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Handle With Care

Volume 56 - Issue 4, December 2022

Volume 56 - Issue 4, December 2022

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negatively.”

Goolish believes that athletes can

avoid overthinking by conditioning

both their mental and physical skills. He

explains that this alleviates some of the

pressure on athletes by allowing them

to concentrate on the aspects of the

game in their control.

“Kids will think about the past and

they’ll dwell on mistakes,” Goolish said.

“The past is for evaluating; the future

is for planning. But if you want to perform,

you have to be in that present

moment.”

Goolish reports that players who can

often don’t become as frustrated when

they have a “statistically poor night.”

However, Goolish also recognizes that

tive

training or management

techniques to help players

through mentally taxing

situations.

According to a

study published in

the Journal for Sports

Education, 53 percent of teenage

athletes cite increased pressure

from parents and 40 percent cite pressure

from coaches as their reason to

stop playing a sport. Wang has had

to deal with expectations from many

sources and believes that athletes can

only reach their full potential when

pressure is reduced.

“I try to tell myself that in the end,

tennis is just a sport,” Wang said.

“Regardless of my level, I should be

humble and keep the expectations in

check.”

Wang has experienced the nega-

attempts to control her expectations

through humility. Arne, however, has

set

because we thought of the pressures

as a bad thing,” Arne said. “But the more

we discussed, the more we realized that

the pressure was actually a good thing

because it meant that people believed in

us and knew our potential.”

Having trained athletes like Arne,

Goolish understands how teenagers

coaches and teammates who assist them

and provide opportunities. But instead

of fearing these pressures, Goolish suggests

that athletes embrace them like

Arne and her team has.

“I think players should actually want

an element of pressure,” Goolish said.

is your role? Let’s learn how to operate

inside of it.”

Arne undeprstands that pressure will

always be a part of sports and competition.

However, she feels the pressure

can never take away from the exceptional

worth of playing and competing.

“At the end of the day, basketball

is supposed to be a fun game and we

said. “We had to take a step back and

realize that we’re all here because we

love the game of basketball and each

other.”

Photo credit:

Matthew Schwenk

www.statesmanshs.org • 25

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