Why do athletes underperform — and how to cope with stress?

In the men's singles table tennis quarter-finals of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Zhang Jike was in a daze after the match started, which led to a poor performance in the first game. This also reminds us that many athletes will perform poorly after entering the court, and even have various problems due to excessive pressure.

American scholar Grupo once said: "For beginners and intermediate athletes, 80% depends on biomechanical factors and 20% on psychological factors; while for advanced athletes, it is the opposite, 80% depends on psychological factors and 20% depends on biomechanical factors." Olympic decathlon champion Luna once said: "In track and field competitions at the Olympic level, psychological problems account for 80% and physical problems account for 20%." British swimming team head coach Gan Lier also said: "Psychological training increases the good performance of swimmers by 10%-20%." Although the scientificity and accuracy of these statements have yet to be verified by empirical research, the objective facts and phenomena they express are obvious to all. The competitive performance of high-level athletes is closely related to the pressure they are under.

In psychology, stress is divided into eustress and malignant stress. Eustress is a term used to describe moderate stress. Unlike malignant stress, which causes unhappiness and frustration, eustress can motivate a person to continue to enjoy the pleasure of action and ultimately achieve greater satisfaction. Just as some types of stress can improve a person's emotional and physical health, some types of stress can also lead to depression, anxiety, and apathy.

Psychologists Yerkes and Dudson summarized a rule through experimental research: there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between stress and performance. A moderate level of stress can bring performance to its peak, while too little or too much stress will reduce work efficiency. This is used to explain the relationship between psychological stress, work difficulty and homework performance, and it is also suitable for athletes.

So how do athletes adjust when faced with pressure?

The most important thing to deal with stress is to relieve tension. In life, you can use music regulation and breathing regulation. A study conducted by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that some people who listened to music after a stressful period were more likely to relieve stress than those who did not listen to music after a stressful period. In another study by this group of researchers: listening to music is an effective way to reduce cortisol levels in the long term, and cortisol is a hormone that is usually released by the brain when we experience stress. This shows that music has a good effect on relieving athletes' pre-game tension and regulating stress. If athletes want to relieve stress, they can soak their feet before going to bed and listen to soothing classical music or light music; if they want to cheer up before the game, listening to some fast electronic music or hip-hop music is a good choice.

Breathing regulation is a method of relieving tension through the rhythm of breathing. When athletes are under pressure during a game, their breathing cycle will become disordered and their heart rate will accelerate, thus affecting their performance. Therefore, when you are too nervous, you can practice slow inhalation and exhalation to relax your body and concentrate your mind. On the contrary, when you are depressed, you can practice strong and deep breathing to achieve emotional excitement.

For athletes, it is the top priority of each national team and the top priority of training and preparation to correctly view the negative emotions such as fear, anxiety and panic brought about by the competition, adjust their mentality, and resume normal and orderly preparation and training as soon as possible.

References

[1] Helsing, M. (2012). Everyday music listening: the importance of individual and situational factors for musical emotions and stress reduction.

[2] Yang Shu, Zhang Zhongqiu. Effects of mindfulness cognitive intervention training on psychological indicators related to stress coping in high-level athletes[J]. Chinese Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014(3):214-223.