Approaches to Psychological Intervention

Psychological skills training

Systematic and consistent practice of mental or psychological skills for the purpose of enhancing performance, increasing enjoyment or achieving greater sport or physical satisfaction

Psychological success factors

• High levels of commitment

• Long and short term goals

• Imagery

• Focus

• Pre and in-competition plans

Phases of a PST programme

• Education

• Acquisition

• Practice

• Self-regulation

Self-regulation (ultimate goal for PST)

Ability to work towards short-term and long-term goals by effectively monitoring and managing one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Programme development

• Discuss your approach

• Assess athlete’s mental skills

• Determine which psychological skills to use (foundation, performance, personal, team)

• Design a schedule

• Evaluate the programme

US Olympic committee top 10 principles for PST

1. Mental training cannot replace physical training

2. Physical training is not enough to succeed consistently

3. A strong mind may not win you an Olympic medal but a weak one will lose you it

4. Coaches frequently don’t know what their athletes are thinking

5. Thoughts affect behaviour

6. Coaches have a different view of changing technical mistakes rather than mental mistakes

7. Coaches must be involved in the mental training process

8. Sometimes its ok to force athletes to do mental training

9. Mental skills need to be measured to maximise their performance

10. Coaches need to think about their own mental skills

Types of imagery

• Visual (e.g. visualising ball flight)

• Kinaesthetic (e.g. imagining how your muscles will feel)

• Auditory (e.g. imagining how your shot will sound)

• Olfactory (e.g. recreating the smell of specific settings)

• Taste (e.g. sports drinks, drinks bottles)

Internal imagery

• From your own vantage point

• Emphasises the feel of the movement

External imagery

• From the perspective of an observer

• Less kinaesthetic imagery

When to use imagery

• Used more before competition or during practice

  • During injury to promote healing

Paivo’s analytical framework of imagery use

• Cognitive and motivational functions at specific and general levels

Psychoneuromuscular theory

• Imagery results in neuromuscular patterns identical to the patterns used during actual movement

• Neuro-imaging techniques show that visual imagery not only stimulates the visual centres but also areas involved in the mechanics of the activity you are imaging

Bioinformational theory

• Concentrates on cognitive and information processing aspects of imagery

• Emphasises role of memory networks and the activation of relevant information during imagery

• Strengthens connections of athletes stimulus in competition and response

• As such, sensory vividness of imagery is critical to effectiveness

Symbolic learning theory

• Images play core part in receiving and processing information

• Strengthens ‘mental blueprints’ or schemas

• Schemas are cognitive frameworks that help organise and interpret information

  • Images trigger schemas and help us respond to stimuli - positive imagery

Mental chronometry

Correlate time it takes to go through mental practice of an activity to the time it takes to do the activity itself

Reduced cognitive interference

Visualisation skills compromised when reading, auditory skills compromised when listening to musicP

PETTLEP model

Used for creating functionally equivalent imagery

• physical

• environment

• thinking

• timing learning

• emotion

  • perspective

Objective vs subjective goals

• Getting a specific standard of proficiency on a task within a specified time

• Subjective - success based on feeling or experience

Influence of outcome goals on behaviour change

• Facilitate short-term motivation

• Can increase anxiety or irrelevant distracting thoughts if used before or during competition

Influence of performance or process goals on behaviour change

• Can make more precise adjustments to these goals

• Depend much less on opponent behaviour

• Particularly useful at time of competition