Performance Nerves: Good or bad?
- Charmian
- Mar 30
- 4 min read
From;
“What a great performance – were you nervous?”
“You seem so calm on stage – how do you not get nervous?”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about – you’ll be great!”
Well-meaning parents, teachers, and fellow students often commend us on our poise and ability to keep our cool in performances from a young age.
Yet these best of intentions can often backfire, as innocent remarks like the ones above send the implicit message that there is something bad or wrong with being nervous. That we shouldn’t feel that way, and if we do, that it’s a sign of trouble.
Feeling those butterflies and pre-performance jitters is not much fun, but is anxiety actually a reliable predictor of poor performance? Or is this just a myth?
A paradox
In 1975, Yuri Hanin, a Russian sport psychology researcher, was invited to work with a group of Russia’s top divers preparing for the Olympics. At the time, the prevailing belief was that a moderate amount of anxiety was best for optimal performance (the so-called “Inverted U” hypothesis). But what he observed amongst the elite athletes at this competition did not seem to fit.
Curiously, he noticed that some athletes were calm, relaxed, and confident, but did not perform up to their abilities. While other athletes were extremely successful at relatively high levels of anxiety.
This seeming paradox led him to study hundreds more elite athletes in the hopes of figuring out once and for all what the true relationship between anxiety and performance might be.
What he found was that there was no one-size-fits-all rule.
It all depended on the individual athlete.
The IZOF model
Hanin’s data suggested that every athlete has a unique optimal zone of anxiety (or an Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning) in which they are likely to have their best performances. Meaning, if they are in their optimal zone, they will probably perform well. If they are out of their zone, they will likely perform below their abilities.
And believe it or not, calm is not always better! A surprising number of individuals perform their best when they’re quite high in anxiety.
In a study of collegiate track and field athletes for instance (Raglin & Turner, 1993), it was found that 51% of men and 48% of women had their best performances when anxiety was high. Studies of athletes in other sports have found similar types of variability in ranges of optimal anxiety as well.
Is their optimal zone of functioning necessarily pleasant and comfortable? No, not particularly. But does the anxiety help them “bring it” and mobilize their focus? Absolutely.
Ok – that may be a thing for athletes, but is this true for musicians as well?
IZOF research in music?
There isn’t a ton of IZOF research in music – but thankfully, there is some!
In a 2022 study (Yao & Li) of collegiate piano majors, for instance, 30 students were asked to reflect on their midterm and final exam performance juries from the previous year, and complete a commonly-used anxiety assessment (Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 or CSAI-2) based on how anxious they remember being for each1.
Because these juries were scored, the researchers were able to use all of this information to calculate each student’s optimal zone of anxiety zone in each of the three subscales of the CSAI-2 – somatic (i.e. physical) anxiety, cognitive anxiety, and self-confidence.
Is this relevant to musicians?
Then, before their next jury, students were asked to complete the CSAI-2 once again, but this time in regards to their upcoming performance.
And was there any relationship between being in their optimal anxiety zone and how well they played?
Yes!
46.7% of the students assessed all three subscales – their somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, and self-confidence – as being inside their IZOF. And their average performance rating amongst the jury was 93.4.
60% of students were inside their IZOF on at least two subscales. And their average performance score was above 90.
On the other hand, 33.3% of the students had none of their subscales inside their IZOF. And their average performance score was an 86.2.
So what does all of this mean?
Getting into the zone
Well, the big takeaway that was pretty transformative for me when I learned about all of this, is that it’s ok to feel butterflies and some nerves before a performance. And that it’s not only ok, but maybe even good, heck, perhaps even essential for many of us to feel a bit amped up or excited when we’re on stage.
This was really freeing to me, because it meant that at the end of the day, the goal, physically, mentally, and emotionally, is not to calm down, but to try to replicate whatever unique mix has been optimal for us in the past. And that felt much more achievable than trying to achieve zen-like states of calm.
But how does one do that exactly?
A set of learnable skills
Well, it’s often not one single thing, but a combination of skills and strategies that top athletes and musicians describe using to gain more control over the natural fight or flight response. Pre-performance routines, for instance. Or attention control, mindfulness strategies, and breathing techniques.
There are studies which suggest that we may be able to expand our optimal zone of functioning and play at a higher level even when we’re feeling nervous, our hands are cold, and our muscles are tight as well. It may not be comfortable, but practicing with pressure for instance, may help to “inoculate” us to nerves and perform better with pressure.
All of this can be quite empowering and help us feel better equipped to perform more like ourselves under pressure. And once we begin to appreciate that being nervous isn’t the bad thing that we may have thought it was, we may even start to see not being nervous as a warning sign of overconfidence and a reminder that perhaps we ought to worry a tad more. 😅
Of course, it can sometimes be overwhelming to know where to begin!
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