Dr Victor Thompson: Why aggression and anger can lead to bottling it

BEING psyched-up for a match is great. You have to want it and be psychologically in the match to have any chance of winning - especially when your opponent is good. However, you can be too fired-up for a game.

What we are really talking about here in sports psychology terms is the level of arousal. There are two ways that over-arousal can be bad for an athlete: anxiety and aggression.

When over-arousal causes excessive nerves, strange bodily sensations, fear and panic this can really interfere with the sportsperson's ability to execute their strategy, to feel confident and to perform well. They bottle it.

When over-arousal causes spikes in aggression or anger the sportsperson also experiences a similar struggle to focus on the right factors and to perform well.

This is because their attention focuses on the problems: what they or their opponent is or is not doing.

Anger and aggression are usual when something gets in the way of something that is important to a sportsperson. This is made worse if their perception is that this thing shouldn't have got in their way and that it is not fair.

Passion for the game is great, but the best sportspeople in the world also learn how to raise and lower their level of arousal to the level that gives them their best performance.

This brings the ability to control one's state and therefore results in even greater confidence. Now that can only be good for performance.

We as sports fans see many of these outbursts and respond to them with cheers or applause, because we see the passion in the sportsperson and think it is a good thing.

The sportsperson undoubtedly likes this attention and applause and the behaviour may then become reinforced.

• Dr Victor Thompson is a clinical sports psychologist and a member of the British Psychological Society's division of sport and exercise psychology