How to Stay Composed When the Game Gets Chaotic
About this episode
Valerie Alston discusses strategies to help athletes manage chaos during games by simplifying their focus and reducing mental load.
Overwhelmed in the Game? Simplify: 3 Ways to Reduce Mental Load and Play Your Best Host Valerie Alston explains how chaos in sports can overwhelm athletes by maxing out limited cognitive capacity, leading to slower processing, hesitation, rushed decisions, missed cues, and errors. Instead of trying to think more, she teaches listeners to simplify by focusing on “What’s important now?” and “What is my job for the next five seconds?” She shares three practical tools to reduce mental load: narrowing to a single controllable cue (“the win”), grounding in the present with “feet and breath” or a physical anchor, and using a practiced reset routine—release, refocus, respond. She also advises parents and coaches to avoid adding to athletes’ cognitive load with too many instructions, especially for younger kids, and offers a weekly challenge to build a personalized chaos-to-composure plan plus family discussion questions. 00:00 Simplify the Chaos 00:41 Meet the Host 01:54 Why Overwhelm Happens 04:23 Cognitive Overload Signs 06:09 Whats Important Now 08:45 Grounding in the Moment 12:22 Reset Routine Steps 15:48 Parents and Coaches Cues 18:31 Weekly Challenge Plan 19:49 Car Ride Questions…
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