Mental Health and Athletic Performance
Chris Vi, PhD Candidate (Medicine), B.H&MedSci(Hons), B.BioMedSci
Deeya Mahadooa, MSc Mental Health Psychology, BA(Hons) Psychology
Mental Health and Athletic Performance [PART 1/3]
At some point, we would’ve all struggled to get motivated to train, woke up not feeling 100%, or have 101 different things on our minds, other stressors – life, work, relationships, family. This can be a deterrent to engaging in physical activity or affect performance.
As with most things in life, there is a need for planning and preparation to ensure you can achieve the best outcomes, meet deadlines.
Why should your mind or your mental state, be any different?
We’ve all heard the sayings, ‘Get your head in the game,’ or ‘get in the zone.’ Or seen coaches or players, trying to motivate, pump/hype up their athletes, or themselves, before a game. Some even have a pre-game/competition routine.
From a mental health protective standpoint, physical activity has long been recognised and supported in research as a factor for improving outcomes of patients suffering from mental health disorders (Pluhar et al., 2019). Participation in organised sports has also shown to decrease anxiety, depression, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, smoking, and drug use (Pedersen et al., 2017). However, there is less focus on the psychological impact of mental health on exercise and performance, where an inverse relationship may exist (Pluhar et al., 2019).
The Mental Health Model of sports performance suggest that an individual’s performance in sports or physical activity will rise or fall, as their mental health improves or deteriorates, respectively (Raglin, 2012; Shannon et al., 2019). Additionally, negative emotional states such as stress can further lead to impaired functioning and consequently diminished performance and potentially developing burnout (Chyi et al., 2018; Ford et al., 2017; Shannon et al., 2019; Souter et al., 2018). This is also inclusive of perceived stress (Chyi et al., 2018).
Stress can be influenced by a number of things: coaches, teammates, spectators, family, the community, the sporting environment, and the sporting process (Breslin et al., 2018; Gould et al., 2010).
Brief descriptions of various models developed to explain sport-related anxiety and its relationship with performance – Ford et al., 2017
| Inverted-U Hypothesis (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908) | This view holds that low arousal/anxiety leads to decreases in performance and increases in arousal/anxiety can facilitate performance up to an optimal level, however, beyond this point additional arousal/anxiety causes performance to decline. |
| Drive Theory (Hull,1943) | This view holds that relationship between situation specific state anxiety and performance is linear; higher anxiety leads to better performance. |
| Reversal Theory (Apter, 1982) | This view holds that the ways in which arousal/anxiety affects performance depend on the individual’s own interpretation of their arousal/anxiety levels. |
| The Conceptual Model of Athletic Performance Anxiety (Smith and Smoll, 1990) | This view holds that arousal/anxiety can influence individuals’ stress response to a competitive situation, which in turn will influence performance through a range of physiological, behavioral, and/or cognitive responses. |
| Multi-dimensional Anxiety Theory (Martens et al., 1990) | This view holds that cognitive state anxiety is negatively related to performance, whereas somatic state anxiety is related to performance in an inverted-U manner. |
| Catastrophe Theory (Hardy and Parfitt, 1991) | This view holds that somatic anxiety is related to performance in an inverted-U fashion, but only when the individual has low cognitive state anxiety. |
| Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning Theory (Hanin, 1997) | Holds the view that elite-level performers have an optimal zone of arousal/anxiety where they are able to reach peak performances. If their arousal/anxiety is outside the zone (too low or too high), performance will decline. |
An athlete’s success is multi-factorial, dependent on physical, technical, tactical, and psychological factors (Liew et al., 2019).
Study Review – Rano et al. 2019
- Examined the effects of acute psychological stress on athletic performance
- 23 elite male swimmers – adequate number for repeated measures design
- Repeated measures design – athletes served as their own control and intervention which reduces variability of results, thus increasing validity
- Acute psychological stress was induced before a 200m race – Intervention
- Separate day, no stress exposure prior to 200m race – Control
- Times were recorded
- Cortisol, lactate and testosterone levels were measured
- When stress was induced, times were significantly slower compared no stress exposure
- Pre-race cortisol was positively associated with lactate response when psychological stress was applied
- Under control conditions, increased testosterone and cortisol levels were noted, and were associated with faster race times
This study indicates that acute psychological stress negatively impacts athletic performance. The physiological responses to stress, such as increased cortisol, increased lactate, lower testosterone levels, can hinder performance.
Although cause and effect cannot be established, a consistent trend was noted between athletes and their mental health states (Morgan et al., 1985)– such that successful athletes demonstrated greater psychological scores associated with better mental health; low depression scores, fatigue, emotional stability, when compared to their less ‘successful’ peers (Raglin, 2012). As a result, psychological factors such as mental health, not only influences performance but also a person/athlete’s success or failure in competition (Kruk et al., 2017; Liew et al., 2019).
Subject to copyright, Rehab Plus, 2020
References
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