Mental, personal and lifestyle management of players/athletes

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Mental, personal and lifestyle management of
players/athletes

• Level 3

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Psychological Myths

• Sport Psychology
• Is only for elite performers
• Is only for the mentally sick
• Will cause revolutionary changes in performance
• Is a quick fix for pre-match nerves
• Is not useful

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Psychological practice

• Come and Go
• Just Visiting
• Fire Brigade
• Team Member
• Client-Orientated

• Immersion
• Goodness of Fit
• Time
• Accreditation
• Effectiveness

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Technical/Tactical capacities

• What are the effects of psychological preparation
  on technical execution and performance?

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Why Sport Psychology?

• To improve performance
• To deal with competition
• To assist in injury process
• To assist in training and implementing
  psychological skills
• To provide information to performers about their
  psychological/ multidimensional profile

• Fast results
• Fix it
• Lack of trust
• Commitment
• Transference
• Multiple demands
• Ethical issues

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Profile

• Personal Construct Theory (Kelly 1955)
• Current feelings
• No wrong answers
• Little prompting
• Discover perceptual- from within rather than
  coaches external perception

• Tactical
• Technical
• Physical
• Mental
• Individual
• Team
• Multidimensional

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Performance profiling

• Perfection is not always attainable, but if we
  chase perfection, we can catch excellence
• Performance profiling a method of increasing
  coachs awareness whist acknowledging the
  importance of the performers perspective

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Performance Profiling

• Identifies strengths and weaknesses
• Sharing of information and needs
• Increasing communication channels
• Productive in sharing responsibility in training,
  planning, organising-Sensitivity
• Increases empowerment of athlete

• Active participation
• Considers what the athlete values as important
• Encourages training and coaching tailored to meet
  needs of performer
• Visual display
• Matching of athlete and coaches perspectives
• Establishes important areas to work on
• Monitors progress

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Performance Profiling

• Identify qualities that the performer thinks are
  necessary in order to achieve a top performance
• Rate these attributes on themselves (as they are
  at present)
• No limit to number of qualities
• Clarify quality and its meaning

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Performance Profiling

• Rate from 1 (not so good) to 10 (excellent)
• Coach rates athlete on same constructs
• Discrepancy / mismatch or on the same wavelength
• Communication intervention
• Video / 3rd party
• Reverse roles
• Set goals
• Monitor progress over the season
• Evaluate coaching

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Psychological Skills

• Goal setting
• Focuses attention
• Mobilises effort
• Enhance persistence
• Encourage performer to develop strategies to
  achieve

• Difficulty
• Specificity
• Acceptance
• Feedback
• SMART
• SMARTER
• ACE

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Goals

• Phrased positively
• Improve of backhand serves close to net height
• Performance tasks
• Controllable
• Specific
• Achievable

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Goal Setting

• Process or outcome?
• Imposed or Agreed?
• Long, short and medium goals
• Written down
• Provide support
• Communication
• Improvement in coaching climate (morale,
  laziness)

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Motivation

• DIRECTION OF EFFORT- WHERE INDIVIDUALS SEEK ARE
  ATTRACTED TO SITUATIONS
• EFFORT INTENSITY-WHERE PERFORMERS EXERT EFFORT
  /-
• RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIRECTION AND INTENSITY
  APPROACH/AVOID

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Motivation

• INTRINSIC- self-determination, display
  competence, autonomy, control
• EXTRINSIC- external rewards, status, low
  perceived control
• Perceived competence, if reflected upon result
  rather than performance can have significant
  effect upon motivation

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Guidelines to build Motivation

• Situations and trait motivate people
• People have multiple motivations for involvement
  (social approval, competition, self-mastery,
  recognition, emotional release, family)
• Change environment (Competition or recreation
  adjust to individuals within groups)
• Leaders influence directly and indirectly
• Use behaviour modification to change undesirable
  participant motives

