Psychological Characteristics of Peak Performance

1. Chapter 9 Psychological Characteristics of Peak Performance Vikki Krane & Jean Williams “Trying to articulate the zone is not easy because it’s such an indescribable feeling….you feel like you’re playing out of your head. You aren’t feeling any tension or any pressure and physically your strokes are just flowing, every ball you hit is going in. Emotionally you’re really calm. There’s not strain involved. It’s a euphoric feeling….Whatever you do, whatever decision you make on the court, whatever stroke or shot you try, you know it’s going to work.” (Chris Evert, Tennis Champion)

2. What Is Peak Performance? • Exceptional performance • Put it all together – both physically and mentally • Precondition: Certain level of mastery and physical conditioning • Is relative – varies from person to person • Most likely to occur when skill level matches demands

3. What Role Do Psychological Factors Play? • An ideal internal psychological climate underlies peak performance • 40-90% of success is due to mental factors • Importance  at higher skill levels • Can train the ideal body/mind state that underlies peak performance • Goal of training: More peak performances and greater consistency

4. Recall of Peak Performance Psychological Characteristics • Ravizza 77 • Loehr 84 • Garfield & Bennett 84 • Cohn 91 • Privette & Bundrick 97 • High self-confidence • Energized • Automatic and effortless • In complete control • Very focused • No anxiety or fear • Physically/mentally relaxed

5. Flow • “The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) • Flow may be a precursor to peak performance • Nine dimensions of flow are experienced • Interventions can flow intensity and performance • Relaxation, imagery, triggers, hypnotic induction, and regression

6. Nine Dimensions of Flow • Situation challenge matches skills • Effortless and merge action and self • Clear goals • Feedback indicating correctness • Total concentration on task • Complete control w/o consciously doing so • No self-consciousness or evaluation • Time transformation -- speed up/slow down • Enjoyable -- participation its own reward

7. Factors That Affect Flow Enhance • Confidence/positive attitude • Maintaining good focus • Optimal physical preparation • Optimal arousal level/motivation • Following pre-competition plans • Positive team interactions • Feeling good/prior flow states Interfere • Mistakes • Can’t focus • Negative mental attitude • Lack of audience response

8. IZOF • Individualized Zone of Optimal Functioning model (IZOF) (Hanin, 2000) • Similar to Inverted-U theory except optimal emotional zone varies across performers and situations • Performance likely to deteriorate when outside ZOF

9. IZOF (cont.) • Identify ZOF by contrasting emotional states across better and worse performances • Specific emotions and optimal ranges vary across and within individuals • Results in four groups of emotional functioning: • performance-enhancing positive emotions • performance-enhancing negative emotions • performance-impairing positive emotions • performance-impairing negative emotions

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11. Poor © 2010 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

12. Scales Measuring Psychological Skills Used by Athletes • Psychological Skills Inventory for Sport(PSIS) • anxiety management - motivation - mental preparation -concentration - self-confidence - team emphasis • Test of Performance Strategies(TOPS) • goal setting - imagery - relaxation -self-talk - emotional control - activation -negative thinking - automatically • Ottawa Mental Skill Assessment Tool • -goal setting - activation - mental practice -stress reactions - focusing - mental planning -fear control - refocusing - confidence -relaxation - imagery - commitment

13. Comparisons of Successful vs. Less Successful Athletes • More self-confident • Greater commitment • Stronger performance focus • Coped better with stress • Coped better with distractions • More optimistic/positive attitude • Higher personal standards • Better competition plans • Better emotion & activation control • View anxiety as more beneficial • Set more performance goals

14. Summary of Psychological Profile for Peak Performance • High self-confidence • Self-regulation of arousal about performance • Feeling in control(energized yet relaxed) • Total concentration • Present task focus • Good perfectionism (high standards, yet flexible) • Positive attitude • View difficult situations as exciting challenges • Determination and commitment

15. How Elite Athletes Prepare for Competition and Coping • Set goals • Use imagery • Develop competition and refocusing plans • Practice copings skills until automatic • Use competition simulation • Employ thought control strategies • Use arousal management techniques • Interpret anxiety as facilitative to performance • Use attention control and refocusing skills

16. Mental Toughness Defined Mental toughness is having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to: • Generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer. • Specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure. (p.209)

17. Characteristics of Mental Toughness • An “unshakable belief” (i.e., knowing that they can do anything they set their minds to do) • Stay focused • Regulate performance (i.e., increase effort) • Cope well with pressure • Are aware of, and control, their thoughts and feelings • Control the environment (i.e., are not affected by things out of their control).

18. The Mental Toughness Pyramid

19. How Others Facilitate Peak Performance • High team cohesion • Positive/strong team leader • Social support from friends/family • Committed coaching • Clear coach performance plans

20. How Others Hinder Peak Performance • Lacking trust/confidence in teammates • Poor coach-athlete communication • Negative attitude toward coach • Coach can’t deal with crises • Unrealistic expectations from coach • Over coaching/excessive interactions • Coach’s inability to “keep it simple”

21. Organizational Stressors that Can Hinder Peak Performance • Team selection • Transportation • Housing • Family accommodations & event tickets • Communication among and with administrators • Communication among and with coaching staff • Media control • Finances • Coaching style

22. Limitations of Research Findings • Descriptive and correlational design • Cannot assure a cause-and-effect relationship