Sport Psychology

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Sport Psychology
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Mind and body link

• For everything you think in your mind, your body
  has a reaction, regardless of whether it is real
  or imagined.
• For example, have you ever had a bad dream?
• Usually, you will wake up and your heart is
  racing, you are sweating and very agitated, even
  though all you were doing was sleeping.
• But, in your mind there was something bad going
  on and your body was reacting to it.

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• Heres another example if you are home alone and
  you hear a noise and interpret it as the wind,
  you are fine but if you interpret it as a
  prowler, your fight or flight response takes over
  and you become fearful, your heart begins going a
  mile a minute, your eyes dilate and you are
  scared.
• These are just a few examples of how strong the
  connection is between your mind and your body.

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Sport Psychology

• Scientific study of behavior, affective, and
  cognitive reactions to sports settings for both
  participants and fans

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Why study psychology for sports?

• The difference between elite athletes finishing
  in first or sixth is sometimes as little as
  two-tenths of a second.
• During these types of sports (100 yard dash) and
  others, psychological advantages can be the
  difference between winning and losing.

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Why study psychology for sports?

• Competition is tight, athletes are physically
  fit, and the margin for victory is slim.
• Managers, coaches and players are realizing that
  to get ahead they need an added resource, and
  that resource is a trained mind.

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Why study psychology for sports?

• When there are two teams that are physically
  equal, it is the team that works together
  smoothly and is mentally prepared and confident
  that will come out on top. Keep in mind, though
  no mental training will compensate for
  ineffective technique.
• You need to be strong, technically and mentally.

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Buzz words and theories

• Motivation direction and intensity of ones
  effort
• Self efficacy belief you can perform a certain
  task
• Instinctual theories behavior is motivated by
  innate predispositions
• Drive theory behavior is motivated by biological
  needs

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Buzz words and theories

• Task goals gain skill, do your best for personal
  improvement
• Ego (outcome) goals preoccupied with the
  demonstration of superiority compared to others
• Arousal physiological state of readiness
• Stress non-emotional response to an
  environmental demand

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Buzz words and theories

• Eustress stress viewed positively
• Distress stress viewed negatively

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Stress and athletic performance

• The increased stress of competitions can cause
  athletes to react both physically and mentally in
  a manner which can negatively affect their
  performance abilities.
• They may become tense, their heart rates race,
  they break into a cold sweat, they worry about
  the outcome of the competition, or they find it
  hard to concentrate on the task at hand.

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Imagery

• Imagery is the process by which you can create,
  modify or strengthen pathways important to the
  co-ordination of your muscles, by training purely
  within your mind.
• Involves all senses visual, kinesthetic,
  auditory, tactile, moods and emotions

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Imagery

• Imagery affects cognitive tasks the best (what
  type of sports would this work best on/in)
• Helps both novice and experienced performers, but
  somewhat more for experienced athletes
• Imagery should be used with physical practice
• You can manipulate your images so they do what
  you want them to do

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When you can use imagery

• An athlete is injured, and cannot train in any
  other way
• The correct equipment is not available, or
  practice is not possible for some other reason
• Where rapid practice is needed

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When you can use imagery

• When you are physically tired, or do not want to
  tire yourself before a performance
• Before or after practice and games, or during
  breaks in the game

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Imagery guidelines

• Relax
• Include all senses
• Cover all aspects of your event
• Practice it in real time
• Practice from an internal perspective and through
  your own eyes

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Implementing Imagery

• Initially start using only 5 minutes of imagery a
  day, perhaps when you have just got into bed, or
  when you wake up in the morning.
• The number of minutes can be expanded as time
  goes on typically many champions will do 15
  minutes/day, although this may go as high as 1
  hour/day just before a major competition.

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Implementing Imagery

• Similarly, start using imagery in a quiet,
  relaxed environment in which there are few
  distractions.
• Slowly experiment with using it in increasingly
  disturbed situations until you are comfortable
  with using imagery in the most distracting
  environments such as high level events.

