Since we are only human, made of flesh and blood, emotions will always be present in any activity where people compete. However, managing those very emotions can sometimes cause significant problems for us on the sports field. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a tennis player named Marko as an example. Marko’s issue is high anxiety (tension), which occurs before and during matches. How does this anxiety affect Marko’s game? <\/p>\n
Marko’s arousal can lead to an increase in anaerobic power, which in turn can result in improved execution of simple tasks (e.g., hitting a harder shot). However, at the same time, this same arousal can increase muscular tension for Marko, negatively impacting his movements and making his shots less precise. <\/p>\n
Emotions can also affect focus and decision-making. High arousal leads to a narrowing of attentional focus, which is undesirable if it becomes directed toward irrelevant cues (e.g., Marko focuses on a questionable call by the referee instead of his next serve). At the same time, we find it harder to make decisions in a state of heightened emotional intensity due to the impact emotions have on memory. For instance, an anxious Marko will more easily recall all the double faults he has made on his serve rather than the aces he delivered. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, displaying emotions influences the judgment of other people, including the perception of our opponents. In this scenario, Marko’s opponent might conclude, for example, that Marko is insecure, thereby boosting their own self-confidence. What can we do then to manage our emotions and, consequently, our performance? <\/p>\n
We can manage emotions by utilizing various strategies:<\/p>\n
Ultimately, we can conclude that the goal of emotional regulation is to create a positive emotional experience. In fact, enjoying the task and the process is key to long-term persistence in achieving goals, both in sports and in life, because “You will play only as well as you enjoy the game, and not the other way around\u2014that you will enjoy it only if you play well.” (I. \u0160ari\u0107).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emotions will always be present in any activity where people compete. However, managing those very emotions can sometimes cause significant problems for us on the sports field. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[127,125],"class_list":["post-10839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes","tag-emotional-regulation","tag-focus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n