Athletes In Developing Competition Strategies example essay topic

Psychological Skills Training What exactly is Psychological Skills Training and for a coach or instructor, what advantage is gained by its implementation? In other words, why bother? Psychological Skills Training (PST) is typically more comprehensive than a few short sessions with a few simple interventions that a coach or instructor might suggest. PST usually integrates cognitive and relaxation techniques in a more encompassing approach to mental training and as a complement to physical training. Individualism is a hallmark of most PST programs. (Gill, 2000) The Importance of Mental Skills Why are mental skills so important to performance and why are they often neglected by coaches and athletes?

Yogi Berra has been quoted as saying, 'sport is 90% mental and 50% physical. ' You can question his mathematical savvy, but if you " re an athlete, coach or fan, you can't question his wisdom. (Hacker, 2000) Many athlete's understand that while developing oneself to their physical potential is a critical element in performance potential, it is often a deficit in our psychological game rather than errors in our physical performance that keep us from performing at optimum levels in practice, games or matches. Spud McKenzie, the Budweiser poster puppy, suggested that it is important to say when, but also emphasized the critical element of knowing "when to say when". It is often the successful athlete has recognized what needed to be done and the unsuccessful athlete was unable to do so. As a consequence, it is not the physical talents or abilities that separate athletes and teams, or successful versus less successful performance, rather, the psychological dimension that most frequently explains a given sport outcome or individual performance.

For this reason games are played. Prior to each contest, judgment could be made with regard to which team or individual is the "more highly skilled". If games were decided on who is the most physically gifted and / or talented individuals or teams, it would prove to be an exercise in futility to compete. As a result, whether you are an athlete or a coach, mastering the mental game of sport will allow you to achieve a level of success as a competitor than you could otherwise not achieve by focusing exclusively on the physical side of sport.

PST - The Initial Learning Phase The four commonly used PST techniques are: arousal regulation (progressive relaxation, meditation, etc. ), cognitive restructuring (positive self-talk, thought-stopping-centering, etc. ), a goal setting program and imagery training. Whichever technique of PST addressed should be incorporated as part of a regular daily practice and game routine, not necessarily separate from or in addition to the participants normal sport activities. In this way, rather than adding another "thing to do" in a day, mental practice can be incorporated into the arena where it is needed to be used. Just as physical skills are first practiced in a controlled environment in order to sharpen and automate performance, the same principle should be followed for PST.

As an athlete becomes more proficient in practicing the skills, they will gradually begin to apply and utilize these techniques in a consistent, ongoing manner. Primarily the coach should work with the athlete to provide the particular content that is essential for each sport and individual. The athlete and coach must work through the semantics to arrive at the most meaningful descriptions of task-relevant items, and significant language. Often there is a tendency for coaches to tell athletes what they should be thinking of and concentrating on in competitions without verifying the significance with the participant. As participants apply goal setting or practice positive self-talk as part of their daily training schedule, proficiency through consistency can be attained. Rushall, (1995) suggests that there are two stages in a contest that require different forms of task-relevant thinking: In the early stages of a competition when fatigue is not evident, task-relevant thinking has to be modified.

It is likely that the thinking of specific, detailed technique features that control physical movements would cause performance to worsen. This is because of the phenomenon known as 'cognitive interference' (when one thinks of what they are doing when performing a highly skilled activity in a non-fatigued state, the thoughts interfere with the efficiency of automated skilled performance). When an athlete is fresh, task-relevant thinking should be limited to tactical and decision-making content (e. g., anticipation, recognition of relevant cues) and general capacity features such as smoothness, length, evenness, rhythm, etc. The detailed technique features of physical actions should be left to the automatic neuromuscular patterns that have been developed through training. However, at the onset of the next performance stage, which is usually signaled by the first hint of fatigue, it is necessary to begin to concentrate on specific, detailed technique thoughts along with other task-relevant items.

This is required to avoid any accumulated fatigue causing a loss in technique efficiency. The transfer of control to conscious thinking about skilled activities should maintain performance efficiency and form. As a competition progresses and fatigue increases, task-relevant thinking should gradually include increasing amounts of specific technique content so that performance efficiency is sustained. PST - The Development Phase Coaches must assist the Athletes in developing competition strategies. These strategies should be developed in a step-like fashion and should be included in practice activities. As athletes are given the responsibility for planning and deciding what is to be included in competition strategies, it is no longer "a mental strategy", but rather "my mental strategy".

