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Managing Stress Key To Success

February 26, 2002

ATLANTA (Cox News Service) - Michelle Kwan could probably do a triple flip blindfolded on rusty skates after two days without sleep.

But while millions were watching her perform the move at the Olympics last week, the world champion skater fell, trading her dreams of gold for bronze.

File another sports drama under "performance anxiety." Athletes may be the most noticeable victims of stress gone bad, but others encounter it too. Dancers, musicians and anyone who has ever had to speak in public can relate to the shaky, clammy, dry-mouth sensation that makes them want to scream, "Really, I've done this perfectly a hundred times before!"

Blame it on adrenaline, said J. Douglas Bremner, a psychiatrist at Emory University. Officially called norepinephrine, the fight-or-flight hormone is like a visit from the in-laws: A certain amount of it is good, but there's a threshold.

"It causes an increase in attention and vigilance and makes us think better and run faster," Bremner said. "But at high levels, there's an inverted 'U' in performance. If it gets too much, you make mistakes."

Elaine Walker, an Emory psychologist, said an overload of adrenaline and other stress hormones such as dopamine and cortisol can inhibit brain centers that control recollection of memory. That includes physical movements, from finding chords on the piano to skating triple flips.

"Any complex motor task involves memory of all the maneuvers, all the positions," Walker said.

Performance anxiety is one of the main challenges for nearly all athletes, especially those in individual sports where the competitions often last just minutes or seconds, said James Millhouse, an Atlanta sports psychologist who has counseled Olympians.

Millhouse, who also works with golfers, professional teams and student athletes at Georgia Tech, said the key to controlling stress is mental focus. Kwan, who endured four years of speculation about a gold medal after earning a silver in 1998, simply had too many other things on her mind, he said.

"She was focusing on the pressure, on the last four years, on dedicating her life to this, on the meaning of the event, and not on her skating, on the process," he said. "If I thought about all of that, I'd freak out too."

Sarah Hughes, the upstart who leaped from fourth place to gold with a stunning show, didn't have as much mental clutter, Millhouse said. "She wasn't even thinking of medals. She was just having fun."

That's what he tries to teach his athletes to do. It's like training a tightrope walker to pretend he's only a foot off the ground. In one exercise, Millhouse instructs his subjects to look at a spot on the wall and concentrate on it. They close their eyes and he asks them to imagine being in their performance venue - a basketball court, a swimming pool, a skating rink.

That usually triggers immediate tension. Millhouse then tells them to place that image on a TV screen. Imagine a mischievous child coming along and turning down the dials, he says, reducing the color, the volume, the focus. Then think of specific positive sensations from the venue, such as the roar of the crowd or the feel of the water. Focus on those instead.

"You have them reprogram this at the unconscious level, and then they automatically do it during the performance."

It may seem silly or simplistic, he said, but it's very similar to how golfing phenomenon Tiger Woods describes his "zone."

For Atlanta Ballet dancer Julianne Kepley, her zone is the sound of music. Even though Kepley has had the lead role in "Nutcracker Suite" and, recently, "Dracula," she still gets butterflies. "Right before I get onstage, my stomach feels like it's going to flip over," she said. "But once I step onstage, it's gone."

That's because the music makes her forget everything else, she said. "You put the body on autopilot and let the emotional part of the performance guide you."

But many top-notch performers like Kepley thrive on pressure. A year and a half ago, the ballet company was on tour performing "Allegro Brilliante" in North Carolina while she stayed home to practice "Romeo and Juliet." Suddenly the traveling lead was injured, and Kepley was called one day to dance that night in a role she hadn't practiced in months.

"It was one of my best performances," she said. Most people get their opportunity to test the adrenaline-meter through more routine endeavors such as public speaking, piano recitals, school plays and even sex.

Esther Brace, a member of an Atlanta Toastmasters club, said it's good to feel some butterflies when giving a public speech. You just don't want a swarm. "Every single time I get up in front of the lectern, I'm nervous," she said.

She has a few tips that probably apply to anyone encountering a performance that may cause stress:

Practice. Brace delivers each speech three times, taping it and timing it, before she goes public.

Slow down, take deep breaths and drink water. Be confident. "If you make a mistake, don't draw attention to it."

Put everything in perspective. "You need a sense of abandonment. Generally, with most things you do, it's not life-and-death. You're not just the summation of your job or your performance."

Story filed: February 26, 2002 Copyright 2002 Cox News Service. All rights reserved