PE Studies - Sport Psychology

Psychological Skills Training

• It is the regular practice of mental skills with the goal of improving physical skills.

• a mentally tough athlete can:

- Has the ability to focus and concentrate

- Can rebound from failure (resilience)

- Can deal with pressure

Psychological Skills Phases:

1. Education Phase:

• Players are aware of psychological skills and how they could benefit and improve their performances

2. Acquisition Phase:

• Players determine what specific psychological skills would benefit them and when, why and how they would use them.

3. Practice Phase:

• The necessary mental skills are regularly practised until the player can use them without conscious thought in a game. Application of mental skills becomes an automated response when needed.

Mental Skills

• Motivation

• Self-Confidence

• Arousal

• Concentration

• Stress management

Stress management

Stress occurs when there is an imbalance between the demands of the task and the ability level of the performer to respond in a situation where failure has consequences.

Concentration

The ability to focus on a task at hand whilst ignoring irrelevant cues or distractions.

Arousal

The degree of stimulation or alertness present in a performer about to perform a skilled task.

Motivation

The direction and intensity of effort by a performer towards a given task.

Self Confidence

The belief that a performer has in their own ability to successfully perform a desired skill or behaviour.

Two types of motivation

1. Intrinsic

• Refers to internal motivations that result from participating in sports.

• No prize money, no fame, no recognition. Play for fun, be with mates, fitness, self-challenge.

→ Playing for enjoyment

→ Social Side

2. Extrinsic

• Refers to external motivations that result from participation in sports, e.g., money, winning, fame and awards

• Extrinsic factors can be valuable to get through periods of low motivation

• Play for prize money, get paid to play, get recognised, and have a chance to play for the country.

Which type of motivation is better?

• Elite players play for intrinsic and extrinsic reasons – financial rewards and self-challenge.

• Many elite players retire when the “game stops being fun”, and the motivation to train hard and to make the necessary sacrifices is no longer there.

• Intrinsic motivation is more powerful

Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

• A theoretical framework that links personality, motivation and optimal functioning

• SDT recognises that we are rarely driven by one type of motivation

• More like a spectrum

3 basic psychological needs of motivation

• Autonomy

• Competence

• Relatedness

Motivation - Autonomy

• Involves self initiation and self regulation of ones own behaviour

Motivation - Competence

• Ability to interact proficiently or effectively with the environment

Motivation - Relatedness

• People need to feel a sense of belonging by being part of a group or community

What motivation types meet the needs?

• Amotivation – an individual’s basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are not met.

• Extrinsic motivation – an individual’s basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness partially being met.

• Intrinsic motivation – individual’s needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness completely being met.

Strategies to improve Motivation

• Consider participant and situational factors

• Coaches should teach players appropriate view of success

• Make players feel valued

• Team leaders need to be enthusiastic

• Set team and individual goals for the team

Motivation Strategies - Consider participant and situational factors

- Why are players involved?

• A need to win?

• To be with friends?

• To keep fit?

- What is the situation ⎯ the situation the performer is in can affect motivation e.g. playing a final compared to a pre-season intra-club game

Motivation Strategies - Coaches should teach players appropriate view of success

A player who has performed well in a game and with a high work rate should be positively reinforced regardless of the outcome. Teams that only value winning lose motivation when they are losing. Recognise performance outcomes.

Motivation Strategies - Make players feel valued

Make all team members feel they have a key role to play in each game, and training needs to be fun and enjoyable.

Motivation Strategies - Team leaders need to be enthusiastic

• A coach looking disinterested on the sideline will negatively affect the motivation of their players on the field.

• A passionate and enthusiastic coach positively affects the team.

Motivation Strategies - Set team and individual goals for the team

• Set short- and long-term goals for individuals and the team

• Striving for goals promotes motivation.

Influence of Age on Motivation

• An individual’s age has little impact on their extrinsic and intrinsic motivation levels.

• Many kids love playing sports to be with their friends or because they love the game and are heavily intrinsically motivated.

• Other kids play sports as they are incentivized by their parents or by the thought of extrinsic rewards.

• Adults are just as likely to exhibit these traits, with many playing due to a long-associated love of the game.

• Other adults play as they are attracted to the fame and recognition that comes with playing the sport.

Influence of skill level on motivation

• Whilst there is no clear correlation between an individual's skill level and motivation, research suggests that individuals engaging in amateur sports are more likely to be intrinsically motivated than professional athletes.

