Why do athletes get stressed?

Why do athletes get stressed?
It is one of the main “problems” of athletes. It inhibits their functionality, “spoils” the experience of competitions, reduces their performance. The athlete “wishes” that the day of the competition would pass as quickly as possible. He feels a constant weight in the stomach, a knot in the neck, his body is heavy and he feels weak in any movement or, in another case, tension and hyperactivity. For the athlete, stress is one of the most inhibiting factors in terms of his performance.
The causes of stress are placed on an “imaginary line”, at the top of which are the chances of failure on the consequences of failure and at the bottom, the individual ability of the athlete on the support he receives. The “fraction” that is formed seems to be the basis of the thoughts that create stress in athletes. The thoughts “I am not ready”, “I am not well prepared”, “create” the possibility of failure, with thoughts about the “devastating” consequences of a defeat for the athlete’s personal image creating intense negative emotions. When at the same time he does not consider himself capable of meeting the requirements (ability) and does not have the corresponding support (coach-parents), the emotion intensifies in the negative direction.
To deal with anxiety, the goal is to reduce the numerator and increase the denominator!
The difficulty in dealing with anxiety by athletes is multiplied when the factor that could constitute their “support”, such as the coach or parents, is unintentionally “transferred” to the numerator of the fraction, now referred to as the exponents of the “consequences” of possible failure.
The difficulty of dealing with stress in sports through a “therapeutic” process is intensified as athletes compete almost weekly, so they are constantly exposed to the same stimulus, not having the time required to form a new structure of functional thoughts or to develop a way of managing situations by giving them a more adaptive interpretation.
Is there “therapy”?
The “therapy” of anxiety includes three basic stages: Accepting that “I have anxiety”, managing it (“I can compete even with anxiety”) and ultimately dealing with it, where the athlete’s functional thoughts are sought, in an attempt to “differentiate” his attitude towards himself and his environment.
The image and symptoms of anxiety, as it develops in the competitive environment, form a “special” condition of anxiety, where the “anxiety” intensifies as the competition approaches and is almost eliminated by the end of it. Until the next competitive obligation, where the image and symptoms will be the same or even more dysfunctional, the athlete has time to “work” his thoughts and appear more “optimistic”, investing in his psycho-spiritual improvement.

Giannis Zarotis MSc-PhD
Psychologist-Sports Psychologist