Major sporting events are one of the most important times to talk about mental health, and a big reason for this conversation and the place within it for psychotherapy involves the management of pressure, stress and expectations.
Whilst many people consider sports psychology primarily in terms of performance anxiety and managing pressure, this is not the only way that athletes are helped to achieve their best through caring for their mental health.
There have been several cases of exceptionally skilled athletes whose skills were directly affected by psychological effects. Depending on the sport and the particular activity, this has received several names such as “the yips” “twisties” “target panic” and “dartititis”.
Whilst the specifics change, the fundamental issue is astonishingly similar in each case; an athlete becomes conscious of an unconscious sporting act they are doing and often overthinks or over-corrects.
Whether this is a golf swing, a tennis serve, a cue strike in snooker, body control for a gymnast, a penalty kick for a football player, or throwing a dart, being conscious of every part of the action inhibits the ability to focus on other parts of the game and can affect performance.
Beyond this, therapy can help with managing previous failures. For many athletes at the peak of their profession, any losses can linger in the mind and small mistakes can cause overcorrection the next time.
A major example of this was found in the world of basketball, during Game Seven of the 2021 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz.
During the NBA playoffs that year, Philadelphia player Ben Simmons struggled heavily with his shooting, becoming the worst free-throw shooter in the history of the NBA postseason. During the final quarter of the majority (five of seven) of the games in the series, he did not attempt a single shot.
The epitome of this struggle was seen near the end of Game Seven, at a pivotal moment when Mr Simmons had a chance to tie the game for his team, he passed a wide-open shot to a teammate, highlighting how previous issues and past failures can have a psychological effect on future performance.