Energy

How to access your optimal physical, mental, and emotional states

for peak performance (and quickly!)

Skill #1

Once upon a time...

Bad days...
And then have these subpar (or even disastrous)

So this was me when I was starting out on the

days, where we dont sound like ourselves,

violin.

everything feels difficult and uncomfortable and

I was 2 1/2 when I first picked it up and began

awkward, nothing works the way it did in the

my studies at a nearby Suzuki program. When I

practice room, and and all we want to do is get

was 5, my mom took me out of kindergarten

off stage, go home, put on our PJs, and eat chinese food out of the

midway through the year, and we moved to

container while watching reruns of The Office on Netflix.

Japan so I could study with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

for about six months. So from an early age,
violin was something that was taken pretty
seriously, and I followed the path to conservatory much as many other
young musicians do.
Summer festivals. Competitions. 16 hour roundtrip drives to Chicago.
Flying to NYC on weekends. Heck, at one point I was taking lessons
with 4 teachers at the same time, and commuting to different cities to
work with them all.

It was really exasperating, because (a) I didnt feel like I could identify
any pattern or cause-effect relationship, and (b) it made every
performance a bit of a crapshoot, which sucks when youre working
really hard in the practice room and it doesnt seem to be paying off.
I tried eating bananas, drinking chamomile tea, ingesting a
supplement called kava kava, sleep deprivation, practicing more,
practicing less, but I couldnt figure it out.

And then...answers!

But despite all the hard work and the absolute best teachers anyone
could ask for, I noticed something that became more and more
frustrating the older and more experienced I became.

I kept plugging along until I went to Juilliard and took a class on sport
psychology.
That class opened my eyes to a whole new way of preparing for
performances, as I learned that what top athletes do to maximize their

Good days...
What I couldnt understand was how we could
have these really great days on stage. Where
playing is easy, effortless, and we sound and feel

performance under pressure isnt just physical - an awful lot of it is

mental too.
After all, at the highest levels, physical ability is relatively equal.

great!

And athletes get very few shots at realizing

interview successfully for a teaching position, there are lots of talented

their goals in what are often relatively short

folks out there and we dont want to leave our reputation and career to

careers.

chance.

On top of that, consider how incredibly

So, in this lesson on Energy Regulation, Id like to share with you one

small the margin of error is.

specific skill that you can begin using today.

Often the difference between gold and silver or no medal is less time

Its one of the most fundamental skills in the course, and one that you

than it takes to blink.

will probably come to utilize pretty heavily in every aspect of your life

So as you can imagine, athletes arent willing to leave things to chance,

cross their fingers and hope when they wake up that its going to be
one of those good days.

The difference between good and great

Over the years, sport psychologists and
athletes have come to understand that there

that has a performance element, whether its an important phone call,

critical conversation with a colleague, or handling a meltdown with
your 5-year old in the middle of the shopping mall.
But as my advisor in grad school once said, if you misdiagnose the
problem, youre probably going to misdiagnose the solution. So lets
have a closer look at what really happens under pressure.

are certain physical, mental, and emotional

states that are optimal for performing up to
ones abilities when it counts.
And that the difference between great
performances and subpar ones often come down to the athletes ability
to get into those optimal states at will. Top performers work at this just
as hard as they do at the physical part of their game.
These key physical, mental, and emotional states are just as relevant to
musicians as athletes.
Because whether we are auditioning for an orchestra job or trying to
get a glowing review in the NY Times, trying to win a competition, or
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Energy

WHAT YOULL LEARN

Chapter 1: The Stress Response

Why do we get nervous, and what is it all about anyway?

Urgh...not this again...

We all know what it feels like.

1. Why do we get nervous?

2. Whats the deal with beta blockers?
3. What is a Zone of Optimal
Functioning?

Whether you call it stage fright, performance anxiety, nerves, or jitters - its not much
fun.
Under pressure, the adrenaline kicks in, our sympathetic nervous system goes into high

4. Whats your physical response?

gear, and our bodies become optimized for greater strength and energy.

