14- Stress Management Flashcards
Stress and Eustress
We need stress to achieve well, no stress can be as bad as too much stress
■ Stress- a negative response of the body to a threat causing anxiety
■ Eustress- A positive response of the body to a threat
Stress and stressors (cognitive and somatic)
Stress has both Cognitive and Somatic effects
■ Cognitive- Psychological
■ Somatic- Physiological
Examples of cognitive and somatic
Cognitive- anxiety, fear, aggression
Somatic- sweating, shaking, feeling sick
Stressor- the cause of stress
-Different for different sports and people
Could include: ■ Injury ■ Important games ■ Very good opponents ■ Rewards such as Prize money, contracts ■ Fear of Failure- being watched by significant others, role models, scouts
Cognitive stress and somatic stress
■ Cognitive:
■ Psychological- Negative thoughts and feelings
such as Irrational thoughts
-Can cause attentional narrowing (less information taken in and processed) this can be ok for the experienced performer who’s base response is the correct one but a novice doesn’t have the correct motor programmes developed
■ Somatic:
■ Physiological- increased HR, Temp, Sweating, Nausea, Muscular Tension
Stress Management Techniques Somatic
1- Biofeedback
■ Using a device to help recognise the physical changes that happen under stress
■ Measure: Heart rate, muscle tension or electrical activity
■ This helps the performer to recognise when they are stressed and they can use techniques to calm down
2- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
■ Alternating between a period of muscle tension and relaxation
■ Muscles are tensed, held and then relaxed
■ You should work from the extremities to the core
3- Centring
■ Breathing Control whilst relaxing the chest and shoulders using controlled breaths
■ Slow breathing diverts attention away from the stressful situation
■ E.g a kicker at goal in rugby
Stress Management Techniques Cognitive
1- Thought Stopping- Using a trigger to remove unhelpful thoughts
■ This must be practised
■ E.g Cricketer tapping the floor before a bowl
2- Positive Self Talk- Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones
■ It can help to focus on a tactic/ strategy
■ E.g A badminton player may talk to themselves about feet positioning
3- Imagery- recreating a feeling of successful movement
■ Can involve creating a calm place
■ Eg a Netball shooter can imagine the satisfaction of scoring a goal to win the game
4- Visualisation- Using a mental image of the skill
■ Can help to overcome pressures
■ Both Visualisation and Imagery can be internal (kinaesthesis and emotions of the mvt) or external (environment, details of the pitch and opponents)
5- Mental Rehearsal- Going over the movements in your mind
■ Best in a calm situation
■ E.g Trampolinists think of each move in a sequence before performing
6- Attentional Control and Cue Utilisation- higher the stress less information processed
7- Psychological Skills Training- Train to use the above effectively
■ A psychologist could be used to help performers use the above to effectively reduce stress
6- Attentional Control and Cue Utilisation
■ Attentional Narrowing- Less information is absorbed as stress and arousal increase
■ Cue Utilisation- The ability to process information is directly linked to the level of
arousal
-Under stress you focus on less cues from the environment and miss key cues affecting decision making known as Attentional Wastage resulting in reduced performance
-At lower levels of stress more information is absorbed and performance successful
Attention in sport – focusing on relevant cues
Niddefer argued that the performer must choose the right attentional style for the right situation. This allows unrequired information to be filtered and relevant information focussed on
■ The 4 styles in sporting contexts are: – Broad – attending to several stimuli with wide vision. – Narrow – focusing on one or two cues. – Internal – inner thoughts. – External – looking at the environment.
