Stress management

• Stress = an individual’s physical response to prepare the body for an action when a threat is perceived (Stress is not always -ve).
• Stressor = the cause of a stressful response e.g. playing in an important competition, sustaining an injury, being fouled, perception that you are playing badly, fatigue or climate.
• Eustress (+ve) = describes positive response to stressful situations. The performer rises to the challenge they are facing, feels confident and is motivated to complete the task. Performance can be facilitated.
• Distress (-ve) = describes negative response to stressful situations. Performer finds stressor threatening and difficult to cope with, so performance is inhibited.
• Somatic responses to stressful situations are physiological e.g. increase in HR, BP, sweating, adrenaline production and muscle tension.
• Cognitive responses to stressful situations are psychological e.g. anxiety, irrational/-ve thoughts, reduced concentration/attentional narrowing and poor decision making.
• Somatic stress management techniques:

  • Biofeedback
  • Progressive muscular relaxation
  • Breathing control
  • Centring
  • Warm-up
• Somatic strategy =   Biofeedback – using equipment e.g. HR monitors to generate physiological data. Data shows which sporting situations cause the most stress and which strategies are most effective as HR decreases. These strategies are very effective but are time-consuming. Using equipment during performance can distract athletes and increase anxiety levels as they know they are being monitored.
• Somatic strategy = Progressive muscular relaxation – concentrating on each muscle group in turn. By tensing, holding and then relaxing each group, the performer begins to relax.
• Somatic strategy = Breathing control – by controlling and concentrating on the rate and depth of breathing, performer is less distracted and can focus on task.
• Somatic strategy = Centring – used alongside breathing control, this is useful during breaks in performance. Concentrate on body fully and breathe in. As you breathe out, chant a word or phrase describing how you wish to perform (strong, focused, calm etc.). You maintain focus on yourself and disregard -ve thoughts.
• Somatic strategy - Warm-up – psychological importance of warm-up is pivotal. It controls arousal and allows the performer to achieve a state of readiness, fully concentrate using selective attention, and adopt the correct attentional style. It reduces the chance of attending to incorrect environmental cues and therefore reduces stress and anxiety. Imagery should form part of the warm up in order to mentally review the skills and tactics.
• Cognitive strategies:

  • Psychological skills training
  • Mental rehearsal
  • Visualisation
  • Positive self-talk
  • Negative thought-stopping
  • Attentional control and cue utilisation
• Cognitive management = Psychological skills training – individualised programme that regularly and methodically utilises a range of mental training strategies. Tailor-made for the performer and takes into consideration their specific sport, position and current psychological condition. à athletes are more successful and demonstrate increased confidence and motivation, improved focus and lower stress.
• Cognitive management = Mental rehearsal – going over the performance in your mind before action begins
• Cognitive strategy = Visualisation – perform a skill successfully in training, you lock in the mental image of it. This is re-lived in competitive situation. Can be internal or external.
• Cognitive management = Imagery – recalling a successful previous performance, using all the senses including kinaesthesis to recreate the feeling of success.
• Cognitive management = Positive self-talk – verbally reminding yourself of the key points of movement and telling yourself that you can achieve (mantra).
• Cognitive management = Negative thought-stopping – replace ‘I can’t’ with ‘I can, and I will next time’. Often used with +ve self-talk.
• Attentional control and cue utilisation (low arousal) – Easterbrook’s cue utilisation hypothesis links a performers ability to sustain focus on the correct cues in the environment with their level of arousal. Low arousal = not stimulated enough so performer takes in large number of environmental cues --> unable to distinguish between relevant cues and irrelevant cues --> confused so reducing performance levels.
• Attentional control and cue utilisation (high and moderate arousal) High arousal = small number of cues taken in due to excessive stimulation, may panic --> correct cues are missed so reducing performance levels. Moderate level of arousal = performer filters out irrelevant and focuses on relevant cues --> lowers level of stress that performer is experiencing so task can be completed to the highest level.
• Nideffer’s model of attentional focus

  Nideffer suggested that different activities require different types of attentional focus. E.g. invasion games often require a broad focus whereas net/wall games require a narrower attentional style.

  Performers are required to apply a variety of attentional styles – best athletes can switch from one to another. Having attentional focus and the correct attentional style will reduce the level of stress experienced and so performance increases.
•  

  Broad = many cues focused on

  Narrow = one/two cues focused on

  Internal = focus placed on thoughts and feelings of the performer

  External = focus placed on environmental cues
• 4 attentional styles arise from this:

  1)     Broad-internal = many cues concerning the performer e.g. footballer planning their team strategies

  2)     Narrow-internal = 1/2 cues concerning the performer often used to calm nerves e.g. swimmer mentally rehearsing sound of starter signal and then diving into pool

  3)     Broad-external = many cues in environment e.g. centre player in netball focusing on many team mates whom she might pass to

  4)     Narrow-external = 1/2 cues in the environment e.g. basketballer focusing on net during free throw