Alberta Volleyball Association Mental Training Andrew Ling

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Alberta Volleyball AssociationMental
TrainingAndrew Ling
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Question 1

• How many hours do you spend practicing your
  physical skills per week?

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Question 2

• How many times have you said that you lost due to
  too many mental lapses during the match?

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Question 3

• How many hours do you spend practicing your
  mental skills per week?

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Pre-competition preparation

• Night before
• Before competition
• Structure - Routines
• Optimal activation levels
• Mental preparation - Imagery

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Routines

• Itinerary
• Team meal, practice, meeting?
• Your athletes should have a comfortable routine
  to get ready for a game both physically and
  mentally
• Focus attention
• Reduce anxiety
• Eliminate distractions
• Enhance confidence

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Structure

• Sat, Jan 10
• 930am Here at the UC
• 10am 1040 - Team Game Day
• 11am Lunch
• NOON Taping
• 1230pm Team meeting A120
• 2pm MATCH vs UBC
• 530pm team Dinner

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Structure Contd

• Sunday Jan 11
• 930am here at the UC
• 10am 1040 - Team Game day
• 11am Lunch
• NOON Taping
• 1230pm Team meeting A120
• 2pm MATCH vs UBC
• 530pm team Dinner

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• Friday, 28th Away game
• 830 am Breakfast (Free at hotel)
• 930 Depart for gym/Mental Preparation/Team
  Meeting
• 1030 Game 1
• Noon Lunch
• 1pm Mental Preparation/Team Meeting
• 2pm Game 2
• 4pm- Team Meal
• 5pm- Mental Prep/Team Meeting
• 6pm-Game 3
• 8pm-10pm Meal and back to hotel

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What are your athletes optimal activation levels?

• Activated, energized, psyched up?
• Relaxed, calmed down?

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Inverted-U Hypothesis
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Increase activation

• Positive self-talk
• Explode, Fight
• Listening to music
• Imagery

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Relaxation

• Visualization/Imagery

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Imagery Training What is it?

• Means using all of your senses to rehearse your
  sport in your mind

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Imagery is most beneficial when

• Vivid and detailed
• Incorporates all senses
• Occurs in real-time
• Has positive focus
• Errors are corrected right away

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Imagery Script Example

• Get into a comfortable position and close your
  eyes. Focus on the center of your body and take
  several slow deep breaths. With each inhalation,
  imagine that you are releasing all of your
  tension and negative thoughts from your body.
  Continue this focused breathing until your body
  becomes relaxed and your mind is alert and open
  for productive thoughts.
• Now imagine that you are in the gym preparing for
  warm-up. You take some time to run through your
  mental warm-up by visualizing yourself playing
  pepper doing several repetitions of a few basic
  skills. Now in your minds eye, focus on the
  specific goals and strategies for this particular
  competition. Imagine yourself performing
  perfectly, achieving your goals for the
  competition and successfully executing specific
  strategies for this opponent.

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Imagery Script

• You feel confident in your physical and mental
  preparation and clearly focused on your upcoming
  performance. Your breathing is calm and
  controlled. Your muscles feel warm and elastic,
  ready to explode with intensity and precision.
  Imagine going through your competition warm-up as
  you have done so many times in practice. You
  practice your serve, passing, blocking,
  attacking, defense, setting and communication
  because these are skills required for your
  position.
• Your warm-up goes well, yet you remind yourself
  that you are ready for any unexpected problem or
  obstacle. You are confident in your refocusing
  ability and remind yourself that you are mentally
  tough. You feel optimally energized and ready to
  go.

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Quote

• You have to learn how to get comfortable with
  being uncomfortable
• Lou Piniella