Influence of activity type on motivation

• The level of motivation towards a given task is relative to the individual performer

• If it is challenging or enjoyable, most likely to be intrisinc

Self confidence

• Self-confidence is an individual’s belief that they will execute a given task successfully

• As a player’s confidence increases, so does their performance BUT if confidence levels are too high, there is a drop in performance levels.

Two main factors that influence an athlete’s confidence

1. Self-efficacy

2. Self-belief

Self-efficacy

• Self-efficacy is the change in an individual’s self-confidence due to a given situation.

→ A hockey player may feel more confident playing on synthetic surfaces than on grass. He has high self-efficacy on synthetic pitches and lower self-efficacy when playing on grass.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Optimal Self Confidence

Strategies to improve self confidence and reach the ‘Zone’

• Performance success

• Acting confidently

• Be physically prepared

• Maintain positive self talk

Self confidence strategies - Performance success

• Previous successful performance under similar conditions increases the likelihood of another successful performance.

• A player reflects on what contributed to the previous successful result and repeats them in the current performance.

Self confidence strategies - Acting confidently

• Positive body language creates confidence, and negative body language does the opposite.

• A competitor’s body language can also affect the opponent who observes this behaviour.

Self confidence strategies - Be physically prepared

• Self-confidence increases if an athlete knows that their body has been properly conditioned to meet competition demands.

Self confidence strategies - Maintain positive self talk

• Positive self and team talk increase selfconfidence within the group.

• Encouragement and support of teammates who are struggling or making mistakes will improve their performances.

Stress

• Stress occurs when there is an imbalance between the task requirements and the ability level of the performer to respond in a situation where failure has consequences.

• Too little stress results in boredom, low motivation and poor performance

• Too high stress results in negative performance

Eustress

• When stress enhances performance

• Stress can be a positive factor when the athlete's ability meets the task demands and the athlete looks forward to the challenge of the contest.

Distress

• When stress negatively affects performance

• Stress becomes negative if the athlete finds the levels of stress excessive and feels threatened by the demands of the task.

The four stages of the stress process

1. What are the actual demands of the situations?

• What is the performer required to do?

2. How does the performer perceive the demands of the situation?

• Do the demands present a challenge or a threat?

3. The athlete’s physical and mental response to their perception of the situation.

• How the performer physically and mentally responds to the demands before actual performance?

4. How the athlete’s performance is actually affected by stress.

• How the athlete’s actual performance is affected by stress. Is performance improved or negatively affected?

Two categories of factors that affect Stress

1. Situation sources

2. Personality sources

Situation sources

• Situation stress is affected by 2 main factors:

1. The importance of the game

• The more important the event, the greater the stress – Grand Finals present more stress than qualifying games.

• Experienced players cope with stress better than inexperienced players.

2. Result uncertainty

• Stress levels increase if the teams are evenly matched, and the result will likely be very close. Predictable outcomes have lower stress levels.

Personality sources

• An athlete’s personality affects how they perceive situations and, therefore, the amount of stress they experience – challenge vs. threat – “I can’t do this” vs “I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for years! I’m gonna have a crack at it”.

Physiological responses to stress

• Dry mouth

• Increased blood pressure

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Sleeplessness

• Muscular tension

• Increased respiration rate

• Need to urinate

• “Butterflies”

• Increased adrenaline levels

Psychological responses to stress

• Indecision

• Poor decision making

• Missed cues

• Imagined cues

• Irritability

• Fear

• Confusion

• Loss of confidence

The zone

• Players with optimal levels of stress and anxiety can produce optimal level of performance.

• Players in the zone have optimal arousal and produce their best performance as a result of their feeling:

  • Self-confident

  • Motivated

  • Alert and ready for unexpected situations

  • Focused on the task at hand.

  • Mentally in control

  • Physically in control

Concentration

• Concentration is the ability to focus on task at hand whilst ignoring irrelevant cues or distractions

What does Concentration have to be?

• Selective

• Shiftable

• Maintain

• Situational

Selective attention

Focus on important cues and ignore distractions that will affect your performance, e.g. footballer kicking at goal must focus only on relevant cues.

Shiftable attention

• Athletes must constantly shift their concentration from broad to narrow throughout a game or activity.

