Lesson 4

Question 1

What is Attention?

Answer 1

Attention is your awareness of the surroundings environment and acknowledgement of cognitive process.

Question 2

What is Concentration?

Answer 2

Concentration is the ability to deliberately focus your attention to the task ahead and block out distractors.

Question 3

Describe a flow state of mind.

Answer 3

When the athlete is completely focused on the task at hand and their skills match the challenge of the competition. They are “in the zone”.

Question 4

What are distractors?

Answer 4

Distractions are the main obstacle to maintaining concentration and directing focus.

Question 5

What are the two categories of distractions?

Answer 5

Internal and external distractions.

Question 6

What are internal distractors?

Answer 6

Internal distractors are thoughts or feeling that divert your attention away from the task at hand.

Question 7

What are external distractors?

Answer 7

External distractors are factors beyond your control that divert your attention away from the present task.

Question 8

What are examples of external distractors?

Answer 8

Background noise, fans moving and/or weather

Question 9

What are examples of internal distractors?

Answer 9

Emotions and/or pain.

Question 10

What is pressure?

Answer 10

Pressure in sport is a feeling of great stress and of not being in control. The perceived importance of a specific event can sometimes lead to choking.

Question 11

What is choking?

Answer 11

Choking in sport is when you perform badly at a critical time.

Question 12

What causes choking?

Answer 12

It can be associated with over-arousal and stress.

Question 13

Why do athletes have to use a range of psychological strategies?

Answer 13

To avoid the impact these sport psychology factors can have on your performance.

Question 14

Why do athletes need sports psychologists?

Answer 14

To help explain and outline what psychological strategies they need to implement.

Question 15

How does implementing the stratergies help athletes?

Answer 15

Implementing these strategies can have a positive impact on your state of mind and your performance.

Question 16

What is mental rehersal?

Answer 16

A simple and common way to prepare for physical performance is to mentally rehearse your performance.

Question 17

How does mental rehersal work?

Answer 17

During mental rehearsal, the athlete needs to focus on relevant cues, execution and timing.

Question 18

What is one of the most common type of metal rehearsal called?

Answer 18

A common and effective form of mental rehearsal is called imagery (and sometimes “visualization”).

Question 18

What are the two types of self-talk?

Answer 18

Negative self-talk and
Positive self-talk

Question 18

What is self-talk?

Answer 18

Self-talk is an integral psychological strategy for improving sport performance.
it can be in the form of words in your head, or words actually spoken out loud.

Question 19

What is an example of positive self-talk?

Answer 19

“You can do this!”

Question 19

What is an example of negative self-talk?

Answer 19

“ill never make this shot”

Question 20

What is negative self talk?

Answer 20

Negative self-talk is “critical and unhelpful dialogue that you say to yourself” (Amezdroz et. al. 2018)

Question 21

What does negative self talk lead to?

Answer 21

It is often critical of your abilities and actions and is detrimental to performance outcomes.

Question 22

What is positive self talk?

Answer 22

Positive self-talk is an internal dialogue that makes a person feel good about themselves. A person can use positive self-talk to think optimistically and feel motivated.