During the 2019 MLB playoffs, I became fascinated with how professional athletes can find success when the pressure is high and everybody is watching you. For instance, in game 2 of the 2019 NLDS between the eventual World Series winning Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers; Daniel Hudson, the Nationals closer, needed one more out to tie the series at 1 game apiece. Up by two, he would walk the next two batters and load the bases for Dodgers SS Corey Seager, a two-time all-star and former NL Rookie of the Year Winner. Hudson would be able to gather himself and throw a 2–2 slider to strikeout Seager and even the series for his team. The pressure faced in moments like that is enormous, especially in sports such as baseball, golf, gymnastics, etc. where everyone is watching you and there are not any teammates to help mask a mistake such as in football.
These emotions are much easier for a professional athlete to deal with though than it is for a student athlete. During the week of a big game, a professional athlete is able to completely lock-in and focus on their craft while a student athlete has to deal with the pressures of the classroom as well as performing for their team. As I was trying to find an answer to how student athletes deal with this emotional stress in these moments, I interviewed two people who are very familiar with this subject. The first being Jidea Flahnma, who was a former level 10 gymnast (highest competing level in the USA gymnastics Junior Olympics Program) and is a current student at Kennesaw State University. The second being Dr. Randy Kennedy, who is the current Assistant Athletics Director for the Student Athlete Success Services at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Kennedy received his undergraduate degree in sports administration from The University of Missouri as well as a doctorate degree in educational and counseling psychology. He also earned his master’s degree in sports administration from Wichita State University. He has been working with Student-Athletes for over 20 years while working at Eastern Kentucky University, Oklahoma University, and now Kennesaw State University.
Jidea believes the best way she handled these moments were through experience. “It helped that I had been doing it for such a long time and from such a young age that when it’s time to compete you learn how to become focused and how to get in the zone”, she said. There are many ways that researchers have suggested coping with these emotions to maximize success, and one of the ways that many suggest is to visualize success just before you perform whatever task is at hand. For Jidea though, this was not a strategy that worked well for her. When asked if she had ever tried this she said, “I didn’t like visualizing, because I would self-sabotage my head.” She believed the best method to find success was simply to have confidence in yourself and trust your ability to get the job done. This was really helpful for her during her beam routines especially. She believed the beam was her best event so every time she competed, she did well. Her coaches also taught her that one essential component to success is to have a short-term memory. This helped tremendously with the mental aspect of gymnastics and helped her to not dwell on previous mistakes.
While Dr. Kennedy was never a student-athlete, his experience with working with student-athletes helped him provide a mental aspect of dealing with these emotions. While it may seem difficult for an average spectator to understand, he, like Jidea, believes many elite athletes have a way of entering “the zone” which is a commonly used phrase. This means when an athlete is solely focused on the task at hand and has the utmost confidence in their abilities to get the task done successfully, they can block out noise and distractions and calm their nerves. Sometimes though, this zone can carry over to a classroom and cause testing anxiety among other things that can cause a student’s grade to suffer, which is where Dr. Kennedy and his department come in play. They also work with sports psychologists to help them deal with high pressure moments in their sport as well as high-pressure moments in the classroom. Dr. Kennedy believes only a small amount of student athletes struggle with distractions in the class; “I don’t think we see a tremendous amount of that though, I think student athletes are able to compartmentalize things pretty well.” Dr. Kennedy said that over his years of working with student athletes, he has seen visualization act as the most effective tool to dealing with emotions. He believes this because “it encourages your success when you’re able to envision yourself making that game winning free throw at the end of the game.” He and Jidea also believe positive self-affirmation is a very useful skill as well. During our interview, I also got the opportunity to ask Dr. Kennedy if he believed these skills could be used in the classroom as well. “I believe it’s harder to visualize success in the classroom because it’s more of a process” he said, “I think a lot of student athletes they have a lot of confidence in themselves on the field, but not necessarily in the classroom.” He does believe that trusting and talking to yourself in a positive manner is one skill that can be taken from sports to the classroom.
In general, the way that athletes deal with emotions varies, largely depending on the sport, and also depending on the athlete. I do not believe there is one clear-cut answer on how an athlete can calm their nerves in these moments to remain completely focused, but I do believe that there are many strategies to help athletes cope such as the ones discussed by Jidea and Dr. Kennedy.