Maintaining attention

• Being able to concentrate for the duration of the event – one error can cost the match – dropped catch, missed putt.

• It is important for athletes to train specifically to replicate the attentional demands of the sport. i.e. does the sport have many breaks (cricket), or is it continuous (soccer)? How long are players required to concentrate?

Situation awareness

• The ability of the performer to consider the game situation, positioning of teammates and opposition and then make an appropriate decision on the course of action

  • eg. when do you makes subs?

Nideffer’s Model of Attention

• Y axis: 

  • Direction: Focus on whether cues are internal or external to the performer

• X axis:

  • Width: Focus on whether cues are broad – many cues available at once – or narrow, where there are limited relevant cues to attend to.

Broad – External

• Attention is paid to a large number of cues in the external environment.

• Required for open skilled team sports.

• Used to rapidly assess a situation, e.g. player running with the ball looks downfield for options

Broad – Internal

• Attention is paid to internal thoughts and images.

• Analysis, problem-solving, visualising and determining strategies.

• Used to analyse and plan e.g. develop a specific game plan or strategy

Narrow – External

• Focused targeting is the ability to block out distractions and focus on specific cues.

• Required for target sports

• Used to focus on one or two external cues, e.g. the ball or target

Narrow – Internal

• Focus on a specific image, thought or coaching point with few other cues.

• A golfer might focus on getting his putt past the hole.

• Used to mentally rehearse an upcoming performance, e.g. mentally rehearsing a gymnastics routine.

Causes of Concentration problems

1. Internally

2. Externally

Internal Distractors

• Attending to past events and past consequences – “last time I missed the shot……”

• Attending to future events and possible consequences – “if I miss this shot ……..

• Attending to irrelevant cues

• Over-analysis of technique

• Game pressure – choking

External Distracters

• Opponents / crowd deliberately try to distract a performer’s attention from the task at hand

• Verbal distractions e.g. sledging

• Visual distractors e.g. the goalkeeper swaying from side to side as a player prepares to take a penalty

Strategies to improve concentration and reach the ‘Zone

• Practice with distractions present

• Establish consistent performance routines

• Simulate game specific situations during training

• Imagery

Concentration Strategies - Practice with distractions present

• Sometimes referred to as “desensitisation” training.

• Have “open” training sessions with spectators allowed to watch. Get the team accustomed to various environments.

Concentration Strategies - Establish consistent performance routines

• Develop a simple and consistent routine that can be used before performing a skill

Concentration Strategies - Simulate game specific situations during training

• Recreating game situations at training allows players to recognise environmental cues that will improve performance.

Concentration Strategies - Imagery

• Creating a mental image of a perfect performance using as many senses as possible.

Influence of age - Concentration

• The ability to maintain concentration is heavily influenced by age

• Typically, the younger the individual, the more likely they are to lose focus regularly

• As a result, older children learn faster than younger children because of a longer attention and concentration span.

Influence of skill level - Concentration

• The ability of an individual to attend to relevant stimuli is influenced by their skill level.

• As discussed earlier, highly skilled athletes can better attend to relevant stimuli while ignoring distractions.

Influence of activity type - Concentration

• Activities that provide constantly changing stimuli are more likely to maintain the attention and focus of an individual.

  • This is further enhanced by whether an individual finds the task enjoyable

Arousal

Arousal is the degree of stimulation or alertness present in a individual about to perform a given task.

The relationship between arousal & performance is shown through the

The inverted u hypothesis

Optimally aroused

• Can shift attention easily

Under aroused

• Performer lacks the intensity to attend to all the relevant stimuli in the environment. Their attention is focused on other non-relevant thoughts, which detract from their performance.

Over aroused

Performer has a decreased ability to shift their attentional focus. Athletes in this state often have narrow, internally focused attention, therefore, can miss important environmental cues.

Inverted U Hypothesis

Characteristics of low arousal levels include;

• low motivation

• lethargy

• apathy

• easily distracted

• indifference to a poor performance

Characteristics of high arousal levels include;

• nervousness / butterflies

• anxiousness

• nausea

• elevated heart rate

• reduced ability to concentrate on relevant stimulus

Anxiety

• A negative emotion, and it is an individual interpretation of a situation.

• It is a fear of the unknown or fear of things you cannot control.

