Our normal reactions to these three words is usually negative. But can anxiety, worry, and/or fear be helpful for an athlete? I think so, if the source of these emotions can be identified. If we can understand the origins the emotion(s) we then have the knowledge to combat it or counter it and have it work for us.
For example, if an athlete creates a link between experiencing anxiety because he fears not living up to others expectations. Now he is equipped with important information he can use to his advantage. He may make a connection that he fears this outcome because he cares how others perceive him and his status as an athlete.
This would lead us to discuss how placing your focus in the future, considering the consequences of successes or failures, is not conducive to optimal performance. We can mitigate the emotional experiences there by working on time and place of our focus. Secondly, we can discuss the perceived need for validation from others and how that impacts his performances and other things like confidence, and motivation. It could be very beneficial in this instance to shift from an external/outcome orientation to an internal/process/mastery orientation that would cut out the perceived “need” of others approval or satisfaction.
In this way, you can see that emotions, even negative ones can be extremely helpful for an athlete. There is always a reason we experience an emotion. Surprisingly those reasons are typically positive. For example, “we care,” or “we have invested so much time and resources for this one moment.” These are good things! It’s how we use that source of the emotion and how we think about it that can help propel our performances or can limit our potential.