By Jackson Kreuser
(September 7, 2022)

Imagine being the number one ranked player in the nation at only eighteen years old. Imagine people saying that you could be the greatest basketball player of all time. Now envision articles coming out in the media saying that if you do not become one of the greatest players to ever play, you will be written down as a draft bust. Picture entire cities placing bets on how you will play and the successes you will potentially have. Entire media outlets claim that you are “The Chosen One.” All of this pressure is being placed on the shoulders of a young eighteen-year-old boy. This is the background to LeBron James’ life. He was the number one player in the country coming out of high school and had extremely high expectations set for him by everyone that followed basketball. Incredibly, the eighteen-year-old managed to surpass expectations. He dealt with the pressures, managed the stressors, and became even more than people thought (Katz, 2017).

Sadly, this is not common in sports. LeBron James is an anomaly. Most players who have to deal with this kind of stress and pressure tend to underperform and not live up to expectations, especially if the stress is placed on the shoulders of a young athlete. Just in basketball, players like Kwame Brown, Sam Bowie, and Anthony Bennett are examples of athletes who did not live up to expectations. There are countless other examples of players in other sports who underperformed throughout their careers because of stress.

Pressure and stress may not affect an athlete in the entirety of their career, but it may affect them in certain moments throughout their career. It is in these moments that an athlete may feel immense pressure to succeed causing their performance to drop. If athletes are unable to work through emotions or feelings of anguish caused by stressors that relate to their sport, then burnout, abandonment of sport, or even suicide are possible paths for the athlete. The coach needs to be prepared to offer athletes support and teach athletes how to cope with stress and the pressures that come along with being an athlete.

Sports are an opportunity for many athletes to gain critical life skills. One of those life skills is being able to manage issues that arise outside of their control. Many coaches focus their practice on their game plan or the physical skills of the game, but many coaches leave mental training outside of their sport. It is with this mental training that athletes are able to not only hone their skills in crunch times but also to be able to carry the lessons they learn into their life after sports.

The five main reasons that these coping mechanisms need to be put in place are participation, performance, burnout, overall health, and suicide.

Participation

Athletes quit participating in a sport for a multitude of reasons including indolence, injuries, and differing social circles. Other reasons for athletes quitting include pressure from overbearing parents and coaches as well as stress (Paspalj et al., 2020). Over fifty-two percent of athletes who decided to quit sport deemed that a reason behind quitting was due to the pressure they felt from their overambitious parents (Paspalj et al., 2020). Children should not feel the need to quit a sport because they are unknowledgeable of how to deal with the stressors being caused around them.  More often than not, athletes will entertain the outside distractions which can lead to a snowball effect. Without knowledge of how to deal with stressors, the snowball becomes unstoppable. Slowly, the athlete becomes annoyed with their sport and every piece of baggage it brings, until they reach a breaking point. Without proper preparation, if a snowball is started, it is just a matter of time before the athlete comes to a crossroads.

Performance

Many sports require athletes to be able to make quick decisions. These decisions need to be made carefully and, in an instant, but outside forces can affect these decisions. A study proved that an athlete with mental stress will be slower at making decisions than someone with no stress (Hepler, 2015). Because sports provide limited time to make in-the-moment decisions, the quality of a decision made by an athlete under stress will also decrease. Because of an inability to manage the stressors at hand, an athlete’s quality and rate of decision-making will severely diminish.

Another area of performance that can be affected by stressors is during clutch moments. Choking can be defined as a stress response that leads to a significant drop in performance (Fleming et al., 2009). Being placed in a crucial moment of a game paired with eyes on the athlete can cause dramatic shifts in their performance. These moments are very difficult to recover from, especially if an athlete does not have the support of a knowledgeable coach. It is in moments of failure that it is necessary for an athlete to refocus on the task at hand. Without doing so, more failure will ensue.

Burnout

Mental burnout is best described as “an emotional, psychological and at times physical withdrawal from a previously enjoyable activity” (Gustafsson et al., 2008). When an athlete begins to develop mental burnout, their passion and joy for their sport start to dimmish. They may not give as much effort and will begin to feel frustrated with their sport in general. Many things can cause an athlete to begin to burn out from their sport, some of which include feelings of entrapment, lack of recovery, “too much sport”, and high expectations (Gustafsson et al., 2008).

Just like recovering from a mistake, burnout can be a slippery slope. It is difficult for athletes to understand what they are going through, especially if it is their first-time experiencing burnout, but catching it early can be very beneficial in halting the process. There may be ways to combat burnout, but in other situations, a hiatus may be necessary for the athlete to regain passion for their sport. Burnout can be combatted by an athlete having a strong relationship with their coach. This relationship needs to be built on toughness and trust. The toughness aspect of the relationship will help to ward off mental burnout, while the trusting aspect of the relationship is necessary for communication. Sometimes the best course of action is for the athlete to take a break in order to regain their passion and edge.

