PDH/PE

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

CORE 2: HOW CAN PSYCHOLOGY AFFECT PERFORMANCE

HOW CAN PSYCHOLOGY AFFECT PERFORMANCE Psychology in sport combines the mental and physical sides of

training with an overall view to improving performance.

The various techniques used by coaches to improve the psychological side include motivating the athlete, focusing on performance and dealing with anxiety and arousal.

Motivation

Motivation is a condition that drives behaviours and keeps them going once started towards a set goal.

There are various influences on motivation and these are factors such as personal thoughts, the environment the athlete is playing in and spectators, and finally activity-related factors such as level of competition and skill level of athlete.

Motivation can be seen as either a positive or negative motivation.

Positive and negative

Positive motivation occurs when an athlete derives enjoyment and interest about completing a task.

It can come from a pleasant experience where the athlete is praised for a good performance or for something they may have done well.

This can come from coaches, family and spectators, and creates a drive in the athlete to try and repeat the performance and get more praise to make them feel good.

This has the effect of making the athlete strive to achieve the same praise every time they play and conditions them to get positive accolades each time they play well.

Positive and negative

Coaches need to be creative with positive motivation so it does not appear false in the way it is given. An example of positive motivation is a cricketer reaching 100 runs when batting.

Negative motivation involves completing tasks because the athlete will know there will be undesirable outcomes, such as being replaced due to making numerous errors or media articles ridiculing their performance.

This form of motivation is a dangerous one to use repeatedly as it could be catastrophic in diminishing an athlete’s confidence to play and they may never achieve great heights again through fear of repeated failures.

This motivation is also distracting to the athlete as they are unable to concentrate on the task and are more focused on the consequences should they perform badly.

Positive and negative

For example, if a golfer frequently misses putts which would win tournaments the media may suggest that they cannot win a tournament. Until that golfer wins a tournament they may also think that way.

A coach needs to have many samples of both negative and positive motivation at hand when dealing with athletes.

Due to the individual differences, types of activity that is being performed and athletes level of fitness, varied motivational techniques may be used for different athletes.

If used incorrectly, however, the effect could be detrimental to the athlete so the coach needs to have a good understanding of their athlete’s personality and capabilities.

Intrinsic and extrinsic

It refers to the athlete taking part in an activity for the joy and satisfaction from doing the activity; it makes them feel good with the rewards being purely internal.

A physical activity should be challenging and rewarding for the athlete and as a result athletes will perform activity because they want to and not be driven by material rewards.

This is a stronger form of motivation because it involves personal desire to do well. Athletes who are intrinsically motivated usually want to learn more about the sport and their performance.

Intrinsic and extrinsic

They try harder to improve their abilities and are motivated to achieve greater goals and keep beating previous best efforts.

This has a longer lasting effect of motivating athletes than extrinsic motivation and will help athletes to maintain the feeling of joy in participation.

Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from an external as opposed to an internal source. An activity is extrinsically motivated if it is performed primarily for external reinforcement such as rewards, food, fame or money.

Often athletes start playing sport for enjoyment or time with friends, but then their ability is noticed and they have to keep producing the same level of performance, which brings on its own stress to the situation.

Intrinsic and extrinsic

This then makes the activity more like a job and the athlete becomes extrinsically motivated due to the rewards they receive for performing well, such as money, trophies and accolades.

Trophies and medals are extrinsic rewards that can either enhance the intrinsic motivation an athlete feels to participate in sports, or they can become the sole reason that the athlete participates in sports, changing their focus from intrinsic to extrinsic factors.

Punishments or rewards are used to control the motivation of athletes.

If a sports coach has the power, they dictate the athlete because they know that the athlete is driven by what they will receive in the end for performing well.

Intrinsic and extrinsic

They may not necessarily enjoy it, but will still perform well. Often this leads to depression among athletes because they cease to play sport for the very reasons they got involved in the first place—that is for fun and enjoyment.

