This is a great article that sums up my own (much lower-stakes) life experiences. Athletes live on the frontier so they're excellent subject to study - after all the Olympics are only every 4 years.
Before my first Taekwondo fight and Muay Thai fight I had so much adrenaline and cortisol in the build up to the fights and for some reason it seems to all dump in my legs making them all heavy and unresponsive - not a helpful response when you need to kick to win!
Before my first Chemistry finals I also momentarily forgot the periodic table despite writing it out several times a day in the run up to it.
But as the article states it can be overcome and things like breathing exercises can really drive the needle. The corollary to the mind-body connection is that there is a body-mind connection! Just as the mind can influence the body, the body can influence the mind and performing physical tasks that the body associates with relaxation (breathing exercises, hot spas, forest walks etc) can settle the mind.
The other thing I came across on my journey to overcome performance anxiety for us mere mortal non-Olympians is:
1. Some of the jitteryness is a result of being unaccustomed/intolerant of adrenaline. Doing stressful (but safe) activities can build up your own resilience to stressful situations - this is why I find value in Muay Thai/boxing sparring, there aren't many things more stressful than getting punched in the face
2. Presence of mind can be trained and an easy hack I found that is taught in the military is the 3x3 Grounding Technique [1]
The general theme of sports psychology reminded me of a BBC article [2] that investigated focus in champion tennis players (and other sports) as measured by their eye movement.
> there aren't many things more stressful than getting punched in the face
I can definitely see this happening in dangerous/adrenaline sports like climbing. Normal things and fears just don't bother me anymore, when you are continuously facing your fear of grave injury and/or death when abyss stares at you and you hold just on your finger tips. And its not just exposure to fear, but you need to semi-continuously keep overcoming it during entire session, repeat that 1..X times per week, and after few years you become somebody else in this regard (and few others).
Now-famous Alex Honnold said that his fear receptors in brain basically just don't trigger anymore - they did some MRI scans of his brain. But the thing is, there was nothing special apart from that, and he himself attributes this to 2 decades+ of daily exposure to increasingly dangerous situations (not just famous crazy free solos but a lot of wild scrambling which can, and often does turn into serious exposed solo climbing without a chance to retreat).
Brain is a muscle, and fear is one dimension of how to expose and train it. Too much too quickly and it will overwhelm anybody. Bud to it gradually and in dosed manner and things will happen.
Before my first Taekwondo fight and Muay Thai fight I had so much adrenaline and cortisol in the build up to the fights and for some reason it seems to all dump in my legs making them all heavy and unresponsive - not a helpful response when you need to kick to win!
Before my first Chemistry finals I also momentarily forgot the periodic table despite writing it out several times a day in the run up to it.
But as the article states it can be overcome and things like breathing exercises can really drive the needle. The corollary to the mind-body connection is that there is a body-mind connection! Just as the mind can influence the body, the body can influence the mind and performing physical tasks that the body associates with relaxation (breathing exercises, hot spas, forest walks etc) can settle the mind.
The other thing I came across on my journey to overcome performance anxiety for us mere mortal non-Olympians is:
1. Some of the jitteryness is a result of being unaccustomed/intolerant of adrenaline. Doing stressful (but safe) activities can build up your own resilience to stressful situations - this is why I find value in Muay Thai/boxing sparring, there aren't many things more stressful than getting punched in the face
2. Presence of mind can be trained and an easy hack I found that is taught in the military is the 3x3 Grounding Technique [1]
The general theme of sports psychology reminded me of a BBC article [2] that investigated focus in champion tennis players (and other sports) as measured by their eye movement.
[1] https://www.armyresilience.army.mil/ard/r2/Mindfulness.html
[2] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180627-is-quiet-eye-the...
I can definitely see this happening in dangerous/adrenaline sports like climbing. Normal things and fears just don't bother me anymore, when you are continuously facing your fear of grave injury and/or death when abyss stares at you and you hold just on your finger tips. And its not just exposure to fear, but you need to semi-continuously keep overcoming it during entire session, repeat that 1..X times per week, and after few years you become somebody else in this regard (and few others).
Now-famous Alex Honnold said that his fear receptors in brain basically just don't trigger anymore - they did some MRI scans of his brain. But the thing is, there was nothing special apart from that, and he himself attributes this to 2 decades+ of daily exposure to increasingly dangerous situations (not just famous crazy free solos but a lot of wild scrambling which can, and often does turn into serious exposed solo climbing without a chance to retreat).
Brain is a muscle, and fear is one dimension of how to expose and train it. Too much too quickly and it will overwhelm anybody. Bud to it gradually and in dosed manner and things will happen.
(high cortisol).
Except water sports, running and golf etc