The stress of the athlete after an injury

The psychology of sport He is not only concerned with the performance of an athlete while he is active; it is also present during sports injury. In recent years, due to the professionalization of some sports, the number of studies published on this field has grown.

This has focused attention both on the prevention of injuries and on their treatment and readaptation to sport once these breaks have occurred. Specifically, stress management is very important to help performance not decline.

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Psychological intervention in cases of sports injury

We find two moments in sports injury; one that is prior to the injury and corresponds to a prevention phase, and a second moment that would occur after the injury in which rehabilitation would enter. It is important to take this into account because in the face of the intervention the objectives to be addressed are different.

In the first, the Sports Psychologist is in charge of training the psychological resources, looking for an optimal level of muscular tension, a reduction of stress, correct attentional control and improvement of coping resources in order to avoid the dreaded injury.

In the post-injury or rehabilitation phase, the objectives vary depending on whether the injury is more or less recent; In the immobilization phase, the objective will be to give the athlete strategies to control the anxiety and acceptance of reality. For this, it is common for the Sports Psychologist to train communication skills and relaxation techniques, in addition to ensuring a therapeutic commitment.

In the mobilization phase the objective will be to carry out a correct recovery, readaptation and return to competition, working for this communication skills, relaxation techniques and mental images and anxiety control, social support being of vital importance.

The causes

Many studies agree that there is two categories to which an injury may be due.

Extrinsic factors would be those factors of an environmental nature. They refer to the team, the environment where the activity is practiced, the duration of the training and the failures in the physical preparation. The second are the intrinsic factors that have their nature in the personal characteristics of the athlete. They include age, sex, physical constitution, previous medical history, physical condition, ability and psychological state.

As for the latter, unfortunately, it is common for it to get worse depending on the severity of the injury and the estimated time for recovery. For this reason, when the athlete has achieved his total recovery, when facing his normal activity, you often find that what once seemed like an ambitious challenge now provokes stress.

Injuries and stress in sport

If we review the literature we find that Andersen and Williams (1988) devised a model in which the stress response was proposed to be the result of abidirectional relationship between the cognitive evaluations of the athlete about an external situation (environmental factors) potentially stressful, and the aspects physiological and attentional stress factors (intrinsic factors), where both these cognitive assessments and the physiological and attentional responses to stress are constantly changing.

This model has also tried to explain the relationship between psychological factors and vulnerability to be injured, including their sports history, but also the emotional reactions of the athlete injured. Thanks to this, it has been possible to carry out programs of psychological intervention for the prevention of injuries or sports rehabilitation and readjustment of the injured athlete.

The role of anxiety in sports performance

In this interaction between psychology-injury-psychology, some of the relevant variables in the competitive field are anxiety and the athlete's state of mind. Numerous studies have been carried out in almost all sports modalities about pre-competitive anxiety and the state of mind in which athletes are before competing. It has been shown that This does not affect all athletes equally..

Factors that influence stress

There are a series of conditions in which stress and fear of failure are aggravated. The age of athletes influences the onset of stress, with the youngest (from 10 to 19 years) and the oldest (from 40) being more likely to suffer from stress.

It should also be noted that this stress condition it would not equally affect those who practice physical activity for leisure and those who engage in competition.

Psychological interventions after an injury improve the athlete's well-being during rehabilitation. The control of his emotional responses in this unfavorable situation will allow a better and faster recovery whose main objective is the effective sports rehabilitation.

Podlog et al. (2011) found that The most frequent variables that act against the athlete are: anxiety about a relapse, fear of not returning to previous performance, feelings of isolation, lack of identification with their practice sports, insufficient social support from others or from the sports field and excess pressure that causes negative feelings such as fear, anger, sadness.

For this reason, in order to work towards the psychological preparation behind an injury, it is important to assess:

• Situations outside the sports environment that can cause stress to the athlete.
• The demands that are inherent to training.
• The demands of the competition.
• Previous history of injuries.
• Influence of the public or the media on the athlete (if applicable).

Intervening on anxiety

Psychological interventions such as relaxation, mental images, a correct accompaniment by the of the technical team (coach and teammates), determination of objectives (clear, measurable and progressive), promote family social support directly or indirectly, partner and friends, are essential to carry out training in stress management.

Nor should such important aspects be forgotten as reinforcing belonging to the sport that he is practicing, reducing pressure and improving his self-confidence. (Palmi, 2001; Podlog et al., 2011).

Intervention may also need to focus on modifying beliefs and attitudes to prevent future injuries. It is not surprising that during training the athlete's own self-perception has been altered and this has generated distorted beliefs about his new physical condition.

Thoughts like "as soon as they touch me a little, I'll get injured again" leave a bad feeling in the athlete and this can have consequences in the execution of a training or a competition later.

Support and reinforcement program

As has been commented, family support together with a good reinforcement program It can contribute to improving the self-esteem of the injured athlete and for him to be able to resume his sports life.

They are those moments that one does not question when an athletic and sporting life is presented to him ahead. But when it happens you have to accept it and take it as a new challenge. One more workout.