MANAGING STRESS IN SPORTS

Sport is a great way to have fun while staying fit. Sport also teaches important life lessons, such as:

• Teamwork
• Learn to be a good athlete
• Overcome challenges
• Control your emotions
• Be proud of your achievements

But it is not always easy to control things when it seems that winning is everything. Having a healthy attitude towards sport and learning to manage the stress associated with competition can help you to perform better in sport.

Assess your stress levels

Competing is always associated with a certain level of stress . And that can be good because a little stress helps the body cope with the challenges. But too much stress can take the fun out of sports and hinder performance. Aside from competing, there are other things that can make athletes feel stressed, such as the following:

• Too much pressure from their parents or coaches to win
• an overload of sports activities
• not wanting to practice a specific sport

If you think that competing is too stressful for you, talk to your parents and your coach.There are some changes that can help you. Try the following:

• Shift the focus from winning to trying your best and being positive.
• Take a look at your schedule. If you have a too tight schedule, think about reducing training time or doing only one sport or activity per season.
• If you want to stop practicing a certain sport forever, talk to your parents about it and make a decision together.

Ways to manage stress in sports

In sports there will always be some stress; therefore, it is important to know how to handle it. If you try several different techniques when you play sports, it can help you know which one works best for you.

You can try the following techniques:

Deep Breathing: Take a deep breath in, hold your breath for about five seconds, and then slowly breathe out. Repeat the exercise five times.

Muscle relaxation: forcefully contracts a group of muscles. Hold them contracted for about five seconds and then relax them. Repeat the exercise five times, and then switch to a different muscle group.

Go to a happy place: imagine a place or situation calm and full of peace. And imagine that stress is fading from your body.

Visualize success: imagine you make a good pass, a good shot, or score a goal.

Mindfulness or mindfulness: focus on the present instead of worrying about the future or the past.

Have a routine - focus on the routine to keep stress under control.

Think positive and develop positive speech with yourself: To help keep negative ideas well out of your mind, repeat phrases like these to yourself: "I learn from my mistakes," "I control how I feel," "I can score this goal! "

To keep your stress level low when you're not competing, you should:

• Eat well and get enough sleep , especially before games.
• Do something fun and relaxing. Take a break from competition, taking a walk, riding a bike, going to the movies, or hanging out with your friends.
• Remember that no one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes in sports: mistakes are part of the game. Quickly forgive yourself for the mistakes you make and move on.

Playing sports consists of staying active, feeling proud, developing as a player and making friends. And above all, regardless of whether you play on an elite team or improvised games on weekends, the key is to have fun. By keeping that as a priority, you can learn to manage stress, which is a natural part of competition.