Motivational techniques for different types of athletes

Motivational techniques for different types of athletes Various types of athletes have different levels of skill and motivation.

As a coach, there are also different ways to treat athletes to get the maximum effort from each of them.

There are various methods of motivational techniques sports people can use depending on the sport they play.

A golfer in particular has the ability to use a wide range of techniques to motivate them to play their sport.

They also have intrinsic motivation by trying to beat everybody else and be the best player by scoring the lowest among the tournament players.

The score can act as a negative or a positive motivator depending on the result. The initial feedback a golfer gets after a shot goes where he aimed is also an intrinsic motivator.

Motivational techniques for different types of athletes Golfers utilise goal setting to a great degree with both short-term

and long-term goals being used in one round of golf.

Relaxation and mental rehearsal are also used to manage anxiety by visualising and having a practice shot prior to the actual shot taking place.

All golfers have a pre shot routine which also helps motivate them to do well and involves breathing, relaxing muscles and rehearsing movement mentally and physically.

Anxiety and arousal - Arousal Arousal refers to the physiological processes of the body and its

ability to respond to certain situations.

Arousal causes adrenaline to be released by the body, which leads to increased heart rate and blood pressure as well as sweaty palms.

It also involves a readiness for the person to a given situation by sending relevant nutrients to the muscles so they are prepared to meet any situation they face.

The arousal level of human beings can range from a deep sleep with little arousal to great excitement which is over-arousal.

Arousal

Arousal can be perceived in two ways: as being pleasant, which is excitable and advantageous for performance; and unpleasant which can lead to anxiety and being a disadvantage for performance.

Arousal will prepare the body for performance and may involve response to many stimuli.

This will allow performance to still take place, but may involve poor execution of skills due to over response to external clues, poor coordination because of muscle tightness and attentional changes throughout the sport.

Anxiety

Anxiety is a body’s response psychologically to a given stimulus or situation.

If the psychological problem is persistent it can lead to physical problems, such as accidents or poor performance.

For example, lack of sleep before a grand final can lead to poor decisions made in the game. There are many symptoms of anxiety, including:

trouble breathing • overly introverted sweating • chest pain restlessness • panic attacks headaches • subsequent heart attacks. stomach problems

Anxiety

Anxiety can lead to non-participation in sport because of the body’s psychological response to a perceived threat that the athlete sees.

No matter how physically prepared an athlete, emotionally they may not be able to participate due to concerns or worries of a particular situation.

Former world number 1 tennis player Monica Seles was attacked by a crazed fan of an opponent at a tournament. Although doctors indicated that Seles could return to competition tennis in about three months, the emotional trauma of the attack kept her off the tour for more than two years.

Anxiety Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can affect daily

performance; however, through regular ongoing treatment people can learn to deal with perceived threats and continue an anxiety-free life.

Sports coaches need to be aware of slight differences between arousal when training their athletes.

When dealing with arousal coaches must recognise what is the best state of arousal—that is, optimum arousal—to use for each of their athletes.

To do this, they learn the signs and symptoms of what the athlete is thinking and establish confidence in them. When dealing with an anxious athlete, it is imperative for a coach to find the cause of the anxiety.

Pre-game routines can narrow the attention of the athlete to the task.

Trait and state anxiety - Trait anxiety A personality type that has a tendency towards perceiving

conceivably non-dangerous situations as threatening or non-threatening.

This type of anxiety varies from person to person. Athletes with a high level of trait anxiety will tend to be more anxious when confronted with a threatening situation.

They are likely to become more anxious prior to competition, which is a major cause of anxiety in athletes called competition anxiety.

An example of this is where a team which loses five games in a row will continue to see things in a negative way and continue to lose or accept it will happen.

State anxiety

State anxiety is an emotional response of an athlete to threatening demands or dangers to a particular situation.

For example, Shaquille O’Neill used to have a poor free throw shooting record and disliked this part of the game, yet was a great basketball player in the NBA.

