Stress Exposure Training

Retrieved form http://ruthcumu.bl.ee/

The purpose of practice is to be able to prepare and improve performance in the trained area. It is common to practice factors such as muscle movement, strategy and procedure in order to perform better on game day. One of the major factors of the game that often goes untrained, is stress.  Most coaches and athletes neglect to train for stressful situations that occur in a game. Stress can lead to a number of undesirable consequences, including heightened anxiety and decrements in performance2. Athletes cannot perform well under game day stress, if they’ve never developed the tools to handle game situations. Stress exposure training can provide athletes with the tools they need to perform under game day conditions. These are the three main phases of stress exposure training; Information Provision, Skills Acquisition, and Application and Practice 1.

Phase 1: Information Provision

The goal of the initial phase of stress training is to provide preparatory information 1. Preparatory information helps prepare the athlete for what they will feel, see and think in a stressful situation. A comprehensive preparatory information strategy should provide information on the nature of the stress environment and typical physiological, emotional, and cognitive reactions to stress. This phase should also include informing the athletes on how stress is likely to affect their performance, and how the athlete may adapt to these changes 2.

Phase 2: Skills Acquisition

The objective of the second phase of stress exposure training is skill acquisition and rehearsal. The goal of the training of this stage is to build high performance skills that are required to maintain effective performance under stress 1. A number of stress training strategies or techniques may be incorporated in this phase of training. These may include the training of general skills such as cognitive control or physiological control strategies to more task-specific training strategies such as decision making training 1.

Phase 3: Application and Practice

The final phase of training involves “practice under pressure”, in which athletes are put under realistic demands during a controlled setting 1. In this phase, athletes have a chance to practice high performance skills under stresses of game-like conditions. This training allows the athlete to practice of skills under realistic conditions to build confidence to perform 1.

Stress increases distraction, fear and anxiety and decreases attention focus. Stress has gone untrained for far too long. Effective stress exposure training can develop the capacity to perform skills in realistic, high-stress settings. This systematic approach of incorporating stress exposure into normal training procedures can prepare an athlete to deal with the negative effects of stress on game day.

References

1 Driskell, T., Sclafani, S., & Driskell, J. E. (2014). Reducing the Effects of Game Day Pressures through Stress Exposure Training. Journal Of Sport Psychology In Action, 5(1), 28-43.

2 Inzana, C. M., Driskell, J. E., Salas, E., & Johnston, J. H. (1996). Effects of Preparatory Information on Enhancing Performance Under Stress. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 429-435.