Types of Anxiety

1. State

2. Trait

State anxiety

• An immediate emotional state of fear, tension and increased arousal. It can change several times during the performance and varies from player to player

Trait anxiety

• Relating to the performer's personality and perception of the situation – is it a challenge or threat? A performer’s trait anxiety determines their response to this question.

• Athletes with high-trait personality experience more state anxiety.

Ways to reduce anxiety

• Meditation

  • Meditation involves focusing the mind on a particular thing for a certain period. It can include using a mantra (repeating a calming word or sound) or blank meditation.

• Progressive Muscle Relaxation

  • This technique is based on the simple premise of tensing (tightening) one muscle group at a time, followed by a release of the tension.

• Breathing control

  • Some athletes use breathing techniques to help them relax & refocus while preparing for the next action or part of a match.

• Biofeedback

  • Feedback regarding automatic body functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure & body

Strategies to increase arousal and reach the ‘Zone’

• Pre-competition workout

  • Allows athletes to become accustomed to the playing field & conditions, go through set plays & pre-game conditioning

• Elevated breathing rate

  • In the same way that breathing control can reduce tension & help to focus energy, taking short, sharp breaths activates the central nervous system & increase its state of awareness

• Act energetically

  • You may have seen football teammates bumping into each other lightly, slapping each other

• Music

  • Listen to music that promotes enthusiasm or is associated with heroic efforts

Influence of age - Arousal

• Whilst age has no direct relationship on the optimal arousal level and performance, it can be related to skill level

• Young children are typically less skilled and therefore require a lower level of arousal to produce optimal performance.

• Adults are typically more skilled and therefore require a higher level of arousal to produce optimal performance.

Influence of skill - Arousal

1. An advanced player needs higher levels of arousal to perform optimally

2. An intermediate-level player needs a moderate level of arousal

3. Influence of activity tA novice only needs a low arousal level to perform at their peak

Influence of activity type - Arousal

• Tasks that are considered ‘hard or complex’ – i.e. require large amounts of information processing or movement precision are best performed with low arousal levels

• Tasks that are considered ‘easy or simple’ – i.e. require small amounts of information processing and involve gross motor movements are best performed with high arousal levels

Goal Setting

• The process of deciding on something you want to achieve, planning the steps to follow that will help reach the goal, and then working towards achieving the goal.

How does goal setting improve performance?

• encouraging perseverance

• contributing towards a positive psychological state

• focusing attention on important elements of the skill(s)

• activating & organising an athlete’s efforts

Type of goals

• Outcome Goals

• Performance Goals

• Process Goals

Outcome Goals

• Focus:

  • End results, times, finishing place, ranking or medals

• Features:

  • Often difficult to achieve as can be linked to the achievement of others

• Example:

  • Win NY marathon

Performance Goals

• Focus:

  • Independent of other competitors – can be used to compare past and present performance

• Features:

  • Excellent for improving performance as athlete has control over the behaviour. Goals must be realistic for self confidence to improve

• Example:

  • Improve free throw percentage from 70% to 80% this season

Process Goals

• Focus:

  • Actions (such as physical movement & game strategies) that athletes must perform during a competition to achieve a performance goal

• Features:

  • Effective at improving performance levels because they positively influence other factors such as self-efficacy & confidence

• Example:

  • Successfully execute a set play from a free kick in soccer

SMARTER Acronym

• Specific

• Measurable

• Accepted

• Realistic

• Time Phased

• Exciting

• Reviewed

SMARTER - Specific

• Goals need to be specific and as clear as possible to focus attention.

  • Eg. To use a float serve in volleyball effectively

SMARTER - Measurable

• Need to be able to be assessable to see if progress is happening

  • Eg. To land the serve within the back court on 8 out of 10 attempts during training (2 x per week).

SMARTER - Accepted

• Goals must be accepted by all parties involved in preparing the athlete (coach, family, etc.)

  • Eg. ‘Okay, we’re all agreed.’

SMARTER - Realistic

• Goals need to be achievable and within the athlete’s capacity

  • Eg. 80% success rate is realistic for this player.

SMARTER - Time Phased

• Specific date for completion needs to be set

  • Eg. 22nd November

SMARTER - Exciting

• The athlete needs to be challenged and inspired.

  • Eg. Create a game from the goal that can be used at training

SMARTER - Reviewed

• Goals are monitored and adjustment made if necessary.

  • Eg. Goal has been met and now needs to be readjusted to ensure the player is still stimulated