Reducing Stress: Techniques for Parents, Coaches, and Athletes

By Jamie Robbins, MS

What is stress?

Kara, a young basketball player is sent into her first varsity game. Beads of sweat drip from her palms and her stomach is bouncing like a bucket of Mexican jumping beans. She questions her ability to keep pace with her teammates and fears the consequences should she make a mistake. As she approaches the court, Kara glances into the stands only to see her mother, eyes wide open, pulling her hair nervously, barely able to watch. Kara's own anxiety rises as she interprets her mother's reaction as a lack of confidence in her ability to play. Kara's muscles are tight as she takes to the court, reminding herself she better not fail or her mother will be disappointed, her coach will be angry, and she will let down her teammates. Kara's stress response has been triggered and she is ready to fail.

How common is this scenario or similar scenarios? How do situations or people lead an athlete to feel stressed? How many athletes allow sources of stress to consume their thoughts and disrupt their performance? How many athletes dream up irrational consequences that may follow a single mistake? As rational or irrational the beliefs of athletes may be concerning their ability to perform a task, or the ultimate consequences of an error, these thoughts still reside in the athletes' minds, and to them, their perception is truth. Stress is what is felt by people when they believe that the demands of what needs to be done exceeds the resources or ability they have to finish, succeed, or merely do the job.

Sources of stress

What causes an athlete to feel stress? Sources of stress come from within as well as outside the athlete, and as children grow as both individuals and athletes, the sources of stress may change. They may at times feel that the demands of the sport or competition are too great given their abilities and the resources they possess to handle the situation. These feelings may come from a variety of sources including:

• Not playing well in a previous practice session or game
• Making a mistake or fear of making a mistake
• Not improving or not seeing the preferred improvement slope (perhaps not improving as quickly as somebody else)
• Parents' comments, pressures, expectations, or dreams about their child's participation in sports
• Coaches' styles, expectations, feedback, or lack of feedback
• Teammates' communication, expectations, or feeling detached from the team
• Losing a game, meet, or match
• The physical and psychological demands of the sport
• Relationships in and out of sport
• Time demands of school, sport, and a social life
• The "big game"
• Weather (e.g., it rains heavily on game day)
• Playing environment (e.g., different surface than used to; home vs. away games)
• Referees (e.g., bad calls)
• Caliber of opponent
• Spectators (e.g., scouts, parents, or friends)
• Expectations of self and others

Whether it is Dana's lack of confidence in her own ability to start at center against the best player in the league or Josh's concern that an error in play will upset his father, or Lucy's concern over her parents' recent divorce, stress surrounds young athletes. The stress experienced by these individuals can become so burdensome that the fun of participation is ultimately lost and the child's desire to play decreases.

In addition to the possible role of parents in creating stress for their young athletes, parents also experience stress of their own. Several possible sources include:

• Family
• Jobs
• Money
• Future concerns
• Dreams for children (e.g., their athletic careers and life in general)
• Personal dreams
• Time (i.e., never enough)
• General chaos (lack of control)

Similar to the athletes and parents, coaches also may experience stress. In addition, a coach may be a parent or a teacher and, therefore, experience all the previously mentioned stressors. Also, coaches must manage their teams and all the requirements that accompany that position. Several other sources of stress for a coach include:

• Family responsibilities
• Team responsibilities
• Referees
• Athletic directors
• Job security
• Money
• Athlete issues
• Time
• Own goals

Some sources of stress overlap for athletes, parents, and coaches. Some sources affect only a certain population. Still, the significant factor is not whether one source or five sources exist, but rather how that person perceives the stress and the signs and symptoms that follow.

How do you know if you are stressed?

Signs and symptoms of stress can be identified through physiological, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Some people experience only one type of symptom while others are burdened by uncomfortable bodily sensations, negative thoughts, and changes in conduct. Specific examples of some of the possible signs and symptoms of stress include the following:

Physiological

• Tight muscles
• Early muscle fatigue
• Short, shallow breathing
• Diarrhea
• Tight stomach
• Insomnia
• Vomiting
• Narrow field of vision

Cognitive

• Fear and worry
• Irrational thoughts (e.g., "everyone is going to hate me")
• Indecisiveness
• Loss of confidence (e.g., "I can't" thoughts)

Behavioral

• Absenteeism
• Excessive drinking
• Pacing
• Work avoidance
• Strained relationships
• Eating faster or slower than normal
• Talking faster or slower than normal

It is important to recognize which types of symptoms you or somebody else is exhibiting in order to aid in stress reduction and in implementing the most beneficial strategies. Prior to assisting yourself or another, you must recognize what is happening and be aware of any changes in behavior, thought processes, or physiological responses.

Strategies to Manage Stress

Some people assume that stress is just a natural part of life and, thus, something with which we must live. However, there are simple techniques that can be used for dealing with stress that can limit or eliminate the detrimental effects it can have on performance and on life in general. Different techniques work best depending on the manner in which the stress is experienced (i.e., physiological, cognitive, or behavioral).