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Achievement Motivation

• A persons orientation to strive for success,
  persist in the face of failure, and experience
  pride in accomplishments (Gill, 1986)
• Competitiveness
• Choice of activity
• Effort to pursue goals
• Intensity
• Persistence

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Need Achievement Theory
PERSONALITY SITUATION RESULT EMOTION ACHIEVEMENT BEHAVIOUR
MOTIVATION TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS APPROACH SUCCESS FOCUS ON PRIDE OF SUCCESS CHALLENGE/ PERFORM BETTER/SEEK OUT
MOTIVATION TO AVOID FAILURE INCENTIVE VALUE OF SUCCESS AVOID FAILURE FOCUS ON SHAME OF FAILURE AVOID RISK/ PERFORM POORLY/ AVOID ACHIEVEMENT
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Developing Achievement Motivation

• AUTONOMOUS COMPETENCE
• SOCIAL COMPARISON
• INTEGRATED
• ATTRIBUTION

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Implications and Applications

• Recognise interactional factors in achievement
  motivation
• Emphasise performance goals
• Monitor and alter feedback
• Assess and correct inappropriate attributions

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Anxiety is?

• an unpleasant emotion, characterised by vague
  but persistent feelings of apprehension and
  dread (Cashmore 2002)

• Is it?

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Anxiety - Multidimensional

1. Cognitive (Fear of failure, apprehension about
   negative evaluation from others, self-talk,
   worry)
2. Somatic body
3. Self-Confidence

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Anxiety

• The challenge is hitting good golf shots when
  you have to..to do it when the nerves are
  fluttering, the heart pounding, the palms
  sweatingthats the thrill (Tiger Woods, 2001)
• Competitive anxiety Anticipatory excitement
• Lazurus (2000) too little anxiety can be
  counterproductive

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ANXIETY- Measured?

• Physiological hr, bp, sweat, breathing, tense
  musculature, adrenaline.
• Self-Report CSAI-2, DM-CSAI-2, MRF

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Anxiety

• Inverted U
• Drive
• Catastrophe
• ZOF

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Factors that effect anxiety

• Practice
• Perceived readiness
• Training factors
• Prior knowledge of opposition, track, course
• Uncertainty about outcomes
• Gender ?

• Paralysis by analysis
• Interpretation of anxiety
• Time to event
• Skill level
• Importance of competition
• Influence of Coach

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Practical Issues

• Trait anxiety?
• Negative attributions
• Perfectionism
• Fear of failure
• Competition specific

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Practical techniques

• Positive focus
• Social support
• Progressive Muscular Relaxation
• Mantra
• Breathing
• Routine and pre-competitive planning

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Practical techniques

• Biofeedback
• Hypnotic suggestion
• Limit attention (crowd, themselves, race ahead)
• Meditation
• Self-talk
• Visualisation

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Anxiety Control

1. Interpret arousal signs constructively
2. Pressure is a perception not a fact!
   Restructure the situation
3. Physical relaxation
4. Giving oneself specific instructions
5. Adhering to Pre-Performance routines
6. Simulation training (1988 Aus. Women's Hockey)

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Anxiety

• The mind is something to think with, not just
  for worrying
• if you play as if it means nothing when it means
  everything, youve got it (Steve Davis)
• The guy who thinks positively will win (Daley
  Thompson)

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Butlers Approach (2000)

• Develop clear thinking- Donts
• Believe in the possible (challenge)
• Have a route planner
• Keep a sense of proportion (Becker)
• Weaknesses can be improved
• What ifs So?
• Flip it over (self-doubt)
• Be your own judge
• Bag the preoccupations
• Use humour

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Choking -the failure of normally expert skill
under pressure

• Harder they try, the worse the problem
• Somatic symptoms (panic)
• Inability to complete task

• Excessive concern with mechanics
• Distraction
• Investment of effort
• Non-judgemental
• Give up and go for it

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Concentration

• if your mind is going to wander during practice,
  its going to do the same thing in a match (Rod
  Laver)
• I was in my own little world focusing on every
  shot. I wasnt thinking of what score I was on or
  anything..
• (Clarke, 1999)

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Concentration is

• Focusing attention on the relevant cues in the
  environment and maintaining that attentional
  focus (Weinberg Gould, 1995)
• Successful marathon runners (2 hrs) reportedly
  use associative attentional strategies (bodily
  functions, hr, breathing rate) and dissociative
  strategies (distractions).

