How to Deal with Pre-Game Anxiety: 'The Jitters' part I

The movie Any Given Sunday, by Oliver Stone, is a great movie on every level of the game of football. I love the motivational speech at the end entitled "Inch By Inch" that Al Pacino gives in the locker room right before their wild card game. I love how they show the seriousness and the battle that the medical staff have to go through throughout the season with making decisions on who really can play and who sits. I love how they showed both sides of the athlete's decision making process of when they could play and when they couldn't play, for example Laurence Taylor's character vs LL Cool J's character. The part of the movie that I wanted to concentrate on the most is pre-competition anxiety or jitters. Remember when Willie Beaman, played by Jamie Foxx, was asked to go in after both quarterbacks had gotten hurt? He was so unprepared mentally that it affected his performance. At the start of the movie, we find our friend Willie over on the sideline reading a newspaper and eating sunflower seeds. The quarterback coach has to yell at him to find his helmet and go in because he was over there acting like he had an all expense paid vacation to Club Med. Remember how unprepared and rattled he looked in the game? Remember the part where he vomited in the huddle before calling the play? Remember how he got under the tackle instead of the center to call the play? Remember even when Al Pacino called a timeout after the first play was over at the beginning of the second half and he talked on the sideline with Willie? Remember Willie's words were something of the nature that the game was going too fast? These are all examples of the pre-game jitters.

Now the movie had to sale and progress on so they had to make ole Willie get his act together during the course of the third quarter in the movie. Actually it was just a couple of series and he was able to overcome the jitters that he had and threw a touchdown to tie the game in the second half.

That depiction of his pre-game routine was accurate with how athletes' mental preparation is key to how well or poorly they perform during the actual game. I had a similar situation when I was a red-shirted sophomore in college playing football. I got so nervous before the game that my performance was horrible. I was on the traveling team, but I wasn't expecting to start for another three weeks. However, the first string safety had gotten hurt during the week and they made an adjustment to start me hours before the kick off at pre-game meetings. I was extremely nervous. I remember going back to the dorm to get the rest of my stuff after pregame meal and feeling like my whole world was turning upside down. I couldn't think straight for nothing. From the time that I went to my dorm until the time I was on the field everything seemed to be going fast. I can remember later thinking how the time felt like it did when I was in a car wreck, how things seemed to speed up after the impact. All the information that I had practiced was gone. It was like I had never played or started football ever in my life. I had been a starter in every facet of my career up until that point (little league to high school). Needless to say, my actual performance was horrific. It was so horrible that my coach pulled me and they put the third string safety in to play the entire game.

No matter how good you are, sometimes you’re going to choke.

So what was the problem?

What I was going through was what sports psychologist and mental coaches refer to as pre-competition anxiety. Commonly known as the jitters or butterflies, accept in my case, and in Willie's case, we were experiencing it at the highest level possible to the point that our performance suffered dramatically.

Pre-competitive anxiety is a state of arousal that is unpleasant or negative and occurs during the 24 hour span prior to competition. The worry that is associated with PCA is not just experienced with our heads, but with our entire body. Our bodies provide us with numerous cues such as muscle tension, butterflies, desire to urinate and cotton mouth that suggests that we are
out of control. Our thoughts become self-focused, self defeating and negative. Most of us will have a combination of these responses during the pre-competitive period. However, the degree to which they influence our performance is largely dependent upon the interaction of our own uniqueness and the competitive situation.

WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF PCA?

Pre-competitive anxiety results from an imbalance between perceived capabilities and the demands of the sport environment. When the perceived demands are balanced by the perceived capabilities you experience optimal arousal, often refereed to as the flow state or what we commonly know as 'the zone'. In this state, everything appears to go smoothly, almost effortlessly. However, if your perceived capabilities exceed the sport challenge, arousal will decrease, resulting in boredom or lack of motivation. If the opposite occurs (perceived challenges exceed capabilities), you will become over aroused, resulting in worry and anxiety. As you can see, then, PCA results when skills and abilities are not perceived as equivalent to the sport challenge.
Research has demonstrated that at least five factors underlie PCA:

1. physical complaints—digestive disturbances, shaking and yawning;
2. fear of failure—losing, choking, living up to expectations, and making mistakes;
3. feelings of inadequacy—unprepared, poor conditioning, low skill/ability,and feelings that something is wrong;
4. loss of control—being jinxed, bad luck, poor officiating, and inclement weather; and
5. guilt—concerns about hurting an opponent, playing dirty, and cheating. Whether or not you experience PCA is dependent upon several factors, such as skill level, experience, and your general level of arousal in daily activities.

HOW CAN PCA AFFECT PERFORMANCE?

There are two primary ways that PCA can affect your performance.

First, a high state of physical arousal may be counterproductive to your particular sport activity. For sports requiring endurance, power, or both, PCA can be very draining on an athlete's energy level. In sports where calmness is critical (e.g., golf, archery, free-throw shooting), PCA can significantly interfere with your ability to stay calm. A high state of physical arousal can also interfere with sports requiring a focused channeling of power. The increased tension usually interferes with this channeling. Examples of such sports include hitting in baseball, karate, and field events such as javelin, discus, and shot put.

Second, research has demonstrated that anxiety can significantly interfere with your ability to think clearly. When you are anxious, your thoughts generally turn inward to focus on yourself, which may result in an inappropriate focusing of attention. Actions that were once automatic require constant thought, which further interferes with your ability to adjust to make quick, on-the-spot decisions. In addition, these thoughts may be negative and result in preoccupation with what you can't do, rather than what you can do.

DOES NERVOUSNESS ALWAYS LEAD TO BAD PERFORMANCES?

Definitely not. Whenever you anticipate an event that is important to you, it is normal to feel some nervousness. In fact, it is a sign of readiness. This type of readiness is known as positive arousal and is usually referring to many of the physical cues you experience. Elite athletes channel this energy to work for them rather than against them. Answers to the following
questions may help you distinguish between positive arousal and negative anxiety:

1. How much does my sport require me lobe 'pumped' as I enter the competition? Some sports may require a higher state of arousal (e.g., weight lifting) than others (e.g., golf).
2. Do I often have thoughts of self-doubt about my ability?
3. Do I often have thoughts about factors that are beyond my control? Answering "Yes" to the last two questions are indication that you are moving from positive arousal to negative anxiety. If you find yourself nervous but still confident in your ability, that is a sign of readiness. However, worrying about your ability to perform at levels that you normally are able to perform with ease, or worrying about factors over which you have no control may interfere with your ability to enter a competition mentally ready.

Tomorrow we will go over strategies that both players and coaches can utilize to help deal with overcoming pre-competition anxiety.

Until then keep moving.
Personal Trainer and Sports Psychologist Consultant in Charlotte NC