Finding Your Game Day Flow: The Power of Pregame Meditation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps39GOBOVo

As student athletes, most pregame routines are high energy. These routines typically involve pre-workout, loud music, and hype parties in the locker room. This describes the “Force” side of our brand. Through my personal experience and more research, I think the secret to unlocking the true power for peak performance is through the “Flow” side. To better explain this concept, I found a video that perfectly practices how to approach and prepare before any sort of competition.

This video is a guided meditation, led by Amanda Sellers, a meditation teacher and enthusiast, that is designed to be a mental warm-up for the chaotic events that lead up to game day. What I love most about it is that it doesn’t ask you to just “relax,” but to sit with purpose. This eight-minute video starts with deep, rhythmic breathing to help settle the nervous system and shake off any distractions from the day.

This video in a nutshell is a powerful visualization exercise. Amanda Sellers tells you to think through a series of moments prior to the upcoming event or competition. From the warm-up to the final play, she directs you to envision yourself performing with grace and skill. The video concludes with Amanda Sellers asking you to repeat a series of mantras in your head or out loud. Some of these include, “I am confident in my abilities” and “I stay calm and focused under pressure.” Then you’re asked to refocus back to the present in the room, now feeling motivated, mentally energized, and aligned.

This video represents everything that Force & Flow stands for. A common misconception from athletes is that meditation is only designed to help you “calm down” in high intensity situations, when really, as this video demonstrates, meditation is also designed to help you “gear up.” It bridges the gap between mental illness and physical dominance.

By practicing and applying these techniques, you can train your mind to stay in a more consistent flow of grace and strength, even when the pressure is high. Mental health is not a separate category from sports, it is actually the foundation of sports performance.

If you are a student athlete who struggles with balancing school stress and game day intensities, this type of meditation is built for you. This video is short, easy to apply, and can be done anywhere. Meditation can be done on the team bus, in the locker room, or even on the field before a race.

My takeaway from this video is that your mind is also a muscle that needs to be exercised, through meditation. I absolutely loved the palm tree metaphor for being grounded and strong but also being able to go with the flow. This perfectly fits the Force & Flow brand.

I think moving forward, I would like to create my own short, “Force & Flow” audio guides that athletes can also listen to in the locker room. I want to move away from just writing about meditation and start providing and creating actual tools to do it. Seeing how effective it is to combine deep breathing and powerful mantras makes me want to create some sort of “Force & Flow Mantra Pack” for all sports, helping every athlete find their own version of pure potential through powerful meditation.

Let me know your thoughts!