing long before the performance begins. And the more we understand that process, the better equipped we become to work with it.
So, when does YOUR game begin? And, GO COPLEY!!!
Julie
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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