Symptoms of state anxiety may include sweaty hands and nervousness; it is a response at a given point in time but can change from moment to moment.

This type of anxiety can be attended to by health professionals and will become less of an issue. An example may be a golfer suddenly becoming over-aroused when they have to putt in front of a large crowd.

State anxiety

Focusing and concentration will help them block out noise and expectations of others and allow the task to be completed.

Other techniques will involve relaxation techniques for the athlete to ensure that they are ready for performance.

It is also important athletes learn to recognise their own stress levels and what is acceptable and what is not.

Skilled athletes use techniques to cope with stress before, during and after the event.

These methods include practice, planning, concentration, mental rehearsal and focusing.

Stress

There are many sources of stress in our lives and each person’s source will be different.

Past experience, personal support and personal expectations will have an influence on what is perceived as a stressor.

Stress can come from internal or external sources, which may be under the control of the athlete.

Stress

Most commonly in society stress can come from social issues, such as relationship issues, or life experiences, such as unemployment, school, and financial stress in general. In the sport, sources of stress include:

level of trait anxiety • media personal experience • skill level support structures • fitness injury or illness • pressure from coaches and family. Spectators

Optimum arousal There are two major theories for arousal: these are drive theory and

the inverted U-theory.

The drive theory relates performance to arousal, where an athlete has the necessary skills and their drive to compete is aroused by being psyched up for performance.

The inverted U-theory relates performance and arousal to an upside down U shape.

According to this theory, the athlete will be performing best if working in the zone of optimal arousal and in particular at the point of optimal arousal.

Both performance and arousal will increase as the athlete has things under control and exhibits little anxiety. They then work in the zone of optimal arousal.

Optimum arousal

Here the athlete is more centred on the task at hand and the task is seen as a challenge where a positive outcome can be gained.

The athlete becomes intrinsically motivated as they want to learn the task and are in control of what is happening.

If the athlete is above this point or zone in the U shape, they are considered to be over-aroused and performance will decrease as the graph moves in a downward direction.

Performance will continue to drop off as the athlete moves further from the optimal arousal point. This is because the athlete sees an inability to complete the task the way they want and thus becomes anxious.

Stress

At this stage performance deteriorates rapidly and can only be improved if the anxiety is dealt with then so that the athlete can return to the point of optimal arousal.

As the performance continues to decrease due to the increased anxiety, the task will be forgotten about and performance may cease.

Below the zone of optimal arousal the athlete is also suffering from diminished performance characterised by jerky movements or being slow to move. It is affected by the athlete’s decreased number of cues that can be used, lack of motivation, not being focused on the task and being easily distracted or not fully knowing how to complete the task.

Stress Different tasks require different levels of arousal for optimal

performance.

For example, difficult or intellectually demanding tasks may require a lower level of arousal (to facilitate concentration); whereas tasks demanding stamina or persistence may be performed better with higher levels of arousal (to increase motivation).

For complex tasks arousal level is lower and for tasks requiring endurance and more concentration higher levels of arousal are needed.

It is generally the responsibility of the athlete and coach to determine the optimal arousal level for competing in a particular event.

This will vary from time to time based on the athlete’s level of arousal, intelligence, personality type and complexity of the task.

Psychological strategies to enhance motivation and manage anxiety If anxiety is not dealt with it can have a negative effect on an

athlete’s performance.

There are various ways an athlete can deal with anxiety and enhance their motivation.

To allow athletes to perform at their maximum potential they should be able to identify emotional responses to anxiety.

This allows them to recognise signs such as muscle tightness which may affect performance.

Psychological strategies to enhance motivation and manage anxiety To manage anxiety athletes need to learn how to control their

mental state and identify which mental state will be associated with good performances.

There are many factors that can assist an athlete with this identification, including concentration or focus, mental rehearsal and visualisation, relaxation techniques and goal setting.

