Manage your game day nerves

Relieving Sport Performance Anxiety for Athletes

In Frisco, TX and Plano, TX

Are you overwhelmed by the pressure you feel to play your best?

The racing thoughts, butterflies and stage fright are holding you back as a player. Some days you feel uneasy, concerned, and burdened by playing your sport. Other days you feel fine and think less of yourself for struggling so much. You don't know how to calm yourself and the game doesn't slow down to let you catch your breath.

Performance anxiety affects everyone differently. Maybe it's an uneasy feeling in the time leading up to competition. Or you feel your heartbeat racing from the start to the finish. It could be a sense of panic when the game comes to you and the ball is in your hands.

You want to be cool, calm, and collected. But you feel such a weight when it's time to perform. You wish this uncomfortable feeling would go away on its own. You feel like no one understands how much pressure you're under.

Your talent is taking a back seat to the mounting stress which is now driving how you play. All your energy goes into trying to relax in the moment. You're reaching a point where you don't even know what it's like to play without these nerves.

You feel broken for not being able to control what's happening. It seems like teammates and opponents can play unbothered. What you don't see is under the surface, everyone has adrenaline pumping through their body. I want you to know that you can be stressed on game day and play under control. In order to make it happen you have to learn which beliefs are setting the stakes so high and what strategies can alleviate the stress you feel.

Identify

Identify the thoughts that are creating an overwhelming amount of stress.

Challenge

Challenge the idea that pressure is a bad thing.

Learn

Learn the timely strategies you can use to intervene when you just need to slow down.

Transfer

Transfer the techniques you've learned from coaching sessions into your practice and ultimately your competitions.

Coaching for sport performance anxiety can help you

  • Identify the roots of your pressure

  • Improve your ability to calm yourself in the moment

  • Choose effective strategies for dealing with pressure

  • Stop feeling overwhelmed in big moments

  • Feel more calm, poised and relaxed.

  • Navigate the sensations in your body

It’s possible to manage your pressure and even use it to your advantage

FAQs

Q: How do I know if I have performance anxiety?

A: Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state or condition that is felt and includes a physiological response along with tension, worry and apprehension. Performance anxiety can be a cognitive and somatic experience that is dictated by the relationship between our trait anxiety and our state anxiety. In other words, you may experience mental and physical symptoms related to how anxious you are in general and how anxious you are about the specific sports situation affecting you. You can experience stress and physiological arousal in sports but not have performance anxiety. There is a full spectrum of thoughts, feelings, and physical reactions you can have in sport. Mental performance coaching can help you learn to regulate yourself.

Q:What are mental performance coaching sessions like?

A: Coaching sessions are 30-60 minutes. It will feel like we are having a discussion about you. At times it may seem like a classroom while you're learning new skills. But it will always come back to a conversation about you.

Q: How long do I need to be in coaching?

A: Coaching sessions are a proactive resource to support high performing individuals. You may see progress quickly in a few sessions but it may also come over a longer period of time. If you're thinking about making a change then we would begin by working together to create a plan for how you will achieve your desired result. You will take action on the plan we've created and we'll work on any roadblocks or setbacks you encounter. After a maintenance period where you've applied changes to your life we will then decide to end our sessions. You will always be welcomed back if you need to revisit our work together or if you encounter a new challenge that you'd like to work on..

Q: How do I know if this is working for me?

A: The best way to know if this is working, is for you to notice yourself in the moment thinking or behaving in the way that you'd like to change. Awareness of ourselves making a mistake precedes the actual behavior change that replaces the mistake. You may say to yourself ""oh no! I'm making that mistake again."" Don't beat yourself up. You're making progress in doing the work by identifying the unhelpful thinking. This is a sign that change is on the horizon..

Q: How often will we meet?

A: Frequency of sessions is determined by each individual's schedule and season. However, it is consistency not frequency that will make the most impact. Meeting weekly allows for us to do the most work. Meeting bi-weekly or after competitions allows for you to build up content for us to work on.