Step 1: Stress audit
Identifying indicators of stress will allow you to determine what needs to be changed or adapted.
Importantly, if you’re trying to support an athlete, gaining an understanding of what is happening in both their sporting and non-sporting environments is essential.
As we discovered in the first part of this series, personal challenges are a significant type of stressor, as the athlete’s non-sporting contexts and situations need to be considered to understand how the stress and effects of these may be ‘overspilling’ into their performance.
Ideally, this is best done through multiple assessments, to create an audit of the stress indicators.