Chapter 12.2 Psychological Skills Training Notes

Initial Meeting and Foundations of PSTP

• Concept: The initial meeting with athletes sets the stage for the entire psychological skills training program (PSTP).
• Application: The initial meeting must be well planned and organized; it should convince athletes of the efficacy of PSTP; the sport psychologist (SP) should provide concrete examples of how sport psychology can help each athlete achieve peak performance.
• 12.5 Education and Pathways into Practice: Many sport psychologists are former athletes or trained in psychology; typical pathways include:
  • Former athletes with experience working with coaches/athletes; often begin in university/academic settings before moving toward professional athletes (e.g., golf/tennis pros).
  • Psychologists trained in psychology seeking licensure (counseling/clinical) who eventually focus on sport psychology with a professional clientele.
  • After licensure, practitioners may broaden to general clientele and then specialize in sport psychology.
  • Taylor (2008) provides practical advice for building private sport psychology consulting. His four-part consulting approach begins with Psychological Skill Training (PST) / Mental Skill Training (MST).
• Taylor’s four-part approach emphasizes MST/PST but also stresses attention to other roles: personal consulting (athletes’ personal issues), parental consulting (with parents), and coach consulting. This recognizes that athlete success depends on more than the athlete–consultant relationship.
• Taylor’s personal qualities for success as an SP consultant:
  • Intrinsic motivation for success; not driven by fame/fortune.
  • High patience; building a small business typically takes $3$ to $5$ years $3 ext{ to } 5 ext{ years}$.
  • Development of multiple skills beyond teaching mental skills: counseling, public speaking, writing, and business skills.
  • High creativity; ability to think outside of the box and transcend traditional approaches.
• Five-stage model of professional development (Taylor):
  • Stage 1: Develop knowledge and competencies to be an effective consultant (begins in graduate school and continues through a career).
  • Stage 2: Develop an identity that differentiates one from other sport psychology consultants.
  • Stage 3: Build credibility and trust to attract and retain clients.
  • Stage 4: Develop a niche or specialty (e.g., golfers; team sports like baseball).
  • Stage 5: Continuously grow the business and client base.
• 12.5 Summary: The professional development path combines PST/MST strength with broad consulting competencies to sustain a practice.

Assessment-Based PSTP: Foundations and Client Considerations

• Concept: An effective PSTP rests on an assessment plan to identify an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses in psychological skills.
• Application: Multiple approaches exist to profile psychological skills; the best approach is the one that yields the most accurate information; methods may vary by athlete.
• If the athlete has accurate self-perception of strengths/weaknesses, performance profiling is effective; this requires self-awareness and trust.
• 12.6 First Impressions and Entry to Consulting: Lubker, Watson, Visek, and Geer (2005) note importance of first impressions in terms of physical appearance/dress; Fifer, Henschen, Gould, and Ravizza (2008) provide guidance on gaining entry, identifying assessment techniques, delivering information, and preparing athletes for major competition.
• PSTP programs and contributors: A number of PST programs have been proposed (Boutcher & Rotella 1987; Gordon 1990; Holliday et al. 2008; Lidor, Blumenstein, & Tenenbaum 2007; Orlick 1986).
• Weinberg and Williams (2010) present basic components for developing a PSTP; Table 12.1 introduces a seven-phase PSTP model.
• Who Is the Client? (Phase 1 of PSTP):
  • If the client is a university athletic department, the department defines the nature of the relationship with the athlete/coach; management may choose to waive some rights and allow the SP discretion.
  • If the client is the coach, the coach defines the athlete–SP relationship.
  • If the athlete is the client, the athlete defines the relationship; confidentiality and privilege apply when the client is the athlete.
• Organizational Empowerment Model: Smith and Johnson (1990) proposed hiring the SP to train a member of the organization’s staff to deliver psychological services to its athletes, enabling the organization to provide services without a full-time SP on staff.

Table 12.1: Seven-Phase Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP)

• Phase 1: Who Is the Client?
  • Determine who the client is and develop a working delivery model for PSTP.
• Phase 2: Initial Meeting with Athletes
  • Emphasize commitment to PSTP and secure buy-in from athletes and coaches.
• Phase 3: Education of the Sport Psychologist Relative to Activity
  • SP should ideally be an expert in the client’s sport across psychological, biomechanical, physiological, and pedagogical domains; if not, the SP should self-educate to bridge gaps.
• Phase 4: Development of a Needs Assessment Plan
  • Obtain knowledge of athletes’ current psychological skills through:
  1. Interview
  2. Performance profiling
  3. Observation during practice/competition
  4. Objective pencil-and-paper inventories
     • CSAI-2R, SAS-2, POMS, PANAS, TOPS-2, ACSI-28, 16-PF, TAIS (listed in various combinations in the text)
• Phase 5: Psychological Methods and Skills to Be Taught
  • Based on needs assessment, develop a master plan detailing what to teach, when, and in what sequence to address weaknesses.
• Phase 6: Actual Teaching and Learning of Selected Psychological Methods and Skills
  • Teach methods to enhance psychological skills and apply in competition; examples include goal setting, relaxation, self-talk, imagery, attention skills, self-hypnosis.
  • Teach performance routines to enhance psychological skills; include pre-performance, between-play, and post-performance routines.
• Phase 7: Ongoing and End-of-Season Evaluation of PSTP
  • PSTP should be continually reviewed and evaluated for effectiveness.

