Threat or Challenge?

Threat or Challenge?

By Daniel Ferguson

Often in sports, it's not the event itself, it's how an athlete perceives it.


Boxing

Andy's Story

Andy is a boxer: he loves his sport. However, he struggles on fight day. Why? Because he views fight day as a threat as he views his nerves as a bad thing, the pressure gets to him and the crowd and noise make him shy. There's nothing wrong with how Andy feels: you can't avoid how things make you feel, but you have a choice how you react. If Andy viewed fight day as a challenge: that it's good to be nervous, it's okay to feel pressure, it's just how he chooses to face it and the crowd can be used to his advantage, he would be better off right?

There's a link to our bodies...

When an athlete is in a challenge state, they experience better blood flow and heightened arousal that is better for performance. When in a threat state, they experience restricted blood flow and anxiety that impairs performance. This shows that how we interpret the event itself, has a genuine affect on us. Choose carefully. Anxiety and excitement are very similar, the same event for one person can make them anxious, but excited for another. The main message is that you have a choice how you view something.

Sports a dynamic world

Look, we can't choose and react well all the time, sports a very dynamic and ever changing world where we get hit in the face with events happening like a last minute loss or quite literally getting hit in the face. But having an awareness of the fact that how we view things affects our performance, can set us up and prepare us. Why not view a fight or a match as a challenge? You wouldn't rather view it as a threat right?


Sports a dynamic world

A simple rule, but dramatic change

If I knew this when I was younger competing in athletics, it would've made a big difference. On race day, I viewed my nerves as a bad thing, something I wanted to run away from. I viewed the race as a threat, something I was scared to do. Looking back, I would have viewed the race as a challenge, told myself it's okay to be nervous (it means I care) and embraced the fear: understanding I'll always feel it, it's just how I use it to my advantage (how I view it).

Changing our relationship with emotions, rather than running away

Like fear, there's plenty of emotions such as anger, anxiety, sadness and more that we can't control coming in, we can't really avoid. I find it's better to accept these emotions and embrace them. In this way we change our relationship with the emotion, as we can't just get rid of it. These emotions can't be avoided, we must face them at times. An example of an athlete avoiding fear for example, would be, "I'm scared to run this race, I don't want to do it, I might fake an injury" but an athlete example of embracing fear would be, "I'm scared to run this race, that's okay, I've worked hard for this, I deserve to be here, let's face this race and go smash it." The same emotion, just a different reaction.


Start to an athletics race

How will you view your next competition, as a threat or a challenge? I hope you enjoyed this blog, take care and feel free to reach out if you fancy it.



Find Daniel Ferguson on:
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Instagram: @danferguson_sp
Twitter: @DanFergusonSP









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