Exploring Sport Psychology’s Growth, Mental Skills, and Applications

1. Exploring Sport Psychology’s Growth, Mental Skills, and Applications Emily Huelskamp

2. Exploring • Introduction • Recognition and Popularity • Four Mental Skills • Additional Areas • Christian Application

3. Introduction: Disclaimer • Practicing sport psychology

4. Introduction: Definition • “Concerned with the psychological factors that influence participation and performance in sport and exercise and with the psychological effects derived from participation” (Williams, 2006) • Helps athletes overcome mental barriers

5. Increasing Recognition • Examples of application: • Madeline Manning • 1968 800m Olympic Gold Medalist • Brad Lewis • 1984 Double Sculls Olympic Gold Medalist • Red Auerbach • Legendary Celtics Coach

6. Increasing Popularity • School enrollment • Teams • Professional • National • Collegiate • Individual consultation practices

7. Mental Skills • Goal Setting • Relaxation • Self-Talk • Imagery

8. Goal Setting • Goals direct action and provide focus (Baltzell, 2009) • Influence on performance • Three categories: • Outcome • Performance • Process • Short and Long-term

9. Goal Setting: SMARTS • Specific • Measurable • Adjustable • Realistic • Timely • Self-Determined

10. Goal Setting: Example • A student has a presentation due at the end of the month that involves researching a topic, writing a paper, then presenting a power point show. • Poorly-Defined: • “I will finish the research and writing by a week before the due date then work on the power point portion for the last week.” • Well-Defined: • “I will spend one hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of the first two weeks researching the topic. The second week I will spend two hours Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday writing the paper. If extra time is needed, I will write for longer on Friday and Saturday. The last week I will complete half of the power point on Tuesday afternoon and the other half on Wednesday morning. This leaves me Thursday to practice and fine tune for the Friday presentation.”

11. Relaxation • Awareness, “Checking-in” • “Help[s] athletes harness arousal so that it will not become an uncontrollable anxiety response” (Williams, 2006)

12. Relaxation • Influence on performance • Inverted-U Hypothesis • Sport- and Athlete-Specific Optimal Levels Sport Athlete

13. Relaxation: Techniques • Breathing • Must be diaphragmatic • 1:2 Ratio • Meditation • Progressive Relaxation (PR) • Active PR

14. Self-Talk • “Any self-statement or thought about the self” (Baltzell, 2009) • Must focus on the desired goal (Williams, 2006)

15. Self-Talk: Techniques • Thought Stopping • Identifying the negative thought, stopping the thought, then focusing on the task-relevant thought • Changing negative to positive • Coupling thoughts to redirect attention • Countering • Internal dialogue that uses facts and reason to refute the underlying beliefs and assumptions that lead to negative thinking • Reframing • Process of creating alternative frames of reference or different ways of looking at the world

16. Imagery • “Using all the senses to re-create or create an experience in the mind.” (Williams, 2006) • Point of view • External • Internal • Applications • Practice without physical exhaustion • Increased repetition • Injury

17. Imagery: Example • The 2k

18. Additional Areas • Concentration • Example: TIC – TOC • Motivation • Extrinsic • Intrinsic

19. Christian Application • Straight-forward application • Vulnerability • Motivation