Overcoming Invisible Challenges: Mental Health in Sport

By Beka Romero

Have you ever wondered what emotions the athletes deal with?

Both in sport and in life, we go through momentary and subjective emotional states, for example, losing a fight, getting injured in training or not making weight.

Emotional states are influenced by many variables such as thoughts, events, situations and even stages resulting in a person’s feeling regarding their emotions.

Overcoming challenges in the world of sport requires emotional management, psychological support and a lot of resilience, not only for the athlete but for those who contribute to the athlete’s development including trainers, family members and organizations.

Here I tell you how to address some of the most common challenges:

1. Stress and pressure:Competing comes with pressure from trainers, sponsors, fans, family, and oppression to maintain a level of performance. Learning coping strategies is very helpful and one of them is deep breathing and visualization. For example, in boxing you can practice visualization the day before a fight or even before leaving for the ring.
2. Realistic goals: Focusing on achievable goals, improving skills, and enjoying the process is the key to not falling into frustration and unnecessary pressure. Writing down your objectives will help you have short, medium and long-term goals. It is necessary to trust and practice patience to know that reaching a World Championship level takes time, dedication, discipline and a lot of mental strength to overcome physical and emotional challeng
3. Affirmations and a positive mind: Recording our skills and achievements will help to reduce stress, but above all increase confidence. You can use affirmations and positive language with these phrases: I am strong, I am skilled, I can achieve it, I am intelligent, among many more.

Managing these challenges contributes to personal and sporting growth. Taking care of your mental health is an act of courage that will also help you increase your performance. Remember that the mind is just as important as the physical. Take care of yourself!