Managing stress and crises
Chapter five: Managing stress
Adaptively managing the stress of competition is crucial for any top athlete. Obvious poise under pressure is universally admired. When someone performs perfectly in a pressure-packed setting, we shake our heads and smile enviously. “How does he do it?”
Certainly there are individual differences in how people naturally process and deal with pressure. However, we do not need to be limited by the coping skills we inherited. In fact, stress management techniques are among the easiest psychological skills to learn. This column will discuss stress management from a practical standpoint, highlighting techniques applicable to tournament fishermen.
How much stress?
Popular wisdom tells us that a certain amount of stress is a good thing; an athlete needs to get “psyched up” for the big game. However, this is more myth than reality when it comes to complex tasks such as tournament fishing. Even a little stress in the heat of competition can interfere with the capacity to think clearly, accurately analyze information and make good decisions. And as we all know, figuring out how to catch fish is infinitely more difficult than catching them. From the perspective of the competitive fisherman, the more relaxed and stress-free you are, the better you will function.
Acknowledging stress
It is critically important to recognize that tournament fishing elicits a stress a response in every serious participant. If you fish competitively, tournament days increase your heart rate, cause your muscles to tense up and constrict your appetite. You probably have your own unique combination of emotional reactions and physical tendencies that appear during stressful times. It would be helpful for you to notice and become familiar with these personal signals.
One very effective technique for coping with stress is to simply write down specific circumstances that make you tense. Use your tournament fishing notebook to list your specific stressors. By doing this, not only will you have a personal catalog of stress triggers, you will also be well on your way to feeling more relaxed. As we have mentioned before, the simple act of recording a behavior you desire to change frequently leads to improvement in the expected direction.
External versus internal stressors
Breaking off a big fish can cause a stress response; so can worrying about whether the fish you found in practice will still be there on tournament day. However, external stressors (broken line) demand different coping techniques than internal stressors (worrying). In general, it is best to deal with an external stressor by solving the problem that created it. If you break off a fish, take a moment or two to figure out why and fix what went wrong. Last summer we lost a nice fish in the waning minutes of a tournament because one of us forgot to trim the skirt on his jig! Instead of freaking out about time running out, we put the scissors to work and pitched to a few more bushes to get the fish that filled our limit.
Sometimes, however, there is nothing practical we can do to alter our situation; we just feel tense. The stress of anticipating a tournament is a perfect example. Even with primo preparation, we can become stressed-out thinking about how much weight it will take to win, whether someone else has found our spot … you know the list; it’s endless. We need tactics to calm our emotions and refocus our attention when faced with circumstances we cannot control.
Pre-tournament techniques
Many tournament fishermen already use travel time to and from tournaments to listen to inspirational audiotapes. Hearing a person or a message you admire and respect can have a very positive impact on your emotional well-being. Additionally, there is a significant cumulative effect associated with repeatedly listening to inspirational music or words. We all know that upbeat country or rock music can make the miles fly by as we journey cross-country. However, traveling music should be replaced by something reassuring and soothing as you approach the tournament site. An inspirational message can also help calm you enroute to the launch ramp on tournament morning.
Tournament-day tactics
So here you are, in your boat an hour before ease-off. Your preparation has been thorough, you have a solid game plan and basically you are good to go. Problem is you feel tighter than a two-dollar watch, and you’re sweating like you just finished the Boston Marathon. Here’s what to do: Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Count to three as you breathe in through your nose, and count to four as you breathe out through your mouth. Do it again. Do it four more times. In fact, stop reading this article right now and take six of these deep breaths, counting as you do so. If you are paying close attention and focus only on breathing and counting, you will, after only six breaths, begin to feel more relaxed.
OK, so you can do this in front of your computer with the door closed and no one watching. But you’d feel silly doing it in your boat surrounded by tournament dudes. Well, let me reassure you that your fellow competitors are nervously dealing with their own anticipatory anxiety; they are not watching you. And even if they are, so what? You fish with pink worms, don’t you? That’s way goofier than deep breathing and not nearly as effective for decreasing stress.
You can augment the effectiveness of this deep-breathing technique by recalling a time when you were very calm in a tense tournament setting. As you breathe deeply and focus on the picture you have created, say to yourself a word or phrase that characterizes this relaxed feeling. Some people say, “I’ve got it”; others repeat words like “steady, calm or easy.” Play around with this and see what works for you. However, psychological research has consistently shown that deep breathing while reciting a simple word or phrase significantly diminishes even severe stress.
Coping with disastrous performance
If you play this game long enough, the day will come when your fishing absolutely stinks! Everything that can possibly go wrong does, and you end up dead last or close to it. Now what? Thinking happy thoughts or humming a cheerful tune doesn’t seem to help much when your weigh-in sack is empty. Instead, let yourself be bummed out and disappointed, and if you can find someone to listen, go ahead and whine and complain – but only for a while. Structure your disappointment by giving yourself a certain time frame to be upset, say an hour or maybe 90 minutes. And then start over.
Essentially the same thing would have happened if you had won the tournament. You and your friends would’ve been excited for an hour or two; then you would have all started thinking about the next tournament. Use the same time frame technique when you feel the stress of an embarrassing performance. Remember, calm is the goal. Breathe deeply and let your stress drift downstream.
Jay T. McNamara, Ph.D., L.P., is a psychologist, who is also an avid bass and walleye angler. With more than 25 years of professional experience complemented by participation in competitive fishing at local and national levels, he is uniquely qualified to illustrate how performance psychology principles apply to tournament fishing.