Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

stage of skill acquisition. By the way, some helpful practical tips on how to counteract
choking are provided by Coop and Mortice (2002). This leads us to the next section of
the chapter which explains how athletes can learn to control anxiety and cope with
pressure situations in sport.

Controlling anxiety in sport: coping with pressure situations

Given the ubiquity of performance anxiety in sport, it is not surprising that psychologists
have devised a variety of strategies in an effort to reduce athletes’ pre-competitive
anxiety levels. Before describing these techniques, however, we need to explain two key
points. First, we must distinguish between pressure situations and pressure reactions in
sport. This distinction is extremely important in applied sport psychology because
athletes need to be trained to understand that they do not automatically have to
experience “pressure” (i.e., an anxiety response) in pressure situations. Second, we need
to understand what effective anxiety control or “coping” involves psychologically. In this
regard, coping usually refers to any efforts which a person makes to master, reduce or
otherwise tolerate pressure. These efforts fall into two main categories. On the one hand,
some athletes like to confront the pressure situation directly. This strategy is known as
“problem-focused” coping and involves such activities as obtaining as much information
as possible about the pressure to be faced or forming a plan of action designed to reduce
it. Alternatively, in “emotion-focused” coping, sports performers actively seek to change
their interpretation of, and reaction to, the pressure situation in question. Therefore, they
may use one of the many intervention strategies recommended by sport psychologists for
anxiety reduction (see Gordin, 1998; Williams and Harris, 1998). Typically, problem-
focused coping techniques are advisable when preparing for controllable sources of
pressure whereas emotion-focused strategies are usually more appropriate when the
pressure situation is uncontrollable.
With these two ideas in mind—that pressure lies in the mind of the beholder and that
different strategies are available to facilitate active coping—here is a summary of some
of the most popular techniques used by athletes to deal with unwanted anxiety in sport.

Understanding the experience of pressure

According to psychologists, we experience pressure and concomitant anxiety symptoms
whenever we believe that a current or impending situation threatens us in some way. For
example, a soccer player might be apprehensive about making a mistake in an important
match in front of his or her home supporters. Alternatively, a swimmer may feel tense at
the prospect of competing under the watchful eye of a feared coach. More generally,
whenever there is a discrepancy between what we think we can do (i.e., our assessment of
our own abilities) and what we believe we are expected to do (i.e., the perceived demands
of the situation), we put ourselves under pressure. Psychologically, therefore, pressure is
a subjective interpretation of certain objective circumstances (the “pressure situation”).
Another point to note is that although we cannot change a pressure situation, we can
change our reaction to it. Specifically, by restructuring the situation in our minds, we can
learn to interpret it as a challenge to our abilities rather than as a threat to our well-being.

"Psyching up" and "calming down": anxiety in sport 89