The Possibilities and Challenges of Self-Regulation
Let’s start with the challenges— a challenge of self-regulationan is when you simply don't have it. That’s it.
Self-regulation is an athlete’s ability to plan and adjust their psycho-emotional and physiological processes.
It means that the athlete trains regularly and consistently to reach a specific, optimal pre-performance state, recover after setbacks, or mentally prepare for performance.
More often than not, the athlete is a victim of stimuli — both external (people, conditions, events) and internal (emotions, thoughts, reactions). All of this becomes a learned, unconscious pattern of behaviour.
Training self-regulation means working consistently and practically with your thoughts, emotions, breathing, body tone, and actions. To do this effectively, the athlete must clearly identify their stumbling blocks and define the goals of their self-regulation practice.
An athlete with strong self-regulation skills can mentally prepare for performance with high precision — time after time. Such an athlete clearly understands the cyclical nature of competition — a beginning and an end. In practice, this means they can align themselves mentally for every situation: regulate — perform — move on.
“Get yourself together!” is the most concise and direct way to describe self-regulation. “Mentally tune yourself for the start!” Every sport and every athlete requires an individual approach — each will have their own nuances in practical training.
Train your ability to self-regulate, and you’ll soon see — your capacity to manage your internal processes will improve significantly.