Eustress vs Distress - How managing stress can help your martial arts progress
Stress and pressure are necessary in pushing us above our limits. Eustress is defined as stress that leads to a positive response as opposed to distress which is stress that negatively affects you.
A part of martial arts training is about overcoming our limitations on all levels (physical, mental and emotional). Some seek to push these boundaries regularly whereas others need to be pushed. Either way, there is no escaping having to face your limitations and the effects of that. There is no escaping “stress”. In accepting that, how we manage stress and the amount of stress at any point are important to understand.
Everyone’s stress threshold or window of tolerance to stress differs. We can set ourselves up for longevity and progress in our martial arts journeys if we can:
1) Understand your stresses and how to build tolerance (find methods that work for you)
2) From a coaches perspective, have awareness of your student’s stress thresholds and how to provide achievable steps to help them overcome their current limits.
3) Its a see-saw of pushing yourself vs setting realistic goals (trying our best not to coddle or make excuses for ourselves either).
So what are some examples of eustress vs distress? As everyone differs in what they can tolerate at any one point, these are just some generalised examples you may resonate with.
Example 1:
Eustress - Running 5km twice a week for a month. Having your body exposed to running in an achievable manner helps for building of strength and endurance, and better running abilities over time.
Distress - Running a marathon with no prior running experience. Yes you could do it, but the risks of serious long term injuries and a negative association with running are higher.
Example 2:
Eustress - Training consistently in Muaythai classes as a beginner - perhaps twice or three times a week for 2 months. You keep to the fundamental classes to build skills and strong foundations as you allow your body to adjust to the new training. Yes, you should be training hard and your body will be sore, but you should still be tracking upwards in progress and mentality towards training.
Distress - Going to a competitive and hard sparring class as your first experience with no guidance or proper understanding of what to do. You’re told to just “toughen up” and that Muaythai is a combat sports so “deal with it”. You pretty much become a punching bag for everyone else. Sure, a very small percentage may actually thrive with this method of coaching but for many, this is too much, too soon.
As a coach I feel it important that my students experience at least 95% of stress positively and then the occasional 5% of not-so-positive stress so we can see where their limitations are. At all points, stressors shouldn’t push you backwards in your journey. Too much too soon can have a debilitating effect on the student. We try to avoid that as much as possible as I feel that there’s no point in breaking someone down past that tipping point where it is now a traumatic experience (and I mean this mentally - of course we shouldn’t ever get to that physically in training).
As a practitioner, it’s normal to want to push boundaries even if that sacrifices our wellbeing and health. Hence I feel, it’s a lot more on the coaches to manage the risks for you. Eg. Which fight to take? Are you ready for an Amateur?
How to frame and manage stress for success?
You will get uncomfortable in martial arts training. Training will make you come face to face with your fears and doubts. Now, the task is how to frame stressors when they arise and how to work through the limitations successfully.
Here are some steps as a student of martial arts that helped when my stressors arose.
Awareness of stress and my thresholds -
This is not hard to realise. Your body will usually go into fight or flight when faced with high stress. Maybe it’s sparring or feeling uncomfortable in a particular setting - taking note of these when the emotions of discomfort arise is the first step.
2. Reflection - why did I have a stress response? Was it positive or negative in retrospect?
Let’s use the “feeling uncomfortable in a particular setting” example. Maybe you always train with your training partner. Today, you decided to come to class solo. You’re uncomfortable and thoughts go through your mind of perhaps leaving but you decide to stay and finish the session instead. That for many could be an empowering experience so we can say that was positive stress.
What if you had a negative stress experience? Perhaps you came to a sparring class and felt unsafe and left injured emotionally. Now comes the task of breaking down this experience further.
3. Small steps
Using the negative sparring experience - let’s now identify what exactly was stressful. Were people watching? Was the coach encouraging others to beat you up? Was your skill level just not ready for that level of training? That’s ok, you’ve found your threshold.
It’s time to break it down to smaller achievable steps to break through. In this instance perhaps we could do something like this:
Take a step away from the sparring classes for bit.
Focus on improving your defence via partnered drills - using a safe environment to strengthen your weak points. Particularly focus on aspects you were worst at. Maybe you kept getting punched in the face. Take the next month to hone in on your boxing defence and skills.
Trialling with trusted partners / with your coach. When you feel that you’re ready to put your skills to the test again, perhaps reach out to your coach or trusted training partners for a few light sparring rounds. Maybe book in a PT with your coach. Get feedback in a more realistic interaction on where you're at. Have you improved? Are you ready to return to sparring classes?
All these steps could take a month or it could take 6 months - there is no rush. Take your time. As long as you’re improving and taking the necessary steps to, that’s all that matters.
As a coach, how do we facilitate stressors to positively impact our students?
First, is recognising stressors in our students. When watching a class, it can be hard to watch everyone so intently to realise that “this is too much” for some. My coaching strategy is still a work in progress. So far I feel that these steps have been helpful.
Encouraging open communication - creating a training space that allows students to voice when uncomfortable. Sometimes even just being able to openly communicate their fears is a way to overcome them. When being able to speak openly, this also helps with making the group realise that everyone is working on something. Martial arts training is uncomfortable for everyone at points throughout the journey, and that’s ok. That’s what the training is for.
Breaking down to smaller achievable steps (as discussed above)- giving students a way to work through their stressors and blocks is important. How quickly they overcome them isn’t too important but more so that they have the tools and support to.
Allowing students to take their own steps towards improvement - Sometimes, us coaches may want to constantly push our students. I feel that the pushing should also come from the students. When they’re ready and aware of their limitations, let them initiate to overcome them. Rather than constantly pushing them, let them lead their own journeys. This “taking control” feeling in my opinion can be a healthy approach to their training. Students have to want what’s ahead.
Summary
The balancing act of holding ourselves back vs respecting our current limitations. It’s the juggling of how much stress we can endure at any one point to still get a positive outcome. Too much too soon leaves you vulnerable and broken. But never experiencing discomfort is a sure way of never improving.
Accepting that stress and discomfort are our triggers to grow is the first step. Learn to manage the stressors as they come up in your journey. Try to keep majority of your stressors in the positive basket and take the time to reflect on how to help yourself through them. Once you’ve surpassed your current limitations (which you will), the work continues to break through the next. There in lies the beautiful never ending martial arts journey.
