The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers! Click Here to Order
Psychologists report that the central nervous system decreases its arousal state with extended exposure to the same stimuli. In other words, if one’s nervous system isn’t overly aroused any more… it stops experiencing excessive performance anxiety. Familiar things get boring. This is human nature. So, the best way for players to alleviate their performance anxieties is through exposure, not avoidance.
Five Avoiding Anxiety Consequences
If your child has performance anxieties, ask them to review with their coach the below facts regarding avoiding anxiety:
1) Avoidance eliminates exposure and experiencing the harmless reality of a tennis match.
2) Avoidance clutters the mind and steals any real analysis of the facts.
3) Avoidance eliminates repetition and the chance to see the event as actually routine.
4) Avoidance stops the practice of the actual protocols so there is no mastery of skills.
5) Avoidance kills true mastery and mastery is what decreases future failures.
Another way to look at the effects of avoiding anxieties is that it magnifies ignorance and multiplies fear, nervousness, uncertainty, distress, and disorganization. Although confronting performance anxieties is difficult, it’s the exposure that brings empowerment. So, exposure is the most potent medicine for performance anxiety.
