Anxiety can be caused by a number of factors among them fear of failure or failure of judgment (of self or from others; particularly parents). Fear of failure can be an internal mechanism I see a lot from athletes who are perfectionists who have super high expectations. Or it can come from an external source like fear of letting teammates, parents or coaches down if her performance falls short of those external expectations.
The solution is to keep expectations in check. No matter how old an athlete is there is still so much still to learn and master in the game. Focus her on the things she has control over to minimize her anxiety. From a practical perspective have her work on some deep breathing when she feels the anxiety start in an effort to calm her body down.
As well, since anxiety is a physical reaction caused by a mental thought response to an external stimulus (game situation or interaction) if she can come up with a simple phrase she can tell herself over and over to drown out any negative or fearful thought patterns she has going on that are likely causing the physical response of anxiously she feels. Something like "Have fun," or "You've got this," or "I can do it," or "relax...breathe."
Hope this helps.
You can read some of my articles on the mental game at softballsmarts.com.
The solution is to keep expectations in check. No matter how old an athlete is there is still so much still to learn and master in the game. Focus her on the things she has control over to minimize her anxiety. From a practical perspective have her work on some deep breathing when she feels the anxiety start in an effort to calm her body down.
As well, since anxiety is a physical reaction caused by a mental thought response to an external stimulus (game situation or interaction) if she can come up with a simple phrase she can tell herself over and over to drown out any negative or fearful thought patterns she has going on that are likely causing the physical response of anxiously she feels. Something like "Have fun," or "You've got this," or "I can do it," or "relax...breathe."
Hope this helps.
You can read some of my articles on the mental game at softballsmarts.com.