A-Level PE AQA Sport Psychology: Stress Management

A negative response of the body to a threat causing anxiety

A positive response of the body to a threat

Cognitive and Somatic

Anxiety, fear and aggression

Sweating, shaking and feeling sick

The cause of stress

. Injury
. Important games
. Very good opponents
. Rewards such as prize money, contracts
. Fear of failure - being watched by significant others, role models, scouts

. Biofeedback
. Progressive muscle relaxation
. Centering
. Breathing control

Using a device to help recognise the physical changes that happen under stress. It measures heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, temperature or electrical activity. It helps the performer recognise when they are stressed and they can use techniques to calm down

Alternating a period of muscle tension and relaxation. Muscles are tensed, held and then relaxed. You should work from the extremities to the core.

Breathing control whilst relaxing the chest and shoulders using controlled breaths. Slow breathing diverts attention away from the stressful situation

Controlling and concentrating on the rate of depth of breathing. This allows the performer to relax and be less distracted

. Thought stopping
. Positive self talk
. Imagery
. Visualisation
. Mental rehearsal
. Attentional control and cue utilisation

Using a trigger to remove unhelpful thoughts. This helps redirect to more positive thoughts. It must be practiced

Replacing negative thoughts about performance with positive ones. This can help to focus on a tactic and can help with negative thoughts

Recreating a feeling of successful movement. Can be the formation of mental pictures of a good performance. Can involve creating a calm place

Using a mental image of the skill. Can help to overcome pressures

Going over the moments in your mind. Best in a calm situation.

Higher the stress, the less information processed
. Attentional control - changing the focus of attention to detect relevant cues
. Attentional narrowing - less information is absorbed as stress and arousal increase
. Cue utilisation - the ability to process information is directly linked to the level of arousal

Under stress you focus less on cues from the environment and miss key cues affecting decision making known as attentional wastage resulting in reduced performance

At lower levels of stress more information is absorbed and performance is successful

. It can be internal - kinaesthesis and emotions of the movement, experiencing the feeling/sensation of the movement
. It can be external - environment, details of the pitch and opponents, seeing yourself complete the movement

It is when the performer must choose the right attention of style for the right situation. This allows unrequired information to be filtered and relevant info is focused on.

. Broad – attending to several stimuli with wide vision
. Narrow – focusing on one or two cues.
. Internal – inner thoughts
. External – looking at the environment.

. How many cues are being focused on = broad or narrow
. Concerned with where the focus is placed = internal or external

Many cues concerning environment, it is fast, paced, open game environment

Many cues concerning the performer

One or two cues concerning the environment, concentrate on specific object, limited cues

One or two cues concerning the performer