Top Tools for Beating the Nerves in Figure Skating

Young Figure Skater Falls During Performance

We have all faced nerves and felt anxious before a skating test or competition, right? 

Sweaty palms, racing heart, nausea, jittery legs, shaking from the cold yet dripping sweat, forgetting your steps, feeling like your head is floating above your body, maybe your coach even sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher—wah wah wah.  When I was a young competitor, I would yawn excessively and tell myself, “I’m not nervous! Look how relaxed I am.”   😅

I didn’t know that I was experiencing performance anxiety, and my coaches didn’t have any words of advice for me. In fact, I was too embarrassed even to admit that I was nervous.  In the 80’s and 90’s, performance anxiety was considered a sign of weakness. 

Either you could handle the stress, or you couldn’t. If you could, you won. If you couldn’t, you “bombed”.  And "Sports Psychology" was only for the elite of the elite. 

So, instead of recognizing my nerves, I internalized the bad skates and told myself, “I’m just not as good as the other skaters.”  

As a result, I tried to work harder by beating myself up more in practice.  Sound familiar? 

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The Mind-Body Connection in Figure Skating

A couple of weeks ago I listened to Polina Edmunds interview Madison Hubbell on her Bleav podcast, and Madison said that when she was first rising through the competitive ranks, the only mental training anyone really gave her was “every night when you’re going to sleep, visualize your program.”

I remember doing that, too–every night I skated the perfect program in my head. I suppose the idea was to create the perfect visualization to overpower the negative thoughts. 

What we now know through science, though, is that the body feels nervous because of the sensory input it receives from its environment, and not just from the thoughts racing through our heads.  

Therefore, the only way to combat the nerves is to bring the body back into a state of less stress, not just the mind. 

If you want to read further about the science behind this, I go a little more in-depth about the mind-body connection in a previous blog post about Non-Toxic Mental Toughness.

Common Stressors for Skaters

It’s not just skaters that suffer from performance anxiety. 

Athletes and performers of all kinds have to combat the nerves and perform at their best on all levels. Skating just has the unique distinction of being very slippery!

“I don’t feel any pressure to win,” you might say. (let’s face it–in this sport, most of us now know that winning is often out of reach)  But the reality is that you don’t have to feel pressure to win to be nervous about performing. 

Here are just a few of the contributing factors to the nerves a skater might feel before a test or competition:

• Wanting to please parents and coaches
• Comparisons to peers
• Unconscious comparisons and messaging received through social media
• Worrying about the judges watching them - they are literally being judged!
• The quietness and emptiness of the rink during a test
• Fear that one mistake means automatic failure
• Feeling that failure means wasted time, energy, and money
• Thinking that a retry means all their peers are succeeding and they aren’t
• Knowing that in a competition they can do their best and still not “be the best” 

Not to mention that sometimes there is an actual deadline that places added pressure on the skater–the need to pass a level for a competition or show prerequisite; the desire to qualify for the next step in a competitive series; or maybe an impending move or shifting of finances and priorities. 

All of these (and more) are valid stressors for a young athlete, and I’ve talked previously about how the cognitive triangle can break the negative self-talk cycle that often contributes to performance anxiety.  

Today, though, I’m focusing on some of the physical symptoms of performance anxiety and how embodied movement, breathwork, and meditation practices can help overcome it. 
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How Performance Anxiety Shows up in Skaters

You may have experienced some or all of these in yourself or a skater you know: 

• Paralysis by Analysis - can’t accomplish one thing because you’re focused on too many things 
• Deer in the Headlights - self-explanatory 😨
• Bambi - also self-explanatory - the skater’s legs just can’t hold them up
• Sleepytime - excessive yawning is a pretty common reaction to stress, and there’s lots of speculation around why… some think it has to do with thermoregulation, and others think it’s simply the body trying to get more oxygen by making it take a full breath. It’s not a secret that our breath gets more shallow when we are anxious, so this theory makes sense, too. 
• La-La Land - classic dissociation, where the mind pulls away from the body to avoid feeling the unpleasant sensations brought on by a stressful situation such as a test or competition. The skater appears to be in a daydream. While practicing dissociation can sometimes be an effective technique for improving focus and shutting out fatigue during performance, it is only effective when the skater can bring something constructive into focus. 
• Skating in Slow-Motion - also can be a sign of dissociation, but sometimes is a sign of being hyper-focused on technique and avoiding errors instead of the flow of the performance
• The Blame Game - because admitting mistakes is difficult, the skater refuses to take accountability and blames everyone and everything else for not getting the job done
• The Burn-up and Blow-Out - the skater is so pumped for the performance that they forget to pace themselves, and they use up all their focus and energy on the warm-up

Top Tools for Beating Nerves and Anxiety in Skating

We’ve looked at why skaters might be anxious and how that anxiety might manifest at different moments for different skaters. (This is why performing often is key to development–we don’t always react the same way in times of stress!)

So how do we manage the nerves to still achieve our goals? 

First and foremost, we must focus on creating a positive training environment that helps each skater focus on their own goals and individual journeys. 

I’ve talked about this before in relation to yoga sutra 1.33, where the sage Patanjali advises, “By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”

Indeed, by practicing these attitudes daily, working on realistic goal setting, enjoying the process, and keeping the stakes of a test or event in perspective, we can get a head start on alleviating the pressure skaters may feel. 

In a safer, more accepting environment, the body can stay more relaxed and achieve optimal performance. 

Nevertheless, the nature of a judged sport means there is bound to still be some stress, and some personalities and bodies will always feel it more than others.