Concentration/attention skills (focusing) Concentration is the ability to completely focus attention on

appropriate cues to enable optimum performance.

When an athlete is performing there are many factors which influence their concentration level.

The athlete must take into account external factors, such as environment, and internal factors, such as the way the body feels mentally and physically and respond appropriately to this data.

Athletes take in all this information and focus on what to do by making good decisions.

When inexperienced athletes compete they have trouble dealing with all of the new stimuli and can become distracted.

Concentration/attention skills (focusing) Often spectators will see that the better players are those with more

experience, because they are able to filter out unnecessary information that is not good for their performance.

Experienced athletes learn how to switch off their concentration when it is not needed, so that they can avoid fatigue.

They can also return to concentration quite easily if they have been distracted and focus on the task at hand.

Athletes have achieved these abilities by practising many tasks, which eventually become second nature to them and they know what to expect in certain situations and react accordingly.

Concentration/attention skills (focusing) However, for an inexperienced athlete, once their concentration has

been broken they may still be distracted, and so their performance is affected by their lack of concentration.

As a result, they stop thinking of where they should be in the game or what move is happening next.

There are many ways athletes can practise concentration and focus on a task.

First, the athlete needs to learn to relax a little and this could be as simple as controlling breathing.

Concentration/attention skills (focusing) Then they can go through the process of centring. Centring allows

the athlete time to redirect their negativity or anxiety into the present task, and is critical in maintaining focus and concentration.

If it helps an athlete maintain concentration a key word can be used to bring their mind back to the task much like meditation.

To be fully effective, the centring process should be integrated as part of training so that it becomes second nature for the athlete in a game situation. Athletes should recognise distracters and deal appropriately with them.

Mental rehearsal/visualisation/imagery Mental rehearsal and visualisation both use imagery to improve

performance.

Visualisation involves the athlete to relate specifically to pictures in their mind of a performance that will be undertaken.

It is imagining what the skill or parts of the skill will look like from their perspective.

Often spectators may see downhill skiers visualising their performance with their eyes shut and moving their body as if they are on the mountain and going through the markers of the course.

Mental rehearsal also involves images an athlete may form of skilled performance.

Mental rehearsal/visualisation/imagery Combined with good physical practice, this can lead to better

acquisition of skills (or improve existing skills) and improve an athlete’s concentration and confidence in particular sporting situations.

Mental rehearsal involves more than just picturing the activity; it includes all the surrounding activity that goes with the actual performance, such as spectators or noise made from the crowd, weather conditions, and any other external factors that the athlete cannot control.

Mental rehearsal requires the athlete’s body to be completely relaxed and then to focus on the skill they will be performing.

Mental rehearsal/visualisation/imagery The athlete uses positive self-talk that will encourage them to do

well in their skill.

For example, while remaining relaxed, the active participant will perform the activity mentally five or six times all the while telling themself that they will do well and increasing confidence too.

It is important when mentally rehearsing that all senses are rehearsed and that the rehearsal is as close to competition as possible, that is, where the smells, sounds and environment of the activity will take place.

It is also thought that using mental rehearsal aids the practise of the neuromuscular system without the obvious chance of fatigue in training.

Mental rehearsal/visualisation/imagery In addition, mental rehearsal helps the athlete to reach their level of

optimal arousal and is an excellent form of dealing with anxiety for closed skill activities.

However, using mental rehearsal to practise what the athlete would do in negative situations may bring up too many possibilities of things that could go wrong, and as such could become a waste of time or be a totally negative experience.

If athletes practise in tougher conditions than they are used to they are better prepared to handle distractors, delay fatigue by increasing stamina and increase confidence in being able to deal with any situation they come up against.

Repeated visualisation and mental rehearsal may eventually trick the mind into achieving this scene.

Relaxation techniques

There are many relaxation techniques athletes can use to manage anxiety and calm themselves down.

They are methods used to also get them to the correct arousal levels in readiness for performance.

