Sports Psychology

Sports Psychology

Clip • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLsQD2yUebA

What is Sport Psychology? • Exercise and sports psychology is concerned with the psychology of human movement as it is reflected in our behavior, thoughts and feelings of the individuals engaging in that movement. • For everything you think in your mind, your body has a reaction, regardless of whether it is real or imagined. For example, have you ever had a bad dream? Usually, you will wake up and your heart is racing, you are sweating and very agitated, even though all you were doing was sleeping. But, in your mind there was something bad going on and your body was reacting to it.

Here’s another example: if you are home alone and you hear a noise and interpret it as the wind, you are fine; but if you interpret it as a prowler, your fight or flight response takes over and you become fearful, your heart begins going a mile a minute, your eyes dilate and you are scared. • This is a classic example of how strong the connection is between your mind and your body.

Main areas of sport Psych • Motivation / Arousal • Stress & Anxiety • Mental imagery • Goal Setting

Motivation & Arousal • Motivation is thought to be a combination of the drive within us to achieve our aims and the outside factors which affect it. With this in mind, motivation has the following two forms, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation • Intrinsic - This is motivation from within. A desire to perform well and succeed. The following will be true; • Desire to overcome the problem or task • Rehearsal of successful habits until they are perfect • A feeling of pride and enjoyment in performing the skill

Extrinsic - Extrinsic motivation comes from a source outside of the performer. These are things which can encourage the athlete to perform and fall into two groups: • Tangible rewards: Physical rewards such as medals and money. These should be used sparingly with young athletes to avoid a situation where winning a prize is more important than competing well • Intangible rewards: Praise, recognition and achievements. These should be used on a regular basis to encourage the athlete to repeat the behaviour which earned the praise.

Motivation & Arousal FLOW

Stress & Anxiety • Stress & Anxiety clip • Stress Experience • As well as the physiological symptoms the athlete will also experience psychological symptoms. These include: • Indecisiveness • Decreased concentration • Worry • Decreased attention span • This can then cause a vicious circle resulting in increased levels of stress, which is called the stress spiral

Stress & Anxiety • An athletes disposition to interpreting a situation as threatening and responding with an increase in state anxiety • Athletes who have a high trait anxiety view more situations as more threatening than those with lower trait anxiety and so respond with a higher state anxiety. This is known as competitive trait anxiety. A questionnaire called the Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) is a reliable predictor of an athletes levels of anxiety.

Mental Imagery • "I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It's like a colour movie. First, I "see" the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I "see" the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour on landing. Then there's a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality and only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.“ – Golfer Jack Nicklaus

Mental Imagery • What can it be used for? • See success where the athlete sees themselves performing skills correctly and the desired outcomes. • Reduce negative thoughts by focusing on positive outcomes. • Motivate the athlete by recalling images of their goals for that session, or of success in a past competition or beating a competitor in competition. • Refocus the athlete when the need arises e.g. if performance is feeling sluggish, imagery of a previous best performance or previous best event focus can help get things back on track.

Goal Setting • Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life. • Make you’re goals S.M.A.R.T goals

Goal Setting • S – Specific (Significant) • M- Measurable • A – Attainable (Achievable) • R – Relevant • T - Trackable

Activity • Motivation – Intrinsic or extrinsic? • Ball skills – Pass to someone in the circle, not beside you and not the person that passed to you. Once around everyone then start again and add a second ball. Continue adding balls until one is dropped. Dropped ball, everyone starts again. • Again with a goal. • Again with a reward.

Sports Psychology