SoFlo Performance athletes came together for a Mental Edge session led by teammate, psychologist, and former World Championship speed skater María Fernanda Albarracín, exploring confidence, nerves, pressure, and the mental skills that help athletes perform at their best.
Coming Together as a Team
At SoFlo Performance, we spend a lot of time helping our athletes become stronger, faster, and more technically prepared. But as competition gets closer, we also want them to understand that preparation is not only physical.
Last week, we brought our athletes together for a special Mental Edge session focused on confidence, pressure, nerves, and the mental side of performance.
We had a great turnout. Our team is still growing, but that evening it really felt like everyone showed up ready to be part of the experience.
The session was originally planned with our athletes preparing for Outdoor Nationals in mind, but we ultimately included athletes of different ages and levels. That ended up making the evening even more meaningful.
Learning From Experience
The session was led by María Fernanda Albarracín, a psychologist, sports motivational coach, and former professional speed skater. María Fernanda is also a SoFlo Performance athlete, giving her a unique connection to the athletes she was speaking with.
As someone who has competed at a very high level herself, María Fernanda was able to connect the mental side of performance with experiences our athletes could understand and relate to.
Confidence, Nerves, and Pressure
Throughout the session, the athletes explored several important themes, including positive self-talk, confidence, handling nerves, body language, and responding to pressure.
One of the biggest messages was that nerves are not necessarily a sign that something is wrong. Feeling nervous before an important race, test, competition, or other high-pressure moment is normal. What matters is learning how to respond to those feelings instead of allowing them to take control.
The athletes also talked about the importance of believing that they belong in the same space as the people they compete against. It can be easy to look at another athlete and assume they are more confident or less nervous, when in reality everyone is managing their own emotions.
Skills That Go Beyond Skating
What made the session especially valuable was that the lessons were not limited to skating.
The same mental skills athletes use before a race can also apply before a big test at school, a presentation, an important tryout, or any situation where they feel pressure to perform.
The athletes participated, shared, reflected, and practiced different ways of approaching those moments with greater confidence and control. Rather than simply talking about being mentally strong, the goal was to begin giving them tools they can continue developing through their experiences in sport.
Preparing for Outdoor Nationals
For our athletes preparing for Outdoor Nationals, this session was another piece of their preparation. They have put in months of physical work, and now we want them arriving at competition knowing that they can also trust themselves when the pressure rises.
For our younger athletes, we hope it was an early introduction to something that will become increasingly important as they grow in the sport.
Personal Development
At SoFlo Performance, our goal is bigger than developing fast skaters. We want to create an environment where athletes can develop confidence, resilience, discipline, and skills that extend well beyond the track.
We are incredibly grateful to María Fernanda for sharing her experience with our athletes and helping us continue building that side of our program.
Strong bodies matter. Strong minds do too.
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