Core 2 Factors affecting performance

Psychology and Performance

Chapter 6

How can psychology affect performance?

• Motivation can be defined as the direction and intensity of effort.

• A powerful force that leads you towards a desired outcome (direction), combined with the effort or energy you use (intensity) to work towards that goal.

• Motivation can be categorised as positive or negative, and intrinsic or extrinsic.

Positive and negative

• Positive motivation is the desire to succeed in a task that will make you feel happy, content or satisfied.

• Positive reinforcement helps to maintain positive motivation.

• Negative motivation is the desire to succeed in a task to avoid unpleasant or undesirable consequences—such as feeling sad, unworthy, or a failure.

• Negative motivation causes you to think about what you don’t want to happen

• Negative motivation can be embarrassing and humiliating.

Coaches using destructive emotions such as shame, guilt or ridicule are all sources of negative motivation.

Intrinsic and extrinsic

• Intrinsic motivation is the desire that comes from within.

• When intrinsically motivated, athletes feel satisfied and content to continue an activity because they enjoy it.

• Intrinsic motivation encompasses an individual’s inward desire to know, accomplish and experience.

• This is the most powerful and rewarding motivation, and it can be sustained for considerable lengths of time.

• Intrinsic motivation may come naturally, but coaches and athletes can help to create it by adapting their thinking.

• Extrinsic motivation is the desire to succeed in a task to gain an external reward (such as a trophy, money, praise or avoidance of punishment).

• The reward provides more satisfaction that the task itself

• Increase in salaries of professional athletes, there is a general concern that money is now the driving motivational factor, rather than enjoyment of the sport itself.

Intrinsic or Extrinsic????????

Anxiety and arousal

• Anxiety is a negative emotional state that results from perceiving a situation as threatening, uncontrollable or unavoidable.

• Anxiety brings feelings of nervousness, uneasiness, worry, fear or panic.

• Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress.

• How a person perceives a situation will influence the level of anxiety they experience.

• There are two components to anxiety—mental (cognitive) and physical (somatic).

• The mental aspect is thoughts (worry, self-doubt) and the physical aspect is the perceived symptoms of increased heart rate, nervousness and ‘butterflies’ in the stomach.

Trait and state anxietyState anxiety is the temporary feeling of apprehension, tension or inadequacy related to a specific point in time.

• Trait anxiety is a behavioural disposition to exhibit anxiety and perceive a wide range of situations as threatening.

• A person with a high level of trait anxiety is likely to respond to competitive situations with high state anxiety.

Sources of stress

• Stress can be described as the imbalance between what is demanded (physically, psychologically or emotionally), and the perceived ability to meet those demands (your competence or coping skills).

• When there is the perception of a large imbalance between what is asked and your capabilities, then an individual becomes stressed.

Stress can be broken down into four stages.

What are the sources of stress?

Everyone is responsible for their own stress levels. Situations that can trigger stressare encountered on daily basis, but how the situation is perceived, assessed and responded to is in the hands of the individual.

• For athletes, stressors may include financial concerns, getting time off work to compete, uncertainty as to whether they will be selected for a team, competing in front of large crowds, lack of preparation, their expectations, and the expectations of others.

All these sources of stress can be further divided into internal stressors (e.g. fear of failure) and external stressors (e.g. behaviour of opponent). They can result in the physical and/or mental symptoms of anxiety

Managing stress• Short-term stress management

strategies include: • breathing and relaxation techniques to reduce

anger or frustration• concentration skills, which allow for focus on

the task, not on a perceived reaction to it• focusing on positive emotions• positive self-talk• learning to ‘change channels’ by developing a

routine to reroute negative thoughts to positive thoughts

Optimum arousal

• Arousal is the physical and mental activation or intensity exhibited at a specific point in time.

• A highly aroused person is mentally alert

Signs and Symptoms of Arousal

• profuse sweating• negative self-talk• butterflies in stomach• stomach ache• dry mouth• headache• feeling sick• dazed look• constant need to go to the toilet• inability to concentrate• increased heart rate• negative images.

• As arousal increases, so does performance— up to a point.

• Beyond this point, increased arousal results in a drop in performance.

Optimal arousal

Factors such as personality, self-expectations, skill level, experience and importance placed on the task will influence arousal levels and determine the most appropriate pre-competition preparation for each athlete.

Inverted ‘U’ hypothesis

• Sports or tasks involving large muscle groups generally require greater arousal levels.

