Exam 1 Flashcards
Peak Performance
Moment when athlete puts it all together both physically and mentally
- Average performance is exceeded and personal bests are often achieved
- Relatively rare and involuntary
- More likely to occur when athlete’s skill level match the demand or challenge of situation
- Absolute skill level is not important
Athletes and coaches attribute success with mental factors at what percent?
Most atj;etes and coaches acknowledge that at least 40%-90% of success is due to mental factors
Peak Performance Psychological Profile
Five sources to identify psychological characteristics
- Researchers asked athletes to recall their subjective perceptions during greatest moment
- Data comparing psychological characteristics of successful athletes
Flow State
- State in which people are so involvued in an activity and nothing else seems to matter
- Can have flow without peak performance but cant have peak performance without flow
4/9 elements of flow
- Awareness and action merge so that movement is perceived as effortless
- Goals are clear
- Unambiguous feedback indicates that what is being done is correct
- Total and complete concentration on the task at hand without force
External Imagery
Person views self from perspecitve of an external observer like seeing oneself on television or videotape
Internal Imagery
Requires approximation like actual perspective when skill is performed or imagining being inside the body and experiencing the same senations as one might expect in actual phyiscal execution
Traits of Successful Athletes
- Highly self confident
- Total commitment
- Strong performance focus
- Cope well with stress and distactions
- Better concentration and less likely to be distracted
Traits of Poor Performance/Unsuccessful Athletes
- Self doubts
- Acting contrary to normal perforance routines
- Lack of concentration
- Over or under arousal
- Focuses on Distractions
IZOF
The individualized Zone of Optimal Functioning
IZOF Model
Attempts to identify emotional patterns associated with individual athletes’ successful performances
Ideographic
Individually focused; every athlete has their own unique emotional state in which successful performances are most likely
Four Groups of Emotional States Recognized
- Positive performance enhancing
- Positive performance impairing
- Negative performance impairing
- Negative performance impairing
What do top sport people think it takes to “make it”?
- Commitment
- Goal of being the best they are capable of being
- Maturity and self control
- Staying cool and confident
Psychological Differences Between Successful and Unsuccessful Athletes
- Compared 1976 US Olympic qualifiers to non-qualifiers in men’s gymnastics
- Finalists coped more easily with competitive mistakes
- Were better able to control and utilize anxiety
- Had higher self confidence and more positive self-talk
- Had more sport-related dreams
- Used internal imagery more
Competitive Stressors
Experienced immediately before and during performance
Organization Stressors
Directly linked to placement within/on the team (e.g. position on the baseball field, spon on a relay, making varsity vs JV)
Personal Stressors
All the remaining factors not directly related to the sport and performance that weigh on an individual
Responses to stress
Arousal and Activation:
-
Arousal is psychological response that the body undergoes when placed under stress.
- ie. Bracing
-
Activation is similar to arousal yet is specific to those responses that are directly related to the sport and performance that weigh on an individual
- ie. Differential relaxation
Competitive Anxiety
All the emotional responses normally associated with sport performance. It’s a negative response to the stress of competition
Cognitive Anxiety vs Somatic Anxiety
- Cognitive Anxiety: Encompasses all the mental aspects of dealing with stress
- Somatic Anxiety: The athlete’s own interpretation of their own phusical response to stress. This includes all sympathethic nervous system responses such as increased heart rate and sweating
Trait Anxiety vs State Anxiety
- Trait Anxiety: Evaluative situation where outcome matters in the presence of important or threatening or worrisome
- State Anxiety: An increased level of stress due to a particular event happening immediately or in the near future. Fluctuates constantly as the situations and their demands change
Drive Theory
States that drive arousal has a positive linear relationship with performance, so as drive increases so will performance as long as the participant is learned in their activity
ie. a swimmer is not golfing, a baseball player is not throwing a football
Inverted U Hypothesis
Reflects a parabolic relationship between arousal and performance. As arousal increases, as does performance to a point
Zone of Optimal Functioning
A tool used by athletes to find that optimal arousal level to produce peak performance
Multidimensional Anxiety Theory
Differentiates between cognitive and somatic responses to stress, as they have different effects upon performance. According to the theory, somatic responses follow the inverted-U for arousal and performance, whereas the cognitive aspect follows a negative linear relationship
Cusp Catastrophe Model
Created to fill some gaps that were found with MAT. It highlights the effect of cognitive anxiety on the physiological repsonse to stress
Explicit Monitoring
Control from automatic leads to choking
Distraction Theory
Paralysis by analysis
Processing Efficiency theory
Explains the somatic responses to positive and negative cognitive appraisal of stress
Attentional Control Theory
Is a continuation of PET that goes on to explain the effects of anxiety, a portion of their mental capacity is directed toward ambivalent worrying, which will lower their available mental power to focus on the task at hand
Conscious Processing Hypothesis
Used to explain the mechanisms behind poor performance due to anxiety.
