Meet Anxiety

I got this from the USA Swimming parent section. It is a Q&A on Meet Anxiety. I thought this would be an appropriate topic as a few of the swimmers in all 3 of my groups have shown signs of meet anxiety. Most of the parents have approached me about this, and I try to help that swimmer leading up to the meet and at the meet - but for those parents that still want to help their swimmer or may be feeling like they do not know what to do to help here are some tips:

Q: My child gets so nervous before a competition. Is this natural? What can I do to help her to reduce this competitive pressure/stress?

A: To a degree, nervousness is part of the competitive experience and can be used as an opportunity to teach the young athlete specific strategies or skills to help her manage this arousal or nervousness. A simple skill that young athletes can learn to help manage the “butterflies in their stomachs” is belly breathing. The athlete is taught to take slow, deep breaths into her belly, hold it briefly, and then exhale slowly. Words can be included to help the athlete focus her thoughts on something besides worry. This is a quick strategy that helps calm the body and mind and only takes a few seconds to do. Another skill to help the athlete deal with muscular tightness brought on by nervousness is progressive muscle relaxation. In this procedure, the athlete goes through the major muscles in her body and first tenses and then relaxes each muscle. This teaches athletes to learn the difference between a tense and relaxed muscle, to learn where different muscles are located, and to eventually be able to relax specific muscles as necessary. Remember that these skills must be taught and practiced before the athlete will be able to use them effectively.

We also know that excessive anxiety can be damaging to both performance and to the athlete's desire to enter such situations in the future. Two factors which have been found to play a role in the level of anxiety experienced are the importance of the event and the uncertainly of the outcome. Greater importance and greater uncertainty lead to increased anxiety. Parents, this suggests that you can play an active role in reducing competition anxiety by de-valuing the outcome of the event and by focusing on the individual performance over which the swimmers have control.

Symptoms of anxiety: increased heart rate,rapid breathing, sweating, negativity, jittery, frequent ‘pit stops’, excessive worry, doubts, talk of failure, low confidence.
Strategies to Manage: Deep belly breathing, positive self-talk, relaxation exercises, think of successes, stretching, visualize race, listen to music, focus on goals, light massage, distract by talking with friends, family.