We have spent a lot of time over the last month preparing for competition. It’s important that we finish strong and show up completely prepared on tournament day.

Here are five tips to help you make sure you’re 100% ready to go the day of the competition:

1. Get a good nights sleep.

Sleep is how the body recovers and rejuvenates itself. In order to be 100% on competition day, you must get plenty of rest 48 to 36 hours before the tournament.

Make it a point to get to bed on time (or even early) the night before the tournament.

2. Bring healthy snacks and drinks.

Your energy is going to drain as time goes by and as you use that energy from event to event. Make sure you bring some granola bars, bananas, and other healthy snacks to keep your energy level up from start to finish.

It’s especially important to boost that energy before sparring. It’s very difficult to be fast, strong, and fight multiple matches when your energy level is low.

3. Stretch the night before.

Don’t wait until the day of the tournament to get stretched out. Take a good 20 – 30 minutes the night before the tournament and stretch EVERYTHING out.

In the morning, lightly stretch, but focus more on just getting the muscles warm and loose. Do things like jumping jacks and jogging in place. While you wait for your matches, you’ll need to keep your muscles warm but you won’t need a full stretch-out the day of the tournament.

4. Get organized.

Lay out all your gear, your uniform, your belt, etc. and make sure everything is in order. Boys make sure you have your cup; you will not be permitted to fight without it.

Also make sure your fingernails and toenails are trimmed as they will be inspected by the center referee prior to allowing you to compete.

5. Get fired up.

You don’t want to go to the tournament with anything less than a go-get-em attitude. Be ready to be aggressive, be fast, and use full power.

One technique I used to use was visualization. Close your eyes and see yourself doing everything 100%. See yourself throwing sharp techniques, using perfect footwork, scoring lots of points, hitting hard and fast, and most important, winning!

I used this technique in conjunction with 100% effort during training and never lost a tournament match.

These five tips work. Use them!