Managing mental fatigue in athletes
It’s the last five minutes of a nail biting game. You are trying your hardest to make sure your defender doesn’t get the ball, but despite your best efforts, you are struggling to keep up.
Well, it could be because of fatigue. And not just physical fatigue, but mental. Basically, if your brain is tired—from the game itself, or maybe a long day at work prior to the game, you are not going to perform at your optimum.
Mitchell Smith is a PhD student in the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney. He has spent extensive time testing athletes to their mental limit to find out what impact fatigue has on performance.
Image: Ryan Knapp on Flickr.
