GOOD STRESS. AND HOW IT TURNS BAD FOR AN ATHLETE

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 Sports is not just running around, laughing and enjoying, and having a gala time. Playing sports professionally and semi-professionally is a stressful business. There is an immense amount of decision-making, analyzing and a lot of problem-solving taking place in every minute of the game and training. Every athlete, however supreme they may be, experiences an enormous amount of stress. Experiencing stress is okay. It does not mean an athlete is weak. But it is the ones that learn to manage and deal with the stress, in a healthy manner, who eventually are able to stay on the path of growth which leads them onto the "higher levels" (namely television minutes, big bucks, fame).


In general, there are two kinds of stress-the good stress and the bad stress. In a simple manner of explanation, "...good stress provides an opportunity for creativity and growth, bad stress reduces productivity and creativity whereby, one loses their joy and happiness...". 

Playing basketball and chess may be fun and stressful at the same time. The stress that we experience here can be called "the good stress". It seems intuitive that involving in such activities that are fun and productive at the same time for longer periods will help us grow continuously. But the problem is our brain can only take so much. Use of cognitive thinking and decision-making are integral parts of such activities, which also use our mental and brain energy. The fact that we enjoy ourselves in these stressful situations helps us deal with the stress better and probably for longer. This, however, does not mean that the good stress will help us for as long as we continue to involve in it. Our brains have limited mental energy that we can use for left-brained tasks like analysis, decision-making and problem-solving. It, therefore, becomes imperative for us to "rest" ourselves to be able to recuperate and continue the same activities in a sustainable manner, rather than burning ourselves out by overindulging in them. 

 

~Authored by Rahul Dagliya, CEO at Ardour Sports Academy

Location: 60, Munisvara Nagar, Devara Jeevanahalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560032, India

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