Are you one of those people that occasionally suffer from performance anxiety?
It is such a common problem among athletes you would think that sports psychologist would have some good solutions for athletes by now. Unfortunately this is NOT the case.
Welcome to the Mental Toughness Academy! I’m Craig Sigl, the Mental Toughness Trainer.
If you have never been to see a sports psychologist this short dialogue will give you a sample of what the typical performance anxiety treatments are like and why they don’t work! I will go out on a limb and say that some performance anxiety treatments actually make your problem worse. Why because athletes end up feeling bad and thinking there is something wrong with them because it did not work!
Let us know in the comments below some of your experiences working with professionals for your performance anxiety. We would love to hear your stories!
Every day thousands of people talk to experts to give them a performance anxiety treatment that usually ends up doing nothing and sometimes, makes it worse. It usually goes something like this:
Athlete: Doc, here’s the problem…when I’m at practice, I’m smooth, I’m confident and I play beautifully. When I get to the real thing, I freeze up. I’m scared to death, shaking and sweating. One time, I actually threw up right before my game.
Expert: I understand and here’s what you need to do. First of all, you need to understand that it’s your thoughts that are creating the performance anxiety. You need to change your thoughts and thinking so that you start to believe in yourself as a great performer. You need to tell yourself that you are great and that everyone else is experiencing the same thing.
Athlete: But Doc, my coach has been telling me that for quite some time now. I’ve written down my affirmations that I’m the best in the region and I look at it every day when I wake up and think about it every day when I go to bed…and it’s not working.
Expert: Well then, what we need to do next is to teach you how to put your emotions aside so that when you get ready for the competition, you leave all of those problems at home. We’ll start by teaching you a deep breathing practice that has helped many of my clients.
What you do is you take a nice deep breath in while counting to 4. When you get to the top, you want to hold it for a count of 4, and then let it out for another count of 4. Let’s do this together.
Athlete: (after finishing breathing with the expert for a couple of minutes). That feels better, thanks Doc.
Expert: You’re welcome. I’ll see you next week for a follow up. Right before your next competition, do the breathing technique and that should do the trick.
A week goes by and the athlete comes back for another session.
Expert: So how did your last competition go?
Athlete: Not so well Doc. I did the breathing like you taught me on the way to competition. I did it for about 20 minutes. As I got closer to the building, I could feel my heart start to racing and so I slowed the breathing down like you suggested.
I got out of the car and my mind just wouldn’t stop with all the “what ifs” and usual worries that I go through before competition. But now this time, I was even more worried because I thought I had a good technique to deal with this performance anxiety and it wasn’t working and so I got even more flustered than usual. I ended up throwing up before going on and turned in a horrible performance.
Expert: OK, yes, I’ve heard this before. Here’s the next step. For your next competition, I’d like you to keep doing the breathing technique and if you feel any anxiety or start with the worrying thoughts, what you want to do is to stop yourself for a moment and collect your thoughts.
Get a hold of yourself. Gently slap yourself on the cheeks if that will help. Then, take all those thoughts and put them in a suitcase somewhere in your mind. Lock up the suitcase and put it in storage in a special compartment in your mind where you can come back and deal with those issues after competition. Just put them all aside for that day.
Athlete: I get it, yes. But it’s not just my thoughts Doc. My body feels like it’s actually rebelling against me. I don’t have any control over that sick-to-my-stomach feeling. And I start to turn red and sweat a lot too.
Expert: Then what you want to do is to start talking to your body and tell it that you are now in control. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like telling a little white lie was the best thing to do at the moment?
Athlete: Yes.
Expert: And do you remember that twinge of feeling you had that maybe you shouldn’t say this little white lie?
Athlete: Yes.
Expert: And yet, even with that feeling, you went ahead and told that little white lie right?
Athlete: Yes.
Expert: So how did you end up telling that little white lie even though you were having a feeling like you shouldn’t?
Athlete: I just pushed through it. I felt it, but I just sort of buried it and went ahead and told the lie. Oh! I think I get it. You mean I can do the same thing and override those feelings before competition?
Expert: Exactly. Repeat after me very loudly: I AM AN ATHLETE
Athlete: I AM AN ATHLETE
Expert: NOTHING GETS IN MY WAY OF VICTORY
Athlete: “NOTHING GETS IN MY WAY OF VICTORY”
Expert: I will do whatever it takes to win!
Athlete: “I will do whatever it takes to win”
Expert: That’s excellent. I want you to go take a hike up to the top of a mountain or a tall building and look out over the horizon and scream those sentences at the top of your lungs 10 times and keep doing it every day from now until your next event. You CAN sweep aside those emotions, pack up your destructive thoughts in a suitcase and deal with it all later.
Now go to your next competition and get control of yourself! You’re now fixed….
Is that true?
This type of performance anxiety treatment may work for some athletes who struggle a little bit with their thinking and have years of successful competition under their belt. It certainly will not work for young athletes who have deeply ingrained belief systems infected with doubt, self-sabotage, and a strong fear of failure.
All of those issues are programmed in the unconscious mind and any performance anxiety treatment must work with your underlying beliefs and worries in order make real long-lasting change.
In our mental toughness training, we use guided visualizations and a system to help you get complete mastery of your emotions to help athletes change their thoughts from fear to being intense and focused.
Have you ever been to an expert who used this approach? Did it work for you? Let us know in the comments below…
Welcome to the Winner’s Circle!
Craig Sigl, the Mental Toughness Trainer
Do you ever wonder how you can be a mentally tough athlete? The first step is to know strengths and weaknesses as an athlete. Take our mental toughness quiz to find out your weaknesses and how you can strengthen them to become a mentally tough athlete! Take the quiz for free here: sportsmentaltoughness.com