5. Whats your psychological response?

Why does this happen?

6. Whats your emotional response?

7. What does it mean to be the first
penguin - and why is this so
important?

Well, its a survival response. Anytime we are about to go into an uncertain situation, our brain tries to do
some quick math. It tries to calculate the probability of a successful outcome by seeing how our resources
stack up to the demands of the situation.
Of course, this is not purely objective - its all about our perception of our resources, and our perception of the
demands (and our definition of success). For instance, if we feel theres a lot at stake, and we have to play our
absolute best in order to be successful in the particular situation, were going to be more nervous than if we
feel theres less at stake, and we dont have to play our best in order to do well.

And when we sense that the situation is very uncertain, its as if an

This is not to say that I endorse the use of beta blockers. Though I

alarm goes off in our body, and we experience the butterflies,

dont take as hard line a stance as some others do, Ive never once

shakiness, and other unpleasantries associated with anxiety.

encouraged anyone to seek them out (and never will), and I tell

The key thing to note is that its not just one alarm; performance
anxiety is not a single global undifferentiated response. There are

everyone that if the goal is to play your absolute best, at some point
beta blockers are probably going to hold you back.

actually three separate components.

Why?

Theres a (1) physical component, a (2) mental component, and an (3)

Your Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning (IZOF)

emotional component.

Why beta blockers work...and dont work...

This is part of the reason why some folks
find beta blockers helpful, and others, not at
all.
Beta blockers, assuming the right dosage,
timing, and so on, will effectively neutralize
the physical response. However, it has no direct effect on the
psychological or emotional response. And as it turns out, the
psychological response (or cognitive anxiety as sport psychologists call
it), is more predictive of performance quality than the physical
response.
One of the key misconceptions we have about performance anxiety is
So a number of people, even if you cancel out the physical response,

that its bad. The reality is that too little has just as negative an effect

will still have the doubts and fears, and racing thoughts and experience

on performance as too much.

subpar performances. The people who respond positively to beta

blockers are those who, when you take away the physical symptoms,

Each of us has a unique individually optimal zone of optimal

are able to focus on the music and the task at hand, and the doubts,

functioning, where we will tend to have our best performances. For

fears, and unhelpful thoughts all recede into the background.

some of us its in the mid range.

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For others its in the lower range.

And for a surprising number of people its in the high range.

muscles begin working against each other, and may start to shake. The
harder you try to hold your muscles still, the more they tremble. Your
lungs and diaphragm are constricted in your bodys attempt to protect

Wed all prefer to spend our time in the low range, because its the

itself and curl into a fetal position, and as you continue to hold your

most comfortable there, but for most of us, thats not where our best

head up and stay standing with good posture, your vocal cords may

performances are going to happen. Studies of athletes ranging from

stretch and you may hear your voice tighten.

track and field to pistol shooting find that most individuals do their
best at a mid to high range of anxiety (or activation, as sport
psychologists call it).

Funny enough, the muscles that will tend to get most tight are the ones
that are the most critical, or the ones you rely on most to play your
instrument at the highest level. So, you might squeeze the bow, clench

That being said, there is such a thing as good anxiety and bad anxiety,

your left hand, feel your breathing tighten, all of which throws off your

and we certainly dont have to experience as much of the bad kind as

intonation, articulation, coordination, sound production, and so on.

we do.

Blood vessels in your extremities constrict

Itzhak Perlman was once asked for his thoughts about how to deal with

Your body knows it has only so much oxygen and

performance anxiety. His response was to know thy enemy. In other

blood, so it chooses carefully.The tiny blood vessels

words, to understand how we react to nerves, so that we can come up

which get blood to your toes, fingers, ears and nose

with appropriate strategies to address what happens to us.

constrict, forcing additional oxygen to your major

organs and reducing the risk of blood loss in case a

So lets take a quick look at the physical effects.

