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Expedition Psychology
Performance · The Pre-Performance Routine

Build a routine that gets you ready

A good routine is a reliable way into performance, even when the day itself is unpredictable. It's a bridge between arriving and performing: a few deliberate actions that bring you to your best state. Works for any sport.

Before you start

Why a routine helps

The brain is a pattern-recognition machine. That's true of the moves in your sport, and just as true of emotional states: given the right cues, a particular state tends to follow. So there are two questions worth answering, and this workbook takes them in turn: what is my best state, and how do I get there?

A routine isn't a guarantee or a lucky ritual. It's something useful to return to, deliberately built from the cues that reliably bring you to your best, and flexible enough to survive a day that doesn't go to plan.

The idea behind it · the inverted-U

Think less about happy or nervous, and more about arousal: your level of activation and alertness. Too low and performance is flat; too high and it falls apart; somewhere in the middle is your optimal zone. Where that zone sits depends on the task, so the first job is to find yours.

Low · flat
Optimal
High · panic

The arc you'll build

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One thread throughout

Essential safety checks are never the part you shorten or skip. The flexibility in a routine belongs to the optional psychological elements, not to the warm-up and checks your sport requires.
Expedition Psychology
Performance Routine
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Step one · Your best state

What does ready feel like for you?

Calm isn't the only useful state. A short, powerful effort may call for more charge; a delicate, precise one for something quieter. Name the performance you're preparing for, then the level of activation it tends to need.

What level of activation does it call for?
Think back to a performance that felt well managed

Look for patterns, not one perfect emotion. This is the state your routine will aim for.

Don't copy someone else's build-up. Another athlete's aggressive hype may leave you rushed; forcing yourself totally calm may leave you flat. You're after a state that helps you engage, not another condition to satisfy before you're allowed to begin.
Step two · The sequence

Build a simple four-part sequence

Every routine is personal, but it helps to follow the same arc. For each part, jot the cues and actions that reliably move you toward the state you just described. Keep every element purposeful: each should have a job.

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Physical preparation includes the warm-up and any checks your sport requires, which stay essential and separate from the psychological parts. Mental preparation is where you clarify the plan, perhaps a process goal or a line of self-talk. Attentional control decides what deserves your focus right now, like a first target or an opening rhythm. The trigger is the simple signal that it's time to perform.
Step three · Adaptable, not superstitious

A full version and a short version

A routine helps because of what it does for you, not because the universe rewards an exact set of gestures. Build a full version for ordinary preparation and a short version for when time is tight, so a missed step never means you can't perform.

Full version

Ordinary preparation

Short version

When time is limited

Notice your starting state, then adjust

The state you arrive in changes how you run the routine. Plan a move in each direction.

There's a real difference between "these steps help me prepare" and "if I can't do every step exactly, I can't perform." The flexibility belongs in the optional psychological elements. Essential safety procedures are not the part to shorten.
Step four · Practise it before you need it

Rehearse it, and rehearse recovering it

A routine used for the first time at an important event is just another unfamiliar task. Try it in ordinary training, see what helps and what distracts, then practise getting back on track when it's interrupted.

You don't need the perfect build-up to perform. A good routine helps you prepare adequately and then stop preparing. The ability to recover an interrupted routine is often worth more than running it flawlessly.
Your pre-performance routine

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The state I'm aiming for

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Full version

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Short version

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You don't need the perfect build-up to perform. A good routine helps you prepare, and then lets you stop.

Expedition Psychology

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