Two Types of Stress

Stress can be classified into two different types. One is called "state stress," and the other type is labeled "trait stress." State stress is caused by a situation or event. Trait stress is caused by a person's personality or thinking style. It is common for athletes to experience situational stress. As a matter of fact, a little stress helps you. It gets you warmed up and ready to go! The problem starts when you have so much stress that it begins to overtake your planning and causes you to have a shift in focus to inappropriate topics and concerns. Many athletes actually begin to worry about their worrying!

Physical and Mental Stress

Stress shows itself in two ways in the athlete, physical and mental stress. In physical stress, the athlete begins to "feel" nervous. The signs are cold hands, butterflies, and jumpiness. In mental stress, the athlete starts to have negative self-talk or doubt. Either of these situations can become the focus of your attention and interfere with the ability to perform.

Where Stress Comes From

Stress comes from you! Yes, it is produced by you, so you can control it. Now, that may sound a little strange. Stress is caused by many things: boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, coaches, parents, lack of money, school, big competition, etc. Stress comes from all sorts of things in our lives. Research has shown that some people are bothered by certain situations, while others have no problem in the same situation.

Nothing is particular causes stress. Stress is caused by how you perceive an idea, requirement or expectation. It is really in how you interpret the event or situation.

So any stress you feel is caused by how you are looking at the situation. It is coming from your picture of how things should be, and what you think needs to be. By placing such values on an idea you begin to produce tension, stress, anxiety, or pressure.

Another common problem with athletes, is that we are always looking into the future, wondering about what will happen. We have no control over the future, so it can make us worry about the uncertainty. This builds stress. You can see as athletes we have a great opportunity to build a lot of stress into our lives.

What You Can Do

What can you do if you feel to much stress?

• Understand that you are making the stress.
• Step back and identify what you are stressing over.
• Look for situations to that specific problem (what do I want to do about it?)
• Get to work on the solution.
• If there is not an immediate solution, then tell yourself to let it go.
• Refocus on an idea or thought that will help you.

By understanding that you are in control, you are a step closer to actually being in control. You have the power, so use it!