Stress that occurs very quickly and prompts us to respond in an emergency-like fashion (like moving out of the way of an oncoming car) is often referred to as burst stress. Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics deal with burst stress everyday, as it is not uncommon for these people to receive emergency phone calls and quickly go from 0-100 MPH on the adrenaline scale. Granted, athletes do not usually deal with burst stress anxiety in the same, life threatening ways as helping professionals do, but athletes do regularly deal with a wide range of unexpected stressors and emotional responses. Athletes are especially at-risk for burst stress in fast-paced, tempo-changing sports, as well as those pressure moments in all sports when the outcome of a game hangs in the balance.
Examining stress in sports
Being able to control and moderate arousal (or human energy) is a very important skill according to sport psychology research, and it is often what allows people to stay calm and focused while in the middle of otherwise stressful situations (like a police officer responding to a crime, or an athlete keeping his cool after receiving a cheap shot from an opponent). As with most things in life, some people do a good job adjusting their focus and arousal appropriately, while others struggle trying to stay relaxed and focused when things become chaotic. In sports, athletes who master mental toughness and keep it together in pressure situations are known as clutch players, while athletes who succumb to the pressure they experience are often called “chokers.”
If your son or daughter experiences great distress while trying to maintain focus, concentration, and calmness during pressure situations, consider the following ideas that can help:
- Discuss and normalize stress in sports. Talk openly about things like stress and pressure – as well as provide examples of people (maybe even yourself) who have failed under these conditions. Normalizing the fact that people commonly make mistakes and aren’t always perfect will help your child become more understanding and tolerant of himself when he, too, makes a mistake in a game.
- Practice stressful situations whenever you can. For example, if you are working with your child trying to improve athletic skills, be sure to throw in surprise situations and gauge how she reacts. Praise her hard effort and success, and shape her failures so that she can learn and improve the next time she experiences the situation. By practicing stressful situations in real-time, conditioned, muscle-memory movements will be established, leading to automatic reactions when burst stress occurs.
- Use stress inoculation techniques. Talk to your child about the reality that there will be bad games, errors, mistakes, and failure to be experienced while playing sports. When these situations occur, teach your child how to improve his mental toughness by responding to the mistake with positive thinking and problem solving skills. Remember, it’s not how many times we fall down, but how many times we get up.
- Dismiss the notion that only some people are gifted enough to handle pressure, while others have no control over it. It is a myth that athletes who perform well in the clutch were “born that way,” and that other athletes can never improve in mental toughness because they weren’t born with the DNA to succeed in pressure situations. Self-fulfilling prophecies can be quickly developed when young athletes think they “can’t” and well as they “can.”
Final thoughts
Learning how to successfully react and respond to burst stress is a big part of playing well in game situations. Try to normalize stress in sports, and teach athletes how they can learn ways to have stress work for them, rather than stress leaving them helpless to the situation. And remember, the difference between average and above-average athletes often comes down to differences in stress coping and managing pressure, not just natural abilities and potential.
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