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Concentration/Attention

1. Zoom in Selectively
2. Mental time sharing Divided Attention
3. Concentration Deliberate mental effort

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Where is your attention?
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Concentration

• Attention as filter
• Attention as spotlight or zoom lens
• Attention as a resource

• Cocktail party problem
• Exact focus
• Automatic, multi-tasking (practice implications)

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Concentration

• if I had not got a medal already, I might have
  fought a little harder..it was probably only for
  a lapbut thats all it takes for a race to get
  away from you.. (Sonia OSullivan 2000)
• Anxiety effect on concentration

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Nideffers types of Attentional focus
Broad-external Football quarterback Broad-internal Developing a game plan/strategy
Narrow-external Used to focus on 1-2 cues b of the bang, stride pattern into a fence Narrow-internal Mental rehearsal, breathing before a short serve
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Concentration principles (Moran, 1996)
Concentration requires mental effort
One can focus on only 1 thought at a time
Focused on specific, relevant and actions under their own control
Athletes lose concentration when they focus on out of control factors
Anxiety effects the width and direction of the attentional spotlight
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Why do performers lose their focus?

• Attending to past events
• Attending to future events
• Attending to too many cues
• Overanalysis of body mechanics
• Choking is an attentional problem!
• Self-talk
• Attending to things they cannot control
• Wegners (1994) theory of ironic control

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Self-Talk

• Thought stopping
• Countering from negative to positive
• Motivation and technical
• Use of affirmations

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Practical Issues

• Concentration grid
• Watching the oscillations of a pendulum
• Looking at a clock and saying Now to yourself
  every 5 and 10 seconds

• Simulation training
• Establishing routines
• Breathing techniques
• Imagery
• Meditative eastern philosophies
• Single focus
• Video games

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Concentration techniques
Specify performance goal
Use routines
Use trigger words
Mental practice
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Confidence

• Is to expect success
• Is belief in ones own ability
• An awareness of how well a person will match up
  to the task before them

• Self-efficacy
• Performance/ mastery experiences
• vicarious experiences (watching others succeed)
• verbal persuasion
• physiological states

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Confidence benefits

• Positive emotions
• Concentration
• Effort
• Momentum
• Goals
• Game strategies

• Is there an optimal level of confidence?
• overconfident?
• Expectations
• Coach
• Athlete

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Confidence Building

• Strengths
• Improvements
• Achievements
• Preparation
• Edge
• Previous performance

• Praise (immediate)
• Feedback (KR, Immediate)
• Positive statements
• Reflection and analysis (attribute internally,
  assess)
• Performance focus
• Emphasise readiness

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Confidence Techniques

• Clustering
• Affirmation list
• Performance reviews
• Video, media articles
• Reminders
• Focus words

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Self-Confidence

• Praise and Feedback
• Positive statements
• Quality training
• Accomplishments
• Reflect and Visualise
• Emphasize readiness

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Visualisation / Imagery

• Sewell et al. 2005 (p353-5) MR
• Represent experiences of stimuli
• Visual
• Auditory
• Kinaesthetic
• Vividness
• Controllability
• Multi-sensory experience

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Visualisation / Imagery

• Psychoneuromuscular pattern of faint muscle
  movements, strengthening neural pathways
• Symbolic understanding and acquiring movement
  patterns, motor programme, blueprint is formed

• Internal
• External
• Written script
• Relaxed state
• Use with pre-performance
• Can help control other psychological skills
• Focus on real time images
• Use video to enhance

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Visualisation / Imagery uses

