Politics Of Feelings: Anxiety And Sport

Tennis great Martina Navratilova was one of the many sports legends who described an athlete바카라�s anxious thoughts as 바카라�gremlins바카라�. It starts with a germ of doubt 바카라� what if I don바카라�t perform. Then it grows into a giant ball of fear that can defeat you before your opponent does. 

Gremlins, at least of the movie kind, are fiction. Anxiety is not.

바카라�Many of my clients are sportspeople, and I tell them, anxiety is going to be there. It is a part of a sportsperson바카라�s life,바카라� says Sonal Shah, a nutritionist and psychologist in Ahmedabad. 바카라�A little bit of anxiety is good, as it helps you focus. More attention is needed when the anxiety starts causing physiological changes in a person.바카라�
One of the dictionary meanings of politics is 바카라�the principles relating to or inherent in a sphere or activity, especially when concerned with power and status.바카라�

By that definition, anxiety is inherent to sports.

It shows up in different ways. Sleep before a match can be elusive, to give one example. It happened with Sachin Tendulkar. 

바카라�I felt the anxiety for 10-12 years, had many sleepless nights before a game,바카라� he revealed in 2021. 바카라�Later on I started accepting that it was part of my preparation. Then I made peace with times I was not able to sleep in the night. I would start doing something to keep my mind comfortable."

Acceptance was key here, Tendulkar emphasized. 

The troubling bit is anxiety can strike even when a player is doing well. That is why closing a match is often difficult. Roger Federer was a single point away from winning the 2019 Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic and cementing his legacy as the greatest of all time. That too on his serve. But Federer, the magician of tennis, its ultimate artist, could not get it done. He had a snake and ladders like drop. Djokovic, the tortoise for most parts of the match, ended up winning. 

Federer snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, to flip a cliché. It wasn바카라�t all anxiety. Djokovic played well on one of those points. But some of it, it can safely be presumed, was anxiety, when nerves result in tight arms and jelly like legs, and routine shots or plays become difficult to execute. 

To prepare for such moments, athletes use different approaches. One of them is to train so well, that they take to the match the positive emotions of having done everything in their hands. And hope that when the negative feelings come, the positive thoughts would win out. That is what Neeraj Chopra, India바카라�s greatest Olympian, seems to tell Outlook from Loughborough, UK, where he is training for the 2023 season. 

바카라�There are times when you feel physical and mental fatigue during training. That바카라�s where we push ourselves,바카라� Chopra says on a video call in response to a question on anxiety. 바카라�You remind yourself of your targets. It바카라�s a different feeling when, even though you are tired, you still complete your goals and training. I think that helps an athlete [get stronger mentally and guard themselves against anxiety].바카라�  

Pressure of public expectation can also lead to anxiety for a player. But Chopra says that an athlete first and foremost feels the expectations he has from himself. 

바카라�Dono pressure saath me hote hai,바카라� he says. (Both types of pressure co-exist). Chopra is aware of external noise in the lead-up to a competition. But once the gun goes off, in a manner of speaking, he is able to shut that out and focus on his job. 

바카라�When the competition starts, I tell myself that this is the day I바카라�ve trained for. The result of this mindset has been quite good till now,바카라� he says. 바카라�Sometimes we perform, sometimes we don바카라�t. Ups and downs keep happening in sport. Gradually, people are also realizing that it is not possible to keep winning.바카라� 

The Obsession With Winning, Or With Not Losing

With an Olympic gold medal to his name and his place in history certain, Chopra is now in a position to not let defeat bother him much. This is not to say he can be complacent. But deep down he knows that he has achieved his major goals. 

But a majority haven바카라�t. The arena is filled with scores of aspiring athletes who have not proven themselves at state or National level, let alone at the Olympics. They are consumed by the desire to win, and are haunted by the fear of defeat. Former tennis player Mardy Fish, whose battle with nearly fatal anxiety was captured in the 2021 Netflix film 바카라�Untold: Breaking Point바카라�, put it aptly when he said, 바카라�I love the feeling of leaving a city without losing.바카라� That is the feeing every sportsman of varying abilities 바카라� from club level to pro 바카라� craves for. 

Sonal Shah observes a common theme in most of the sportspeople she counsels. They are great in practice, but unable to translate that into match performance. This drives them to despair. 

바카라�Tournament play is different, just like an examination is different from home study,바카라� Shah tells Outlook. 바카라�When my clients enter tournaments, they have a fear of whether they will win or not. The fear is greater if they are playing against a challenging opponent. Then there is the crowd factor, expectations of their coach and parents. Their anxiety level goes very high due to all these thoughts.바카라�

The players are then put through a program that can include diet, journaling, yoga and SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound). Small steps such as listening to music before a match, or closing eyes for just a second or two during tense phases, also help. Self-talk is recommended too. Nothing hyperbolic like 바카라�I바카라�m the best바카라�, but something authentic to the individual, that would enable them to do their best. 

Diet can play a huge role. Shah says that the turnaround for one of her clients started with weight loss. 바카라�This particular player had relocated to a bigger city and was struggling to cope with the new coach and surroundings,바카라� she says. 바카라�The player also felt they were slightly overweight. The rest of the issues were not entirely in my hands, but the weight was, so that is what we addressed first. The player started feeling better about themselves right away.바카라�
Sometimes, anxiety is triggered by grief. Ben Stokes struggled to come to terms with the death of his father and took treatment for his condition. Stokes바카라� journey, too, has been captured in a documentary (바카라�Phoenix from the Ashes바카라�). 

바카라�I still speak to the doc, [though] not as regularly, and I바카라�m still taking medication every day. It바카라�s an ongoing process," the star England allrounder says in the documentary about his treatment.

In the case of gymnastics champion Simone Biles, it was an accumulation of pressure, past traumas and exhaustion that caused her to withdraw from some of her events at the Tokyo Olympics. One of the victims of sexual abuse by disgraced US gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, Biles바카라� mental load in Tokyo was so crushing that she experienced the 바카라�twisties바카라�, where a gymnast feels disoriented mid-air and is at risk of a dangerous fall. The winner of four golds at the 2016 Rio Olympics was fortunate to not break her neck or spine and wisely decided to pull out of some of her competitions. To her credit, Biles returned to participate in the balance beam final, where she won a bronze. 
There are times when repeated questions about one subject or a milestone from the media can be a stressor for a player. Neeraj Chopra may be an Olympic gold medalist, but rare is a media interaction with him where he is not asked about breaching the 90m barrier. 

Chopra came very close last year, when he hurled 89.94 metres.in Stockholm.

It must be annoying to be asked about 90m all the time, but mostly he laughs it off. 

바카라�How short have I been of 90m? Just 6 cm,바카라� he grins. 바카라�But it is like a magical mark in our sport, and so people keep talking about it. As do we, to be honest. It is a badge of honour for javelin throwers. 바카라�90m maar rakhe hai isne바카라� (he has thrown 90m), we say of throwers who have done it. It doesn바카라�t bother me if I바카라�m asked about it repeatedly. I know I바카라�m close. Maybe god has chosen a place for me for it to happen. When it happens, it happens.바카라�

This kind of attitude is a fine way of making sure that the javelin flies far, and anxiety stays further.