Olivia Jordan

When Practice Is Not Enough: Discovering Performance Anxiety

For as long as I can remember, I’ve believed that if I practiced hard enough, I could overcome almost any challenge. As a competitive figure skater, falling is simply part of learning. Every skater falls. The key is to get back up, keep practicing, and trust that one day you’ll skate a clean program. So that’s exactly what I did. I spent countless hours at the rink practicing jumps, spins, and footwork until they became second nature. There were days when I could land difficult elements without even thinking about them.

Then something strange would happen whenever a major competition was approaching. Sometimes the change happened the day before, and sometimes it started an entire week before. Suddenly, the skills I had already mastered seemed to disappear. My timing felt off. My confidence faded. Moves that had once felt effortless became inconsistent, and the harder I tried, the worse they seemed to get.

My first instinct was simple: I must not be practicing enough. So I practiced even more. I repeated my programs and difficult elements over and over. I stayed on the ice longer, analyzed every mistake, and worked harder than ever, believing that more repetitions would eventually solve the problem. They didn’t. No matter how much extra effort I put in, the same pattern kept repeating itself before every important competition.

Eventually, I realized this wasn’t happening only in figure skating. I noticed similar feelings before violin auditions, important school exams, presentations, and other situations where I cared deeply about doing well. The more important the event felt, the more difficult it became to perform at the level I knew I was capable of. That left me wondering: Why could I perform these skills consistently in practice but struggle when they mattered most?

While searching for answers, I came across the term performance anxiety. It describes the anxiety people may experience when they expect to be evaluated, watched, or judged by others, or when they are actually in those situations. Reading about it felt surprisingly familiar. I learned that performance anxiety is much more than simply “being nervous.” It involves the body’s stress response becoming activated in situations where performance matters. Instead of helping us focus, excessive anxiety can interfere with concentration, muscle coordination, working memory, confidence, and decision-making.

That realization changed how I viewed my own experiences. Maybe it wasn’t a lack of ability, determination, or practice after all. Many talented athletes, musicians, students, dancers, actors, and public speakers experience the same challenge. For the first time, I realized I wasn’t alone.

But discovering performance anxiety only raised more questions. What causes it? Why does it affect some people more than others? Can it be treated? Understanding the problem might be the first step toward overcoming it, not only for me but perhaps for others as well.

Coming Next…

Why Does Performance Anxiety Happen?

In the next post, I’ll explore the psychological, biological, and environmental factors that contribute to performance anxiety, and why understanding these causes is the first step toward overcoming them.

Reflection Question: Have you ever performed well during practice but struggled when it mattered most? What do you think was happening in that moment? I’d love to hear your story.

References

The ideas in this article are based on published research in psychology, neuroscience, sports psychology, and performance science. The references below are provided for readers who would like to learn more.

1. Yerkes, R. M., & Dodson, J. D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18(5), 459-482.
2. Lehrer, P. M. (1987). A review of the approaches to the management of tension and stage fright in music performance. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 2(1), 5-11.
3. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
4. Fuentes-Rodriguez, G., Garcia-Lopez, L. J., & Garcia-Trujillo, V. (2018). Exploring the role of the DSM-5 performance-only specifier in adolescents with social anxiety disorder. Psychiatry Research, 270, 1033-1038.