• Understanding arousal, stress and anxiety will assist coaches in preparing their athletes.

• A coach should:– identify the level of optimal arousal needed

for best performance– recognise how different factors interact to

influence arousal, anxiety and performance– recognise the signs of increased arousal

and anxiety in their athletes– know the strategies that suit each of their

athletes.

• In summary, the influence of arousal on performance is affected by:– the individual athlete—their personality,

experience, etc.– the type of skill or sport– the demands of the skill or sport

Questions

• A coach says it is more important for him to teach his players relaxation strategies to combat anxiety than teaching them strategies to increase their activation and effort. Discuss this opinion in relation to anxiety and arousal.

• Describe what may happen to the performance of a batter (in cricket, softball or baseball) if they were:

• under-aroused• over-aroused.

Psychological strategies to enhancemotivation and manage anxiety

• concentration

• goal setting

• mental rehearsal

• self-talk.

• relaxation

Concentration/attention skills (focusing)

• Concentration is the ability to focus and maintain attention on the appropriate cues for the duration of an event.

• Athletes need to be capable of shutting out distractions, concentrating on things that matter, and focusing solely on the ‘here and now’ when performing and focusing on the appropriate cues

• External distractions can include the weather, noise in the crowd, movement in peripheral vision, and unwelcome comments (sledging) from an opponent.

• Internal distractions include your own thoughts—such as worrying about the mistake you just made—anger at a referee’s decision, and overanalysing a performance

American shooter Matt Emmons was well in front in one of his events at the 2004 Olympics, with one shot to go, when he shot at the wrong target, earning zero points and being relegated to eighth place!

Being distracted by an opponent and retaliatingcan have serious consequences

Strategies that can assist an athlete concentrate include the following

• Music. This can help to calm an athlete before competition, and aid in concentration.

• Cues. These can be verbal, visual or physical and have a specific meaning to the athlete. – For example, a coach may have a cue word or sign that

reminds the athlete to focus on a particular aspect of play.

• Set routines. Golfing champion Tiger Woods has a ‘routine’ that allows him to approach particular shots in identical ways in all tournaments. This assists with focus and reduces anxiety. A set routine will include the preparation phase (e.g. take a step back from the free throw line; take a deep breath), focus phase (visualise the ball going in the ring; bounce the ball twice) and execution phase (cue word: cookie jar; take shot).

• Distraction training. This involves deliberately introducing various types of distractions (noise, sledging, poor refereeing) into training, and working hard to stay focused. Like everything else, this technique takes time to develop.

• Positivity. Athletes can look for advantages or positives in all situations to focus on what they need to do next, rather than on a bad play or a missed opportunity.

• Practice in refocusing. Regaining focus after a lapse in concentration, and refocusing on the present situation, is a skill that takes time to develop— practice is critical. When mistakes are made, they need to be thrown away, not dwelled upon or analysed.

• Changing focus. An athlete can identify their main distractions and determine how to reduce (or eliminate) these by changing what they focus on. – For example, a diver might find she is focusing on the

scoreboard and results of other divers, rather than on her own dive, and realises she needs to change focus.

Mental rehearsal/visualisation/imagery

• Techniques that involve creating mental ‘pictures’ of an upcoming event or experience. – For example, when you rehearse what you want to say to a

friend in an important conversation, this preparation gives you confidence and enhances your response to expected and unexpected things.

• Mental rehearsal or imagery allows an athlete to experience the event before it happens.

• Research indicates that mental rehearsal enhances learning and performance.

• Michael Phelps continually uses mental rehearsal and has commented:– There are times in my sleep when I literally dream my race

from start to finish. Other nights, when I’m about to fall asleep, I visualize to the point that I know exactly what I want to do: dive, glide, stroke, flip, reach the wall, hit the split time to the hundredth, then swim back again for as many times as I need to finish the race.

• When first starting to use imagery, athletes think about the skill, goal and performance in competition

• Eventually they use all their senses when mentally rehearsing or recreating the experience.

• This can be done before sleep, during training and even immediately before competition. – A diver can imagine executing a perfect dive as she

approaches the platform. This helps the athlete fully focus on the task, rather than any feelings of self-doubt.

• Imagery can also be used as an extra practice session, during rehabilitation from an injury, or after a successful performance when the feelings are still fresh and vivid.

