Stress, emotions and athletes’ positive adaptation to sport: Contributes from a transactional perspective

Stress is ubiquitous in sport, so understanding the causes and consequences of stress is an important endeavour. This chapter provides theoretical and research evidence for the transactional perspective of adaptation to sport, and is focused chiefly on the emergence of the Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA). The TCTSA not only offers a structure for understanding how athletes react in performance situations, it also provides a framework for stress management with a view to enhancing athletic performance. We provide a historical account of the emergence of the challenge and threat concepts, then we provide a synthesis of the research relating to the TCTSA. This chapter also details a number of stress management strategies informed by the TCTSA, which involve adjustments and alterations to the athletes' environment, or the development of well supported psychological skills. Finally we introduce an effective strategy for promoting adaptation supported by past research and our consulting experience.

Nervousness took over first his mind, and then his body…The contrast between the commanding McIlroy of day three and the disconsolate McIlroy of day four came down to psychology – no more and no less. Between the first and the third day, he had convinced himself he could win; by the fourth, he feared he could not (Viner, 2011, p. 12).