Practices

Being pushed into something before you are ready does more than frighten you. It teaches you that the pacing you were promised cannot be trusted, and that is the harder thing to repair.

After a step that overwhelmed them, most people go straight back to avoiding, and they also start negotiating every later step defensively, which is…

Being shown a breathing technique is not the same as being able to use one. Practise it while nothing is wrong, often enough that it runs without you having to remember the order.

At the height of fear the only skills within reach are the overlearned ones. Something demonstrated once in a quiet room will not turn up in a school…

Run it in your head first, then act it out with someone safe, then do it for real. It is a preseason, and nobody thinks the preseason is cheating.

Each round adds a little pressure while help is still to hand. Imagining it stirs the fear enough to show whether your plan holds up. Acting it out…