“Paralysis by Analysis” CPH
Stress Management Interventions
- Prevention
- Reduction
- Restructuring
- Energizing
- Each technique works but not each technique works with every person
Stress Prevention
Works to actively remove the stressor entirely
Stress Reduction
Focus on minimizing and eliminating the symptoms of stress while maintaining heightened awareness. These techniques are classified as either mind-to-muscle or muscle-to-mind
Mind-to-Muscle vs. Muscle-to-Mind
Mind-to-muscle: relies upon the mind affecting the body to make the muscles untense
Muscle-to-mind: involves utilizing the muscles to calm the mind
Stress Restructuring
Focuses on athletes and their appraisal of the stressor to change from negative to positive, which leads to fewer detriments in performance
Stress Energizing
For participants that require high levels of stress to perform well, they will do activities or exercises to increase arousal to enhance performance
ie. Breathing exercises, energizing imager, transferring energy
Awareness
- An athlete pays particular attention to their mental focus and their mental state of being
- includes being aware of their own arousal levels and determining if they are too low or too high
- If awareness is lacking, athletes become more focused on the end result rather than the process
The seven step process - the “R’s”
- Responsibility: An athlete becomes accountable for their actions
- Recognize: Know internal and external components of thought that could affect performance
- Release: To get rid of anything that ould negatively affect performance
- Regroup: Regaining focus and composure
- Refocus: Tuning in focus to the task and focuses on their plan of action
- Ready: The athlete commits to the task and focuses on their plan of action
- Respond: This is the step where an athlete must trust the training they have done and act appropriately
All-or-None Syndrome
There is more to a performance than a success or failure. Even if the game is lost, there are aspects of the game that were successful.
Athletes should look at what went well in the performance, and also draw attention to areas that may need work.
Traffic Signal Light Analogy
A useful tool to help athletes identify:
- Indicate the way an athlete experences the situation
- Monitor potential stressors
- Aid in the development of a contingency plan to cope with stressors
- Build confidence in ability to handle adverse situations
Ways for athletes to increase awareness during performance
- Sport journal
- Feedback sheets
- Psychological questionnaires
- Imagery
- Monitoring
- Group discussion
“Get comfortable being uncomfortable”
Be within a bandwidth of comfort to be ok, not at a specific point
“grace under pressure”
Mind and Body
- Your body is always in the now but your mind may be in different moments (past or future)
- Awareness allows you to see if your body/mind are in the Now
- The only way you are in 100% control is if your mind and body are in the Now
Active vs. Passive Improvement
- Practice = improvement
- Practice makes permanent
- Practice is passive
- Unless you are aware of what you’re doing (focusing on one thing) you are not passively getting better
- Focus on one skill at a time
Mistake Ritual
- “Fudge, Fix, Focus”
- First reaction is universal (“oh shit”)
- Fix = what corrects that error (say the correction out loud)
- Focus = getting to the Now
- Takes 6 Seconds
- “Park It”
- Think about your mistake after the game
- Stop mulling over mistakes
- “Flush It”
- Re-hashing something that should be totally forgotten
How to use objects for mistake rituals
- Give meaning to an existing behavior to bring them back to the now
- A player fixes their hair a lot so have them refocus to the Now everytime they touch their hair
- An athlete keeps a paper clip in their left pocket and when they catch themselves thinking negatively, move the paper clip to the right pocket
Trust your Training AND Train your Trust
Separate but both important
- A major part of confidence is training
- “When the time to perform is here, the time to prepare is over”
- People know when they are still analyzing and thinking
- Be disciplined
AAR’s
After Action Reports
- “what mistakes did we make? How did they happen? How can we fix it? How can we get better?”
