Mental Performance Coach Q&A
with Mental Performance Coach Jen Schumacher, MS, CMPC
Jen Schumacher is an expert in mental performance who provides individual training for Fortune 100 executives and partners, elite athletes, and professional speakers. In addition to her work with GMAT Ninja students, Jen serves as the Assistant Director of the Performance Psychology Program at the Center for Enhanced Performance (CEP) at the United States Military Academy.
For more on Jen’s work, check our her bio or her YouTube videos on performance optimization for standardized exams:
Q: Most people don’t think of the GMAT as a sport. How can someone with a background in mental performance with athletes and cadets help someone who is studying for this kind of test?
Athletes and performers of any type face remarkably similar challenges. After months or years of preparation, commitment, and honing your craft, you perform in some area you care deeply about, are evaluated by others, and have limited control over the outcome. Whether you are a track athlete with a final opportunity to make an Olympic Trials cut, an executive presenting to the board to make partner, a cadet trying out for the notoriously rigorous Combat Dive Qualification Course tryouts, or a student about to begin a GMAT practice test, you have poured your heart and soul into working towards a goal, and now it is time to execute.
The work has been done and there is little control left over a performance you care deeply about and have invested a significant portion of your life in. Inherent in that is some degree of anxiety, self-doubt, and fear. These experiences are normal, but if left unabated, can cause you to get in your own way, undermining confidence and execution.
Elite athletes have been using mental skills like self-talk, breathing strategies, imagery, and pre-performance routines, to name a few, for decades. And as performance enhancement has become more mainstream, other performers are catching on too. These skills can help surgeons, keynote speakers, students, performing artists, and countless others gain more consistency and control over their performance.
Q: Most students really, really care about their GMAT score -- it’s an important piece of their MBA application! How does the intense desire to perform well impact performance?
When we care so much about a particular performance, we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Pressure can be a good thing -- many of us have experienced the thrill and excitement that comes with performing when the stakes are high. But at a certain point, it can cause us to worry about the future: what could go wrong, what happens if we fail, what will others think? When we focus on the future, we pull our attention away from the present moment, and performance happens in the here and now.
Some people think the antidote is to “care less”, but that would only diminish the passion and commitment you have to your MBA! Rather, we need to work on ways to reinterpret the pressure we put on ourselves and learn skills to manage our experience of that pressure.
Q: Why do people choke under pressure? And how can they prevent that from happening?
Choking under pressure results when the physical manifestation of that pressure exceeds our capabilities of handling a challenging situation. Pressure often causes feelings of anxiety, tension in the body, increase in heart rate, perspiration, respiration, blood pressure, adrenaline, and all sorts of other physical changes that we associate with threat.
Often, when this physical activation reaches a tipping point, we assume the situation to be threatening, rather than an opportunity to perform. Once we’ve done this, we can begin to panic and evaluate the situation negatively, forgetting everything we have trained ourselves to do.
You might have experienced this during a test and then realized that simple concepts you know are suddenly confusing, and you find yourself rereading and rereading the same question. This is a great opportunity to practice coping under pressure! When you catch yourself in that state, stop, acknowledge the physical sensations you are experiencing, remind yourself that you feel that way because you care, and then take three, slow, diaphragmatic breaths before you proceed.
The amount of time you spend doing that will pay you back in dividends of more accurate responses on the test.
Q: What do you personally do to mentally prepare for a big event?
Nowadays, my big events are marathon swims and speaking engagements. I spent the last three years for training for the English Channel, which I successfully completed this past August, and I engaged in as much mental training as I did physical training. Before each open water training swim, I used the same pre-performance routine that I did the day I left the beach at Dover: I swing my arms a few times while I remind myself of all the training I’ve done (increasing self-confidence), I take three deep breaths (increasing composure), and as I put my goggles over my eyes I envision myself completing a successful swim to France (increasing my focus and identity as a Channel swimmer).
I follow the same process before a big speaking engagement, just on land! I go over my preparation, take three deep breaths, and see myself executing to my potential. And I do this before every preparation session so that the routine is well-learned and work for me. Whatever your pre-performance routine is, practice it EVERY time you practice -- just like your knowledge, your mental skills need to be rehearsed and refined in order for them to show up on test day.
Q: I saw that you helped lawyers study for the bar exam. What kinds of things did you have those students do to prepare?
Preparing law students for the bar exam is remarkably similar to preparing athletes for a postseason tournament or cadets for leading soldiers. It all comes down to building confidence through reflecting on what you have done to prepare yourself for this moment, rather than focusing on the unknown or the challenge ahead. That process begins well before the exam begins, as does a series of rehearsing their pre-exam routine every time they sit down for a practice test.
