Chapter 4-Sports Psychology Flashcards
Skills
A learned action/behaviour with the intention of bringing about predetermined results with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of time and energy
Abilities
Inherited from your parents, abilities are stable traits that determine an individual’s potential to learnbor acquire skills
The 4 skill classifications
- The basic to complex continuum
- The open to closed continuum
- The self-paced to externally-paced continuum
- The gross to fine continuum
Factors of a basic skill
- Few decisions made
- Few decisions affect the success of the movement
- Taught as a beginner
- Learned fairly quickly
- EG: walking or jumping
Factors of a complex skill
- Complex decisions made
- Lots of decisions for it to be successful
- Taught after success in basic skills
- Can take considerable time to master
- EG: high jump
Open skills
A skill which is performed in a certain way to deal with a changing or unstable environment eg to outwit an opponent
Closed skills
A skill which is not affected by the environment or performers within it. It tends to be done the same way each time
Factors of an open skill
- Unstable environment
- Affected by others
- Often externally paced
- EG: A football pass may be carried out in a certain way to avoid oncoming opponents, for example pass around them or chipped over
Factors of a closed skill
- Stable environment
- Not affected by others
- Usually self paced
- Done the same way every time
- EG: A javelin throw is replicated each time, there is nothing to affect the direction of the throw
Self-paced skill
The skill is started when the performer decides to start it. The speed, rate or pace of the skill is controlled by the performer
Externally-paced skill
The skill is started because of an external factor. The speed, rate or pace of the skill is controlled by external factors eg an opponent
Factors of a self-paced skill
- Start controlled by performer
- EG: In long jump the performer chooses when to start the run up
- Speed, rate and pace controlled by performer
- EG: When running long distance, you choose how fast to run
Factors of externally-paced skill
- Start controlled by external factors
- EG: When recieving badminton shot, you can only return it after they have served
- Speed, rate or pace controlled by external factors
- EG: When marking in netball, moves are affected my the opponents moves
Factors of gross skills
- Involves big movements
- Uses large muscle groups
- Movements tend not to rely on accuracy or precision
- EG: Kicking a ball, running, throwing a javelin
Factors of fine skills
- Small, precise movements
- Uses small muscle groups
- Movements tend to involve precision and accuracy
- EG: Dart throw, archery, snooker, table tennis block shot
Performance goals
Personal standards to be achieved. The performer compares their performance against what they have already done or suggests what they are going to do. There is no comparison to other performers
Outcome goals
Focus on end result, for example winning
Who benefits more from performance goals
Beginners tend to avoid outcome goals because they rely on other factors eg other players. Also failiure could demotivate them and might be an unrealistic goal for some. Beginners generally benefit more from performance goals
Who benefits more from outcome goals
Elite athletes are usually driven by winning and the outcome goal of winning may increase their desire to succeed even more. Performance goals may motivate them to work on individual aspects but eiltes generally benefit more from outcome goals
What does SMART stand for
S-specific (specific to the sport/muscles used)
M-measurable (possible to measure when achieved)
A-accepted (accepted by coach)
R-realistic (must be possible to do)
T-time bound (must be set over a fixed period of time)
Information processing
This is making decisions. 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
A basic model of information
This shows the simple processes that a performer carries out in order to decide what skill to use
Basic model of information processing
•Stage 1 - Input
- Take in information from environment (what they can see/hear)
- Choose what is the most relevant piece of information
- For example, sight when watching a cricket ball flying through air, this is selective attention. It is a filtering process where you pick out the most important parts of the display and discard others
Basic model of information processing
•Stage 2 - Decision making
- Select an appropriate response from memory
- Info from display is held in STM, if attention changes the memory is lost
- STM can be compared to LTM for similar situations to make a suitable decision
Short term memory (STM)
This is the ‘working memory’, information is only stored here for about 30 seconds
Long term memory (LTM)
It holds information that has been rehearsed and stored
Basic model of information processing
•Stage 3 - Output
- The decision chosen is sent to appropriate muscles to carry out response
- EG: impulses sent to arms and hands to start the appropriate movements for a catch
Basic model of information processing
•Stage 4 - Feedback
- Information recieved via themselves (intrinsic) or from others (extrinsic) regarding success of the action
- Feedback may affect how the skill is done in future
- EG: you can feel the ball hitting your hands (intrinsic) and team mates cheer (extrinsic)
What are the 4 types of guidance
- Visual
- Verbal
- Manual
- Mechanical
Visual guidance
Guidance that you can see, for example demonstrations
Verbal guidance includes
- Demonstration by someone else eg coach
- Footage of performance via DVD, analysis software, slow motion
- Still images for example photos or posters
Who is visual guidance useful for
For a beginner visual guidance is very important so they can see and start to understand what they are expected to do. It isn’t used much for elite performers but can be used to highlight minor errors with analysis software etc
For visual guidance to be useful, it must be
- Clear
- Relatively concise
- Quick
- Easy to understand
- Of a realistic standard
- Backed up with simplistic verbal guidance