Being an elite athlete can produce significant stress for teenagers who
participate in highly competitive sports. A lot of the stress comes from
pressure that they put on themselves and pressure that they experience
from coaches, media, parents and peers.
Many fine athletes who have I counseled suffer from significant anxiety, depression,
insomnia and stress. Some competitors have difficulty managing their feelings on and off
the athletic field.
Several years ago, I conducted a seminar for athletes who wanted to better
manage the stress they were experiencing in their athletic lives and their
personal lives. I emphasized several skills that athletes needed to learn
to better manage stress. I tried to teach these skills to the athletes in
a very simple way. The tools I spoke about were:
1. I taught the athletes some basic relaxation, visualization and self-hypnotic
techniques. These techniques can be found on my Stay In The Zone
CD program. For more information on this go to:
https://stayinthezone.com/get_stay.htm
2. I taught them how to utilize humor to relax and place the sport in a
reasonable and positive perspective:
3. I explained that certain parts of their physical work outs could be
used as stress reduction tools.
4. I equipped the athletes with some skills for being less self-critical and for
managing difficult parents, coaches, teammates and competitors more
effectively. In short, I provided them a new and healthier philosophy
for managing people.
For more information about stress management for athletes, sports
psychology, and counseling for athletes, coaches and parents by
phone, visit https://stayinthezone.com/
Jay P. Granat, Ph.D. is a Psychotherapist and the Founder of
StayInTheZone.com. He can be reached at 888 580-ZONE.