participate in highly competitive sports. A lot of the stress comes from

pressure that they put on themselves and pressure that they experience

from coaches, media, parents and peers.

Many fine athletes who have I counseled suffer from significant anxiety, depression,

insomnia and stress. Some competitors have difficulty managing their feelings on and off

the athletic field.

Several years ago, I conducted a seminar for athletes who wanted to better

manage the stress they were experiencing in their athletic lives and their

personal lives. I emphasized several skills that athletes needed to learn

to better manage stress. I tried to teach these skills to the athletes in

a very simple way. The tools I spoke about were:

1. I taught the athletes some basic relaxation, visualization and self-hypnotic

techniques. These techniques can be found on my Stay In The Zone

CD program. For more information on this go to:

http://www.stayinthezone.com/get_stay.htm

2. I taught them how to utilize humor to relax and place the sport in a

reasonable and positive perspective:

3. I explained that certain parts of their physical work outs could be

used as stress reduction tools.

4. I equipped the athletes with some skills for being less self-critical and for

managing difficult parents, coaches, teammates and competitors more

effectively. In short, I provided them a new and healthier philosophy

for managing people.

For more information about stress management for athletes, sports

psychology, and counseling for athletes, coaches and parents by

phone, visit http://www.stayinthezone.com/

Jay P. Granat, Ph.D. is a Psychotherapist and the Founder of

StayInTheZone.com. He can be reached at 888 580-ZONE.