Improving stress tolerance
By
Kate Matejczyk
(formally Plutowska) Psychologist
Stress
is a problem everybody’s familiar with. We deal with this problem everyday,
going to school, to work, even staying at home. You could even say that stress
in our lives is inevitable, because it appears every time we are off balance
even if it’s caused by some kind of nice or wonderful event. The problems
start if stress develops into anxiety, something every athlete can relate to.
It’s the issue, you, as a tennis player must deal with during tournaments,
when emotions are high and thrilling.
Emotions
can inspire or inhibit your performance. Positive emotions can often fire you
to attain your peak, but negative ones will drive you to make mistakes.
All sports people are affected by anxiety.
Pre-event butterflies are unpleasant, but they soon change into
positively charged excitement, a feeling of optimal readiness.
The feeling of arousal can be read in various ways, it depends on your
interpretation. In other words,
high arousal can be experienced as excitement or anxiety; low arousal as
relaxation or boredom. Therefore, you can also learn how to control your own
arousal; and this is the next skill (other than the technical and tactical
skills in your sport or discipline) that you can develop.
You
tend to interpret your arousal as anxiety if you are focused on the
consequences of you performance rather than on the performance itself. Such a
situation happens usually when you have experienced some traumatic event
before, like an injury or the constant loss in key competitions.
Learning to
control arousal.
The
main task you should learn is to know your body and its reactions precisely,
this leads onto the next skill of how to control your physical tension.
In order to do that you must get to know how your muscles react during
stressful situations, which of them are most tense and where and how you feel
the tension. Once this is
achieved the next step is to learn how to release this tension and the easiest
and the fastest technique to use is controlled breathing!
Taking three, deep breathes, focusing on the influence of the breaths
on the body, this will make you more relaxed and focused.
Why does it work this way? It’s
because the body is closely connected with the mind. When the physical tension
is lost, emotional and mental tension are released.
The
breathing technique is the fastest way of releasing stress so it can be used
during tournaments (in the time between sets, or even before serving), but the
best way of dealing with stress is to practise relaxation everyday.
It takes only about 15 minutes but it should be done regularly. You
should sit or lie down, close your eyes and visualize your body and its
reactions during an important match. Next
you should imagine the muscles releasing from your head downwards,
concentrating on the most tensed areas. Gaining the appropriate level of
arousal becomes easy after practicing the technique for a couple months.
A
huge advantage can be won by having the ability to consciously release the
tension in your body, and that is certainly something worth investing your
time in.There are more techniques that dealing with anxiety.
Prior
to competition:
·
Mental
rehearsal of skills and movements; before the event, preceded by relaxation makes you ready for the
competition.
·
Positive
self-imagery like
seeing yourself holding the trophy or hitting a great shot.
·
Affirmations;
saying to yourself meaningful sentences that affirm some positive strengths or
qualities of your performance.
·
Setting
goals; focusing
on a segmented goal or the “next step” you must do, so avoiding thinking
of the end result. So achieving the goal is the result of doing small steps
that are easier to make than the whole performance.
·
Changing
fear into excitement; saying to yourself “I’m excited” rather than “I’m afraid”
·
Other
method;
listening to the music, having your own special T-shirt, anything that helps
you is OK.
During
competition:
·
The black
box visualisation; imagine yourself putting your fears, distractions, doubts into a black
box. Close the box and open it after the competition in order to take care of
it, when the time is proper.
·
The quiet
place; between
the games, the sets, you have a little time to relax. Put a towel on your head
and imagine yourself in your favourite place. Breath deeply! This will calm
you.
·
Focusing
on the movement pattern
·
“As
if” visualisation;
imagine yourself as if you were somebody or something else, that could help
you do your performance. Be like a bird, like a tiger, like a machine or
whatever you want.
·
Focusing
on the task-oriented pattern; stop thinking of you, start thinking of what you have to do.
·
Visualising
music; you can
sing in your mind, in the rhythm you wish to play.
There
are various ways of dealing with anxiety, stress. As your tennis playing
career proceeds releasing anxiety will become more natural and you will
develop your own personally unique techniques. Every stressful situation
strengthens us so remember, that everything, good or bad, develops us as
people. The point is to use it
for your own welfare. Good luck!
Kate Matejczyk (formally
Plutowska) Plutowska graduated from the university of Gdansk Poland with a
Masters Degree in psychology. Her final thesis was titled "Personality
and stress management of boys and girls playing tennis". Kate works at
the Sopot Tennis Club in Gdansk as well as with Poland’s future Olympic
sailers where she teachers relaxation techniques, Tai Chi and goal setting.
The Tennis Coach would
like to thank Kate for her contribution.