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Watching elite athletes perform

• Imagery and simulation can be used effectively in
  improving technique, particularly when used in
  conjunction with close study of the technique of
  high level performers in your sport.
• By selecting athletes whose performance you
  admire in a particular exercise, and either
  watching or video-taping them executing
  technique, you can see how they execute every
  stage of a skill.

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Watching elite athletes perform

• Using a video recorder you can slow the action
  down so that the components of the skill can be
  isolated.
• Once you have done this you can practice these
  components of the skill being observed, and can
  build them up into a complex action or a good
  image of the skill as it should be executed.

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What imagery can do for you

• Imagery allows you to practice and prepare for
  events and eventualities you can never expect to
  train for in reality.
• It allows you to pre-experience the achievement
  of goals.

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What imagery can do for you

• This helps to give you confidence that these
  goals can be achieved, and so allows you to
  increase your abilities to levels you might not
  otherwise have reached.
• Practicing with imagery helps you to slow down
  complex skills so that you can isolate and feel
  the correct component movements of the skills,
  and isolate where problems in technique lie.

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What imagery can do for you

• Imagery can also be used to affect some aspects
  of the 'involuntary' responses of your body such
  as release of adrenaline.
• This is most highly developed in Eastern mystics
  who use imagery in a highly effective way to
  significantly reduce heart rate or oxygen
  consumption.

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Simulation

• Simulation is similar to imagery, but is carried
  out by making your physical training
  circumstances as similar as possible to the 'real
  thing' - for example by bringing in crowds of
  spectators, by having performances judged, or by
  inviting press to a training session.

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Simulation

• In many ways simulation is superior to imagery in
  training, as the stresses introduced are often
  more vivid because they exist in reality.
• However simulation requires much greater
  resources of time and effort to set up and
  implement.

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Buzz words and theories

• Self-fulfilling prophesy what you think will
  happen, will happen
• Ringlemann effect individual performances will
  decrease as the amount of people participating
  increase (examples)

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Self-confidence

• Benefits of self-confidence are increased
  concentration, effort and emotions
• Optimal confidence just right
• Lack of confidence self-doubt creates anxiety,
  causes indecisiveness
• Overconfidence may cause you to prepare less
  (why)

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Goal Setting

• How it works
• Creates attention and focus
• Provides an incentive to reach
• Affects psychological factors such as anxiety,
  confidence and satisfaction

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Goal Setting 101 (again)

• WRITE DOWN GOALS
• Specific goals
• Challenging but realistic goals
• Long term and short term goals
• Set practice and competition goals
• Set individual and team goals
• Arrange for support (from others, how?)

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Common problems in goal setting

• Convincing people to set goals
• Failing to set specific goals
• Failing to adjust goals

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The 4C's

• Concentration, confidence, control and commitment
  (the 4C's) are generally considered to be the
  main mental qualities that are important for
  successful performance in most sports.

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The 4C's

• Concentration - ability to maintain focus
• Confidence - believe in one's abilities
• Control - ability to maintain emotional control
  regardless of distraction
• Commitment - ability to continue working to
  agreed goals

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Concentration

• This is the mental quality to focus on the task
  in hand.
• If the athlete lacks concentration then their
  athletic abilities will not be effectively or
  efficiently applied to the task.

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Concentration

• Research has identified the following types of
  attention focus
• Broad Narrow continuum - the athlete focuses on a
  large or small number of stimuli
• Internal External continuum - the athlete focuses
  on internal stimuli (feelings) or external
  stimuli (ball)

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Concentration

• The demand for concentration varies with the
  sport
• Sustained concentration - distance running,
  cycling, tennis, squash
• Short bursts of concentration - cricket, golf,
  shooting, athletic field events
• Intense concentration - sprinting events,
  bobsleigh, skiing

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Concentration

• Common distractions are anxiety, mistakes,
  fatigue, weather, public announcements, coach,
  manager, opponent, negative thoughts etc.

