:: Pressure Explained ::

So many athletes have dreams of playing their sport at an elite level, yet so few get that opportunity to complete their dream. There have been many athletes who have had all the talent and athletic ability, yet have been unable to perform when it matters. Why is it that we fail when it matters?

I mean, in principle, excelling is quite simple. Excelling is about having a clear idea of what you want to do, acting on that idea, working hard and not giving up until you make it happen. However, for many of us, something comes between what we would like to see happen or accomplish in our careers and what we actually make happen. That something is often pressure.

To illustrate what happens, think about this example for a second. It’s the final game of the playoffs for the team, with less than a minute left, and the score is 2-1. The goaltender’s team has just been called for a penalty. The goaltender has been solid all season, including the current game, yet like many competitors, the goaltender’s past has been overshadowed by playing too tight, trying too hard, and becoming distracted when the game is on the line. It is not that he does not win. In fact, the opposite is true. This goaltender plays because he wants to feel what it is to win something. As he prepares for the upcoming faceoff, he desperately wants to make some big saves to prove that he too can play when the game matters. The building is loud. The pressure is enormous.

The goaltender above is one of my clients and he shares some characteristics with many of my clients who have experienced success. That is they all want - to succeed, to win and to feel what it is like to reach their goals. In doing so, they repeatedly face the challenge of having to perform and excel in high-pressure situations. At one time or another, many great athletes will experience what it is like to have experienced tension, pressure, anxiety and stress and how they can alter their ability to read the play, destroy their confidence, affect their decision making processes and limit their performance.

To understand pressure, we must first look at how our brain functions within sport. The brain operates at both an instinctive and a highly conscious level. The instinctive part of the brain is the action brain. It doesn’t think. It simply reacts to what is going on. This part of the brain receives the message, relays the message, and acts quickly. The second part of the brain is the conscious part; that is the part of our brain that sets goals, analyzes what we do or didn’t do, interprets, imagines, affirms, reasons, adjusts and responds. The conscious brain is the part of the brain that tells you it’s a bad idea to cheat or to block the opposing player because you will take a penalty.

When we’re playing at our best, there’s an effective and shared control between the instinctive brain and the conscious brain. However, most athletes do not experience, and very few can honestly say they experience this on a nightly basis. Instead, there are times when we get frightened, nervous or tense up, when the conscious brain overanalyzes and over-responds to incoming messages. We think too much, we say negative things to ourselves or interrupt the flow of the signal coming in and reaction to the signal going out. There are times when we try too hard, ignore our instincts and worry about things going wrong, instead of focusing on being effective and embracing the moment. This decline in performance is the result of what is known as pressure.

The problem with pressure is that it is a personal phenomenon. Many different situations can trigger pressure and pressure feels different to each of us. I often ask teams what does pressure feel like to you? Among the answers I get are, “It feels terrible,” “I feel pressure as a tightness in my neck and shoulders,” “I feel irritable,” “I tense up and stop breathing,” “ I feel it in my stomach,” “I can’t eat,” and “I grind my teeth.”

Many athletes experience pressure in a different way, some subtle and some more within ones conscious mind. The fact is that much of the pressure which athletes experience before working with me goes undetected. They don’t even understand that they have a problem often because the pressure is like a ninja who quickly attacks without his enemy being aware of his presence.

The goaltender at the start of this article won the game and was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament. In discussion with him, he could barely even talk. He was on cloud nine because he had realized his dreams. My job is to breed success, to help my clients experience success and excel in their sport. To do that, I work with both the mind and the body. I coach my athletes how to control their breathing and how to release tension, fear and worry and limiting thoughts. I coach them to take control of the situation and to tune into and focus on their thoughts, images and feelings that give them power and allow them to react to the play instead of thinking about what they must do.

My clients experience success because they possess the emotional and mind-body control to integrate and implement their dreams into their sport and make them a reality. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to email me at ssmith@absolutementaltraining.com at any time.