Hypermobility refers to the ability to move joints beyond the “average” range of motion. It…
A Tool to Improve the Mental Side of Performing or Competing
Performing or competing can be fun and exhilarating! It can be a great way to show off what you’ve learned to friends and family, and it can be a great way to help you stay focused and perfect moves!
While we talk a lot about training plans for your physical body, the mental side of things is just as hard—if not harder—than the mental side!
In this post we’ll talk about a way to help you manage the fears of performing or competing and maybe even make it a bit more fun!
Everyone has an inner critic
Everyone has a critic! Sometimes we have more than one.
This is that little voice inside of you that says you’re stupid or dumb or that everyone else thinks you’re stupid or dumb. This is the voice that often calls out your imposter syndrome and can make you feel ashamed or scared of getting out on stage.
It’s easy to demonize this part of you but remember, this is still a part of YOU! That means your critic serves a vital role and ultimately is just trying to protect you. Maybe their words or the way they go about things isn’t very kind, but their intention is to help.
How to deal with your inner critic
When you hear that little voice starting to tell you that performing or competing is a bad idea even though you just thought it was the best idea ever, try and get curious about what the critic is saying and more importantly, why they are saying it. Maybe they just want to protect you from shame or embarrassment, particularly if you had a situation in your past when you experienced an unfriendly audience or unreceptive authority figure like a parent or a teacher when you tried to share your talents. Thank them for their concern. Ask them what would make them happy and then give it to them.
I know this sounds a bit weird, but visualization can be a great way to interact with the complicated parts that make up your life! Remember the movie “Inside Out” where all the emotions of one little girl were anthropomorphized into cute cartoon characters? You can use that same idea to have a more detailed conversation with parts of yourself!
Maybe your critic wants to sit on a beach or have a beverage. Give that to them and ask them to step aside.
If you are nice to your critic, you are really being nice to yourself. Being mean to your critic, probably won’t help you feel better about your worries about getting on stage. So, try being nice and see how it goes!
Use this technique every time you hear that inner critic. Ask them what they are worried about, thank them, and then give them something else they would like to do instead.
If you want to perform or compete, you also have a performer part
Not everyone wants to get up on stage but if you do, you probably have a part of your personality that really loves being on stage!
Think what your performer part’s name might be. Beyonce has Sasha Fierce! Lady Gaga is not her “government” name. If you already are performing, maybe your performer part is already your stage name.
Get in touch with that part of you. Imagine what they might look like, sound like, and what they might need. Once you found them, invite them to perform when it’s time for you to get on stage. You might want to invite them to a few show or competition practices too!
Visualization to improve preparedness
We know from other sports that visualization is a key part of training.
Visualizing yourself doing movement, visualizing looking out from the stage, imagining how things are going to go right, and all the ways that things could go wrong.
This concept of visualizing parts of yourself fits within that mental preparation concept.
The information in this post is using elements of IFS, a trauma-informed counseling technique that helps people visualize the parts of themselves to improve understanding.
If you’ve found yourself saying “part of me wants to go to the party but part of me wants to stay on the couch,” you’ve already experienced this concept that we have many “parts.”
Using IFS in this way to help performers is not trauma-informed counseling, it is just a tool that I’ve found has really helped me and my students feel better about performing.
I notice a big difference in how much more fun I have on stage when I remember to ask my performer part to help out compared to when I don’t!
Give this a try and see if it helps you!
Colleen Jolly is an entrepreneur and a pole dance enthusiast. She has been poling for 15 years, is the CEO of PoleCon and the Executive Director of the IPIA. She teaches pole, lyra, floorwork, and mobility online and in-person in the DC metro area. She has been active in leadership roles in several international businesses over the past two decades and is also an award-winning pole dancer, artist, writer, and speaker. She is certified in several movement modalities and wrote the book "Mobility for Pole" to help pole dancers move better.
Latest posts by Colleen (see all)
- 5 Specific Tips to Help Your Hypermobile Students - March 13, 2026
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