Coping with pressure

Pressure manifests itself in many ways and in general, will affect logical thinking and optimum performance. The aim of this section is to pass on knowledge to assist everyone to cope and perform better under pressure.

There are good and poor ways of coping with pressure.

Recognising Pressure Symptoms
  • There are external and internal sources of serious pressure
  • Pressure breaks your attention span leading to a lapse in concentration
Pressures usually and almost always cause feelings of:
  • A lack of control over the situation
  • Tightness of your muscles and breathing
  • Loss of feeling for the game, its values and participants
This results in:
  • Loss of basic technique and discipline
  • Complete breakdown in skills
Results of handling pressure well
  • THOUGHTS are positive, confident and flowing in accord with the game
  • FEELINGS are calm and in control with a sense of enjoyment and anticipation without effort
  • FOCUS - on the 'here and now', looking for the seam on the ball and wanting the next decision to be yours
Results of badly-handled pressure
  • THOUGHTS are negative, overloaded with information, easily distracted
  • FEELINGS - tense, heavy, tired - lack of motivation or goals
  • FOCUS - looking ahead at the score, result or back to possible mistake, weather conditions noise or captains' reports on your performance
Impact of anxiety on performance

One of the most frequent causes of poor concentration and therefore a build-up of pressure is anxiety. Under normal conditions, attention is continually shifting back and forth across a variety of wavelengths.
Under pressure, three things happen:
  • Attention becomes inflexible
  • Attention becomes narrow
  • Attention becomes more internally focused
Dealing with the impact of anxiety
  • Realise that you must have flexibility to be able to deal with pressure
  • If you allow your attention to narrow, the pressure mounts and it becomes difficult to attend to several things at a time. This is the most dangerous period
  • You feel rushed, overloaded and it results in poor decision-making
SYMPTOMS:
  • Increased heart rate
  • Lump in the throat
  • Upset stomach
  • Withdrawal or reluctance to talk to players
Try these simple suggestions:
  • Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent
  • Relax your neck and shoulder muscles
  • Direct your thoughts inward and realise how tense the rest of your body may be
  • Try to breathe normally
  • Feel the heaviness that occurs
  • Now take a deep slow breath (at least 5 seconds) and feel the tension leave
  • Continue with a few more deep breaths. Clear your mind of irrelevant thoughts
  • Focus on the next ball
Thought Control - turning negative thoughts into positive ones

      POSITIVE      "Nobody likes it but I can cope with it"

      NEGATIVE      "I can't stand this pressure"

      NEGATIVE      "I hope I don't make any mistakes"

      POSITIVE      "Stay calm and watch the ball"