Component #1: The physical response

Muscles contract
For one, our muscles contract. We get tight, stiff,

limb were to get chopped off.Of course, this leaves

you with cold hands and feet (and perhaps a cold nose and ears as
well), along with numbness and tingling.

Blood pressure goes up

tense. Often without realizing how much.

Your blood pressure is elevated as your body works

Like a cat about to pounce, your body is prepared to

builds up in those areas where major organs are

spring into action with a burst of energy.

being primed for actionthe head, chest and

But as you try to stand still and straight, your

harder to circulate blood through your body.Heat

stomach.Frequently, the body must begin sweating in order not to

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overheat, and you can often feel the heart pumping more quickly than

become more sensitized to motion.Of course, none of this is helping

normal as it maintains the higher blood pressure. Of course, you cant

you focus on the task at hand. You may just be keenly aware of every

just sweat in some places, you sweat everywhere, so your palms can get

little frown or look from the audience, and get spooked by things

sweaty, leaving you with cold, sticky, clammy hands.

happening off to the side.

Respiration changes

Component #2: The psychological response

Breaths become rapid. Shallow. Might feel short of breath, or feel like
you cant get a full, deep breath. Like someone is sitting on your chest.

Brain speeds up
One of the most noticeable things that happens is
the change in brain wave frequency.We begin to

Non-essential processes ofine

Then, your non-essential processes go offline. Digesting food is

produce more beta waves, oscillating at 13-30 cycles

deemed a low priority under stress, so your digestive system takes a

per second, rather than the slower 8-12 cycle per

back seat. So you may get butterflies in your stomach as the food sits

second alpha waves that seem to be more conducive to high-level

around waiting to be digested, and dry mouth, as salivary production

performance. Our sense of time, pacing, and rhythm gets distorted. We

has stopped.

think were playing slow, and instead were rushing. Or it feels like we
are taking forever to tune, though in reality its been just a few seconds.

Your immune system may be compromised - which weve all

experienced when everyone gets sick the week after finals week, or

Attentional changes
And then there are attentional changes. We are more

after a really stressful period of time at work.

easily distracted. And our brain is suddenly way

Even your reproductive system shuts down, so its harder to conceive a

more attuned to threats, danger, things that could go

baby on stage (or off for that matter, if the stress level is really high).

wrong, all the negative stuff we dont want to

And yes, I know thats not a high priority on stage, but still...its

happen.

interesting to note.

Senses enhanced

Overthinking
We also start overthinking.

In a dangerous situation you need more accurate and

complete information about your surroundings, which

More specifically, we start worrying and try to exert

your body gets through heightened hearing and

too much conscious control over our playing.

broader, long-distance vision. Many people also

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This is problematic because our brain, sensory organs, and muscles

back to the cerebral cortex and disrupt the cerebellums ability to run

cannot communicate, interpret, and incorporate feedback quickly

off these motor programs automatically, leading to mistakes.

enough to orchestrate the complex motor movements involved in highlevel playing with the precision and exquisite timing that is required.

Left brain vs. right brain

There is also this notion of left brain vs. right brain

When were first learning a new skill, theres a lot more activity in the

processing.

cerebral cortex, which is responsible for conscious thought and higher-

The brain is comprised of two halves (or hemispheres)

order processes.

that look like mirror images of each other. Linked

together by a thick band of fibers akin to a super-fast
high-speed internet connection, they are constantly in communication
with each other and working in concert. However, there are some
notable differences in the way the two hemispheres process
information.
The left hemisphere is associated with words, numbers, and logical,
analytical, sequential processing.
The right hemisphere is associated with sounds, images, kinesthetic or
sensory input, emotions, and holistic, simultaneous or parallel
processing.

But as you begin to get the hang of things and are able to execute the
skill with more consistency, up to speed and accurately, control of this
motor movement sequencing is passed along to the cerebellum which
is then entrusted with the responsibility of executing these movement

To some degree the notion of right brain and left brain has been blown
out of proportion, but it remains a great framework for understanding
optimal mental states for peak performance.

patterns at the appropriate time.