• Learn and practice sports skills
• Formulate game plan (strategy)
• Error correction
• Recovery from injury
• Self-confidence

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Motor Learning Control

• a set of processes associated with practice or
  experience that leads to relatively permanent
  changes in the capability for movement (Schimdt
  Lee 1999)
• Learning versus Performance
• Stages of Learning

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Stages of Learning

• Cognitive Stage
• Understanding of the nature and goal of the
  activity to be learned
• Initial attempts at the skill - gross errors
• Associative Stage
• Practice on mastering the timing of the skill
• Fewer and more consistent errors
• Autonomous Stage
• Well coordinated and appears effortless
• Few errors
• Automatic performance allows attention to be
  directed to other aspects of skill performance

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Information Processing Model

• Input
• Information from the environment through the
  senses.
• Decision-making
• Input evaluation and integration with past
  information .
• Response selection
• Output
• Response execution
• Feedback
• Information about the performance and quality of
  the movement. Information gained here can guide
  future interpretations, decisions, and responses.

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Factors Influencing Learning

• Readiness
• Physiological and psychological factors
  influencing an individuals ability and
  willingness to learn.
• Motivation
• A condition within an individual that initiates
  activity directed toward a goal. (Needs and
  drives are necessary.)
• Reinforcement
• Using events, actions, and behaviors to increase
  the likelihood of a certain response recurring.
  May be positive or negative
• Individual differences
• Backgrounds, abilities, intelligence, learning
  styles, and personalities of students

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Motor Learning Concepts
Ten

• 1. Practice sessions should be structured to
  promote optimal conditions for learning.
• 2. Learners must understand the task to be
  learned.
• 3. The nature of the skill or task to be learned
  should be considered when designing practice.
• 4. Whether to teach by the whole or the part
  method depends on the nature of the skill and the
  learner
• 5. Whether speed or accuracy should be emphasized
  in teaching a skill depends on the requirements
  of the skill.

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Motor Learning Concepts
Ten

• 6. Transfer of learning can facilitate the
  acquisition of motor skills.
• 7. Feedback is essential for learning.
• Knowledge of results (KR)
• Knowledge of performance (KP)
• 8. Learners may experience plateaus in learning.
• 9. Self-analysis should be developed.
• 10. Leadership influences the amount of learning.

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Phases of Motor Development

• Early reflexive and rudimentary movement phases
• Hereditary is the primary factor for development.
  Sequential progression of development but
  individuals rates of development will differ.
• Fundamental movement phase
• Skill acquisition based on encouragement,
  instruction, and opportunities for practice.
• Specialized movement phase Refinement of skills
• Turnover Hereditary and environmental factors
  that influence the rate of the aging process.

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Fundamental Movement Phase

• Initial Stage ( age 2)
• Poor spatial and temporal integration of skill
  movements.
• Improper sequencing of the parts of the skill
• Poor rhythm, difficulties in coordination
• Elementary Stage ( age 3 4)
• Greater control and rhythmical coordination
• Temporal and spatial elements are better
  synchronized.
• Movements are still restricted, exaggerated, or
  inconsistent.
• Mature Stage (age 5 or 6)
• Increased efficiency, enhanced coordination, and
  improved control of movements.
• Greater force production

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Effective instruction
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Practice

• Blocked/constant
• Better for practice
• Poor retention
• Tedious
• No memory impact

• Random/variable
• Better for learning
• Meaningful, distinct
• Easier application and transfer
• STM use to compare

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Practice

• Variable practice random with children (but not
  huge variation) as opposed to constant practice
• Contextual interference context of practice
  retention and transfer help organise practice
  sessions
• Blocked practice overlearning not necessarily
  habit!
• Distribution of practice massed or distributed

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Benefits of practice

• Automaticity
• Proficiency
• Consistency
• Adaptability
• Transferability
• Error detection and correction

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Feedback

• Precision your leading leg was too high or
  your leading leg was 0.5cm needed over the
  hurdle (skill level)
• Timing of feedback summary, immediate

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Instruction Feedback

• Intrinsic extrinsic- Information
• Kr and kp type, correction
• Thorndikes (1927) Law of Effect
  Reward/motivation
• Too frequent feedback produces dependency
• Immediate best for learning but!