Education of the Sport Psychologist Relative to Activity

• Athletes relate better to SP who understands the nuances of the sport; SP must be able to relate to critical game situations and be an avid student of the game.
• SP does not need to be an expert performer in every sport, but should understand the sport as an exercise and sport scientist.
• SP should bridge gaps through self-education to become knowledgeable about the client’s sport and its demands.

Development of a Needs Assessment Plan

• The needs assessment determines psychological skill strengths and weaknesses for each athlete and for the team.
• Methods include:
  • Interview: open-ended to establish trust and learn attitudes toward sport psychology and perceived strengths/weaknesses.
  • Performance Profiling: athlete labels important psychological skills; rates own competence on a 1–10 scale; SP creates a bar graph showing self-identified skills and progress week by week; potential improvement areas include:
  • Intrinsic motivation
  • Self-awareness
  • Self-esteem
  • Self-confidence
  • Attentional focus
  • Arousal control
  • Observation of practice/competition: observe under game-like pressure to confirm beliefs; discrepancies prompt further interviews.
  • Objective pencil-and-paper inventories: CSAI-2R, SAS-2, POMS, PANAS, TOPS-2, ACSI-28, 16-PF, TAIS; recognize that all inventories are subject to distortion; to mitigate, administer the short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS) as a check for faking:
  • High MC-SDS suggests socially desirable responding; may indicate faking on other inventories.
  • MCS-SP (Gardner & Moore, 2004): a proposed Multilevel Classification System for Sport Psychology to categorize athletes by readiness for PST; three-stage assessment protocol: clinical assessment phase, personal assessment phase, performance assessment phase.
  • Note: DSM-5 was expected to be published in 2013 (contextual to the time of the text).

Psychological Methods and Master Plan

• Based on needs assessment, determine strengths/weaknesses and tailor a master plan detailing which psych methods to teach and when; consider sequencing and timing.

Actual Teaching and Learning of Selected Psychological Methods

• In this phase, teach the selected psychological methods with explicit purposes tied to enhancing skills; example: if lacking self-confidence before competition, use self-talk, self-hypnosis, and imagery.
• List of potential methods to teach (not exhaustive): goal setting, relaxation, self-talk, imagery, attention skills, self-hypnosis.
• Emphasis on teaching, practicing, and applying methods in competition to strengthen psychological skills.

Performance Routines: Preperformance, Between-Play, Post-Performance

• Preperformance routines
  • Defined as cognitive and behavioral elements that channel attention to execution and regulate arousal and concentration; examples exist across sports (e.g., serving in tennis is self-paced).
  • Important distinction from superstitious behavior (which is behavior believed to influence luck rather than skill); disruption of well-learned routines can decrease performance (e.g., free-throw shooters removing routines can impair performance).
  • A large body of research supports teaching and using well-learned pre-performance routines; mechanisms include distraction/self-focus theories; routines may include a tactile component (e.g., bouncing/spinning the ball before a free throw).
  • Routines are highly individualized; development depends on an athlete’s coping resources, personality, and situational appraisals.
  • Singer’s five-step process for preperformance routine (2002):
    1) Readying: create self-confidence, internal attentional focus, arousal control, and emotional regulation (may include repetitive actions);
    2) Imaging: visualize successful outcomes;
    3) Focusing attention externally: concentrate on a relevant external cue or thought;
    4) Executing with a quiet mind: perform with calmness and positive thoughts;
    5) Evaluating: assess execution/outcome if time allows.
  • Example: football offensive linemen benefit from mental skill preparation (illustrative note from sources).
• Between-Play routines
  • Occur during breaks in action (e.g., in tennis, during court changes; in baseball, while the catcher warms up a relief pitcher).
  • Examples: light conversation with teammates or imagining restful scenes.
• Post-Performance routines
  • Occur after execution or after a game; common tendency is to dwell on negative outcomes; a planned post-performance routine helps clear the mind and prepare for the next performance; the routine may include constructive self-talk, strategic reflection, and resetting for practice.
  • Trevor Hoffman example (2001): after blown saves, he followed a postgame routine: reflect alone, answer media questions, identify something positive, and not leave the stadium until feeling control over the “virus” (stress) was regained.
• Table 12.2: Examples of Performance Routines
  • Preperformance: Golf putting—Steps: 1) Stand behind the ball and read the line; 2) Approach the ball and take two practice swings; 3) Align putter to target and take two glances at the hole.
  • Between-Play: Tennis example—Steps: 1) Take care of body/equipment; 2) Give mind some relief; 3) Focus on strategy for next game.
  • Postperformance: Volleyball example—Steps: 1) Clear mind of prior results; 2) Focus on the next play; 3) Use self-talk to reinforce confidence.
• Temporal consistency: Effective routines require consistent length and timing before execution (e.g., free-throw timing should be about the same before each attempt; see Wrisberg & Pein 1992).
• Example: preperformance routines for various sports (illustrated in table 12.2) demonstrate generalizable structure across contexts.

