Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The arousal state or arousal level of an athlete is the state of mind or, better said,
the emotional state of an athlete during a competition. For example, feeling
excited or feeling pumped up before a game is your arousal state but so is feeling
laid back and calm. Not everyone performs at their best when they are in the same
emotional state. Some people have a peak performance or, so to say, are “in the
zone” when they are high on the adrenaline produced by the prospect of a
competition and feel like they can jump through the roof, whereas other people
perform better when they are calm, cool and feel in control of the situation.
Let’s put your arousal state on a scale of 0 – 10, 0 being so laid back that you’re
going to fall asleep and 10 is feeling so excited that you’re about to hyperventilate
and pass out.
Now for you to find on what arousal level you perform at your best, I’d like you to
close your eyes and recall a performance where you were in the zone, tuned in, or
whatever you want to call it. Everything you did turn out to be perfect like you
couldn’t make any mistakes. Now when you recall that performance, I want you
to try to remember what you were feeling: were you filled with adrenaline or were
you calm and in control? Try to rate your arousal state on the scale of 0 – 10 and
in that way, you can approximately estimate on what level you perform at your
best.
Now there is more than one way to control your arousal state. But I’m going to
talk about two different methods which you can use to help your arousal state rise
or fall.
Method 1. Now when you’re too hyped or too excited your heart rate increases. If
you feel the need to calm down because you’re not performing at your best and
you’re rushing everything you’re doing during the game, you can use deep
breathing to bring your heart rate down and calm yourself down. This will adjust
your arousal level. I would recommend taking a deep breath for 6 seconds, holding
it for 3 seconds and then exhaling for 6 seconds. This technique is very useful
before, for example, a free throw in basketball or a penalty kick in football, because
it helps you relax and think straight under pressure.
Method 2. Now if you’re feeling too calm, too laid back, yawning in the dressing
room and you want to motivate yourself or hype yourself up to get to your desired
arousal level, you can use self-talk. Self-talk is the dialogue that goes on inside your
head. Positive yet motivating self-talks can help you in various situations. Try to
think about why you are playing the game, what it means to you, what motivates
you, the sacrifices you have made to get there and so on. Doing that while listening
to music helps as well.
There are various reasons why one might feel pressure. In life and in sports, time,
expectations and financial issues usually cause this pressure. Also, a lot of the
pressure we feel is caused internally, meaning we put it on ourselves.
Understanding why we feel the way we do and why our body reacts the way it
does when we are about to compete in an important competition will help you
deal with the consequences better. The stress of a competition puts your body in
a fight or flight mode and this causes the body to release chemicals and hormones
to stimulate your muscles in reaction to harmful events or threats to survival. What
happens next is your heartbeat and respiration rate increase to provide your body
with more oxygen and energy. Adrenaline is pumped throughout your body. You
might start sweating and shaking because your muscles have tensed up. Your
pupils start to dilate so you can see and focus on your surroundings better.
Now your bodies reactions can have both positive and negative effects on your
performance. If you see the upcoming competition as a threat or a negative event
you will start to rush everything you re doing to get it over with, you will lose
control of your body and you won’t be able to focus on the tasks in hand. Your
bodies reaction to threat is oddly similar to when you are excited. In this case, if
you perceive the competition as a challenge rather than a threat you can use your
reactions such as the extra energy and oxygen or the adrenaline in your advantage.
It only depends on the way you interpret the situation.
It is easier said than done and that means you will have to work on it, here are
some techniques that could help you:
The 3 Cs: Check, challenge and control your thoughts. Meaning as soon as you start
feeling the pressure and the anxiety try to first examine what you are thinking
about, challenge your negative thoughts and try to control them by replacing
negative thoughts with positive ones.
Self-talk: self-talk is the dialogue that goes on inside your head. At times where
you are under pressure it is very useful to use positive self-talk such as reminding
yourself of your past positive performances where you were in the same situation
and try to shift your focus to the positive aspects of the competition.
