Dealing with the Pressure of a Big Meet
by Steve McGill

With the championship season having arrived here in North Carolina, it felt like an appropriate time to go ahead and write an article about how to manage the stress and anxiety that comes with preparing for the big championship meets at the end of the season that determine whether or not the season can be considered a success.

Recently I was having a conversation with one of my athletes on my school team who is new to the sport this year, even though she’s a junior. She was saying that she is finally getting used to racing, and that she finally has confidence when it’s time to step into the starting blocks. I explained to her that yes, it takes a while to get to a point where you get used to the intense pressurized scenario of a hurdle race. The early-season races serve as preparation for the late-season races. And for those who qualify for national meets, the late-season races (conference, regionals, states) serve as preparation for the national competitions. Like I told my athlete, “You only get better at racing by racing.” In other words, training gets you fit to race, but the mental aspect, which moves to the forefront in order of importance on the day of a meet, can only be developed by racing.

As someone who grew up playing basketball and who played basketball through my sophomore year of high school, the most difficult aspect of transitioning to track, and the hurdles specifically, was the mental aspect. In basketball, if I made a bad play, I could bounce back and make a good play the next time down the court. If the team was having a bad first quarter, the coach could call timeout and we’d have a chance to regroup. But in my first hurdle race, I stood at the line and saw ten hurdles staring back at me. There were so many hurdles in my lane that I couldn’t even see the last ones. In my first 300m hurdle race I fell. In my third 110 hurdle race I fell. In both cases, the hurdle came up on me before I was ready. In the 110 fall, I was gaining on an opponent and was about to pass him and was so focused on catching him that by the time I realized I was too close to the hurdle I ran into it.

While doing drills in practice helped me to address my flaws and improve my technique, races like the one described above were essential when it came to developing the instincts that a hurdler must have — the ability to react to what’s happening in the moment. For a hurdler, there is a multiplicity of factors that can affect a race — which way the wind is blowing, the level of competition, physical contact with opponents in adjacent lanes, the surface of the track, the quality of the block start, the temperature, how many heats there are of your event, how many heats there are of other events. Etc. So, by dealing with these various factors in races throughout the year (indoors and outdoors), you get to a point where nothing can surprise you when it’s time to run the championship races.

As for the mental aspect, track runners, and hurdlers in particular for the purposes of this article, have to get used to the fact that the coach can’t call timeout, that there are no opportunities to regroup. Once the gun goes off, you either do what you need to do or you don’t. You either execute your race or you don’t. That kind of pressure can be enormously nerve-wracking. Athletes who can’t handle the nerves will fall apart and make uncommon mistakes. That’s why I always compare hurdling to jazz music — you’re constantly adapting to what’s happening in the moment. No matter how much you’ve trained, no matter how much you’ve prepared, no matter how well you’ve rehearsed your race plan, when the gun goes off, all thinking goes out the window and you’re just reacting, reacting, reacting. 

Here are some pieces of advice I have for hurdlers preparing for championship races:

1) Mental preparation begins at the beginning of the week. Don’t wait until the day of or the day before the meet to start locking in. Begin locking in five or six days ahead of time. Locking in consists of quieting the mind, visualizing yourself racing. Not visualizing “positive” stuff like taking the lead and keeping it, but visualizing yourself executing your race. Lacking in means acknowledging all the work you’ve put in up to this point, and trusting that your training will enable you to rise to the occasion. 

2) Do every little thing you can to address minor aches and pains. Use the foam roller, use the theragun, apply ice, minimize physical activity when you’re not at practice, stretch after practice. Fear of injury can be a major mental distraction, so keeping the body intact helps to keep the mind focused and relaxed.

3) The day before the race (or the day before traveling, if you’re traveling), put all your stuff in your bag. AirPods, extra spikes, etc. Whatever you typically bring to a track meet, put all of that in your bag a day ahead of time so you’re not rushing around looking for anything on the day of.

4) On the day of the race, focus on your breathing as soon as you wake up. Be diligent about making sure that you’re exhaling slowly and inhaling slowly. Slow, deep breaths help to calm the mind. I always tell my athletes, “if you’re not nervous you’re not ready,” but at the same time, you don’t want to be so nervous that your nerves cause you to underperform. There’s gotta be a balance there. That’s why being conscious of one’s breathing is so important. When we’re nervous, we tend to breathe very shallowly, which increases the nervousness and tenses the muscles.

5) Rely on your warmup to get you into your zone, to get your heart pumping, to get your confidence up. Your warmup routine brings a sense of familiarity even if the meet is taking place at an unfamiliar venue. As you’re warming up, your focus should be totally on yourself. Not on teammates or coaches or family or friends. This is your moment and you have to rise to meet it, and no one else can rise to meet it for you. 

6) In the final moments leading up to the race, after you have completed your warmup, keep moving, and keep breathing. Pace back and forth in your lane. Keep shaking your legs out, bob your head side to side. As long as the body stays moving, the mind will remain calm. If you just stand there with your arms folded (which I’ve seen plenty of athletes do, believe it or not), you’re defeated before the gun even goes off. 

Hope all of that helps. Good luck to everyone competing in championship races in the next month or so.