Got players that are feeling anxious and stressed? There’s certainly no shortage of things to be stressed out about in today’s world, but sports should be a stress outlet rather than a stress trigger – especially for young players. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. Now more than ever before, we are seeing a rise in rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, and self-harm among teenagers. The New York Times has coined the term “the inner pandemic” to describe today’s mental health crisis among youth and adolescents.
Athletes and coaches alike experience a fight-or-flight response when their sympathetic nervous system is activated. Physical symptoms of stress can include increased heart rate, stomach nausea, shortness of breath, muscle tension, and unwanted arousal. There are evidence-based muscle-to-mind techniques that you can use to help athletes reduce their levels of performance anxiety and stress.
For starters, it can be helpful to break down the techniques into two distinct categories: muscle-to-mind techniques and mind-to-muscle techniques. Muscle-to-mind relaxation techniques focus on relaxing the body as a means to calming down the mind. Examples of muscle-to-mind techniques include diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). On the other contrary, mind-to-muscle techniques such as meditation and imagery, start with calming the mind as a way to relax the body. Both approaches serve to relax the body.
There’s a ton of websites and apps boasting about strategies to de-stress however, before implementing any relaxation technique in practice or competition, it’s critical to understand the difference between total relaxation and rapid relaxation techniques. The goal of total relaxation is to help athletes completely relax by achieving maximal relaxation, while the goal of rapid relaxation is to reduce stress quickly without depleting one’s energy level (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).
The process for total relaxation typically between 10 and 20 minutes and can help athletes reduce chronic stress and anxiety (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Total relaxation techniques are ideally performed after practice or competition to help them recover from intense workouts or just before going to bed to improve sleep. Total relaxation techniques should not be done prior to workouts because they leave players feeling lethargic, sluggish, and passive (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).The benefits of total relaxation techniques include chronic stress reduction, promotion of recovery from workouts, improved sleep, and the development of relaxation skills (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).
On the other hand, rapid relaxation is ideal for athletes and coaches to do prior or during practice and competition for example – during a time-out. Rapid relaxation can be done in any environment in a matter of 3 to 5 seconds and the benefits of rapid relaxation include reduction in muscle tension, arousal control, disruption of the stress spiral, energy conservation, and ultimately increasing athlete enjoyment in sport (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).
One effective muscle-to-mind total relaxation strategy that coaches can teach players to use is called progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). The premises of PMR is to flex individual muscle groups and then passively releasing the muscle group to promote deep muscle relaxation (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). When flexing one’s muscles, the tension should gradually build-up for 5 to 7 seconds and then released abruptly. After releasing the muscle, the athlete should direct their attention towards relaxing that specific muscle group for a minimum of 20 seconds and up to 1 minute (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). The athlete can continue this process of targeted muscle tension, followed by focused muscle relaxation for muscle groups (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).
Cued relaxation is an example of a rapid relaxation technique that can be used before or during competition (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). In cued relaxation, the goal is for athletes to identify a cue word that triggers the desired relaxation response (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Cued relaxation should be paired with a total relaxation technique such as PMR. Once the athlete gets comfortable achieving a relaxation level of 8 or more on a 10-point scale with 10 being completely relaxed, they should start to repeat their cue word in their mind at each exhalation for 15 or more repetitions. With practice, eventually the athletes will be able to stimulate the relax response within 3 to 4 seconds by combining their cue word with 1 or 2 diaphragmic breaths.
Sometimes athletes need to be fired up and energized, rather than relaxed before competition. The term energization is the opposite of relaxation, it involves intentionally speeding up one’s heart rate to increase blood flow to muscles and stimulate brain activity (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Energization can help athletes improve concentration, increase their energy level, motivation, and confidence level (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). One example of an energization strategy that athletes can use prior to or during competition is a technique called psych-up breathing. In psych-up breathing, the athlete is instructed to take quick and shallow consecutive breaths to inhale as much as oxygen as possible in a short period of time. During psych-up breathing, the breaths are shallower and taken in with the lungs as opposed to the diaphragm (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).