1. Understanding Performance anxiety in Sport
Presented by Roxane Carrière, M. Sc., P.hD. Candidate
Mental Performance Specialist,
Canadian Sport Psychology Association (CSPA),
Student member

2. Sport Psychology
To facilitate the development of mental and emotional skills, techniques, attitudes, perspectives, and processes that lead to performance enhancement and positive personal development
Physical : training, sleep, nutrition
Tactical: strategies, systems of play
Technical: motor execution, skills
Mental : self-talk, imagery, goal setting
Emotional -confidence, anxiety, fun
Mental
Physical
Emotional
Technical/Tactical

3. What is performance anxiety?
« A negative emotional state that occurs in the absence of real/obvious danger in response to a competitive stressor »
Anticipating a situation as a threat/failure

4. It’s all about perspective
Situation
competition
Positive Perception
Negative Perception
opportunity
threat
Pleasant emotions/thoughts
(confident, happy, positive)
Unpleasant emotions/thoughts
(nervous, doubtful, negative)
Physical symptoms: Relaxed, good coordination
Physical symptoms:
Muscles tension, fast breathing, bad coordination
PERFORMANCE

5. Exercise
Rest your dominant forearm and hand palm down on a desk. Tense all the muscles in the hand and fingers and then try to alternatively tap the index and middle fingers back and forth as quickly as possible.
Now relax all the muscles in the forearm and hand and repeat the exercise.
Do you notice a difference?

6. Why do athletes get anxious?
Internal
Self-confidence
Fear of failure
Movement execution
Internal discourse (self-talk)
External
Importance of the event
Fear of evaluation
Expectations (parents/coaches/spectators)
Distractions (opponents, time, weather)

7. Self-Efficacy (Confidence)
Do I think I have the skills to meet the demands of the situation?
Varies with importance of the event and past accomplishments in different situations
Challenge
Self-efficacy: the belief I can suceed in a specific situation
Competence or ability does not change over night, it is simply our perception that changes.
When we feel our abilities (physical, technical, mental skills) do not match the demands of the situation (competition)= low self-confidence
When we feel wrongly confident about our ability to meet the demands of to the situation, but haven’t prepared objectivly for the situation = over-confidence
Ability

8. Building your Confidence!
Self-esteem list or Success list
Reviewing an outstanding performance in your head or thinking about past accomplishments
I know that …
I know that …

9. Make sure my shots hit the net 80% of the time
Fear of failure
How do you define success and failure?
Keeping your focus on the process, will most likely lead to a positive outcome
Outcome
Win a soccer game
Out of your control !!
Make sure my shots hit the net 80% of the time
Performance
What could be an ideal process goal to focus on during a competition.
Be first on the ball
Attack the net
Process
In your control !!

10. Having ego oriented goals can lead to increased anxiety!
What are your goals?
Goal orientation
Task Orientation: focus on mastery of a skill and improving personal standards
Ego Orientation: focus on demonstrating superior competence compared to others
Having ego oriented goals can lead to increased anxiety!

11. What are your goals? Task orientation Ego orientation Competence
“Athletic ability can be developed with practice”
“Good athletes are born that way“
Task orientation
Ego orientation
Competence
Developed with effort
Innate ability
Purpose
Performing at one’s best (personal improvement)
Being better than others (social comparison)
Success
Mastering a skill
(self-referenced)
Superior performance to others
(other-referenced)
Challenges
Embrace challenges (opportunity to learn)
Avoid challenges (threat to competence)
Task orientation: focusing on the mastery of a task, focus on improving your personal standards. ABSOLUTE ABILITY
Ego orientation: focusing on one’s ability relative to others,
Will influence how we attribute the outcome of competitive events and how we behave towards changing those outcomes
Reference: Mindset, the new psychology of success, by Dr. Carol S. Dweck

12. Negative thoughts
Self-talk: thoughts that you say to yourself in your head
Athletes need to develop a habit of thinking more positively
Strategies to think “positive”
Changing a negative thought to a positive one (e.g. figure skating)
Using a trigger for every negative self-statement (e.g. paper clips)
Reframing – changing your perspective on a situation (e.g. waterpolo)
All athletes engage in self-talk, we tend to be very unkind with ourselves. We often say things to ourselves that we would never allow somebody else to say to us. (you’re not good enough, you didn’t try hard enough). There are different strategies that you can use to think more positively. Negative statements become a habit and we need to become conscious of our negative thoughts before we can actually change them.
Figure skating: land it
Gymnastics: stick it

13. Identifying Irrational thoughts
“I’m not good enough” or “I am not ready for a competition”
L – Is it logical?
U – Is it useful to my performance?
V – Is it true?
If the answer is NO to these questions, you may need to think more objectively about the situation.

14. Movement execution “Paralysis by over analysis”
Explicitly deconstructing movements that are automatic
Interferes with the automaticity of movement (e.g. brushing your teeth)
Using cue words or images to focus on good movement execution
Pointe de pizza
Hand in the cookie jar
Pieds sur du beton chaud
Easy speed
Skills that are normally undertaken with little or no thought become disrupted due to the athlete trying to consciously control the movement. Reviewing all of your notes before an exam

15. External Distractions
Unfamiliar setting, spectators, weather, racing lane, time of competition, quality of the water
Controlling the Controllables (CTC)
Focusing on factors that are within your control instead of directing your attention on factors that you cannot control
What can you control in your sport?
Step #1: Identify the type of stressor
Step #2: Can you control the stressor or get information to control it
Step #3: If you cannot control the stressor, redirect your attention
Known factors Unknown factors

16. External Distractions
Having a distraction control plan
Identify all possible distractors that may arise during a competition
Identify your typical response
Choose a refocus strategy for the desired response
We are preventing or muting the influence of potential stressors.

17. Staying in the Present Moment
Past
Present
Future
You cannot change a mistake that you have made in the past nor can you control the events that will take place in the future. The only place you have control is in the present moment.

18. Thank you for your time
For more questions or comments: (514) Feel free to come talk to me at the end of the presentation 