How to Win Competitions

Consult an expert. Finding an expert or coach in your area of competition can help aim you toward winning. Look for past competitors, retired players, or reporters or authors who have written on the subject. Having a coach is ideal as well, as he can provide you with not just training tips but motivation and encouragement as well.

Get the right equipment. Proper equipment that works for you specifically is crucial, particularly when styles or types of equipment and clothing vary considerably.

• Wear appropriate clothing. Your clothes should fit properly and comfortably. They should also conform to the expected weather. For many sports, you’ll want clothing that breathes well so that you don’t overheat. Other types of gear may need to be customized to your sport. Cyclists often wear aerodynamic clothing and helmets, for example.
• Use proper gear. Gear that works well for you can make a huge difference in your performance. Goggles that fit your face and don’t allow water to come in, especially after diving into the pool, are crucial for swimmers. Tennis players, as another example, need to consider grip, string tightness and alignment, size, shape, and weight of their racquets.
• Make sure all your equipment conforms to the rules. Revisit the rules of the competition. Many competitions specifically set out parameters for what types of equipment are and are not allowed. If you’re unsure of anything, ask.

Develop a training schedule. Having a specific training schedule will take much of the stress out of training. With the exception of the occasional day off, try to train daily to improve over the course of your preparation time. Training daily will also help keep your competition top-of-mind as you prepare mentally.

Train early, regularly, and with focus. Some competitions, such as boxing, require this time for recovery or making weight. There’s a built-in recovery or training time here, but with other competitions you’ll have to self-monitor to make sure you’re getting early, frequent, and adequate training.

• Start training well ahead of the competition—several months ahead, if possible. Use this time to train, practice, and hone your skills. If your competition is coming up soon, be prepared to speed up your training session, and focus more on the fundamentals if you don’t have time to cover everything you’d like. Distance runners should focus on longer runs, for example, even if they'd ideally incorporate strength training and sprints as well.
• If possible, train for a set amount of time nearly every day. Just don’t burn out physically or mentally during the training process. Instead, train enough to be as prepared as possible and to be mentally comfortable with your level of preparation going into the competition.

Vary your training styles. If you’re on a four-person high school debate team, for example, you might want to practice by doing Lincoln-Douglas (i.e. one-on-one) debating to see what new skills or strategies you pick up from that. If you’re on a certain side of the issue, you might practice debating the other side to understand your opponents’ potential strategies. Varying style in physical training also helps work different muscle groups, which is why a butterfly swimmer might try training in backstroke.

Stick to your training. However you ultimately decide to train, it’s obviously important to stick to your regimen and remain persistent. Maintaining motivating can be challenging, but there are techniques you can use other than sheer will power.

• Set small goals within your training. For example, many cyclists who try to set hour records on the track (the distance you can ride in one hour) try training at their goal pace for five minutes at a time. Then, they build to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and so on.^[4] The mini goals help keep you focused, while providing a sense of accomplishment along the way.
• Make a checklist. Everyone has different productivity styles. If it helps, consider making a training checklist, which might be particularly important if you don’t have a coach to guide you. A checklist is what weightlifters do, for example, to keep track of the exercises they’ve done, the number of reps, and the weight. With a written checklist, you also have one less thing to think and worry about.
• Give yourself encouraging reminders. Leave sticky notes on your mirror or car steering wheel. Write down anything motivational to keep you inspired. It doesn’t have to be specific. It can simply be, “You OWN the track today” or “35.5 IS my time!”
• Seek support from family and friends. Tell your close ones about your training, your obstacles, and your goals. They might have insights that can help you keep motivated. They might also serve as a welcome and healthy distraction to get you out of the bubble you’re in while being so focused on training.

Prepare mentally. You don’t want to neglect this important part of training. In some ways, it’s the most important part because if you’re not mentally sound, you won’t have the presence of mind to focus on the competition. Among the biggest things you can do is choose to have a positive attitude and remain motivated.

• Avoid naysayers and any other discouraging influences.^[5] Hopefully, you do this already in other aspects of your life, so why not during your training? Since you’ve already set reasonable goals, you don’t need to worry about naysayers, and there will always be doubters and discouraging people no matter what goal you set. So, tune them out.
• Manage your anxiety and emotions during training and during the competition itself.^[6] This takes practice. Sometimes you don’t know how you will feel while running your first half-marathon. So, consider running some 5Ks or 10Ks, for example. You don’t necessarily have to race for speed, but to understand how it feels to compete in your sport. This will also mitigate surprises on the day of your own competition in the half-marathon.
• Be fearless. Fear saps up your motivation. So, to stay motivated, replace fear with focus: focus on your goals, focus on your training, and focus on the moment. Your goals are what you want and now is all you can control; that’s where you need your focus to be to overcome fear.

Visualize victory. Golfers in particular do this by visualizing each hole and each shot on the course they’re about to play, but this applies to all competitions. Visualization helps you practice seeing the success you’re trying to achieve by envisioning specifics. Effective visualization also improves your focus and concentration overall.

Rest and eat up. In the days leading up to your competition, you want to be well rested and eat food that will give you the energy and concentration to perform well. Try to get eight hours of sleep in the days before a competition, and don’t skip breakfast the morning of the big day.

• What you eat specifically varies depending on the competition, but you’ll generally want to raise your blood sugar with fruits and focus on carbohydrates to maximize your energy.^[7] Avoid overeating, and be sure to go to the bathroom before your competition begins.

Check the weather. If your competition is outdoors, different weather conditions can definitely affect your strategy. If, for example, you’re a sailor, you’d want to know the weather to know which type of equipment to use, such as a different spinnaker. A wet course might require different shoes for a runner or different tires for a cyclist or off-roader.

Arrive early. Arriving early offers plenty of benefits, in addition to the obvious one of not missing your competition. An early arrival also allows you to scout out the location of the event, as well as your competitors. You won’t feel rushed or stressed either, as you’ll have plenty of time to prepare, suit up, and check your equipment, if necessary.

Avoid distractions. Try not to chit-chat too much immediately before your competition. This can distract you from the competition in a bad way and harm your focus. Other competitors might try to engage you to intentionally try to distract you, which you don’t want either.

• Find some space to yourself to clear your mind of everything except the task at hand. For example, you might find a corner to listen to music with your headphones. You might also take some extra time to yourself getting ready in the locker room, backstage, or parking lot, for example.

Revisit your visualizations. Remember the visualizations you did as you prepared? Before the competition, do one last visualization of what you’re about to do. See your competition through from beginning to end, focusing on each part and only each part as it comes. The competition should now your primary focus.

Concentrate on execution. Now that it’s competition time, you’re ready to perform what you’ve been practicing and execute your visualizations. It’s time to focus entirely on the task at hand.

• Don’t linger over mistakes during the competition. If, for example, you don’t get the fastest start off the blocks in a track meet, avoid lingering on that by focusing on the next turn.
• Don’t think about the outcome. Just as you’re not dwelling on the past, try not to get distracted by the future either. Staying present is not necessarily easy, but it is important to staying focused on the competition and everything you’ve practiced.^[8] If your mind wanders, don’t worry about that either. Refocus and keep going.