Stress management

• Stress:

  • most common emotion in sport
  • experienced before or during games
  • Stress doesn't have to be negative
  • Positive feeling of stress is known as 'eustress'
  • Happens when a difficult challenge occurs
• Eustress:

  • Positive feeling of stress is known as 'eustress'
  • Happens when a difficult challenge had been overcome
  • Can give future confidence and motivation
• A cause of stress is known as a stressor
• Example of stressors:

  • injury
  • playing an important match
  • playing against good opponents
  • playing to get an important reward (trophy/money)
  • Fear of failure
• Cognitive stress:

  • psychological
  • brings negative thoughts and feeling
  • can lead to concentration loss
  • concentration loss leads to attention narrowing
  • Means the ability to take information from the environment is reduced because of arousal and anxiety
  • Information could be messed when a player is feeling stressed
• Somatic stress:

  • physiological
  • includes increased heart rate and increased sweating
  • extreme cases can include nausea
  • most damaging somatic response could be muscular tension as this can cause inaccuracy in performance
• Attention control and cue utilisation:

  • stress causes performers to lose concentration and focus on incorrect stimuli
  • As arousal increases, it influences the ability to take on cues known as cue utilisation
  • Low levels of arousal = process lots of cues
  • High levels of arousal = limited amount of cues processed (known as attentional wastage)
• Attentional wastage can be improved:

  • Attachment styles
  • by using selective attention the performer can control the style of attention required
  • Broad and external = picking up a wide range of cues from the environment
  • Broad and internal = mental analysis of numerous cues
  • Narrow and external = focus is directed to one environmental cue
  • Narrow and internal = Mental practice of one or two important cues
• Psychological skills training:

  • player trains and practices using cognitive stress management techniques
  • sports psychologist help this
• Cognitive stress management techniques:

  • Thought stopping
  • Imagery
  • Visualisation
  • Positive self-talk
  • Mental rehearsal
  • Cue utilisation
  • Psychological skills training
• Thought stopping:

  • a learnt action to stop negative thoughts and redirect attention back onto the task
  • This has to be practiced to be successful
• Positive self-talk:

  • replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts
  • positive self talk can help overcome bad habits
• Imagery:

  • recreating a successful image of an action from a past performance
  • gives performer the feel of an action and the positive emotions felt from the successful action
  • imagery can also be used as a mental escape from stress by imaging a calm place
• Visualisation:

  • uses a mental image of the skill being performed successfully in trining which can be re-lived in competition
  • Internal visualisation = Looking at the emotions and feeling involved such as the sense of kinesthesia and satisfaction
  • External visualisation = Players visualises performing the action as if they are on TV (concerns on the environment)
• Mental rehearsal:

  • Movement happens in the mind
  • helps athletes with sequences of skills
  • helps remember order of actions which reduces stress
• Types of somatic stress management:

  • Biofeedback
  • Progressive muscular relaxation
  • Centering
• Biofeedback:

  • Measuring device to recognise physical changes that happen under stress
  • Hr and muscle tension can be measured
  • eventually a performer can recognise the symptoms without using a measuring device
• Progressive muscular relaxation:

  • Muscles are tensed and then relaxed from the periphery of the body to the core
  • Using this correctly depends on the ability to hold tension in a muscle for an extended period of time
  • If incorrectly used it can cause injury
• centering:

  • Form of breathing control
  • Performer learns to relax the shoulders and chest whilst concentrating on breathing
  • Diverts attention away from the stressful situation
  • Once mastered, method can be used quickly and effectively