How to Cope With Anxiety Prior to Sport Instructing

Abstract

The aim of the thesis was to produce a blog which provides information on how to overcome anxiety prior to sport instructing. The objectives were to understand what techniques may reduce the anxiety level and how they are used. The advice was to be published in a blog to help sport instructors and especially sport instructor students at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences to deal with their perceived anxiety before instructing a sport session.

The thesis was a practice-based thesis with the goal to develop a blog. It employed a qualitative research approach and the method used for the research process was the document analysis. The sources included publications, books, articles and reports. The author read the information and descriptive statistics which were connected to the topic. Qualitative research methods were used as the research question concentrated on how to cope with the anxiety rather than how many are affected. The focus was on describing the phenomenon and the ways of dealing with it. Statistics were utilized to describe how many people are affected by anxiety. It was used to justify the end product of the thesis since anxiety is a problem for many people and ways of coping are needed to reduce anxiety. Furthermore, the author used inductive reasoning to explain sport instructors’ anxiety and techniques how to overcome it with specific theories regarding general population’s, athletes’ and teachers’ anxiety and their ways of coping with it. The product development was applied in the end of the process when the blog was created.

The outcome of the thesis was a blog segmented in different topics. Each of the segments provided various blog posts for readers to choose from. In the categories ‘Anxiety’ and ‘Self-Confidence’, additional information about anxiety and self-confidence as well as how it may affect the instructing performance could be found. In the category ‘Ways of Coping’, different techniques how to overcome anxiety could be learnt. The techniques how to reduce anxiety included the development of a routine, use of imagery, preparation and practice, relaxation response, breath control and progressive relaxation. Moreover, advice on how to build self-confidence was introduced such as successful performances, acting and thinking confidently, being in a good physical shape and the use of preparation as well as imagery.

The blog and the thesis may be useful for future sport instructor students at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences but also for other sport instructors to find various advice on how to cope with anxiety. Furthermore, the topic can be developed by researching how many students are affected or how well the anxiety-reducing-techniques work.