3.2.1 - Sport Psychology Flashcards
What is a ‘skill’?
A learned action or behaviour
What is ‘ability’?
Ability is something that is inherited from your parents, that are stable traits that determine an individual’s potential to learn or acquire skills.
What is the basic-to-complex continuum?
- Few decisions are made for basic skills, whilst for complex more decisions have to be made.
- Basic skills are normally taught to beginners, whereas complex get taught to those who have mastered the basic skills. These take a considerable time to master.
What is the open-to-closed continuum?
- An open skill is an environment which can change due to the environment or other players (opposition/team players) and the way you do a skill is affected by them.
- A closed skill is conducted within a stable environment where you are not affected by people around you. You will not change what you do, and therefore keep the skill the same. E.g. A basketball free throw, the player goes through the same routine and skill every time.
What is the self-paced to externally-paced continuum?
Self-paced skills are when you have control of when to start the movement/skill. E.g. Long jumper deciding when to start his/her run up, or a marathon runner setting their pace to run.
Externally-paced is when the performer is controlled by external factors. These can be such as: receiving a badminton serve, or by the starter in sprinting events.
What is the gross-to-fine continuum?
Gross skills involve big movements of the body. This involves the use of large muscles to working together. Examples: kicking a ball, running, and throwing a javelin.
Fine skills involves small, precise movements, that involve small muscle groups. These focus on precision and accuracy, for example dart throw, archery, snooker, and a table tennis push (block) shot.
What is a performance goal?
Performance goals does not involves the performer comparing to others. Performers compare themselves against what they have already done or suggest what they are going to do.
E.g. 100m sprinter
- may hope for a better start than the last race.
- may aim to time their ‘dip’ well when crossing the line (better than last time).
What are outcome goal?
Outcome goals focus on the end result. They usually invoke comparison with other competitors. The performance standards may not be that important, but the outcome does.
E.g. A football player
- may wish to win a match.
- may wish to score two goals to increase their team’s goal difference.
Why should performers set ‘short-term’ goals?
Performers would be set short-term goals to ensure there are small increments to achieve their long-term goal.
Why do performers set ‘long-term’ goals?
Performers set long-term goals to ensure they have a clear target to aim towards over a long time period (I.e. a year)
What type of goal would a beginner use?
Beginners usually prefer to avoid outcome goals as failure could demotivate them. This might be that winning is unrealistic for some performers.
Beginners may be better at concentrating on performance goals and trying to better themselves without worrying about the result compared to others.
What type of goal might an advanced/elite performer use?
Elite athletes are often driven by one thing and thing only - winning!
The use of performance goals can help motivate them to work on individual aspects of performance, but the outcome goal of winning, or gaining a medal, may increase their desire to succeed even more.
The best performers can persist, even when they fail, and become even more determined to succeed next time.
What does the acronym SMART stand for?
S - Specific M - Measurable A - Accepted R - Realistic T - Time Bound
What does Specific mean, when following the SMART principles?
The goal must be specific to the demands of the sport / muscles being used / movements involved.
What does Measurable mean, when using the SMART principle?
It must be possible to measure whether it has been achieved.
What does Accepted mean, when following the SMART principle?
It must be accepted / agreed by the performers and performer’s coach, if they have one.
What does Realistic mean, when following the SMART principle
It must actually be possible to complete the goal, that the person is physically capable.
What does Time-Bound mean, when following the SMART principle?
It must be set over a fixed period of time.
What is information processing?
Information processing is the process in which decisions are made. It involves gathering data from the display (senses) and prioritising the most important stimuli to make a suitable decision.
For example, choosing a suitable skill
What are the four elements of the basic information processing model?
1: Input
2: Decision Making
3: Output
4: Feedback
What happens within the ‘input’ stage of basic information processing?
The performer takes in information from the environment (for example what they see, what they hear, and what they feel).
They choose what is the most relevant signal/cue/stimulus/ piece of information to them at that time.
For example, a cricketer watching the cricket ball flying in the air.
What is ‘selective attention’?
Selective attention is a filtering process whereby the performer picks out the most important parts of the environment that are relevant and discard those that are not
What happens within the ‘decision making’ stage of basic information processing?
This is where the performer selects an appropriate response (movement/skill) from memory; perhaps a situation they have previously experienced.
The short-term memory (STM) is the working memory, and any skill is displayed here, and lasts for 30 seconds. If attention is drawn away, the information gathered is then lost.
You use your long-term memory to hold information that has been rehearsed and stored. This is what is called upon to recall a skill, to apply to your short-term memory of present so a suitable decision can be made.
