Do sports relieve or cause stress? According to UW Medicine “Participating in sports particularly offers emotional support to youth through connections with coaches and teammates, helping youth develop a sense of community and decreasing anxiety. However, sports can also create stress. The pressure to compete, and the challenges of managing failure and injury, can negatively impact youth development and emotional health.”
According to Kids Health “Competing often causes some stress, and that can be good. A little stress helps the body face a challenge and gets you to try a little harder. But too much can take the fun out of a sport and make it hard to perform.”
Arlington High School Athletes have said,
“Well, certain parts of a sport definitely relieve stress, like hitting someone in football, or getting a nice hit in baseball,” Dylan Durfee (‘26) said, “but certain areas definitely cause stress, mainly from pressure situations like waiting in the box for a pitch or waiting for the QB [quarterback] to hike the ball. All in all, sports ultimately will bring you a release of stress no matter what.”
“It caused both for me,” Gabi Schroeder (‘24) said, “I gained stress when the score was close or when I was serving on game point. It relieved stress simply because it’s my favorite activity to do, every time I hit the ball I got more relaxed and energized.” She goes on to explain, “Being active and having fun with my teammates gets rid of all my stress and makes me forget about all the negatives.”
“They relieved me,” Jaxson Angel (‘27) said, “Basketball showed me there’s something I can always go to and relieve my head.”
“They have caused stress for me from not wanting to underperform and also having an overloaded schedule balancing all my sports and schoolwork,” Jazzlynn Berns (‘26) said, “They have also relieved stress because I find enjoyment in all my sports from personal improvement, being active, and (being) apart of a team.”
“I’d honestly say it’s a two-way street,” Logan Bailey (‘24) said, “you can’t have a feeling of relief without some sort of stress in life and that 100% transfers into sports for me as well.” As well, “… it’s always become stressful around big games, hard practices, and truthfully for me there’s always a lingering feeling of stress to perform to the best of my ability and fire on all cylinders.” Continuing on, he said “… Whenever I’m stressed about performing 100% there’s always that relief when I know I did my job after each play, score, whatever it may be because I’m not leaving anything in the tank and always going 100% to know I won’t have any regrets,”
“Both, Kierra Reese (‘25) said, “the stressful parts are when the games are really close and there’s not much time left and we are needing to get a play off,” to stay in the game and have a chance. “It’s relieving when the stressful things turn into having good outcomes.”
“I believe both,” Kaid Hunter (‘25) said, “because it can be stressful sometimes when it’s a big game or a big shot and your team is counting on you. Yet also relieves stress because it’s something you can vent to and go to to have fun with buddies and enjoy the sport you love,” Hunter said.
“I feel like for me it can be both,” Kailee Anderson (‘27) said. “It can be stressful when people know you can perform and you don’t, like when you are in a slump and you know you can be good but your confidence is low. But it can also relieve stress when you can just go and play sports to get your mind off of things and just play how you know you can and have fun with it.”
