Stress Exposure Training; Phase 2: Skills Acquisition

Stress is a major factor of gameday performance. Stress can lead to a number of undesirable consequences, including heightened anxiety and decrements in performance. 2 Unfortunately, many athletes are unprepared to handle the stressful conditions that game day presents because it often goes untrained. A solution to this problem is stress exposure training (SET). SET can provide athletes with the tools they need to be able to perform under stressful conditions. SET is a systematic approach of incorporating stress exposure into normal training procedures to prepare athletes to deal with the negative effects of game day stress. 1 This blog will discuss the second phase of SET, and present an effective strategy to build attentional focus.

Purpose of Skills Acquisition:

The second phase of stress exposure training is skills acquisition. The primary goal of this phase is to build high performance skills that are required to perform effectively under stress 1. In order to build these skills, coaches and athletes employ stress training strategies and techniques. Some training strategies that are could be used during this phase are cognitive control strategies, physiological control strategies, and attention-related strategies 1, 2.

Attentional Focus Training:

Attentional focus training is an effective training strategy that can be used at any level of performance. The goal of this training is to effectively focus on directing our attention to valuable sources of information or stimuli. 2 During competition, an athlete may become overwhelmed with information and stimuli. An athlete can become stressed and thus become distracted and lose focus on what information is relevant and important. Attentional focus training helps athletes be flexible in where to focus their attention. Effective attentional focus training should provide the athlete with what stimuli to focus on, what to focus on next, and what to ignore.2 Repetition is key in attentional focus  training.

The goal of skills acquisition is to build high performance skills that are required to perform effectively under stress through the use of stress training strategies and techniques. One useful stress training strategy is attentional focus training. This can help athletes focus on important information while under high pressure environments.

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 Cutton, D. M., & Hearon, C. M. (2013). Applied Attention-Related Strategies for

Coaches. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 4(1), 5–13.