Stress Management Flashcards
What is stress?
A negative response of the body to a threat causing anxiety.
What is Eustress?
A positive response of the body to a threat.
What are cognitive symptoms of stress and what are examples?
Psychological effects such as anxiety, fear and aggression.
What are somatic symptoms of stress and what are examples?
Physiological effects such as sweating, shaking and feeling sick.
What is a stressor?
- A stressor is the cause of stress and can be different for different sports and people.
- Could include injury, important games and very good opponents
What is biofeedback?
- Using a device to help recognise the physical changes that happen under stress.
- Measure: heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, temperature and electrical activity.
- This helps the performer to recognise when they are stressed and they can use techniques to calm down.
What is 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.
What is centering?
- 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
What is breathing control?
- Controlling and concentrating on the rate of depth of breathing.
- This allows the performer to relax and be less distracted.
What is attentional control?
Changing the focus of attention to detect relevant cues.
What is attentional narrowing?
Less information is absorbed as stress and arousal increase.
What is cue utilisation?
The ability to process information is directly linked to the level of arousal.
What are the 4 types of attentional focus in sport (Niddefer’s model)?
- Broad (attending to several stimuli with wide vision).
- Narrow (focusing on one or two cues).
- Internal (inner thoughts)
- External (looking at the environment).
