1. Evaluate your effort, attitude, and aggressiveness. These three traits are all very important, especially during a competition, because these can all be controlled by you! All you have to do for effort is put in 110% – ALWAYS! Even if you’re feeling tired or upset, still give 110%. Your attitude is so important because it hugely impacts how you compete. If you’re feeling confident and positive, that’ll translate on the court. Aggressiveness is related to this as well! If you remain confident, you’re going to feel more comfortable taking calculated risks that will pay off in the long run. Considering the importance of these traits, you should rate yourself based on these traits during the competition. Then, congratulate yourself if you utilized these traits and encourage yourself to improve them for the next competition.
2. Identify things you did well! Before you start thinking about what might have gone wrong during the competition, you should identify what went right! It’s important to recognize your achievements, especially if you’ve been improving in certain areas. Identifying what you did well will allow you to stay confident and motivated to keep improving. TIP: Having a family member or spectator record the match and watching the film back might help you with this step and the following steps.
3. Identify improvement areas mentally and technically. There’s always room for improvement, right? After identifying what your strengths were, you should identify the areas of improvement. Remember to consider both mental and technical areas of improvement. Did your mindset start becoming doubtful or anxious right before you were about to serve? Now you know you need to work on clearing your mind right before you serve. And what about technically – maybe you errored a few of your hits because your timing was off. Now you know you need to work on your approach and timing in practice before the next competition.
4. Develop a plan to improve those areas. This is the part where you need to really commit! Once you’ve identified where you should improve, you need to create a plan of action to actually improve in those areas. Don’t feel afraid to ask your teammates or coaches for some guidance as well. Your teammates might have some insights or advice if they’ve needed to improve in the same areas and your coaches can help guide you through the process and design drills specifically to help you. Sticking with this plan is going to help you be a better, more confident competitor.
5. Forgive yourself for mistakes & move forward with confidence. So you’ve already identified what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve – but don’t forget that you need to forgive yourself as well. Having the plan of action is not going to be meaningful if you don’t forgive yourself for the mistakes you might have made. If you’re hung up on the mistakes, you won’t be focused on improving and moving forward with confidence. Understanding that everyone makes mistakes sometimes and deciding to forgive yourself is a great mindset to have while moving forward!
We should always be looking for how to improve and move forward – and using these steps to consider your performance post-competition is a great way to do that! But remember, give yourself time to decompress first!