This is Natalie, owner of Psych Me Up Consulting, and your fear expert providing the ultimate guide to understanding and managing your fears in sport!
As an expert in managing fears in sport, I understand the challenges that athletes face when it comes to overcoming their fears. Whether it's fear of failure, fear of injury, or simply fear of specific skills, these anxieties can be debilitating and prevent athletes from performing at their best. However, I have developed effective strategies and techniques to help athletes manage their fears and achieve their goals.
With my guidance, athletes can learn to navigate their fears and perform with confidence, both on and off the field.
Guess what, FEAR is NORMAL!
Have you ever been scared before? Seems like a foolish question, because your answer is "well, OBVIOUSLY!" So why is fear in sport often looked as a weakness or fault in the athlete's mental toughness? Fear is a natural emotion that can help us stay safe and avoid danger. However, when fear becomes overwhelming, it can hinder our ability to perform to our ultimate best. This is why managing fear is so important. By understanding and acknowledging our own automatic response to fear, we can learn to control them and prevent them from controlling us in our sport.
What is My Automatic Response to Fear?
Are you a fighter, flighter, or here is a new one, freezer? Yes, some freeze in the face of danger, including myself. As a gymnast, I was stricken with fear on all my skills that went backwards, especially on balance beam. I would stand at the front of the beam, get ready to swing my arms to do a backhandspring, and I physically could not move. It felt like there was a wall behind me, blocking me from attempting anything. It was paralyzing and very confusing. It felt like my mind and body were not on the same page. My mind was saying, "You can do it, just go" but my body was like, "Yaaa i'd rather not, this is unsafe". In that moment I realized in the face of fear, I am a freezer.
Automatic fear response is a natural and instinctive reaction triggered by perceived threats. In sports, perceived threats can be competitive situations, individual skills, injuries, etc. This response is governed by the amygdala, a small almond-shaped structure in the brain. When we encounter danger, the amygdala activates the fight, flight, or freeze response, which prepares our body to either confront the threat, run away from it, or strictly freeze.
Let's set the scene. You're calm and relaxed watching your favorite T.V. show. All of a sudden you see a big spider crawling on the ground. You instantly feel your heart rate increase, your hands sweat, and you're contemplating your next move.
Do you:
A) Squash the spider and go back to watching your show
B) Call a friend to take care of business
C) You do nothing and freeze with anxiety
If you chose A, your automatic response is to fight
If you chose B, your automatic response is to flight
if you chose C, your automatic response is to freeze.
Now, applying this analogy to a stressful athletic situation, how do you normally respond? Do you fight through with resilience even though you are scared? Do you avoid the skill and finish all your other assignments hoping to avoid it completely? Or do you feel paralyzed and unable to move?
Once you are aware of your automatic fear response, you can figure out your own personalized solution to managing your fears!
Easy, right? Let's check out some tips
Feeling Empowered Yet?! Let's Learn Some Mental Skills
Mental Skills for Fighters:
Motivate yourself through goal setting: set realistic goals that you can tackle and conquer and feel GOOD doing it!
Pump yourself up: positive affirmations can change our mood from "CAN'T" too "CAN".
Patience is Key: often times fighters do without thinking. Take a step back, assess the situation and trust your mind and body!
Mental Skills for Flighters:
Have an accountability partner: tell a friend what you're scared of and ask them to check in with you to be sure you step outside of your comfort zone.
Tackle the skill first: set a goal that you must complete the skill you're afraid of FIRST before completing any of your other assignments.
Create a reward system: everyone loves rewards, so reward yourself when you do hard things.
Mental Skills for Freezers:
Accept your fears: once you can accept you are scared, you will be able to tackle it easier.
Breath, Breath, Breath! Research breathing techniques and find one that alleviates your anxiety to a manageable level.
Key words: When we are faced with fear, our brain often thinks of worst case scenarios. Let's control your thoughts by giving your mind something to think about such as key words that describe the technique of the skill you are scared of.
Can I Be Truly Fearless?
We just discovered that fear is NORMAL and can only be MANAGED. Meaning, that we are never truly fearless because fear is a very natural response to our environment and situations. Once we can start to understand that we cannot get rid of fear but can learn how to put it in hibernation, we will be able to take control back and not let our fears rule our performances.
Now, TAKE ACTION and MANAGE your FEARS!!
Let's Get Mentally Fit!
Natalie Gurnett, M.S.
Psych Me Up Consulting
www.psychmeupconsulting.com
psychmeupconsulting@gmail.com
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