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Arousal Essay

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Discussion: Arousal is an integral element that is needed when preparing ones-self for sporting competition ( or practice for that matter). According to Weinberg and Gould, the athlete must become aware of his or her psychologigal states before they can control any thoughts or feelings they may have. This means when preparing for competition it is important to create an arousal state that is indicative of the competition you are competeing in and be aware of that state in order to set yourself up psychologically to compete. The athlete must energize him/herself when feelin flat and be aware of what he or she is doing in order to enhance his/her sport performance. With that said, if arousal levels are too high then sport performance can be …show more content…

Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning is a concept which states that “ A person’s zone of optimal functioning may be at the lower, middle or upper end of the anxiety continuum. In the Multidimensional Anxiety Theory arousal is said to inversley affected by an increase in state anxiety, therefore decreasing performance. In Kerr’s model,the Reversal Theory, he establishes that if an athlete see arousal as a pleasant experience , tthen the performance will benefit, however if is viewed negatively then performance will be hindered. When discussing Hardy’s Catastrophe Model, it becomes apparent that arousal can be beneficial, but only to a certain point. Hardy believes that as arousal increases it forms an inverted-U as stated previously but if anxiety surpassess the levels of optimal performance then catastrophic failure occurs and performance is at its worst. The athlete must then stop, relax,re-focus and use visualization techniques in order to get to a state of acceptable performance again.
With that said, it is beneficial to understand how to employ relaxation techniques in order to cope with situations like this. Relaxation exercises are used in order to relieve stress from the muscles and clear the mind in order to focus a nd perform at ones best, whether it be in practice or a game situation. There are different types of relaxation techniques. They

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