If you've ever watched your favorite golfer blow a six-stroke lead or your favorite tennis player serve up fault after fault in the final round of a tournament, you probably witnessed athletic performance anxiety. Coaches and viewers might say the golfer or tennis player "choked." Surprisingly, that word actually hints at the truth. The word "anxiety" comes from a Latin verb meaning "to choke."
What Is It?
Athletic performance anxiety can affect any athlete in any sport at any time. In "Sport and Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction," author Aidan Moran describes it as any instance when anxiety detrimentally affects your performance. In a horrible twist, he notes that it most often happens in a pressure-filled situation; the more effort you exert, the worse your performance becomes. It happens, he writes, because you're trying too hard to do well. The pressure you put on yourself, combined with the natural pressure of a competitive sports, can affect your mind in such a way that your body can't perform the way it usually does, no matter how much training you've done.
How Much Is Too Much?
A little anxiety is a good thing. As authors James Mensch and Gary Miller note in "The Athletic Trainer's Guide to Psychosocial Intervention and Referral," an athlete without any anxiety doesn't care if she fails. The right amount of anxiety can actually spur you to an award-winning performance; Mensch and Miller write that anxiety raises your adrenaline level and increases your heart rate, giving you the potential for greater speed and strength. However, when you feel anxious to the point of panic or your emotions cause your body to make the wrong movements, you've got too much anxiety. Before your next athletic event, analyze your thoughts just before you begin --- if you're focused on how your race ends, for example, instead of what you need to do to burst out of the starting blocks, you might be suffering from athletic performance anxiety.
Why Does This Happen?
Sports psychologists have no single explanation as to why, when and how anxiety operates in athletes. In "Sport Psychology," author Matt Jarvis offers two competing perspectives. One theory suggests that an athlete who tries too hard essentially overrides his training, making his learned technique virtually useless. A second theory suggests that the stress and extra physical effort produced by performance anxiety are unsustainable. When your body hits the point at which you can no longer put forth this higher level of energy, it starts to shut down and you'll notice an immediate, visible drop-off in performance level.
How Can You Treat It?
In "Clinical Sports Medicine," contributing authors Joseph Audette and Allison Bailey describe a number of methods you can use to control your performance anxiety. You can use imagery, for example, to envision both a positive outcome and correct performance technique. Golfer Jack Nicklaus used this strategy before every shot, in tournaments or just in practice. You can use meditation to invoke your body's relaxation response, lowering your heart and breathing rate and reducing stress. You also can use biofeedback in the form of constant heart rate monitoring to tell you when your body is getting too stressed out; then, employ meditation or visualization to help calm your anxiety.
References
- "Sport and Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction"; Aidan P. Moran; 2004
- "The Athletic Trainer's Guide to Psychosocial Intervention and Referral"; James M. Mensch and Gary M. Miller; 2008
- "Sport Psychology: A Student's Handbook"; Matt Jarvis; 2006
- "Clinical Sports Medicine"; edited by Walter R. Frontera et al; 2007