This differs to the common practice of the coach 'instructing' an athlete what to do in a contest. Competition strategies consist of developing all the thoughts and consequent behaviors in a practice format, which need to occur in an actual contest. This requires that every activity and thought must be examined, requiring distractions and irrelevant thoughts to be eliminated. There are some significant structures that need to be included in the way competition strategies are formed.

1. If the event is of long duration, it needs to be broken into partitions. Those partitions should be short enough for the athlete to totally concentrate on what needs to be thought and done at that time. This assists focusing on the completion of successful competition elements.

Structuring performances in this manner is called 'segmenting. ' 2. How and what an athlete thinks during a contest is of paramount importance to maintaining maximum performance efficiency and exertion. The exercises in this section embrace three forms of thought content, i) task-relevant, ii) positive self-statements, and ) mood words. Those types of thoughts have been shown to increase the level of performance in training and competitions in elite athletes. 3.

The energy of performance should not be used only for physical exertion. Thought intensities during a contest need to change if athletes are to remain in control of their efficiency and combat fatigue or pain. The exercise involving 'intensification' addresses this modification of thought effort. 4. Each competitive effort produces information that could assist in beneficial planning of subsequent training sessions and competitions. To maximize the value of that information, it is necessary to evaluate the feedback from competing when it is richest and strongest, that is, immediately after a contest.

Thus, post-performance debriefing is proposed as an essential feature of competition strategy execution. It promotes the maximum learning potential of a competitive experience, a feature that is lost if it is delayed too long after a performance. (Rushall, 1995) To teach players how to imagine skills mentally does require a commitment from the coach, as competence in imagery takes awhile for most athletes to master, as does competence at anything physical or psychological! Weinberg & Gould, (1995) listed five tips that may help in the teaching of imagery.

1. For imagery to be effective in the beginning stages it should be built into an athlete's daily routine. 2. Imagery preceded by relaxation is more effective than imagery alone. 3. Get the athlete to image the skill for as long as it takes to execute the skill physically.

This is known as imaging in real-time. 4. Make sure that the athlete not only images the execution of the skill, but also experiences a positive outcome. When using imagery to improve serving, make sure the ball is served into the correct zone. Don't just focus the image on the serving action. 5.

Realistic expectations and motivation to incorporate imagery into the training regime are needed for the benefits to be evidenced. If the coach is skeptical about mental training programs, then the athlete will not experience the benefits. For a coach and athlete to commit to developing a PST plan, it takes a committed and concerted effort on the part of all involved participants. PST - The Skill - Maintenance Phase John Wooden once suggested that when "the coach is no longer needed, his job is complete".

As one examines the athletic arena, from the beginner, through the intermediate, to the world-class athlete, there are coaches at each level continuing to coach. Coaches observe, monitor, make suggestions and evaluate with the expectation that they will eventually fade out, leaving the individual in control (Gill, 2000). However, as the initial learning stage required the cooperation of the coach / instructor and participant, both will be required for skill maintenance. As it is possible for athletes to prepare themselves physically, mentally and psychologically to ensure maximum levels of performance and achievement, it often requires observation outside of the activity to monitor, evaluate and suggest strategies. There are times when we get "to close to the forest to see the trees". An effective strategy to achieve the desired ends requires complete concentration on the tasks of the sport.

If that concentration is interrupted, it usually is necessary to disassociate oneself from the interrupter to regain control. The skill-maintenance phase of PST is perhaps the most demanding and changeable feature. As a participant improves in physical performance, the result is opportunity to compete against better competition. As the opponent increases in competency, to continue to be successful, margins for error diminishes, both physically and mentally. Maintaining an appropriate psychological profile becomes increasingly significant in terms of achieving desired performance levels. The margins for success and failure as a world-class athlete can be minuscule.

Skiers go wide on the third gate of a downhill race to find they have not only lost the gold medal, but any medal. Members of the PGA, after playing 72 holes, find themselves losing the tournament by one stroke, as a result of the missed three-foot putt on the second day of competition.

Bibliography

Gill, D.L., (2000), Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise, Champaign, IL, 2nd Ed.
p 197, Human Kinetics. Hacker, C., (February 2000), Introduction to Psychological Skills, Eteamz, web B.
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Mental Skills Training for Sports, Sports Science Associates, Spring Valley, CA., 8.1- 8.3, White, S.A., Psychological Skills: Differences between Volleyball Players on the Youth National Team and Those Involved in the 14's High-Performance Camp, Unpublished Thesis, Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Weinberg, R.S. & Gould, D. {1995} Foundations of sport and exercise psychology.