Sports Psychology Advice
Arousal Example
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It is very important that you assess your level of arousal before a game and to ensure that you are not ‘spent’ before the game has ended.
Similarly, it is also just as important to make sure that you are not ‘peaking’ just before the final whistle!
Right is a graph showing a typical arousal curve. The points mark where your arousal levels should be at each stage of the game. Preparation plays a major part in arousal i.e.
- Arriving too early and sitting around causes arousal levels to rise early which then become difficult to keep up
- Arriving late leaves no time for arousal levels to get started so they will start rising probably at half time, too late
One rule to think of is that you should always be occupied pre-match in a calm manner. Either getting changed, strapping, rubs, toilet, warm up etc - never sat around bored or wandering.