One major issue amongst athletes is dealing with excessively high levels of anxiety and tension. Although other athletes suffer from low levels of arousal, it is dealing with anxiety and tension that has become the biggest problem. The increase in tension and anxiety will most like result in weakening an athlete's performance. By combining this causes and effects and you get what is called the anxiety/stress spiral, which is high levels of anxiety and stress lead to a poor performance. However, four different relaxation procedures have surfaced to the top to help athletes cope with stress and anxiety. These four procedures are progressive relaxation, autogenic training, meditation, and biofeedback. The ultimate goal of any relaxation procedure is to enhance the relaxation response to counter stress in a specific situation. Amongst these four procedures there are also four factors involved for enhancing the relaxation response. All factors are present in all the procedures of relaxation. These four factors are mental device, passive attitude, decreased muscle tone, and a quiet environment.
             Progressive relaxation was introduced to us by an Edmond Jacobson. All of progressive relaxation techniques used today derived from the style in which Jacobson developed. "It was Jacobson's basic thesis that it is impossible to be nervous or tense in any part of the body where the muscles are completely relaxed. In addition, Jacobson believed that nervousness and tenseness of involuntary muscles and organs could be reduced if the associated skeletal muscles were relaxed. According to Jacobson, an anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body"(Sports Psychology, Cox. Pg. 242). There are a few steps required for Jacobson's relaxation procedure: 1) The athlete must lie on their back with arms to their side, or seated comfortable in a chair 2) The athlete should be in a remotely quiet room with their legs cross to ...