Psychological Skills Training

1. Psychological Skills Training Can you learn this stuff?

2. The Need Seconds pour away. Agony. Elvis Grbac screams to his teammates. They scream back. The crowd screams louder. Static rushes through Grbac’s helmet. It is fourth down. Two yards to go. Seconds pour away. (Elvis Grbac’s baptism of fire vs. the Denver Broncos, 1998)

3. The Situation • Kansas City trails Denver by 4 points • Fourth down and 2 yard to go for a first down • 34 seconds left in the game • Ball on Denver’s 20 yard line • No time-outs remaining • Speaker in helmet not working (can’t hear the play from the sidelines)

4. The Result • Grbac calls his own play • Goes for a pass into the endzone • Receiver is double-covered and the pass is batted down • Kansas City loses

5. What Should He Have Done? ?

6. The Answer is . . . • Pull out your cell phone and call Dr. Lidstone!!!!

7. Psychological Skills Training • Psychological interventions and programs are effective in enhancing athletic performance

8. The Evidence • Almost all professional tennis players say they use some form of psychological strategy to enhance performance • Higher ranked players use them more • Successful members of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team trained together more, enjoyed crowd support, enjoyed family and friend support, adhered to mental preparation plans, and enjoyed high levels of attentional focus and commitment

9. Skills vs. Methods • Psychological Skills: Learned or innate characteristics of the athlete that make it possible or even likely that he or she will succeed in sport (e.g. intrinsic motivation, self-confidence, attentional control, arousal control, anxiety control)

10. Skills vs. Methods • Psychological Methods: Strategies, techniques or practices that lead to the development of psychological skills (e.g. goal setting, imagery, progressive relaxation, meditation, self-talk, hypnosis)

11. Measuring Psychological Skills • Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS-5) – Mahoney et. al (1987) • Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28) – Smith et. al (1995) • Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) – Thomas et. al (1999)

12. Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports • 45 item inventory • Measures anxiety control, concentration, confidence, mental preparation, motivation, and team orientation • Has demonstrated the ability to discriminate among different levels of skilled performers

13. Athletic Coping Skills Inventory • 28-item inventory • Coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting/mental preparation, concentration, freedom from worry, confidence and achievement motivation, coachability • Modest predictor of hitting and pitching performance among professional baseball players

14. Test of Performance Stragegies • 64-item inventory • Measures a combination of skills and methods in 2 strategic situations • Competitive situation: Self-talk, emotional control, automaticity, goal setting, imagery, activation, negative thinking, relaxation • Practice situation: Self-talk, emotional control, automaticity, goal setting, imagery, activation, attentional control, relaxation

15. Format of a Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP) • Phase 1: Who is the client? • Phase 2: Initial meeting with athlete(s) • Phase 3: Education of the sport psychologist relative to the activity • Phase 4: Development of a needs assessment plan

16. Format of a Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP) • Phase 5: Determine psychological skills methods and strategies to be taught • Phase 6: Actual teaching and learning of selected psychological methods • Phase 7: On-going and end-of-season evaluation of PSTP

17. Enhancing Athletic Performance through Sport Psychology: A Case Study Jim Lidstone, Ed.D Georgia College & State University Simon Earnshaw, M.Ed. Armstrong Atlantic State University

18. What is Sport Psychology? Sport psychology is a science in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sport setting. These principles are often applied to enhance performance. However, the true sport psychologist is interested in much more than performance enhancement and sees sport as a vehicle for human enrichment. Cox (1994)

19. Performance Enhancement Attention (concentration) Anxiety Arousal Aggression/assertiveness Team cohesion Human Enrichment Personality Anxiety management Arousal adjustment Self-esteem Self-confidence Causal attribution Leadership Performance Enhancement vs. Human Enrichment

20. Sport Psychology Intervention • Assessment • Diagnosis • Prescription • Intervention • Evaluation

21. The Four C’s • Consistency • Confidence • Concentration • Composure

22. Assessment • Interviews - Coach - Player(s) • Paper & Pencil Tests - Personality Traits - Emotional States • Observation

23. Paper & Pencil Instruments - Trait • Instrument Variable(s) Assessed • Sport Orientation Questionnaire Competitiveness • Win Orientation • Goal Orientation • Sport Competition Questionnaire Competitive Trait Anxiety • Trait Sport Confidence Inventory Trait Sport Confidence • Test of Attentional & Interpersonal Attentional Focus (6 • Style subscales)

24. Paper & Pencil Instruments - State • Instrument Variable(s) Assessed • Competitive State Anxiety Cognitive State Anxiety • Inventory - 2 Somatic State Anxiety • Self-Confidence • State Sport Confidence Inventory State Sport Confidence • Profile of Mood States Tension, Depression, • Anger, Vigor, Fatigue, • Confusion

25. Concentration

26. Concentration - Individual

27. Pre-Competition Mood State

28. POMS - Individual Assessment

29. Composure

30. Confidence

31. Sport Orientation

32. Conclusions from Assessment • Higher than normal anxiety • Lower than normal self-confidence • Self-handicapping behaviors • No peer leadership • Negative attitude of coaches

33. Intervention Strategies • Coaches agreed to be more positive • Players engaged in goal setting • Players agreed to adhere to team rules • Coaches communicated more with players • Coaches set lineup in advance of meets • Players accepted lineup and roles within the team • Players targeted for confidence, concentration and/or composure training

34. Concluding Comments “The project has helped me to modify my coaching style somewhat. I tend to be a little “hard-core” and expect the players to always show up ready to run through walls if necessary. This attitude is not prevalent among the players and so other coaching techniques are required for them to achieve their potentials. They require more motivation, patience, and positive feedback rather than being challenged or confronted. As a coach, I need to remain more optimistic, complimentary and supportive toward the players. The extra work on their mental games should help them respond in a more positive manner which has already begun to show with their pre-season conditioning program.”

35. The End • Sometimes it works