- Must be actionable and doable
Imagery
Using one’s senses to recreate or create an experience in the mind
Recreating vs. Creating
- Recreating: An athletes replays a past event or mistake over and over again in their head without a tirual or strategy to deal with it
- Creating: Imagery that an athlete designs in their head using memories and perceptions to create a new image that helps them to prepare to perform at a higher level
Internal vs. External Imagery
- Internal: See an image from inside their bodies the way their eyes would normally see
- External: See the image from outside their bodies as if they are viewing themselves with a video or camera from either behind, in front, or either side
Big 3 Characteristics of Imagery
- Controllability: The ability of athletes to imagine exactly what they intend to imagine and also the ability to manipulate aspects of the images that they wish to change
-
Vividness: The detail and clarity of the image
- Colors, number of senses utilized, physical sensations and emotional sensations
- Self-Awareness: Becoming conscious of the subconscious feelings and thoughts that can influence performance without our realizing
How many Olympians use imagery on a consistent and systematic basis?
97-99%
Negative Coaching
Verbal feedback creating a mental blueprint of exactly what NOT to do
- AKA Ironic Processing
Negative Imagery
- Can hurt the athlete - paralysis by analysis
- Focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time like a bad, unsuccessful performance
- Constant attempts to suppress negative thoughts and images from conscious awareness
Bioinformational Theory
- Assumes that a mental image is an organized set of propositions, or characteristics, stored in the brain’s long-term memory
- Includes both stimulus and response characteristics
Funtional Equivalence Explanation
Imagining a movement recruts the same parts and sequences of the brain as the actual physical execution of the movement
- Similar senses and feelings as during competition, similar timing and pacing
- FMRI & PET scans can show athletes what happens in their brain when they image
Mental Readiness Explanation
Optimal performance is achieved by optimizing arousal, attention, and confidence.
“Psych up or calm down”
How to set up an imagery program
- Introduce athletes to imagery
- Evaluate athletes’ current imagery ability to identify areas that need strengthening
- Basic Training: preseason practice increases benefits during the competitive season
- Implement a systematic program
Ways to use imagery
- Preparing a mental focus for competition
- Aiding in the recovery from injuries
- When athletes are injured, create imagery of healing injuries and of skill preservation
- Athletes gain 1-3% of their 10% loss back through imagery along
- 20-22% preserved skill through imagery
When to use imagery
- Daily practice: before, during or after physical practice sessions
- Pre/post-performance review
Ways to enhance imagery practice
- Practice in different places and in different positions
- Make the timing of images realistic
- Use technology
- Imagine vivid mental, physiological and behavioral responses
Sport Confidence
Individual’s belief that they can do whatever it takes to be successful in their sport
Mental toughness
The natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to cope better than your competitors with the demands of performance and remain more determined, focused, confident, and in control
Optimism
Expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation
Self-Efficacy
Specific type of confidence referring to one’s expectation of succeeding at a specific task or meeting a particular challenge
Misconceptions about confidence
- Either you have it or you dont
- Only positive feedback can build confidence
- Success always builds confidence
- Confidence equals outspoken arrogance
- Mistakes destroy confidence
Building confidence
- Understand the interaction of thought and performance
- Cultivate honest self-awareness
- Develop an optiminstic explanatory style
- Embrace a psychology of excellence
3 P’s
- Permanence: degree to hich one feels events will repeat and continue
- Pervasiveness: Degree to which one feels that a particular experience will generalize to other contexts
- Personlization: Degree to which one sees him or herself as the primary causal agent in events
Self Talk
Internal dialogue with yourself which can occur out loud or in your head
Skill Acquisition
- Movement learning and execution/motor learning and control and performance
- Goal is to reduce conscious control and move towards automatic execution
Cueing
Cognitive associations that aid in learning the correct physical execution
