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Nerves before a competition are not always the type of thing we attribute to high level competitors like Donny Shankle, but you'd be surprised with what he had to say when we asked him about feeling nervous before a big competition. Here's what he had to say: 

"The nerves are always there, but you remember the training you have gone through and find your confidence in that. That doesn’t mean I don’t keep a trashcan next to me in the warm up room just in case, you know?

There’s always that bit of tension, there’s always that bit of nerves in any competition that you go to. And that’s expected to be there because I think if you’re passionate about what you do, you want to perform at your best.

"But, you know, it’s like what Mike Tyson says. He’s scared to death in the warm up room but as he walks closer to the ring his confidence starts to really build and when he gets into that ring and he looks into his opponent’s eyes he’s not scared of anything: he’s on his moment, he’s on his stage, and it’s the same thing with weightlifting.

"I tell weightlifters: 'Don’t worry about how you’re gonna feel on competition day'.

Looking back onto my own experience, when you get on that stage, when you put the barbell in your hands your body is going to remember everything that you taught it. And you’ll do well. And I did well.