Frustration and anger management strategies in athletes, and when anger is more than just that (Part 1)- an MD Sports Psychiatrist Perspective

Daniil Medvedev

Daniil Medvedev is a former #1 world ranked tennis player who is renowned for his anger outbursts and temper tantrums on the tennis court. He throws rackets, yells and verbally fights with umpires, and has broken camera equipment. In a recent Daily Express UK article, he admitted to being very calm when off the court and puzzling with psychologists over what his anger was all about and how to control it.

Medvedev then said, of his almost 3 year old daughter, "On the court, it's a different story, it was since I was young, and I can see it a little bit in my daughter."

“Whenever I've worked with someone, like psychologist and etcetera, you try to find reasons, maybe it's from childhood, this, that. But, well, my daughter, we didn't even have time yet to educate her, and she acts like me sometimes. Maybe it's in the genes.”

So is it? And by the way... disclaimer here this is in no way, shape, or form diagnosing Mr. Medvedev or his daughter. Mr. Medvedev was strong enough to discuss mental health in this recent interview, and we are continuing with this discussion to further bring mental health in athletes to light.

Everyone experiences frustration. In athletes, the higher up you go in your sport, the more it is a mental game rather than a physical one. You've trained this far, had the coaching, nutrition, and talent to get you to a certain level. To reach the next level, an athlete usually has to start training the brain, or boss of it all. It is the brain that puts all of your training whys, wheres, whats, and how to's together.

With the additional pressures and stresses that come with being an elite or higher level athlete, the brain, or mental game, becomes more important. For some, this comes in high school, for others in college. Even middle schoolers can encounter difficulties with excelling in sport. Whenever you reach a point in your sport where emotions get in the way of you performing at the level you want to or are expected to and everything else about your training is already in place, the mental game needs to be assessed. For the developmental serious athlete, early brain training, or learning about how the brain affects performance, sets the athlete up for a higher chance of early and sustained success.

When an athlete gets angry in sport, it makes it difficult for that athlete to continue effectively with play. This is because anger and frustration manifest as energy in one's body that has to go somewhere. If you don't control it, it will come out as:

a) anger outbursts/temper tantrums, throwing things, yelling, breaking things,

b) careless or reckless plays done impulsively out of anger in games (aka not playing "smart" because you are angry and want to do something to get back at someone/something/yourself), or

c) missed shots, puts, targets, etc. in sports like golf, free throws in basketball, shots in soccer, shooting sports (e.g. archery, biathalon), etc.

Even in sports where anger is a helpful mechanism, e.g. MMA or martial arts, if you can't control and use your emotions properly, you will be faulted, disqualified, or penalized because you hit too hard, hit too many times, or made an illegal contact.

Anger/Frustration Management Strategies for Athletes

Anger and frustration show up as excess energy in your body. Anger increases your heart rate, makes your brain split its focus between two things (anger and trying to make the next shot or kick), and tenses up your body. Think about when you're locked in or in the zone - when you are performing your best - you are relaxed. But your body can't relax when your brain has taken over with anger and has sent signals to your body to tense up. One of the solutions to get rid of the anger involves clearing breaths.

These breaths automatically tell your body to relax and you can send the excess energy from the anger out of your body and your brain can just focus on that shot, kick, or put that it needs to.

Tips for managing frustration/anger:

Find a way to get that anger energy out before your resume play/put/shot, etc. by using clearing breaths.

Clearing breaths = when exhalation is longer than inhalation. To find out why that works, see my blog on "Performance Anxiety - an MD Perspective".

• Inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 4 seconds, then

• Inhale for 4 seconds fand exhale for 6 seconds, then

• Inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 8 seconds

  
  

Depending on the sport or performance you are doing, you may have time to only do one or two of these breath variations before you have to kick, throw, put, hit, etc. The timing of when you do these breaths depends on your sport. For example, if your opponent gets you angry doing something to you that results in a shooting foul in basketball, you would do clearing breaths while walking to or at the free throw line.

Clearing breaths are also most effective when lips are pursued making an "o" shape. We use this same technique to relax patients who have medical conditions that affect their lungs in order to give them more oxygen. Anger and frustration lead to stress breathing, which then cuts off your ability to effectively use oxygen, so your sport performance suffers. To get more oxygen back, we use this breathing method.

In thru the nose, exhale with pursued lips

When you think of getting the anger out of your body and brain via clearing breaths, think of it like taking an energy you don't want and throwing it out of your body so your brain's focus is not split between anger and making the shot, put, hit, kick, etc. Taking the excess energy of anger away via these breaths makes your brain able to focus on the one thing it needs to do at that time, not two. And remember, this isn't just deep breathing, in and out.. it is focused breathing w/ pursued lips with exhalation longer than inhalation.

Anger management strategies for athletes bonus tips

***Bonus if you play a sport with a ball, racket, club - you can do this breathing pattern while gripping and squeezing your sports equipment while inhaling and then releasing the grip while exhaling. If your sport does not involve equipment, you can do this with a towel, where gripping the towell and then twisting it produes the same effect.***

Next up...

When is anger or frustration a problem that goes beyond sport and actually affects sport/performance? Stay tuned for part 2 of this series by signing up

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"Remember, you do the best with what you've been given and with what you know. When it isn't enough, you can't change what you've been given, but you can change what you know".

References

McDuff, David R., Sports Psychiatry - Strategies for Life Balance and Peak Performance, American Psychiatric Publishing, 2012.

Yang, et al., The effects of pursed lip breathing combined with diaphragmatic breathing on pulmonary function and exercise capacity in patients with COPD: a systematic review and meta-analysis, 2022 Jul;38*7):847-857.

doi: 10.1080/09593985.2020.1805834.Epub 2020 Aug 18.