As skaters get older, too, they tend to become aware of the cost of the sport and more aware of what others around them are doing and achieving. And whether or not they are even aware they are thinking of these things, the thoughts are in the brain, influencing the body. 

So, we take steps to gain control of our thoughts and reconnect with our bodies. 

Below are my favorite embodiment tools and techniques to help skaters regain the mind-body connection so crucial to an enjoyable and successful performance.

1. Visualization or Guided Imagery - This is a very powerful practice designed to take the novelty out of a competitive environment and to allow the brain to picture success. The skater can be guided or do a self-guided process where they walk themselves through the competitive environment to experience the sensations in the body that may arise. ​In another type of visualization, the skater pictures themselves successfully executing a specific performance or element to help the brain make it become reality. If you can see it, you can believe it, and if you can believe it, you can achieve it.​
2. Essential Oils - During practice or at an event, I often use essential oils to help bring myself and my skaters back into their bodies. Peppermint oil or citrus oil can be great for sharpening focus if the brain feels scattered. Both are also very good for calming a nervous stomach!  I also use vetiver and other grounding blends such as Aura Cacia’s Grounding Root Chakra Balancing Roll-On to help calm the nervous system.   
3. Meditation - There are many, many kinds of meditation, so the practice can be catered to the specific needs of the moment and the skater. In general, before or at an event, I recommend a guided vipassana or affirmation-based meditation to skaters to help them reconnect with their breath and bring their thoughts into focus. When the monkey mind is darting around between unimportant factors out of our control, we can’t focus on the task at hand. Meditation can help create space between those extraneous thoughts and also help us learn to let go of them.  
4. Affirmations - Repeating affirmations to yourself can literally rewire the brain by activating the brain’s reward centers. Science shows that we need as many as 10x more positive input than negative in order to overcome the negative.  Before an event, I often have my skaters write loads and loads of post-its with awesome sayings on them for them to see as they move through their day:  I am an awesome skater, I flow through my performance with ease, and  I nail my jumps. 💪 If writing the words in I feels too awkward at first, you can write it in “you” form. 
5. Key Words - When you’re spiraling out of control, the science of the cognitive triangle says that all we need is one positive action or one positive word to shift the direction of the cycle. I give my skaters keywords for every element in the program or every move in a test.  When their thoughts begin to wander, or the body senses danger in the room (our sensory nerves literally can’t tell the difference between a tiger chasing us or a judge across the ice… it’s all perceived danger!), I have them return to their list of words to narrow their focus. 
6. Deep Breathing is by far the easiest, most accessible way to calm the nervous system and reconnect with the body.  Take a deep, steady inhale through the nose, expanding the ribs as fully as possible. Pause for a second, then take a long, slow exhale through the nose. Try to make the exhale last as long as you can without it feeling uncomfortable. Repeat a few times.  I discovered this one on my own waiting for surgery many years ago. It’s how I kept myself from freaking out!
7. Conscious Breathing - Similar to the deep breathing I’ve listed above, conscious breathing just involves paying attention to the quality of your breath.  Inhale and exhale through the nose, noticing the quality of the breath, without judgments. Is it smooth or jumpy? Cold on the inhale? You can even count your breath–I teach my students to count to either 4 or 5 on the inhale and exhale–making them an even length.  You can place your hands on your diaphragm, or my favorite is to place the hands on the lower ribs to feel them expand and contact with the breath. 
8. Grounding - standing barefoot or in sock feet on dirt, sand, grass, or even concrete is another very simple way to bring the body and mind into the present moment. It’s also a great way to wake up the feet for efficient use of the skate 😉
9. Progressive Relaxation - is a technique used to bring awareness to small areas of the body. I also call this a “body scan”, and is very effective when the mind feels disconnected from the body.  Starting from the crown of the head and moving to the bottom of the feet, focus your awareness on different parts of the body. You can imagine large body parts, such as “the legs”, or you can be more specific, imagining areas like “the right cheekbone”.  One effective way to practice is to imagine a bright jewel shining on each body part as you sense or relax that area. You can practice a body scan seated, lying down, or one of my favorites is with legs up the wall. If you are a skater that tends to yawn and move in slow motion when nervous, then relaxing the body may not be suitable for you in a testing or competition situation. You might be better served with the next technique…. 
10. Superhero Poses - Studies have shown that practicing “power poses”, such as the superhero pose, the wonder woman, superman, goddess, Warrior II, and others,  boosts testosterone and lowers cortisol. These poses make you feel strong and, when practiced with breath awareness, prime the lungs and bring awareness into the body!

Not all of these tools will work for everyone, and like anything, some of them may take some practice and personalization before they are completely effective. Most skaters may need a combination of these techniques to bring themselves into a state of balance so they can beat the nerves.  

Skaters of all ages face different factors that cause them stress in testing and competitive situations. As much as we may try to create a positive training environment and keep the focus on individual journeys rather than comparisons, it’s impossible to take the judgment 100% out of a judged sport. 

The body automatically senses stressors in the environment, even when the mind isn’t actively thinking of them, and each skater’s body reacts in unconscious ways. While some skaters naturally thrive under this pressure, the majority of skaters react with some manifestation of fight, flight, freeze, and/or fawn. 

Our body’s response doesn’t have to derail our plans, though! The judges and the event are only perceived threats–not actual threats like a tiger running toward you. Use these 10 tools to beat the nerves that would otherwise stand in the way of reaching your goals and having fun in the process. 

If you or a skater you know has ever struggled with nerves on test day… and you’d like some help in implementing these practices, get started today by signing up for my Anxiety Tool Kit for Skaters. It’s free! ​