Ah, February. The month of appreciating our partners. You thought I meant romantic partners, didn’t you? Nope! For athletes that compete in doubles or pairs sports, why not take this month to make sure your partner knows how much you appreciate them? Competing in doubles sports can be challenging. You and your partner need to be on the same wavelength, and always in sync. When that doesn’t happen, you won’t be able to perform your best. Maybe you have been stressed about school or they have been having relationship issues outside of sport. These things can impact your performance even if they aren’t related to you and your partner’s sport! Taking time to spend time together, feel supported by each other, or working towards feeling supported by each other can do wonders for your performance.
How can you support each other this month? Whether you are in season or not, taking time to do non-sport related activities together can help create more of a bond and create a new level of trust between the two of you. Feeling comfortable in and out of sport will help with your chemistry on the playing field. I know you probably already feel like you spend all your time practicing together already and that can create a ton of pressure between you both; creating time to have fun with each other whether it be an escape room, trying a new skill together (like taking a pottery class together) or even playing your sport together for fun rather than a structured practice can help with nurturing that bond.
Creating this bond and feeling more comfortable with your partner can help with improved trust and communication. Both are essential to a pairs/ doubles team. These skills can help when one partner is feeling off or stressed, the other will know better how to approach and support them, since everyone’s way to support is different and needs to be learned. Learning more about your partners strengths, weaknesses, where they are confident, and where they are more self-conscious will also aid in becoming a better team as you will be able to know when they will need a boost or help, and they will be able to provide the same for you. Every partnership has its ups and downs but being able to come back stronger than before is essential to a successful team, and using these skills are imperative to that.
If you and your partner are feeling like you’re just not on the same page as each other lately or you feel like something is off when you practice or compete together, talk to us at Driven. Our mental performance consulting may benefit you and your partner coming in individually or as a pair to get to the root of what needs to be addressed in order to reach your peak performance in your sport. We can talk about the benefits of partnership and even if you aren’t best friends off the field, ice, court, etc., you can still be the best partners when you are competing.
