One of our brilliant coaches, Devil’s Advoskate, shares her top tips for managing stress and anxiety on game days.
Disclaimer: I'm not in qualified in mental health management. These are just some tools I use from my own and team experience.
On the lead up
Managing anxiety on the lead up to the day is important. In the weeks leading up to it, I find attending more practices and speaking to my teammates about how we are going to play helps me to feel prepared. In saying that, there is nothing wrong with resting a week prior and this can be a really good thing to do.
Getting enough sleep and keeping your body fueled is also really important, I'm not in any way a dietitian, but there's lots of information available about keeping your body fueled on the lead up to big sporting events. You'll know your own body and what foods to avoid that make you feel rubbish.
Organise yourself
On the days leading up, make sure your kit is in good order, you know where your uniform is, and you know when and where you need to be on game day and how to make that happen.
This is especially important for away games. There's nothing worse on game day than stressing about how to get to the venue. So organize this in advance and it will ease stress on the day.
Managing intrusive thoughts
An intrusive thought is imagining a scenario that causes distress (not to be confused with impulsive thoughts). For me I imagine a jammer running full force at me and clipping my chin. For other it might be wheels falling off your skates; for jammers, it might be getting stuck in the pack.
If you have a repetitive intrusive thought that is keeping you up at night, take some time to dissect it.
Is there any realism to the thought? If I'm imagining that a vat of oil is going to spill on the track and it'll be a slip and slide, that is not a realistic concern! The chances of this happening are slim to none. It’s an unhelpful and invalid thought, so put it on the bin.
For thoughts that have validity, think about how we can reduce the chance of it happening. I can tighten my wheels before I go on track, I could not face the jammer, I can pass the star. Whenever the intrusive thought comes up, run through the solution in your head.
Learn your needs
We all have different personalities and needs - learn what yours are. If you are someone who is pretty chill most of the time, you likely need pumped up. If you are highly excitable or anxious, you likely need to bring some peace to yourself.
Create positive triggers
We often talk about negative triggers, but triggers can actually be a really good thing. Our emotions can fluctuate through out the day, so it is good to create triggers for different emotion depending on what you need.
You can create triggers by associating a song, quote, action object or anything really to an emotion. If you watch athletes, you will see a lot do this. Some will bang their chest, other intensely stare, most will at the very least power pose. They are invoking the feeling they need to perform their best.
Just make sure if you are picking a physical object, it's small and accessible enough to be near the bench.
The next time you feel an emotion that helps you in roller derby, try to associate it to something. For example, if you're at the gym and you're feeling strong and powerful, stick on a song and keep it playing for as long as the feeling is with you. If you are feeling safe and calm, do the same. What ever emotions you need on the day, any time you feel it try to connect it to something. If you do it often enough, you will invoke that emotion when you strike a pose, hold an object or think of a song, and you can access the emotion whenever you need it.
Dealing with hard hitters
I find the best way to deal with them is small jukes, especially as a blocker, because you don't want to give up your space.
The thing about hard hitters is a lot wind up to it. They put all their weight behind it, and once they are committed they struggle to break the momentum, so even just a small step forward or back will screw their timing. When they do manage to hit or when taking a hit is necessary - for example, jammer hitting the wall - breathe out heavily with the impact (it contracts your core muscles and makes you stronger). Simultaneously, hit them back to fight the force of the hit. Breathing out with the hit also helps if you are prone to hyperventilating.
If an opposing skater is causing problems for everyone, it's a good strategy to have one skater disable them for the jam - be persistently in their way. If its someone who is fouling, force them into space near the outside. OPR have better coverage than the inside.
How to feedback issues
Avoid singular blame. So for example, don't say to someone, “You left the inside line open.” Instead, state the problem and offer a solution. For example, “The jammer is getting past on the inside line. Let's have butt's right on the line and rotate the tripod.”
Dealing with the red mist
We play a high adrenaline sport and its really easy for that to turn to anger, especially when you are facing a lot of adversity. Use your positive triggers to get yourself regulated - ask for a couple jams off if that's what you need. If you see your team mate is experiencing this, it sometimes feels natural to share their outrage, especially if you agree. For example, you know someone fouled against them. But this can actually increase and prolong the red mist and it turns it into an angry rant that unsettles the whole team. It's better to just acknowledge the feeling then and advise they to take a break.
Dealing with an upset teammate
Everyone is different. Some folk need a quick hug and they are good to go. For others, a hug will break dam and a flood of emotions with come out.
Get to know your teammates and what they need in moments of distress. It's ok to ask, “What do you need from me in this moment?”. Sometimes having a buddy who gets what you need can be a really good thing just make sure they are in the head space to take it.
Breath work is really good for working through any dysregulation of emotion. You want to breathe out for double the time you take a breath in. How long depends on how shallow your breathing is. For example, if I'm just off, track breathing out for long periods of time feels suffocating. You can start with breathing in for 2 seconds then out for 4, in for 3, out for 6, in for 4 out for 8.