Overall Health

Many diseases or disorders can arise because of stress, especially if said stress is severe and prolonged (Johnston et al., 2017). Everyone needs to have a better understanding of the role that stress plays in the overall health of every individual, athletes included. Everyone deals with stress, but athletes can be put into the spotlight which can make the effects multiply. If parents, coaches, and athletes can be cognoscente of what stress can do to the physical and mental well-being of an individual, then everyone will already have a foundation laid around them for a healthy life.

Suicide

The purpose of sport is for athletes to be able to engage with others to learn and develop in a competitive environment where they can create pleasure for themselves and others. At the end of the day, the sport an athlete is playing is just a game. It should not be a life-or-death scenario, but for some athletes, it is. Whenever anyone commits suicide, it is heartbreaking, but it seems more unexpected from student-athletes. Even when it seems sudden and abrupt, suicide amongst student-athletes is more common than many will think. From the participating season of 2003-2004 through 2011-2012, over the course of nine years, thirty-five college athletes committed suicide (Asif et al., 2015). With almost four suicides per year and the rate of suicides increasing, this is a problem that needs to be resolved.

Steps the Coach Can Take

Coaches have the job of finding out what their players are struggling with and finding a way to improve on that lack of ability. Two ways in which they can do this are by creating adversity and teaching mental skills.

Creating Adversity

It is up to the coach to make practice feel harder than a game. When this happens, the athletes are already semi-prepared for the possible hardships that will come throughout the game. Coaches can make practices feel more difficult by adjusting the rules by which the game is played. For example, a coach can add a player to the defense to make it more difficult for the offense to score. A coach may also forbid their team from using pieces of their game that are already developed. This will force the players to work on different aspects of the game, creating a more balanced athlete.  During these practices, mental toughness will be built through competitive drills and physical conditioning, but not through mental games and manipulation. Coaches can be hard on their players as long as they have a relationship with their athletes. A player needs to trust their coach to fully allow themselves to be led.

Teaching Mental Skills

Players need to be taught mental skills to be able to deal with the adversity put in place through challenging practices and hardships during games. There are a lot of different mental skills that should be taught to athletes, but not all at once. Teaching mental skills need to be done like the fundamentals of the sport; by gradually progressing to the next topic. A coach should create a positive environment and set expectations, so their players know what to expect. This should be done at the beginning of the season and frequently looked upon throughout the season to confirm there is still a positive environment and expectations have not wavered. Coaches need to be able to teach their players how to deal with successes and failures in order for their team to be ready for any circumstance. Whether in practice or games, there will be wins and losses throughout the season. Coaches need to be great role models for their players when a loss occurs because the coach is one of the first people a player looks up to in a sport. During these failures, a key attribute of coping with stress should be resetting and bouncing back from adversity. Athletes should also be taught how to remain focused, and if their focus is lost, they need to be taught how to regain that focus. During practice, a coach can intentionally sabotage a player’s attention in order for them to learn how to refocus on the task at hand. All of this should be done while building the confidence of the coaches’ players. It is a lot of work that takes time and energy, but it is the best way to create healthily, participating, and engaged athletes.

Conclusion

Because athletes are surrounded by pressure, coaches need to find a way to help them deal with these stressors. If athletes take their journey through sport without the knowledge of managing stress, poor performance, mental burnout, a lack of participation, an overall decrease in health, or even suicide is possible to occur. A coach can help athletes cope with stress by creating adversity and teaching mental skills. If efficacious, this process will be hard work, but rewarding for both the athletes and the coach.

References

Asif, I. M., Drezner, J. A., Harmon, K. G., Rao, A. L., & Toresdahl, B. G. (2015). Suicide in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 7, 452–457.

Doherty, L. (2022, May 1). Recent suicides spotlight the struggles student-athletes face. National Broadcasting Company.

Fleming, S., Hanton, S., Hill, D. M., & Matthews, N. (2009). A re-examination of choking in sport. European Journal of Sport Science, 9, 203–212.

Gustafsson, H., Hassmén, P., Johansson, M., & Kenttä, G. (2008). A qualitative analysis of burnout in elite Swedish athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9, 800–816.

Hepler, T. J. (2015). Decision-making in Sport under Mental and Physical stress. International Journal of Kinesiology and Sports Science, 3(4).

Johnston, T. P., Panahi, Y., Sahebkar, A., Sahraei, H., & Yaribeygi, H. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. Experimental and Clinical Sciences Journal, 16, 1057–1072.

Katz, J. (2017, July 8). All Things NBA: Lebron James Tames the Hype. Bleacher Report.

Paspalj, D., Simovic, S., &Vojvodic, M. (2020). Analysis of causes which make young people quit sports and Sport Activities. Journal of Advances in Sports and Physical Education, 3, 142–149.