Left brain vs. right brain in golf

Unfortunately, we dont have conscious access to the cerebellum, so

Sport psychology researcher Debbie Crews, Ph.D. of Arizona State

when we begin thinking too much about technique and attempt to

exercise too much deliberate control over our muscles, we shift control

University conducts research on optimal attentional patterns for

successful performance in golf. Her work gives us a peek at what
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happens inside the brain, moments before and during the successful
(or unsuccessful) execution of a skill.

Component #3: The emotional response

So, if you put the physical and mental effects together, now we find

In one study, Crews hooked up 34 skilled

ourselves in a less than ideal emotional state where we are feeling

golfers to an electroencephalograph (EEG)

anxiety, dread, fear, worry, even panic perhaps.

machine while attempting a series of putts.

She found that the brain activation pattern
of successful golfers looked very different
from that of the unsuccessful golfers.
What she found is that the best golfers showed a significant increase in
right-brain activity right before initiating the putting stroke. The

And when we feel this way, instinct usually takes over.

Now, instincts are usually good, in that instinct keeps us away from
danger and can save our lives, but not in this case. In this case instincts
tend to make us do pretty much the opposite of what would help us
play our best.

analytical left brain, remained quiet. Not so in the less successful

We tighten up, we overthink, we focus on the wrong things, and we

golfers.

play tentatively, carefully, cautiously.

So the next logical question for the researchers was: what were the two

After all, this is what we are conditioned to do from birth.

groups of golfers thinking about before and during their shot? What
sorts of thoughts caused these differences?

Defensive conditioning
For instance, what is the last thing your

The worst performers engaged primarily in verbal, analytical self-

parents used to say to you right before you

coaching dialogue (e.g. keep your head still).

left the house to go hang out with friends?

The best performers reported that it was pretty simple. They were

Talk to strangers!

focused on the target (an image) and the general feel (kinesthetic) of a
successfully executed shot.

Run with scissors!

Note: Ive linked to a video of Dr. Crewss work in the Additional

Cross the street without looking!

Resources section online, as well as a few other really interesting

videos that describe the left brain vs. right brain topic in more detail.

Dont buckle up!

Now is the time to experiment with drugs!
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Of course not! They said Be careful!

Learn to surf
Heres another way to put it. Theres a great

Playing not to lose

saying I heard once - You may not be able

To use a sports metaphor, in uncertain

to stop the waves...but you can learn to

situations we tend to have a defensive,

surf.

careful, cautious mindset that is akin to

playing not to lose, instead of playing to win.
Not only does this not represent our best
playing, but paradoxically it makes us more
anxious, and more likely to make mistakes
And at the end of the day, its no fun! Nobody enjoys playing a sport
when your primary goal is to not get hurt, or not to make mistakes.

As I alluded to before, anxiety has historically been looked at as a

pathological condition.
Yet the research in sport psychology circles shows that in performance
settings anxiety can be either debilitative or facilitative - it just
depends on how we approach it.
And we can all learn how to approach it in a facilitative way. We need
not resign ourselves to a fate of subpar performances by any means, no

The rst penguin

In short, we have to learn how to be more
like the first penguin. Perhaps youve heard
this saying?

matter how difficult things have been in the past. The question, of
course, is how? How do we start surfing?
Well cover that in the next chapter on Pre-Performance Routines.

Penguins dont necessarily know whats

going to happen to them when they dive into the water. There might be
a hungry shark or seal there waiting for lunch to jump in. But
someones got to be first, and you dont see the first penguin in the
water dip their foot in, or peer in to see what might be lurking. They
jump right in. No hesitation.
You were born a first penguin. Thats why your parents had to be so
protective otherwise youd wander off and play in the street, eat
toothpaste, or jump off your roof on a skateboard into a kiddie pool.
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