Sports psych test 3

Trait Anxiety

A feature of your personality to perceive certain situations as threatening

State anxiety

The anxiety experience at a particular moment

Somatic anxiety

the physical anxiety that you experience

Cognitive anxiety

your mental anxiety

SCAT

Sport competition anxiety test

ARS scale:

anxiety rating scale

Fight or flight syndrome:

• Shot of adrenaline

• Increased Heart rate 

• Breathing-speeds up and shortens 

• Muscles Tense: haver to tense up to move

• Digestive system: Shuts down, gotta pee, upset stomach 

• Blood diverted 

• Cold and clammy

Drive theory

 Drive X Habit = performance

Skilled athletes

 Lower your anxiety, lower your performance (best performance is when you are highly anxious)

Reversal theory

• Go from high anxiety and stress, to high boredom. Just depends how you interpret it 

Beginning Athletes:

higher anxiety, lower performance

Inverted-u theory

Play well with moderate anxiety, too little or too much = bad performance

IZOF:

Individual zones of optimal functioning

Catastrophe Model

Cognitive anxiety is key

Integrated Arousal-Performance Model

Uses all other models

Developing mental toughness

Education, acquisition, implementation,

Developing arousal adjustment skills

• Education: Stoplight analogy (asks what colored red yellow green)

• Acquisition:

• Relaxation techniques: procedures designed to lower physiological arousal, anxiety, and muscle tension

• Energizing techniques: needed when playing a bad team or end of season

• Implementation: Stop practice and give them time to get locked in

What are the three “R” options?

1. Reduce amount of stress “Just another game”

2. Reinterpret the stressor (reversal theory) 

3. Reaction adjustment

Types of relaxation

Total relaxation, rapid relaxation

Total relaxation

Way before or way after competition

Rapid relaxation

Something to calm and athlete down instantly

Total relaxation strategies

• Deep breathing 

• Imagery

• Progressive relaxation: go through muscle groups (start the feet)

• Biofeedback: Using instruments to give them feedback

• Music: Have to like it, emotional

• Meditation: focusing on single thought, object

• Autogenic training: focus on sensations of the body 

• Pre Competition routine :Always do the same thing

Rapid Relaxation

Deep breathing

Smile

Slow down

Cued response - dont say relax 

Pep talks (increase confidence, correct emotion) 

Pre Performance Routine: Going a different way to the game when you lose

• Readying: take a deep breath 

• Imaging 

• Focusing

• Executing 

• Evaluating 

7. Have fun 

8. Prayer

Team energizing strategies:

1. Team goal setting 

2. Pep talks 

3. Imagery 

4. Visual messages: slogans, signs in locker room 

5. Colors (Tiger sunday red) 

6. Publicity 

7. Fan support 

8. Parental support

9. Precompetition workout

Individual energizing strategies

1. Music (loud and enjoyable)

2. Individual goal setting 

3. Imagery 

4. Psych up breathing 

5. Cued response 

• Walk up music 

6. Bracing (slapping yourself) 

7. Self-Activation (trash talking)

Attentional dimensions

• Width (how far out you are look) (wide to narrow) 

• Direction (Internal to external

• Four quadrants (Broad, external, narrow, internal)

• Broad, external:

• Broad internal:

• Narrow internal:

• Narrow external:

Broad external

To assess

Broad internal

To analyze

Narrow internal

To adjust or rehearse

Narrow external

to perform

Selective attention

Process of switching intentional focus to one set of cues while ignoring others

Concentration Training

Maintain your optimal arousal level

Practice to reduce distractions

• Practice with competitive stimuli 

• Practice worst case scenarios

• Practice in uniform 

• Use imagery 

Closed Skills:

have a stable and predictable environment

Open Skills

skills that take place in an uncontrolled and unstable environment.

Strategies for Closed skills

Think less, do more

Quieting

Spelling task when a serve is coming

Triggers

Concentrating at certain times during a golf match

Cognitive Dissociation

Deliberate attempt to tune out what is going on in your body

Strategies for open skills

• Response delay:  

• Cues:   

• Cues:

• Options (def):

• Options (offense):

• Probabilities (defense):

• Probabilities (offense)

Response delay

Time to make decisions take longer

Cues: defensively

 know what to pay attention to

Cues: (offensively)

Increase cues/fakes

Options (def)

Limit options offense has

Options (offense)

Have more options

Probabilities (defense)

 know the offense’s tendencies

Probabilities (offense)

 be unpredictable

general concentration suggestions

• Focus on now 

• Focus on Execution 

• Focus on Positives