Physiological techniques

Physiological symptoms are best managed with simple breathing techniques and relaxation exercises. The breathing centers in the brain have a facilitating relationship with the brain's arousal centers and, therefore, it is believed that constant, steady, restful breathing promotes relaxation and decreases tension (Girdano, Everly, & Dusek, 2001). The deep breathing technique requires you to: Sit down in a quiet spot, close your eyes and take two deep and very slow breaths. Inhale as deeply as possible, hold it for a second and then in a very slow and controlled manner exhale. Repeat this technique whenever you feel the onset of the symptoms (before bed, on the field, at home, or at work). A second technique is Jacobsen's progressive relaxation. This technique is most useful if you experience muscle tension when stressed. Have you ever known anybody who clenched his or her jaw so tight that you could hear the teeth grind? Do you know anyone who is so tense that his shoulders appear to be attached to his ears? Or, do you walk around with constant wrinkles in your forehead because you cannot seem to relax? Jacobsen's progressive relaxation technique involves alternating contractions with relaxation of various muscle groups. The aim of this strategy is to build awareness of your own muscle tension and then learn to control and relax tense muscle groups at will. To practice progressive relaxation follow these steps:

• Find a dark, quiet spot (good to do at night prior to going to sleep).
• Lie down and close your eyes and picture something relaxing to you (e.g., the color blue, an ocean, a cloud) or take several deep breaths.
• Starting with your toes and going all the way to your head, tighten each muscle group one by one. First, contract the muscles in your feet by curling your toes down and holding the position, feel the tension, then slowly release as you allow your toes to straighten out and reach a relaxed position. Notice how it feels at full tension, half tension, and when all the tension is gone.
• Taking one muscle group at a time, contract and relax the muscles in your feet, calves, thighs, hips, and abdomen. Tighten, then relax the muscles in your hands, forearms, arms, shoulders and chest. Be sure also to tighten and relax the muscles in your face and jaw.
• Keep the previously relaxed muscle group in a state of relaxation until the entire exercise is completed.
• After you are completely relaxed, incorporate imagery. While your body is free of tension, picture a situation in which you are normally stressed and see yourself handling it successfully (e.g., see yourself handling a bad call by a referee, an angry parent who wants her child playing more, or a demanding boss).
• Once you have completed the tightening, relaxing, and imaging, picture a ball of energy that starts at your toes and bounces its way through your entire body, re-energizing you. As the ball moves through each muscle group, you should feel a tingle and a desire to move (skip this step if your goal is to fall asleep).
• Practice this technique each time you sense muscle tension due to stress.

Cognitive Techniques

When attempting to manage stress displayed through cognitive means (i.e., negative self-talk, worry), athletes, parents, and coaches can practice thought stopping, reframing, positive self-talk, and imagery. The steps to managing negative self-talk include:

• Identify your own self-talk (i.e., what you say to yourself when something bad happens, when you make a mistake, or when someone upsets you).
• Once the detrimental self-talk is identified (e.g., "this is awful," "I'm terrible," "everyone hates me"), practice thought stopping. Whenever a negative thought enters your mind, immediately visualize a big red stop sign, and thus, distract the thought from being processed further.
• Replace the negative thought with a positive and more productive thought (e.g., change "I can't do this, I'm terrible" to "I will get it with more practice").
• Imagery can be used to practice situations that you have already identified as stress producing. By imaging yourself in those situations and properly responding, you will be more likely to trigger the beneficial response in real life. A mind is a very powerful tool, and just as you can learn to control your own breathing with practice, you also can learn to control and direct your thoughts.

Behavioral techniques

Behavioral strategies can be utilized to ward off stressful responses. Much of our stress is caused by the perception of too many responsibilities and not enough time. Three strategies include goal setting, time management, and setting up a routine. To better manage time, practice these steps:

• Make a list of all responsibilities you have for a given day, week, month, or year.
• Read over the list and put them in order of importance.
• Create a time line for each task, providing more time than you actually believe the task will take to complete (e.g., if you believe a task will take 5 hours, give yourself 7 hours).
• Create a calendar and assign each task to a designated day. Do not overfill any day and give yourself extra time, as well as "down" time, because no plan ever gets followed perfectly and other situations always arise.
• Whether you are an athlete, coach, or parent, create a pre-event routine. The routine should be specific, yet flexible. For example, the mother of three should have a morning routine to follow in order to get everyone and herself ready, while allowing time for finding last night's homework or attending to a child's stomach ache. The athlete should have a pre-game routine to prepare both his or her mind and body for play, while allowing flexibility in case of a late bus or a rain delay.

Behavioral strategies take time to plan and only work if executed regularly. You do not want to be a robot or be ruled by a schedule, but you do want to have your priorities in order and a list to follow to avoid overload and stress caused by too many tasks and too little perceived time.

Stress can be debilitating if you allow it to rule you. As mentioned before, perception is important and if you can identify problem areas before they become too devastating, you can manage possible stressful situations and make everyday life more bearable and, actually, quite enjoyable.

References

Girdano, D. A., Everly, G. S., & Dusek, D. E. (2001). Controlling Stress and Tension. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

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Title	Reducing Stress: Techniques for Parents, Coaches, and Athletes
Source	Sportlight on Youth Sport
Publisher	Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
Vol (iss)	25(2)
Pages	P.1-3
SIRC ID#	s-818058

 

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