Skip to main content

Got a niggle? Do something about it! Seek help, modify your training. Just don’t bury your head in the sand.


If you have a niggle, something is wrong. Perhaps your body is under recovered and will be fine, but often this is not the case and bad things develop after spotting a niggle. Act.
  • Consider getting some help: physio, sports masseur.
  • Consider modifying your training: back-off, take more rest
  • Don’t ignore it, or it might derail this season or your whole sporting career. (It happens.)
  • Don’t ignore it (for most people, this is worth me repeating)
Dr Victor Thompson
www.sportspsychologist.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How will athletes react to the news that lifetime drug bans might be overturned by the BOA before the Olympics?

BBC website announces today: ‘Former Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards is happy the British Olympic Association's lifetime ban for drug cheats looks set to be overturned.’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/17818958   Without going into how we as spectators think or feel about this issue, I’m interested in the impact that this issue might have on other competitors – those competing in the sports that the previously banned athletes compete in. Athlete A:   With a strong sense of right and wrong, Athlete A gets further fired-up and motivated to show the drug cheats that they are better, that they can win clean, expecting their performance to do the talking. This news of allowing, or potentially allowing, the banned athletes back in, is motivating, helping them prepare and perform. Athlete B:   With a belief that the sports officials, system or the world lets them down, Athlete B becomes angry at the developments. They may either get fired-up...

Exercise can be good for stress-relief: Why? Why not share this good news?

Sport and exercise – but not competition for most of us – can be a good way to de-stress. This works for several reasons: It takes us away from stressful situations (home or work) We focus on what we are doing (e.g, chasing a football, hitting the tennis ball, running drills…) and therefore not on life’s problems We have endogenous opiates (‘happy hormones’) released into our bloodstream which feel good We might be exercising or playing sport with positive, encouraging people Those of us who exercise know this already. Perhaps we can share the good news to those who don’t exercise or engage in sport?  Dr Victor Thompson www.sportspsychologist.com

Suicide in football: Players and managers: Gary Speed & Robert Enke

Sports stars, footballers and managers are human too. What I mean by this is life still happens to them. Challenging life events or experiences still happen. So, just like the rest of us, they end up in challenging relationships, enter into marriages that break-up acrimoniously, have loved ones who get sick with nasty illness, cancer or mental health difficulties. They can experience accidents and get into car crashes like we all can. Just like the rest of us. What we see is them performing on the pitch or under the spotlight. What we don't see is their life outside those 90-minutes a week, when they are training, at home, with their family, at the hospital…. We see them composed, focused, coping, performing athlete. This is what we expect. We don't see the struggles, challenges, emotions, arguments, angst, doubts, fears. Who expects this from high paid stars doing what we dream about doing? Sports stars are able (mostly) to cope with competitive pressures and they can appl...