SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

Imagine the scene: You’ve just won the Olympic gold medal in your sport. You can hear the adulation: “Well done.” “ You ’ve done it.” “ You ’ve done so well.” “How did you do it?” Yes, if you were that athlete, then you were the one to finish first. So they are right, you did do it. However, was it only you that got you there? I’m not so sure. First, even before you moved a muscle, there was Mum and Dad and their cocktail of genes that directed your development. Then there were opportunities at school and outside school to exercise and compete. Somehow, you managed not to give up competitive sport in your teens, when the majority of your peers quit. So, how did you get from there to the Olympics? I believe strongly that you did it because you had a good team around you. These are the unsung heroes, the people who are almost always in the background. Like in a theatre production, these are the people who built the stage and organise the lighting that allow the performer to perfor...

Experiencing stress before a race is common: bad sleep the night before, waking early, difficulties getting breakfast down, frequent urges to go to the loo, worries about what might go wrong, a thumping heart while we stand still... These experiences can be unsettling. Why do they happen? They happen because: The race represents a test and we may fear that we'll fail to perform compared to others or our own standards (i.e., finish time or position), or We fear some catastrophe (e.g., getting punched in the face during the swim, losing our goggles or drowning; crashing on the bike...) When we arrive at the race site, our body's arousal is boosted further by the race environment - hearing the pump-you-up music blaring out of a PA system, or seeing lean, mean and excited (and stressed) triathletes. This increases the chance that our arousal level spills over into stress or anxiety - where it can become a problem. What's so bad about pre-race nerves? They make ...