sports psychology Flashcards
Explain the inverted U theory
An athlete needs to have an optimal level of arousal to perform successfully.
The demand for attention varies for different sports and skills:
Sustained attention
Short bursts of attention
Intense attention
Strategies to improve attention and concentration:
Centred breathing - breathing deeply
Mental rehearsal and practice
Positive self-talk - talk and cue words - practice using words such as relaxed hands, knees together.
What is mental imagery?
When athletes visualise themselves flawlessly performing a skill or competition event such as sinking a putt in golf or throwing a free throw goal in basketball. The athlete will feel more relaxed and feel capable of achieving the skill or winning a competition/event by an opponent.
What is motivation? What are the two types? Explain and give examples of each.
Motivated athletes are more likely to perform their best and achieve success, whereas a lack of motivation will prevent an athlete from reaching their potential.
The two types of motivation are intrinsic and extrinsic.
Intrinsic is all about you liking it and doing it for yourself. extrinsic is doing it for a material benefit such as financial rewards.
List methods to increase and decrease arousal.
The 3 levels of arousal are high (panic), medium (optimal arousal) and low (boredom)
Arousal
an athlete needs to have an optimal level of arousal to perform successfully. If under-aroused the athlete may be distracted or disinterested and miss a critical movement. If over-aroused the athlete may become stressed, anxious or overwhelmed and unable to focus on the surrounding movements.
The more complex the task the lower the arousal level.
The 4 factors that affect arousal level are
Anxiety
Excitement
Hydration
Expectation
Methods to increase and decrease arousal include
Pre comp pump-up: used to raise arousal with warm-up exercises, motivational addresses, music and video footage.
Relax the body by controlling breathing and doing muscle relaxing exercises to decrease arousal.
Mental Imagery: When athletes visualise themselves performing a skill such as sinking a putt in golf and it’s done well.
an athlete needs to have an ________ level of arousal to perform successfully
optimal
under-arousal
if an athlete is under-aroused they may be distracted or disinterested and miss a critical movement by an opponent
over-aroused
if an athlete is over-aroused they may become stressed, anxious our overwhelmed and unable to focus on the surrounding movements
the more complex the task is the ______ the arousal
lower
moderately high arousal
highly skilled athletes and those performing simple tasks require a moderately high level of arousal
motivation (goal setting)
athletes are more likely to perform their best and achieve success when they are motivated.
