How Professional Footballers manage their Stress

Being a professional footballer comes with many different pressures, from audience expectations to being pushed by coaches and managers. Naturally, holding all of this weight can lead to enormous amounts of stress, which doesn’t do anything for their performance or personal life alike. 

To avoid having a complete mental breakdown on or off the pitch, pro footballers put strategies in place to help keep themselves grounded and perform at their best. 

Get Lost in Entertainment

Professional footballers are people like everyone else, so they all have their own way of finding entertainment and blowing off steam. For example, many footballers are known for visiting casinos both physically and digitally - like those listed on Bonus.CA - to play their favorite games. This is just one way that pro athletes seek out entertainment; the list is literally limitless. 

Take Time Out

The football season runs from August to May each year, and players take on countless matches during that time. However, the games you see are only the tip of the iceberg regarding footballers' commitments. They have to train for games in between seasons and during, manage press conferences, deal with the onslaught of media coverage, and grapple with pressures from fans. 

With so much going on, footballers have to find time to step away and give their minds a break. During downtime, footballers have been known to spend time with family, work on other skills, or get stuck into their favorite video games and movies. 

Eat Healthily

Professional footballers need to maintain muscle mass, and everyone knows that means eating meals with a high-calorie count. However, you can guarantee that doesn't involve cramming in meals from fast food joints. 

As well as being great for the body, eating healthily is fantastic for mental health, and it’s even been proven to tackle stress among professional athletes like footballers. The types of food footballers eat include yogurt, tuna, eggs, avocados, salmon, bananas, milk, fatty fish, dark chocolate, and carrots. 

Go for a Drive

Many professional footballers are known for having a passion for cars, and you can see it clearly by looking at some of the lavish collections. However, aside from being a great way to spend their wages, driving cars along a peaceful highway is the perfect way to relieve stress. In particular, it’s been shown that going for a short drive can alleviate anxiety because the mind doesn’t truly have to focus on anything. The drive isn’t long enough to become stressed out on the road, especially if it’s taken at the right time of the day. 

Coloring and Drawing

Drawing and coloring have been proven to reduce stress and anxiety, which is why there’s been a boom in the adult coloring book market. The same goes for professional footballers, with many of them simply pulling out a sketchbook to get lost in creativity and others simply coloring calming patterns. No matter how a professional footballer interacts with this stress-relieving activity, there’s no denying that it helps to reduce anxiety and stress before an important event. 

Listening to Classical Music

When people exercise, they tend the listen to high-energy music designed to get the blood pumping. The same principle can be applied to relaxation and stress reduction, but instead of chaotic music, they listen to classical. There have been countless studies that demonstrate how just 15 minutes of classical music can reduce anxiety, making it the perfect practice for those pre-match nerves. 

Playing football at a professional level comes with a number of different stressors, which is why the above tactics are being used to manage mental health between games. 

Cover Credits: Footballzone.com