Self-image: Self-image is the belief of an individual about themselves. The way you
think about yourself and the way you see yourself as an athlete can have a lot
impact on your performance. So, try to build your self-image in order to perform
well under pressure.
Another method you could use is to imagine someone else in the exact same
situation you are in and then start to analyze the circumstances. We tend to make
a big deal out of a situation when we are in it rather than making a realistic
assessment of it. So, this method helps you make a neutral and logical analysis and
makes it easier for you to process the facts.
Setting Goal
Your Ultimate Goal: your goal on who you want to become, what you want to
achieve and how you want to achieve it.
Product/outcome Goals: are what you need to accomplish in order to reach
your ultimate goal. They are the results, the end products.
Process Goals: are completely under your control. They are the actions you
must take in order to reach your outcome goals and finally your ultimate goal.
Now here is an example for you to understand the goals better.
Let’s say your dream is to become an NBA professional basketball player (that’s
your ultimate goal). In order to become an NBA professional there are few things
you need to accomplish. For example, making your high school varsity team,
performing well enough to get offers from well known colleges and then
performing better than almost 99% of the other college basketball players in the
country to get drafted by an NBA team (these are all your product/outcome goals).
So, for you to accomplish all those outcome goals you will need to make sacrifices
such as going to sleep early, not going to parties, doing extra practice sessions on
your own, waking up early to go for a run, eating healthy and so on (these are your
process goals).
If you want to be successful you will need to identify your ultimate goal early on,
break them down to product and process goals and finally focus only on the
process goals. As mentioned before process goals are the only goals that are fully
under our control, you focus on them you will automatically achieve your outcome
goals with time. Plus, you reward yourself according to your progress which helps
you not get discouraged early in your career. Goals are just dreams with plan.
Identifying and breaking down your goals helps you find a clear path to your
dreams no matter how out of reach those dreams may look at the start.
Pico estado emocional de atletismo
Las 3 Cs: comprueba, desafía y controla tus pensamientos. Es decir, tan pronto
como empieces a sentir la presión y la ansiedad, trata de examinar primero lo que
estás pensando, desafía tus pensamientos negativos y trata de controlarlos
reemplazando los pensamientos negativos por positivos.
Hablar con uno mismo: hablar con uno mismo es el diálogo que se desarrolla
dentro de tu cabeza. En los momentos en los que está bajo presión, es muy útil
usar una conversación positiva con uno mismo, como recordarse de sus pasadas
actuaciones positivas en las que estuvo en la misma situación e intentar cambiar
su enfoque hacia los aspectos positivos de la competencia.
Otro método que podrías usar es imaginar a alguien más en la misma situación en
la que te encuentras y luego comenzar a analizar las circunstancias. Tendemos a
hacer una gran parte de la situación cuando estamos en ella en lugar de hacer una
evaluación realista de la situación. Por lo tanto, este método lo ayuda a realizar un
análisis neutral y lógico y le facilita el procesamiento de los hechos.
Estableciendo la meta
No importa en qué campo, tener metas es necesario si desea tener éxito, puede
ser deporte, negocios o relaciones. Necesitas establecer metas si quieres lograr
algo en tu vida. Las metas te mantienen enfocado y te dan un patrón para lo que
debes trabajar. Las metas le darán a tu vida una estructura. Le ayudará a tomar las
decisiones correctas para acercarse a sus sueños. Si tiene una meta, sabrá cómo
gastar su energía, conocimientos y habilidades de manera adecuada. En otras
palabras, hará que el camino a tus sueños sea mucho más claro. Tener metas en
la vida te da un sentido de propósito y alegría. A pesar de que establecer objetivos
siempre es útil, cuanto más efectivo sea el establecimiento de objetivos, más le
ayudará a lo largo de su carrera.
• Objetivos del proceso: están completamente bajo su control. Son las acciones
que debe tomar para alcanzar sus objetivos de resultados y, finalmente, su
objetivo final.
Ahora aquí hay un ejemplo para que entiendas mejor los objetivos.