Winning Performance --- First Competition

3 weeks have passed. Nothing worthy to occupy this blog space except the four letters word--- Bore.
Today is the last training and tomorrow is the competition. For me, the present scenario is similar to one of those scenes during last day of school before term ends or the day before long vacation leave from office.

My son, I have named him as Adler ---- the eagle, only recently. He is characterised by the chattering nature and comedian style of acting in the family. He is similar to any other boys except this one maybe, he creates exclusive cartoon character and series during his leisure, names like nono, fatty,… is only comprehensive among my three children. Already in their collection are two full boxes of jotter books. His humorous can be best described with following dialogue,… “Adler please stop eating, you wish yourself to turn into a handsome or fatso when grown up.” The straight reply without a blink from Adler is “a handsome fatso.” This is him.

Another very important character is demanding an introduction before I am able to proceed with the story. He is very supportive; he makes himself present at all the competition till now, irregardless of weather condition. Frankly, I never like him or his present, in-fact, once, I have told him to stay away. I am not appreciating his effort. As a matter of facts, I indicate that he is responsible for all of the Adler’s under perform events. I know is unfair to blame on someone else to distress from our failure to perform. I am not feeling any form of guilt because I never like him at all. Somehow, he has managed to sneak tactically behind us despite of our high level of alertness. He is the competitive anxiety.

I have done a little study regarding competitive anxiety, it is the reaction from competitors in both physically (somatic) and mentally (cognitive) which produces negative effect on performance abilities. Stress, arousal and anxiety are terms used to describe this condition.
Following are some of the typical behaviours:
Biting fingernail
Lethargic movements
Inhibited posture
Playing safe
Going through the motions
Introversion
Uncharacteristic displays of extroversion
Fidgeting
Avoidance of eye contact
Covering face with hand

Adler has shown symptom of anxiety when he drinks addictively while other symptoms including dry mouth and fingernail biting. Such behaviours retrieve part of my memory regarding anxiety. I have similar experience with anxiety during my examination in academic day. Diarrhoea is my symptom; one of my friends always throws out breakfast, another friend murmurs like priest’s exorcism praying.

I try to calm him down by gentle massaging on his neck while a lady has suggested the following tips to ease his situation. The procedure has improved but does not eliminate the anxiety.

1) Slowly close your eyes.
2) Relax all the muscles in your body.
3) Focus on breathing smoothly and naturally.

Combating anxiety is the tough battle in performance due to the invisibility property. With the helps from various relevant resources, we have reduced the amount but it is never eliminated. The beauty of it is, adequate amount enhances performance slightly but excessive amount deteriorates performance significantly.

At the spectator roll, the sight of his trembling knees is visible to me although I am quite a distance from his jumping board. To perform, this is the first hurdle to cross over.