In this article, we take a look at factors that cause the so called “butterflies in the stomach" just before a match or tournament.
• Nervousness, anxiety
• Stress, mental burnout
We all recognize butterflies in the stomach as that funny feeling brought on by nervous anticipation, fear, or anxiety. Fear, anxiety, and nervousness all sound very similar, but each of these works slightly different on mental processes. They don't mean the same thing.
• Nervousness - Jitters, uneasy
• Fear - Dread the outcome
• Anxiety - Constant worry
Nervousness is a feeling of being unsure and uncertain of yourself. It's also called the 'Jitters: You feel edgy and jumpy at the slightest provocation and are unable to relax and deliver the right moves.
Fear is a feeling of dread centered on the anticipation of bad outcomes: injury, failure to win, the loss, of face if your performance is poor, and so on.
Anxiety is a nagging feeling of continuous and relentless apprehension. You constantly and incessantly worry about the eminent match. You become overly judgmental about yourself and the game. You worry about;
• whether your preparation was adequate to handle the challenges in the match
• whether you can handle your moves effectively
• whether your defense will be effective
• your timing
• the size of your opponent
• the greater experience that your opponent has
Just about any of the above or a combination of the above that bothers you even mildly can become a cause for worry when anxiety sets in. Excessive judgmental thinking about your preparation or performance precipitates anxiety and leads to an irrational level of insecurity. These insecurities set in motion stressful thoughts and stress.
Purveyors of stress
• A person who experiences anxiety, fear or nervousness is laying the field open for stress. These feelings create pressure and lead to the onset of stress that can be harmful to the psyche and affect the ability to play to potential.
• A person who has had a long spell of matches and tournaments spanning several months with hardly any breaks in-between is also laying the field open for stress. To deal with this type of stress you need to go through periodic phases of recovery and renewal.
What is Stress?
Stress is a form of straining the nervous system with thought processes to which a person cannot find immediate answers or solutions. The word tension is often used in the context of stress. The mind can handle a certain amount of worry and fear and take it in stride. This is the usual pregame mild tension caused by the waiting, the challenge, and the suspense. But stress is a state where you have worked yourself, up to such a high extent that the mind is pulled to its limits, and continued endurance of these negative thoughts leads to a heightened tense condition.
Effects of Stress
Stress manifests itself as headaches, low mental energy, irritability, outbursts, overeating and other undesirable effects that often go unnoticed and are rarely identified as stress. The person becomes extremely sensitive or high-strung.
If proper care isn't taken to deal with stress, it can explode when a person is unable to handle the internal pressure anymore. You have to find a stress buster that can keep you in a composed state prior to an event.
Identifying causes of stress
When you start experiencing headaches, low mental energy, or irritability and recognize it as a stress symptom, you should think back on the reasons for the stress. What exactly is the cause of your anxiety? When you identity it, you may at times be able to address it through your training by spending more time practicing techniques and styles or spending more time on visualization. Despite thorough preparation, if you continue to worry and feel stressed-out, then you should use stress busters to help you de-stress.
Effect of Stress on Your Game
Stress can
• affect your judgment
• reduces spontaneity
• cause panic
• affects concentration
• creates feelings of inadequacy
• reduces ability to think coherently
• can lead to mental burnout
Stress can affect your Judgment - Your judgment is your biggest asset during fights. Stress reduces your capacity to judge the situation clearly. Your shrewdness and level-headedness go for a toss, and you are unable to execute perfect timing or use the right moves due to a sense of indecisiveness.
Stress reduces spontaneity - Instead of instinctive, spontaneous, or quick effective action, stress can either bring on tentative behavior or rash and reckless behavior when faced with tough situations on the mat.
Stress can cause panic - Panic can start just before a game begins or the day before or even during a game. Panic has a paralyzing effect and manifests itself in a feeling that you just cannot handle the match.
Stress affects concentration - Just like anger can cloud the mind and affect concentration, stress can also affect you ability to concentrate, since you reach a breaking point and your ability to give the game your complete involvement is reduced. Distractions can also affect you a lot more when you are stressed-out and your irritation levels go up.
Stress creates feelings of Inadequacy - Your anxieties and fears that brought on stress can translate into feelings of inadequacy and you are unable to rise to the challenges of the game.
Stress reduces ability to think coherently - When the mind is tired, anxious, and in a state of confusion, it gets reflected in incoherent thinking and irrational behavior.
Stress can lead to mental burnout - Mental burnout is a state where you mental energies are at low levels because the stressful thoughts take up all the energy that you would otherwise channel toward game-related thoughts.
Mental Burnout
Mental burnout is a function of stress, and stress is caused by negative thoughts. When you think too much about results, it leads to anxiety and tension. When negative thoughts play around in your mind, the stress converts into continuous tension or an all-pervading tense feeling. Tense feelings can lead to a headache and there you are, burning away your mental energies on negativity rather than positive thinking that can charge you up for the game.
Burnout experiences are apathy, fatigue, feeling of being overtaken by others, inability to learn and assimilate new techniques, and playing moves that you are comfortable with rather then rising to changing challenges.
You cannot afford to burn out your mental energies even before you enter the arena, but that is what happens if your anxieties take over and turn you into an emotional wreck in the minutes before you start your game. You have to make a conscious effort to maintain your emotional balance.
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