• As well as seeing and feeling the perfect performance, athletes also use mental rehearsal to picture things not going to plan, and to work out how they would cope with these situations.

• This means mentally rehearsing the ‘what ifs’—being distracted, feeling anxious, having problems in the warm- up, dealing with a referee’s call—and practising how best to respond to these situations if they occur.

External imagery is where you are watching yourself complete the task as if on a video recording.

Internal imagery is like having a camera on your head, so you see what you would normally see when executing the skill.

Developing skills in mental rehearsal

• Mental rehearsal or imagery is a skill

• Imagery has been used to improve:– physical skills – perceptual skills (tactics, decision making)– psychological skills (confidence, control,

commitment and concentration).

How coaches can help• When training athletes, coaches can help with

visualisation and mentalrehearsal skills in several ways– Give athletes a couple of minutes at the start of practice to

visualise their goal for that practice. By mentally picturing the successful achievement of their goal, athletes will be more focused for training.

– Have athletes mentally rehearse the skill just before executing it. For example, a basketball player might see herself shooting a free shot, and the ball going in the basket—then she would actually take two shots. This may reduce the number of physical repetitions the athlete needs to perform in the session.

– When teaching a new skill or play, give the athletes time to ‘see’ and ‘feel’ it. Ask the athletes for feedback, such as ‘How did that feel?’

Relaxation techniques• Athletes who are susceptible to states of

over-arousal require strategies, such as relaxation techniques, to calm them and lower their arousal levels.

• The nervous system will then respond by lowering breathing rate, heart rate and blood pressure.

• This allows the athlete to have more control over their movement and greater focus.

Examples include listening to music, watching a movie, having a massage, controlled breathing, meditation, yoga, self-hypnosis and mental rehearsal,

Progressive muscular relaxationThis technique involves actively contracting specific muscles and then relaxing them. The athlete focuses on feeling tension and lack of tensionwithin the muscle. Generally, they begin with the muscles in their feet and slowly work their way through various muscle groups, finishing with facialmuscles. At the end of the session, the muscles are in a more relaxed state.

Centred breathingCentred breathing allows an athlete to clear their mind, relax and focus onwhat they have to do. The technique involves:• breathing evenly and deeply from the abdomen• breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth keeping shoulders relaxed (they shouldn’t rise and fall) as the stomach goes in and out. This technique can be used before and during competition. It isuseful for closed-skill sports or events, such as pole vault or the tennis serve.

Meditation and self-hypnosisMeditation is the process of focusing your attention on a single thing (e.g. breathing, or an object, sound or place) for a period of time. By excluding outside thoughts, this concentration allows the body to relax. Self-hypnosis uses suggestion or imagery to assist with deep relaxation.

Goal settingGoal setting is often described as a road map. It is a process that identifies a destination (long-term goals) and how to get there (short-term goals).Swimmer Michael Phelps has said that he writes his goals down and has a copy next to his bed—he finds being able to wake up and look at them everymorning is helpful.

Goals can be classified as either outcome or process goals:Outcome goals are generally long-term, e.g. making an Olympic team, or winning a national championship.Process goals are short-term, e.g. reducing the number of faults on first serve in tennis, or running a personal best in the 100 metres.Achieving short-term process goals, which are easier to control, will help keep an athlete motivated and on track for achieving their long-term goals.

‘SMARTER’. In this scheme, an athlete’s goals should have the followingcharacteristics.Specific - The goal should be specific to what the athlete wants to achieve.Measurable - Establish criteria and set a specific target. How do you know if you have attained your goal?Accepted - The coach and athlete both agree on the goal.Realistic - Goals should be challenging but within reach.Time - Indicate a specific date by which the goal should be attained.Evaluate - Goals need to be evaluated. Adjust and modify them based on the progress made, and redo them when they are achieved.Recorded - Write goals down, prioritise them and share them with the coach

‘6W’ questions:Who? Who is involved?What ? What do I want to achieve?Where? Identify a location.When? Establish a time frame.Which? Identify requirements and constraints.Why? State the purpose or benefit of achieving your goal.

It is very important to stress to athletes that goals are related to performance, not self worth. If an athlete fails to achieve a goal that does not make the athlete a failure.

1. Applying the SMARTER acronym, write down two short-term goals (to be achieved within the next 4 weeks) and two long-term goals (12–18 months) for yourself or for an athlete in a sport of your choice.

2. Describe a strategy that an athlete can implement to help them relax when competing.