Overcoming Pressure and Anxiety with Sports Psychology

Performing Under Pressure: The Key to Tackling Anxiety with Sports Psychology

Both beginner and seasoned athletes are familiar with the quickening heart rate, sweaty palms and muscle tension that come with sports anxiety. Whether on the field, on the track, in the pool or at the shooting range, nobody is immune to these feelings of pressure and nervousness that can slowly creep in or pounce on you unexpectedly!

Anxiety is hardly uncommon. The World Health Organization reports that at least 300 million people worldwide are affected by anxiety-related conditions. While the causes of sports anxiety can seem clear, the answer to dealing with these feelings of anxiety is not a one-size-fits-all process.

Sports performance anxiety is a condition experienced by athletes in which the perceived pressure to succeed in their sport causes both a psychological and physiological response. These feelings, that you may be familiar with, can lead to an impairment in shooting performance.

No One Size Fits All

Sources of anxiety are different for everyone. Common causes include pressure from coaches, parents, spectators, or team members, a lack of experience, a highly competitive environment, the demands on the mind and body and much more.

Multiple factors can be at play at once, creating an anxiety-inducing atmosphere for the performer.

While some athletes thrive under this pressure and use it to motivate them to achieve success, many suffer the symptoms as a result. The possible symptoms of this type of anxiety include an increased heart rate, negative thoughts, muscle tremors and tension, hyperventilation, digestion issues, lack of focus and a decline in confidence.

Ultimately, sports-related anxiety can significantly affect an athlete’s performance so developing the tools to better understand one’s anxiety response is vital.

This type of anxiety shows itself in both physical and psychological symptoms. It can be difficult to ignore and may likely affect other areas of the athlete’s life. According to the Smith and Smoll model, which was first established in the 90s and is still influencing sports anxiety research decades later, mental and physical symptoms can feed into one another.

Mental symptoms, like worry about an upcoming competition, can lead to physical symptoms, such as profuse sweating and muscle tremors.

Once the mental symptoms become physical, this is when your performance is at risk, and you might “choke” at the high-stakes moment.

For the record, I can’t stand the term ‘choking’, I only use it as it’s a common language that readers may be familiar with. However, it’s a lazy simplification of a complex issue.

Interestingly, an athlete can make real their fear of not performing well or losing their ability temporarily through their cognitive anxiety. However, realising this irony is not enough to help athletes overcome the condition.

There is a choice-point here, to focus on the emotion or the task. Many coaches and athletes try to overcome sports anxiety with pep talks and positive self-talk, but these might not be the best solutions.

Stop The fight

I believe in taking a more accepting approach - one that leans into feelings of anxiety instead of trying to fight it. By acknowledging the experience of anxiety and allowing it to exist within our consciousness, athletes can ease their inner tension and resolve internal conflict. They can also learn to manage the symptoms of sports anxiety without allowing them to take over completely.

Such techniques can be taught with the help of acceptance and commitment-based methods, an approach that makes room for negative feelings to exist and develops psychological flexibility. It encourages the individual to see themselves as a curious observer of their internal and external world.

Anxiety is inevitable when you commit to something important to you. If you can learn to expect and accept these unhelpful thoughts and emotions, and then redirect your attention to the task, you will create the opportunity to achieve your targets.

Want to know more? Get started with my Sport Psychology email course for just $7 here > to delve deeper into shooting sport psychology.