Relaxation techniques are normally used prior to a mental rehearsal or visualisation session and places the athlete in the right mindset.

Meditation is used by an athlete to calm down, so that they can be in a positive mindset.

While slowing the body down and relaxing all muscles, meditation involves controlling the systems of the body, which have a direct effect on anxiety such as breathing or ventilation rate, muscles and heart rate.

Relaxation techniques

At this stage, the athlete also begins to imagine the activity and how to do it.

They create an awareness of certain situations and how they would react within them, creating a positive outcome much like mental rehearsal.

It may also involve the athlete playing the coaches directions in their mind telling them what to do.

In meditation, the athlete will incorporate positive self-talk and learn a cue to remember when they need to relax themself or think of a positive experience if they are becoming anxious.

Relaxation techniques Spectators may often see athletes talking to themselves prior to

competition; this is the self-talk.

Progressive relaxation is excellent for reducing stress and subsequent anxiety.

It involves tensing and relaxing muscles and usually requires a deeper relaxation than passive relaxation techniques.

It is best used to release tension in muscles or when the body is stressed with symptoms such as headaches or backaches.

Techniques start by tensing then relaxing muscles in the arm, head, neck, trunk, and legs in that order.

Meditation should not be used prior to competition as it may leave the athlete underaroused and so they perform poorly.

Goal-setting

Goal setting is an essential part of an athlete’s development.

Goals allow the athlete to maintain motivation by giving them an end point or some direction in which to take their sporting performance.

Goals then provide a short- and long-term motivational focus for the athlete. Appropriately set goals will allow the athlete a sense of achievement if they meet those goals.

Goal-setting

Goal setting should be used so that the athlete can see great improvements including increased pride and self-confidence, improved performance and less stress and anxiety. Good goal setting also prevents boredom.

Whenever an athlete or a sports coach sets a goal it should be done by trying to outline how that goal will be achieved in conjunction with what the athlete is currently doing.

For example, decrease a runner’s sprint time by 0.5 second when they are currently training four times per week.

Smart

When setting goals it is easy to remember that they should all be smart:

Specific measurable adjustable realistic time

Specific

Be specific and exact in what the goal should be. Do not leave any chance for misinterpretation.

For example, a specific goal might be to reduce the 10 km time by 1 minute within 6 months.

Measurable

Clearly define what needs to be done to meet the goal by placing an objective measurement on it. For example, the measurement could be to never miss training and train at an intensity of 70% max heart rate for a long distance.

A set goal needs to be divided into small goals; this enables the athlete to meet short-term goals along the way in order to meet their long-term goal.

For example, if an athlete wants to make the Olympics team in two years, their short-term goal could be to make state titles in the current year. Progress should be made on small goals which will improve the chance of reaching the final goal.

Adjustable

An important aspect of goal setting is that if the goal is not going to be achieved, then reset the goal or adjust it so it can be achieved.

Keep the goal that has been set to a personal action and one which the athlete has control over. If the athlete does not have control, it will be difficult to achieve.

This means to focus on the process or performance rather than the outcome. For example, a goal to score 20 points and have 5 rebounds in a basketball game.

Realistic

Make sure the goal set is realistic, or within reach.

This means that with all the assistance the athlete will receive, they are still going to be able to meet this goal and be challenged. If not, the goal could act as a negative motivator for the athlete.

Goals need to specific and achievable as well as meet the needs of the sport. As the athlete improves, the goals set should reflect this.

Conversely, if the goal is too simple there is no feeling of achievement if it is met.

Time

A timeline needs to be set by which the goal will need to be met.

The athlete will monitor the goal and if it is to be met earlier on the timeline then the goal needs to be re-evaluated. Also, if the goal is not going to be met in time, evaluate why and if time permits change the timeline to a more realistic timeline.

Without a timeline there is a tendency for the athlete to procrastinate or get bored. In general, goals longer than 6 months are normally too long to keep the athlete interested.