A psychologist who specializes in treating professional and amateur athletes can make a difference in your performance and overall health. If you’re in recovery or need help overcoming your limitations as an athlete, here’s how a psychologist can assist you.
Enhance Your Performance
Hiring a skilled and experienced sports psychologist in Manhattan can improve your performance. Through relaxation, self-talk, and other techniques, you can learn how to overcome challenges and achieve your full potential.
Cope with the Pressure
Athletes often face immense internal and external pressure and stress to perform, with the impact of these situations reflected more so in their physiology than in their minds. Before, during, and/or after athletic events, pressure and stress can be debilitating. How athletes respond to stress, physiologically, plays a very large part in a successful performance. Our bodies are programmed to respond to stress as if we’re in danger – heart rate increases, we breathe at a faster rate and our blood vessels constrict – this is our natural survival response as we are ready to fight, flee or freeze. This fight-or-flight response is automated and leaves an athlete in a state that is hardly conducive to peak performance – stress and pressure live in the body, not the mindset alone.
What is HRV Biofeedback?
Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects the range of your maximum heart rate to your minimum heart rate. The greater this difference, the higher your HRV and the better able you are to thrive under stress and pressure. High HRV represents a flexible autonomic response that is associated with fast reactions and adaptability. At its core, HRV biofeedback training is a scientifically proven, safe, natural way to rewire this autonomic response so an athlete can quickly ramp up and then swiftly and efficiently let go, or recover. HRV biofeedback aims to enable athletes to learn how to shift their physiology, by addressing the root of their stress response, to then shift their psychology, reducing one’s fight, flight, or freeze response. Training this response is no different than training a muscle how to hit a golf ball, throw a football, or catch a baseball. This method of peak performance training is rapidly growing as a method for elite performers to train their physiology and improve stress management, focusing on the mind-body connection using heart rate monitoring and breathing exercises.
What are the benefits of working with a sports psychologist using HRV biofeedback?
Through biofeedback training, athletes can expect their baseline stress response to improve – higher HRV is associated with greater resilience, physiological flexibility, and an ability to achieve a greater flow state on demand, or in sports terms, “being in the zone”. Athletes also learn real-time cognitive strategies to slow down their heart rate, refocus their minds, and let go of poor performance, allowing them to reach their potential. One can also come to expect improvements in sleep, stamina, and physical recovery; all important aspects of peak athlete performance. HRV biofeedback prepares individuals for moments of stress so that their hearts and minds are ready to respond effectively.
