Playing at Home VS Away Field – Sports Performance

It is quite common to hear that athletes and coaches pay some attention to where the match will be played. It is understandable that playing at home can easily bring the local crowd and cheer for you. On the other hand, playing at an away field, it becomes the opposite experience. Come to think about it, playing at home may actually be more difficult because the expectation is higher. Family members can bring higher expectations. But, will I feel more pressure playing at home because I sense the pressure of not wanting to fail them? Actually, it may be better to play away and don’t feel the home expectation.

As we can see, it does not really matter where we end up playing.

Whether it is at home or away, what will primarily matter is the mental attitude and preparation we bring to our performance. What happens around the field where we are performing may be a mental distraction only if we our mind is overly concerned with what we cannot control. To be mentally focused, we need to maintain our attention to what it is ahead of us and execute to our fullest potential while fully trusting in our skills.

The location and the crowd are some of the many distractions we need to navigate. We are bound to be surrounded by different kind of distractions, just like weather, opponents, referees, and unfair calls. These situations are part of competition.

Coming to perform expecting that the outside environment will be one that will push me to excel, what I am basically saying is that I need that extra “help” to achieve my best. However, wouldn’t it more powerful if we counted on our skills, mental focus and trust to achieve our true potential?

Focusing on ourselves will helps us to shoot for our true potential. We will gain more focus and achieve our best.

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