Self-paced vs. Externally-paced skills
- Self-paced: Done by the performer with no outside interference
- Externally-paced: Performer reacts to outside factors
Changing bad habits
- Using self-talk for a skill or habit that is trying to change
- Must engage in conscious control over the previous habit that became automatic
Attention control
Improves concentration and emphasizes the importance of the present - keeps focus away from the past or the future
Techniques for controlling self-talk
- Thought stoppage
- Changing negative thoughts to positive thoughts
- Countering
- Reframing
- Identifying irrational and distorted thinking
- Affirmation statements
Concentration
Attending to the right things at the right time and in the right way
Width controlling
broad or narrow
Direction controlling
internal or external
Choking
Physiological arousal is too high, causing attention to narrow and become internally focused
Increasing awarenes of types of concentration
- Coaches should create drills to help athletes develop optimal focus in first simple and then overload situations without assuming that each athlete knows what is right for her/him
Strategies to minimize external distractions
- Dress rehearsal
- Rehearsal of simulated competition experiences
- Mental rehearsal
Strategies to stay focused
- Find cues that focus on positives, present, and the process or external factors rather than negatives, past or future, or the score
- Centering
- Center of mass
- Being centered
- Centering
- TIC-TOC
- Turning failure into success
- Use of brain biofeedback
- Increasing focusing and refocusing skills
- Develop pre-performance and performance protocols
Goal
An objective or aim of action, defined as attaining a specific standrd or proficiency on a task, usually within a specified time limit
Outcome, performance and process goals
- Outcome: Standards of performance that focus on the results of a contest between opponents or teams
- Performance: Focus on improvements relative to one’s own past performance
- Process: Specify the procedures in which the athlete will engage during performance
Mechanistic vs Cognitive theory
-
Mechanistic: explains that goals influence performance in 4 ways
- directs attention to the important aspects of the task
- help the performer mobilize effort
- increases effort and helps to prolong effort
-
Cognitive: Goal setting can influence performance.
- goals are links to levels of anxiety, motivation, and confidence
- Performance orientation
- Success orientation
- Failure orientation
- goals are links to levels of anxiety, motivation, and confidence
Goal setting guidelines
- Set specific goals in measurable and behavioral terms
- Set moderately difficult but realistic goals
- Set short-term and long term goals
- Set process, performance and outcome goals
- Set goald for practice and competition
- Set positive as opposed to negative goals
3 phases of the goal-setting system for coaches
- Planning: identify needs
- Meeting: coaches schedule meetings to discuss goals
- Follow up/Evaluation: Evaluative feedback by coaches orally or written
Common problems in goal setting
- Setting too many goals too soon
- Failing to recognize individual differences
- Setting goals that are too general
- Failing to modify unrealistic goals
- Setting only-technique related goals
Action Plans
- Involve the 4 pillars:
- Tactical goals
- Technical goals
- Physiological goals
- Mental/Psychological goals
Only do goal setting if goals are:
- Objective
- Measurable
- Observable
- Difficult BUT realistic
- Feedback and eval
Only ___% of New Years Resolutions are kept but of those, ___% were actually written down
18%; 80%
Over ___% of research shows goal setting’s effectiveness
90%
Psychological Skills Training (PST)
Systematic training of mental skills to enhance performance
Sport Psychology Service Delivery vs. Cognitive-Behavioral consultation model
- SP: Focuses on common features in the consultant “toolbox”
- CB: 8 step process
Resonance performance model
Attempts to replace performance enhancement goals with ones of personal balance and fulfilment
Who benefits from PST
Everyone
When should a PST program be implemented
During on and off season and typically in the first or last 15-30 mins of practice
How much time should be spent on PST
15-30 minutes, 3-5 days per week
Setting up a PST program
- Self regulation: encompasses the process by which people manage their own behaviors
- Discuss your approach: what you will and won’t do
- Emphasize the importance of mental training
- Assess psychological strengths and weaknesses
- Analyze demands of the sport
Determining what skills to include
- Foundation skills
- Performance skills
- Personal development skills
- Team skills