Along with that, we work on energy management strategies so that when they inevitably experience pressure (we all WILL, so let’s have a PLAN to deal with it!), they have breathing and relaxation strategies that can rapidly return them to the next question.
Q: How do other aspects of a balanced life -- sleep, exercise, nutrition, etc. -- impact your mental state on test day?
Sleep is increasingly being viewed as the foundation that supports the “house” of performance - without adequate sleep (7-9 hours/night for most healthy adults), most other areas of performance (learning, memory, transfer of knowledge, emotional control, focus, mood, impulse control, muscle repair, muscle growth, immune functioning, etc.) are diminished.
Staying healthy through regular exercise and sound nutrition and hydration strategies also support mental performance so we can be our best consistently. In turn, when we are performing well, we tend to sleep, exercise, and eat better, so it is a self-perpetuating cycle.
It’s not that we have to be perfect at all times, but if we are working from a baseline level of great wellness habits, we are able to be more resilient in times of challenge and adversity. For example, one restless night of sleep before the GMAT (a likely scenario before any high-pressure event we care about) won’t break the bank if we have been sleeping well for weeks on end, but it will debilitate performance if our baseline habit is to get less than 7 hours per night.
If you set good habit patterns throughout the week and stray occasionally, refrain from beating yourself up. Rather, examine why the detraction occurred and work to minimize those situations in the future. It’s only a failure if we fail to learn from it.
As the saying goes, if you want to get back on the path, step on the path.
Q: What are some signs that a GRE, GMAT, or LSAT student would really benefit from seeing a mental performance coach?
Personally I think we can all benefit from working with a mental performance coach (I still do myself!) -- but then again, I’m biased. Everyone has a mental game, and it’s always either working for you or against you, so just as you take practice tests and go to the gym regularly, it is a good idea to work the mental game consistently. This can involve practicing imagery, setting effective goals, writing out affirmations, mindfulness training, amongst many other strategies.
Here are some indicators that you may benefit from more structured training with a coach:
You are performing better without pressure (e.g., your scores on practice tests are higher than on the actual GMAT or you know the material when not in a testing scenario but then have a difficult time executing it on a test)
You experience a high degree of anxiety or stress before a test or evaluation
You struggle to “get started”, constantly putting off the work until you have no choice but to cram
You feel overwhelmed when you sit down to study, and have a difficult time staying focused
You constantly find yourself worrying about the future, your score, or what others might think when studying or taking tests
You put in the work but have low confidence and belief in yourself
You beat yourself up over mistakes and hold on to them, affecting your performance on subsequent questions
Q: What can GMAT, GRE, and LSAT students expect from you as a mental performance coach? And what do you expect from them?
Students can expect to first explore experiences of past performances in the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, and other areas so that we can first establish a sense of what it’s like when they perform at their best, and what tends to get in the way.
Based on the difference in optimal and suboptimal performances, we will work together to develop a plan that involves learning various mental skills and tools to enhance performance. Students likely already possess several mental skills, which we will develop and make more consistent in practice.
Additionally, students can expect to learn a new skill or two each session, and will be assigned “mental homework” to develop those skills. In the same way we must practice test-taking strategies before sitting for a standardized test, we must also practice the mental skills we expect to use under pressure. My expectation is that students will practice mental skills between sessions so we can refine and continue to add tools to their toolbox as they prepare for their exam.
Q: How many sessions do GRE and GMAT students typically need in order to see progress with their performance skills and test anxiety?
This varies by individual and is difficult to determine before diving in during that initial session. The number of sessions needed is generally related to how difficult one’s past struggles with high-performance situations have been, how many areas of mental performance we need to work on, and the student’s level of commitment to their “mental homework” between sessions. And of course we take into account the student’s timeline and when they would like to be ready to take their exam, working closely with their tutor to make an informed decision.
That being said, the majority of GMAT Ninja students I’ve worked with complete somewhere between 3 and 8 sessions over the course of a couple of months leading into their exam. There are always outliers (those who feel great about their mental preparation after a session or two, and those who are still working on development after 8 sessions, but those are the exception rather than the rule).
Q: How much does it cost to work with you or Erika? Do you offer a free introductory conversation so that I can see if this is a good fit?
Yes, of course, fit is everything! For students wanting to ensure this is the right fit, I offer a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation. Following that, each hour-long video session is $280.