Being able to read, understand, use, and manage your emotions is an important mental skill in sporting performance. Emotions produce physiological, mental, and behavioral changes, for example, emotions affect heart rate, the way you see things, the way you decide things, and the way you behave.
Top athletes learn to manage their emotions in ways which they believe will enhance their performance. Athletes may do certain things before competing to help them stay positive and achieve an optimum level of physiological arousal. They may do other things when they face a challenge while competing because they feel that they perform best when they are in a particular emotional state.
Top athletes tend to use a variety of strategies to help manage their feelings and emotions, for example, relaxation, redirection of attention, suppression of thoughts, self-talk, and imagery. An elite athlete’s goal is to have personal strategies that help create the right emotional climate to handle different situations while competing.