Psychology 2990A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Sport Psychology, Siq, Progressive Muscle Relaxation
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18 Nov 2011
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Andrea Loa
Psych 2990A
Chapter 4: Sports Psychology
Some Common Myths about Sport Psychology Interventions
•MYTH: Psychological skills training (PST) is a band-aid solution
•some athletes and coaches believe that self-talk or imagery can be learned in one
or two lessons to quickly fix a problem such as lack of confidence
•as physical skills take time and effort, so do psychological skills
•MYTH: Only elite athletes can benefit from psychological skills training
•PST can be implemented in any stage of an athleteʼs career, but ideally it should
be initiated at the grassroots level in order to ensure the most effective
development of the mental side of sport
•MYTH: Athletes need a sport psychologist only when they are performing poorly
•achieving peak performance requires a detailed plan that includes an
understanding of physiology and nutrition, implementation of cutting-edge
technology, and employment of psychological skills training
Introduction
•psychological skills training (PST): also known as an intervention - entails the
structures and consistent practice of psychological skills and generally has three
distinct phases: education, acquisition, and practice
•in the education phase, athletes recognize the importance of mental skills in port and
how the skills affect performance
•in the acquisition phase, focus is placed on helping athletes acquire the various
psychological skills and learn how to most effectively employ them
•in the practice phase, athletes automate the psychological skills through overlearning
and implement these skills in practice and competition
•goal-setting, imagery, self-talk, arousal regulation, and attention control are some of
the techniques used
Goal Setting
•most commonly used performance enhancement strategy
•Types of Goals
•goal: target or objective that people strive to obtain
•performance goals: focus on improving and attaining personal performance
standards
•process goals: focus on specific behaviours that an athlete must engage in
throughout a performance
•outcome goals: focus on social comparison and competitive results
•goal setting: the practice of establishing desirable objectives for oneʼs actions
•Effectiveness of Goal Setting
•Locke and Latham: goals direct attention, mobilize effort, foster persistence, and
promote the development of new learning strategies.
•goal setting can enhance their confidence and sense of satisfaction
•78% of sport and exercise studies show that goal setting has positive effects on
behaviour
•most athletes rate their goals as being only moderately effective
•lack of time and everyday distractions hinder the practice of goal setting among
athletes
•Assessing Goals
•performance profiling: a flexible assessment tool that allows for the identification
of athletesʼ performance-related strengths and weaknesses
•often used as a first step in developing an intervention program
•5 steps in performance profiling:
•Step 1: Identify key performance characteristics of an elite athlete in your sport
•Step 2: Identify the ideal rating for each of the athleteʼs characteristics
•Step 3: rate your current ability for each characteristic on a scale of 1-10
•Step 4: find your discrepancy score by subtracting your current rating from your
ideal rating. The higher the discrepancy score, the weaker you perceive your
ability for that characteristic
•Step 5: Prioritize your targets. After identifying your performance weaknesses
(highest discrepancy scores), pick out the two or three that are most in need of
correction
•after identifying the characteristics that are in need of urgent attention, you can
now implement strategies (set goals) to improve them
•Recommendations for Goal Setting
•the acronym SMART has been recommended to help athletes remember five
important guidelines for effective goal setting: goals should be specific,
measurable, adjustable, realistic and timely
•athletes should set goals for both practice and competition - most often, athletes
focus on competition than practice
•important to write down your goals and make them public
•goal should be stated positively than negatively
•the progress towards goal achievement should be reviewed on a regular basis
•Common Goal Setting Problems
•setting too many goals
•athletes do not willingly participate in the goal-setting program
•underestimating the time it take to implement a goal-setting program is another
common problem
•failure to provide a follow-up is one of the major problems with goal setting
•evaluation is key to goal setting
Imagery
•The Nature of Imagery
•referring to imagery as ʻvisualizationʼ is somewhat misleading - this suggests that
only one sense is being used (vision)
•the more polysensory the image is, the more real it becomes and the more
effective it will be on sport performance
•imagery is an experience that mimics real experience
•Analytic Model of Imagery
•suggests that imagery has cognitive and motivational functions that operate on
either a specific or a general level