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Motor programs

• How do we produce so many movements so quickly?
• What controls them?
• How are they combined to form a whole movement?
• Can these movements be controlled without
  awareness?
• Are they organised in advance?
• How can they be learned?

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Motor programs

• Open loop
• Input
• ?
• Executive
• ?
• Instructions
• Effector
• ?
• Output to environment

• Specific Advance instructions
• Sequence and timing
• Program operates without modification
• No capability to detect errors

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Motor programs

• Open loop
• Input
• ? Stimulus Identification
• Response selection
• Response programming
• ?
• Motor program
• ?
• Spinal cord
• ?
• Muscles
• ?
• Movement
• ?
• Environment
• ?
• Feedback ?

• Practical applications
• Avoid asking learners to attend to rapid action
• Let it run automatically
• In an unstable environment closed loop
• Feedback role

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Motor programs

• Generalised
• Storage issue
• Novelty problem
• when I make the shot, I do not produce something
  new, and I never repeat something old (Bartlett,
  1932)

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Sport expertise

• Information processing
• With practice, knowledge becomes embodies into a
  larger schema/program that frees up memory for
  other tasks such as anticipation?

• PRACTICE
• Anticipation
• Decision making
• Identifying patterns of play (recall/recognition)
• Using advance visual cues

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What are the main differences in motor learning
between novices and beginners?

• Skill/Practice
• Experts are
• Faster and more accurate in recognizing and
  recalling patterns of play
• Superior in anticipating the actions of an
  opponent using visual advance cues
• Display more efficient and effective visual
  search strategies
• Perceiving the minimal essential information
  underlying skilled performance

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End of task Generation of answer
Start of task Presentation of stimulus
Processing Step 1
Processing Step 1
Processing Step n
Outcome Measures

• Pre-task manipulations
• Film occlusion
• Point-light displays
• Distortion of image

Response Time/Accuracy
Fixation
Fixation
Fixation
Visual Search Behavior
Process Measures
V1
V1
V1
V1
Concurrent Verbalizations

• Post-task observations
• Retrospective reports
• Post-experiment
• interview

Williams and Ericsson (2005)
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End of task Generation of answer
Start of task Presentation of stimulus
Processing Step 1
Processing Step 1
Processing Step n
Outcome Measures

• Pre-task manipulations
• Film Occlusion
• Point-light displays
• Distortion of image

Response Time/Accuracy
Fixation
Fixation
Fixation
Visual Search Behavior
Process Measures
V1
V1
V1
V1
Concurrent Verbalizations

• Post-task observations
• Retrospective reports
• Post-experiment
• interview

Williams and Ericsson (2005)
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End of task Generation of answer
Start of task Presentation of stimulus
Processing Step 1
Processing Step 1
Processing Step n
Outcome Measures

• Pre-task manipulations
• Film Occlusion
• Point-light displays
• Distortion of image

Response Time/Accuracy
Fixation
Fixation
Fixation
Visual Search Behavior
Process Measures
V1
V1
V1
V1
Concurrent Verbalizations

• Post-task observations
• Retrospective reports
• Post-experiment
• interview

Williams and Ericsson (2005)
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Practice history profiles of elite and sub- elite
soccer players 8-16 years
data from Ward, Hodges, Williams, and Starkes
(2004)
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Is expertise a by-product of experience?

• Anticipation
• Recall
• Recognition
• Perceptual and cognitive skills improve with
  experience
• Practice implications!

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Practical issues

• Success at start
• ?
• Interest increases
• ?
• Regular practice habits
• ?
• Instruction
• ?
• Commitment

• Video simulation

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Thank you