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Concentration

• Strategies to improve concentration are very
  personal.
• One way to maintain focus is to set process goals
  for each session or competition.
• The athlete will have an overall goal for which
  the athlete will identify a number of process
  goals which help focus on specific aspects of the
  task.

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Concentration

• For each of these goals the athlete can use a
  trigger word (a word which instantly refocuses
  the athlete's concentration to the goal) e.g.
  sprinting technique requires the athlete to focus
  on being tall, relaxed, smooth and to drive with
  the elbows - trigger word could be "technique"

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Concentration

• Athletes will develop a routine for competition
  which may include the night before, the morning,
  pre competition, competition and post competition
  routines.
• If these routines are appropriately structured
  then they can prove a useful aid to
  concentration.

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Confidence

• Confidence results from the comparison an athlete
  makes between the goal and their ability.
• The athlete will have self-confidence if they
  believe they can achieve their goal. "You only
  achieve what you believe.

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Confidence

• When an athlete has self confidence they will
  tend to persevere even when things are not going
  according to plan, show enthusiasm, be positive
  in their approach and take their share of the
  responsibility in success and failure.

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Confidence

• To improve their self confidence, an athlete can
  use mental imagery to
• visualize previous good performance to remind
  them of the look and feel
• imagine various scenarios and how they will cope
  with them

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Control

• Identifying when an athlete feels a particular
  emotion and understanding the reason for the
  feelings is an important stage of helping an
  athlete gain emotional control.
• An athlete's ability to maintain control of their
  emotions in the face of adversity and remain
  positive is essential to successful performance.
• Two emotions which are often associated with poor
  performance are anxiety and anger.

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Anxiety

• Anxiety comes in two forms - Physical
  (butterflies, sweating, nausea, needing the
  toilet) and Mental (worry, negative thoughts,
  confusion, lack of concentration).
• Relaxation is a technique that can be used to
  reduce anxiety.
• When an athlete becomes angry the cause of the
  anger often becomes the focus of attention.

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Anxiety

• This then leads to a lack of concentration on the
  task at hand, performance deteriorates, and
  confidence in ability is lost which fuels the
  anger - a slippery slope to failure.

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Competitive Anxiety

• Occurs when the athlete becomes tense or anxious
  before a game or competition.
• This has led coaches to take an increasing
  interest in the field of sport psychology.

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Competitive Anxiety

• That interest has focused on techniques which
  athletes can use in the competitive situation to
  maintain control and optimize their performance.
• Once learned, these techniques allow the athlete
  to relax and to focus his/her attention in a
  positive manner on the task of preparing for and
  participating in competition.

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Anxiety reduction techniques

• Breathing control (NBA)
• Progressive relaxation tension then relaxation
• Meditation quieting the mind (Mantra- something
  to focus on)

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Commitment

• Sports performance depends on the athlete being
  fully committed to numerous goals over many
  years.
• In competition, the athlete will have many
  aspects of daily life to manage.
• The many competing interests and commitments
  include work, studies, family/partner, friends,
  social life and other hobbies/sports

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Within the athlete's sport, commitment can be
undermined by

• a perceived lack of progress or improvement
• not being sufficiently involved in developing the
  training program
• not understanding the objectives of the training
  program
• injury

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Within the athlete's sport, commitment can be
undermined by

• lack of enjoyment
• anxiety about performance - competition
• becoming bored
• Coach/athlete not working as a team
• lack of commitment by other athletes

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• Setting goals with the athlete will raise their
  feelings of value, give them joint ownership of
  the goals and therefore become more committed to
  achieving them.
• Many people (coach, medical support team,
  manager, friends, etc) can contribute to an
  athlete's levels of commitment with appropriate
  levels of support and positive feedback,
  especially during times of injury, illness and
  poor performance.

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This is the end, the end, the end, the end