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Somatic, cognitive and behavioural effects of stress

Somatic effects

Somatic stress relates to the physical effects that happen within the body. This stress reaction is caused by adrenaline, and other stress hormones, and is known as "The Fight or Flight Response".

When athletes' become stressed this activates the sympathetic nervous system which increases adrenalin. When they no longer feel stressed the parasympathetic nervous system takes over, having the opposite affect of the sympathetic nervous system.

Cognitive effects

Cognitive stress relates to the negative thoughts that athletes' have. Often these negative thoughts e.g. 'I know I am not going to win', 'the other team are much better than ours', have a negative effect on performance and cause the athlete to feel somatic effects such as heavy breathing and sweating.

Behavioural effects

Each athlete will deal with stress differently, either in a positive or negative manner often depending on their previous experiences. An athlete, who fears competition and does not perform well, will see this competition as a stressful situation in the future. On the other hand if they were to perform well they may see competition as a stressful situation they feel pleasure from taking part in competition. This maybe as a result of the cognitive and somatic effects they have had and how the effected their performance. Think back to the example used earlier of the World Cup and the penalty kick situation.