The psychological preparation of the Swiss Junior team of rythmic gymnastics for a major competitive event

Applied sport psychology has offered many examples in the last decade of how athletes can be mentally trained to manage competitive stress and fear of failure in major sport events. The illustrations insist on both physical stress management techniques, geared at lowering levels of somatic anxiety, and psychological stress management tools, aiming at modifying the direction of cognitive anxiety and interpreting the competitive event in a positive way (Reda 1991; Jones & Hendon 1996). Among those strategies, Gould & Udry (1994) identify bio-feedback, relaxation, cognitive-behavioral interventions and precompetitive routines as being the most widely used.