Ongoing and End-of-Season Evaluation of PSTP

• If PSTP runs across a season, end-of-season evaluation is essential.
  • Re-administer inventories used in needs assessment to measure changes; compare with performance measures to assess effectiveness.
  • Consider open-ended discussions with athletes about perceived effectiveness.
• Generalization to Other Domains: Psychological methods and cognitive-behavioral interventions can be transferred to other performance domains (music, arts, military, police, business).
• Gould (2002a, 2002b) emphasizes cross-domain application of sport psychology principles to other performance contexts.
• Business domain example: Graham Jones (2002) formed Lane 4, a business consulting company; links between sport and business include organizational issues, stress management, leadership development, high-performance teams, and one-on-one coaching; CUP (conceptual parallel to team-building and team cohesion) is akin to sport team dynamics; discussion of these parallels appears in the text’s later chapters.
• McDermott (2002) and LeScanff & Taugis (2002) provide evidence of cross-domain benefits of psychological training (business leaders, police officers).
• Hays (2002) compared athletes and performing artists, concluding both benefit from PST tailored to their domain.

Chapter Summary

• Mentally tough elite athletes possess psychological skill characteristics that facilitate performance excellence; several theoretical models help organize skill development:
  • Self-regulation model
  • Resonance performance model
  • Athlete-centered model
  • Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) model
• Research supports the effectiveness of psychological intervention programs for improving performance and behavior.
• Distinction between psychological skills (traits/abilities) and psychological methods (practices to develop those skills).
• Four inventories measure psychological skills: Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS), Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI), Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS), and Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT).
• Ethical practice: AASP Ethics Code governs interactions with the public and other professionals; grounded in APA Ethical Principles.
• A solid professional philosophy guides consulting in unique situations where textbook solutions do not exist; this philosophy should be derived from personal core beliefs and support the practitioner’s chosen theoretical frameworks.
• PSTP (seven-phase model) content overview:
  • Phase 1: Identify the client
  • Phase 2: Initial meeting with athletes
  • Phase 3: Educate SP about activity/domain
  • Phase 4: Needs assessment plan
  • Phase 5: Psychological methods and strategies to be taught
  • Phase 6: Actual teaching/learning of methods
  • Phase 7: Ongoing/end-of-season evaluation
• During the learning phase, methods such as goal setting, relaxation, self-talk, imagery, attention, and self-hypnosis are taught; athletes also learn to develop and use performance routines (preperformance, between-play, post-performance).
• Generalization to other domains highlights the broad applicability of cognitive-behavioral interventions to performance excellence across fields (arts, military, business, etc.).

Critical Thought Questions

• 1) Describe the psychological skill characteristics of the elite athlete. How do they differ from non-elite athletes?
• 2) Describe the characteristics of the mentally tough athlete. How does an athlete become mentally tough?
• 3) Identify and differentiate among the four models of psychological skill development.
• 4) Provide evidence supporting the proposition that psychological intervention programs are effective in facilitating performance excellence.
• 5) Why is it important to distinguish between psychological methods and psychological skills?
• 6) How does a sport psychologist develop a viable and ethically sound philosophy of consulting with athletes?
• 7) Outline and propose your own PSTP; at each step, explain rationale.
• 8) Develop proposed preperformance routines for batting in baseball/softball, free-throw shooting in basketball, putting in golf, and high jump in track and field (or other sport scenarios).
• 9) What is superstitious behavior and how does it relate to preperformance routines?

Glossary (selected terms)

• athlete-centered sport model: A model that proposes sport must contribute to the athlete’s physical, psychological, and social development.
• Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI): An inventory developed by Smith, Schutz, et al. (1995) to assess athletes’ psychological skills.
• between-play routine: A sequential routine during breaks in the action.
• client: The individual or individuals that the SP contracts with to deliver psychological services.
• code of ethics: Guidelines governing interactions with the public and other professionals.
• mental skills training: Training the mind for peak performance, analogous to physical skill training.
• mental toughness: A multifaceted construct comprising values, attitudes, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors that enable thriving through challenges, pressures, and adversities.
• PSIS (Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports): An instrument to measure psychological skills in sport.
• TOPS (Test of Performance Strategies): An inventory measuring psychological strategies used in performance.
• OMSAT (Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool): An instrument measuring mental skills in sport.
• DSM-IV/DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders editions referenced in the context of readiness assessment frameworks.
• MCS-SP (Multilevel Classification System for Sport Psychology): Proposed method to categorize athletes by readiness for PST; clinical/personal/performance assessment stages.
• PSTP: Psychological Skills Training Program; seven-phase framework for delivering mental skills training.
• preperformance/between-play/postperformance routines: Structured routines designed to optimize attention, arousal, and performance.
• preperformance routine five-step process (Singer, 2002): Readying, Imaging, External focus, Quiet execution, Evaluation.
• CUP principle (in business context): Conceptual link to team building, cohesion, and team effectiveness in sport.