Anxiety is Not Bad, Anxiety is Not Good, But Anxiety is Necessary
Anxiety in sports has been a hot topic ever since tennis star Naomi Osaka pulled out of the French Open due to anxiety issues. Osaka cited the media’s disregard for the mental health of athletes during press conferences as a major cause for anxiety in sports.
Osaka also tweeted that she suffers from social anxiety, and that because she is not a “natural public speaker” she gets “huge waves of anxiety” before she speaks with the media.
Because of Osaka’s use of the term anxiety from a negative perspective, the current narrative is that anxiety is bad. However, the truth is that anxiety is not bad or good. Anxiety is simply a normal feeling in sports.
Understanding the Basics of Anxiety in Sports
Anxiety is a feeling of pressure, worry, or stress usually caused by an important upcoming event with an uncertain outcome. In sports, almost every competition has elements of importance and uncertainty. As a result, anxiety is a normal feeling all athletes must learn to deal with.
Typically, when an athlete has anxiety before a sporting event there is a focus on the anxiety causing poor performance. However, the reality is that anxiety is just as important for driving peak performance as it is for driving poor performance. Therefore, it’s critical to manage anxiety and not to eliminate it.
This important observation was first made by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. Being that this was over 100 years ago, you would think that everyone would understand this by now. Unfortunately, if you ask sports parents or casual fans, most will tell you that anxiety is bad and only hurts performance.
Anxiety and Intensity Are Two Sides of the Same Coin for Athletes
In sports psychology literature, authors generally use the terms anxiety and intensity interchangeably. Both terms describe one’s level of arousal, heart rate, blood flow, and emotions. However, athletes and coaches view anxiety as a negative and intensity as a positive. Essentially, the popular / non-scientific view is that anxiety and intensity are two sides of the same coin, with one being negative and the other being positive.
However, the truth is both anxiety and intensity are neither negative nor positive. Both are unique to the situation and the athlete in that situation.
Anxiety and intensity are multidimensional mental states that encompass stress, pressure, worry, nervousness, and energy. For most athletes, the way their body and mind work together is as intensity increases performance improves. But too much intensity leads to anxiety causing performance to decrease. Moreover, too little intensity may also be an indication of anxiety or possibly apathy, also causing performance to decrease.
Therefore, a given level of intensity or anxiety is not always good or bad. Any given level of intensity or anxiety could drive peak performance or poor performance depending on the situation. In addition, each athlete has an optimal level of intensity and anxiety unique to both their individual personality and their situation.
Simply stated, finding one’s optimal intensity and anxiety level must be a goal if an athlete wants to perform their best. Therefore, one could argue that this is the #1 mental skill all athletes must continually strive to master.