5 Efficient Stress Coping Strategies From Sports Psychology
Introduction
If you’re looking for a sports psychology definition before we dive into the topic of this article, here it is: sports psychology is the discipline that studies all brain-related processes in the field of sports. Just like psychology studies everything that happens in people’s minds, sports psychology looks at everything that happens in athlete’s brains. Sports psychology is important because it provides essential principles on performance enhancement, mental health, and many other things that help athletes succeed.
A major topic that concerns many athletes is stress. Given the competitive nature of this field, stress is sometimes unavoidable. In this article, we are going to provide some ways for student-athletes to deal with moments of stress, all backed by sports psychology research. Therefore, if you are a busy and stressed student-athlete who no longer wants to use negative ways to deal with stress, keep reading!
Sports psychology stress perspective
Stress should not be perceived as a bad thing. In fact, in the area of sports performance, stress can actually have a beneficial influence. At optimal levels, stress acts as a motivator for athletes, pushing them to use their resources and give their best. But this all comes down to the athlete’s ability to manage their stress. When they can keep it under control, athletes can channel the pressure and perform even better. According to sports exercise and performance psychology, stress only becomes negative when it exceeds the athlete’s resources to cope with it. When this happens, the athlete begins to use negative coping strategies, such as avoiding their training, neglecting their commitments, overthinking their lives, or using alcohol or other substances.
All these negative coping strategies have a detrimental effect on the athlete’s career and mental health. Fortunately, all athletes can unlearn bad habits and instead start cultivating efficient coping strategies against stress that will leave them more relaxed and empowered.
How to improve your focus according to sports psychology
If there are any doubts left about the importance of sports psychology for athletic performance, we hope that listing all the solutions to stress provided by this discipline will help.
Sports psychology and mental health are connected by the coping strategies the former provides for athletes to look after their mental well-being. These coping strategies are a set of actions that an athlete can apply to reduce the impact of stress on their health and actually channel that pressure into performing better.
Focusing on things you can control
Without a doubt, a major part of the stress many student-athletes experience comes from the things they cannot control: a companion outcome, the adversary’s performance, their school’s long-term decisions, etc. However, worrying about these things is counterproductive. It leaves the athlete helpless and overwhelmed. Researchers name this an ‘external locus of control’, which was shown to be related to anxiety and affective disorders. Athletes who have an external locus of control feel that they have little power over their circumstances, which leads to more stress and worry.
A research-backed strategy to better cope with stress is to list those things in your control. To manage the stress in your athletic career, start by replacing your external locus of control with an internal one. In other words, you need to release those things outside your power while acknowledging the ones that you do have control over.
In practice, this means becoming aware of the resources you have to cope with whatever stressors you’re facing. For example, you can choose to pay attention to those things in your power, such as the numbers you put towards your practice, showing up for your training sessions, taking care of your health, etc. In contrast, you will instead choose to stop controlling those aspects which you cannot influence.
Releasing perfectionism
If you’re wondering how do sports affect mental health, here’s one answer for you. Many athletes set very high expectations for themselves and become perfectionists. They want to master every technique and game. While this can pave the road to excellence on the long term, it also has negative consequences. The athlete becomes stressed and criticises themselves when their performance is less than perfect. This is why excessive pressure to get things right all the time is very stressful.
One coping strategy for stressed student-athletes is to practice showing up imperfectly in their life. Even if sometimes this means doing things 80% perfectly.
Student-athletes can begin by being more compassionate towards themselves. In this respect, managing stress is also a matter of managing one’s expectations of themselves. This is easier said than done, since most student-athletes set themselves very high standards, both in schools and sports. But reducing one’s perfectionism isn’t impossible. It can be done by:
- Cultivating patience and kindness with oneself
- Normalizing failures and mistakes
- Developing a gentle inner narrative that replaces self-criticism.
Cultivating kindness and normalizing failure are some great coping strategies against stress. They take off the pressure that many athletes put on themselves and allow more understanding, gentleness, and acceptance.
Practicing a form of relaxation
In athletics, it is sometimes impossible NOT to be on a constant move. If you’re adding academic studies on top of training, coaching, competitions, and recovery, things get even more complicated. The need for rest and relaxation cannot be stated enough. Both the mind and the mind need time off from stress to return to a state of balance and engage in their restorative processes. Thankfully, sports psychology provides relaxation techniques that can help student-athletes successfully recover from stress. Your stress strategy should include at least one physical relaxation technique, such as progressive muscle relaxation, stretching, or mindfulness. Remember about the well-known mind-body connection: Inducing yourself with the feeling of complete physical relaxation will instruct your mind to relax, as well.
Mindfulness
There are some basic mental well-being practices that parents and coaches can encourage student-athletes to take up to better manage their stress levels. A lot of research points out mindfulness techniques as effective tools against stress. A new study from the University of Australia has found that dispositional mindfulness – a keen awareness and attention to thoughts and feelings in the present moment – can protect athletes from stress. Studying a group of high-performing football athletes, researchers reported a strong correlation between mindfulness and reduced psychological distress and stress levels. It’s necessary to note that mindfulness is not a magic tool that completely eliminates stress from one’s life. However, it can be approached as an emotional hygiene technique that helps college athletes observe their own thoughts before reacting to them. Besides, disciplining the mind is something that all athletes will sooner or later learn in their careers, as this goes hand in hand with disciplining the body.
To practice mindfulness, look for online sources that offer guided meditations for stress relief. Between 5 to 10 minutes of daily practice should be sufficient to help you master this tool and apply it to your life consistently.
Journaling
When we experience stress, we often get caught up in our minds and become tortured by our automatic and repetitive thoughts. Sadly, many student-athletes take the wrong approach to dealing with those thoughts. They use alcohol and substances to silence their minds or simply avoid sitting with themselves for longer periods of time. The more those negative thoughts are pushed aside, the stronger they become. Sometimes, the best antidote to dealing with those receptive thoughts that cause stress is to face them directly. This makes them less powerful. For example, according to sports psychology, performance anxiety arises when the athlete ruminates about their performance. These ruminations then cause stress and anxiety.
A better coping strategy for those thoughts that cause stress is journalling. This allows the brain to dump all the negative automatic thoughts and observe them from a neutral space.
To begin journalling, you simply need some paper, a pen, and some quiet time. Allow your mind to download on the paper in any form. You don’t need to follow a structure or make your writing artistic or nice. Simply write down everything that comes to your mind.
Final Thoughts
No athlete will ever go through their career without experiencing at least one stressful moment. This is why it is so important to develop healthy, adaptive, and efficient stress management techniques as a student-athlete. Thankfully, there are many sports psychology relaxation techniques you can use to cope with those challenging times in your athletic career. In this article, we mentioned 5 coping strategies: focusing on things in your control, practicing relaxation, mindfulness, releasing perfectionism, and journaling.
However, there are many more stress strategies you can research. The most important thing is that you choose what works for you and look after your mental health daily.