Winning the Mental Game: Auditions and Tryouts

I still remember the third year I auditioned for the world-famous Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Professional Division. I had already tried out the previous two years unsuccessfully and had known the deep pain of disappointment and sense of failure. But this third time was different, I was not only physical, technically, and artistically ready for this next step, but I was also mentally prepared. I had been gifted a book by the father of a fellow dancer who I would later come to know as one of my mentor: Dr Terry Orlick, one of the first predominant figures in sport psychology in Canada. In a time when few people in sports, and even fewer in dance spoke of the mental side of performance, Dr Orlick’s book would not only help me prepare for my audition that year, but little did I realize then that it would also plant a seed for my second career now as a Mental Performance Coach. So I come by all this honestly: I know well that mental preparation is the difference between debilitating nerves or steady preparedness, nagging doubts or courage in the face of uncertainty, being in our heads overthinking or being focused on the right things, and mental skills is ultimately the differentiator between whether we experience success or failure.