Stress Management Starter Task With a partner discuss the ways in which you deal with stress, or stressors? Are they effective strategies in preventing stress overload?

It’s not a case of getting rid of the butterflies, it’s a question of getting them to fly in formation”—basketball coach Jack Donahue

Stress Management

Learning Outcomes Understand why we need to regulate arousal in sport Identify and explain Anxiety Reduction Techniques Identify and explain Arousal-Inducing Techniques Analyse when the techniques will be used in a sporting situation

What Is Coping? Coping “A process of constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands or conflicts appraised as taxing or exceeding one’s resources” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)

Stress Management/Anxiety Reduction Techniques One of the key roles of sport psychologists is to help performers to control their stress levels, somatic anxiety reduction and Cognitive anxiety reduction Hard task, considering everyone has individual personalities and play different sports. To prepare an individual for their upcoming performance and aspects within their performance Strategies employed are; Imagery Relaxation PMR Music Biofeedback Self Talk Systematic Desensitisation

The four key questions What is the technique? What is it used for? How does it work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the technique?

Breathing control centring

Breathing control We are going to watch a video, whilst we do, you need to partake in the instructions.video As with the other methods that we have looked at, you now need to answer the following questions and, as always, apply them to sport: What is the technique? What is it used for? How does it work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the technique?

Relaxation Imagery is a form of mind-to-muscle relaxation. Another form is progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) It involves relaxing their muscle groups individually and sequentially in order to relax their whole body. Each muscle is tensed and then relaxed in order to teach the athlete the difference between tensed and relaxed. Again, the technique requires practice. Let’s have a go!!

PMR An example is as follows; “Make a tight fist with both hands and hold for five seconds, feeling the tension in the hand and the forearm. Now relax and, as the muscles relax, feel the tension replaced by the relaxation spreading through the muscle groups. Remember this sensation and feel how pleasant it can be. Now shrug your shoulders and feel the tension in your shoulders. Hold for five seconds, then relax and again, feel the relaxation spreading through your shoulders.” (Stafford-Brown, et al. 2003)

Imagery Popular concept used by elite athletes. Involves the use of a mental room or place, where an athlete can quickly picture themselves being happy or relaxed. (e.g., excellent example = Happy Gilmore) It involves the use of a taped script or psychologist giving instructions. The athletes are asked to practice this technique in order to be able to relax in tense situations. As the athlete relaxes their mind, they feel the sensations transferring to their muscle groups.

Examples of Visulisation High Performance sport visualisation

Application of Imagery Using the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ), in pairs work through the examples of how best you image There is a power-point on study net that goes into more depth on this (Self – directed)

Signs of Under arousal Moving slowly, not getting set Mind wandering, being easily distracted Lack of concern about how one will perform Lack of anticipation or enthusiasm Heavy feeling in legs, no bounce

Arousal Inducing Techniques Increase breathing rate. Act energized. Use mood words and positive statements. Listen to music. Use energizing imagery. Complete a pre-competition workout.

The use of music Write down your ten song ideal music playlist when training, then answer the questions below: Why did you choose those particular songs? What is it about their beats/beat rate that makes them ideal for training? Why would you not choose certain songs or genres? How does music affect your arousal levels? What is the mechanism for this effect?

The use of music Your task: Read the journal article on the use of music in affecting arousal levels and then answer the questions on the last page. You have 15 minutes.

Music for arousal Fast music assists us by raising our arousal levels. It does this by the following mechanisms: The rhythmicity of music heard is highly motivating. A track with a strong rhythm whose tempo is similar to that of the activity we are performing can enhance sprint performance, by diverting attention towards maintenance of stride rate. A key consequence of listening to performance music is visual imagery, which can be thought of as seeing things in the mind’s eye, or even daydreaming. Music that brings to mind non-performance-related images is likely to promote dissociation, whereas musically-induced performance-related images will tend to produce association. It is this association which increases arousal levels, and vice-versa.

The use of music Are you now able to answer the four key questions on the use of music to affect arousal levels: What is the technique? What is it used for? How does it work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the technique?

Music New music model

Four Phases of Stress Management Training 1. Pretreatment phase (assess skills and deficits) 2. Treatment rationale phase 3. Skill acquisition (training in muscular relaxation, cognitive restructuring, and self-instruction) 4. Skill rehearsal