Stress in sport is more prevalent than you may think. You may also think that I just made a very bold statement unwise but I really have not. The first question we should ask is what is stress? If you were to ask a group of people what it means to them, you’d probably get a number of different responses.
So, I’m going to give you the definition provided by the HSE (Health & Safety Executive), which can apply to stress in sport as well. The HSE defines stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed upon them”. I’m not going to delve into what ‘excessive pressure’ means, as again that can be interpreted in a number of ways.
One thing is for sure, we learn as we go through our stressful life and experiences. And the good thing is, we can unlearn it!
I had a client who was going through a tough time in his sport and was not getting the results he wanted desperately Sun. It was clear to see that he felt pressured by the expectations of his coach, and his own high expectations of himself. He started to magnify every little negative aspect of his performance, which as he later discovered through his sessions with me, was preventing him from reaching his goals and was stressing him further.
Taking the HSE definition, we can therefore say that stress is the external stimulus, eg the implications of losing to important sporting event, applied on a person. It is the athletes response to the ’stressor’ that is vital. His response will ultimately either cause strain on his nervous system or not.
