Best Practices in Consulting: Working with athletes with a disability. Good afternoon my name is Andrea Faull Given the limits we are working too I have picked out 3 critical issues that I think will be of interest to the group and am happy to expand and further discuss these in the time we have set aside for questions. I will consider each of these issues in turn. Dr. Andrea Faull University of Worcester, U.K.

Considerations Limitations Moving forward The value of mental skills such as self confidence and self regulation for disability sport athletes is as important for disabled athletes as ab athletes and .with the Paralympics just 327 days away and the increase in pressure to perform on a par with Olympic athletes, this presentation hopes to highlight the importance of sport psychology practitioners to work with athletes with a disability.

Considerations Same range of psychological issues as a non-disabled athlete. Take time to understand your athlete’s story and disability. What, if any impact does their disability have on their ability to perform and prepare to perform? Know your athlete. Having worked with around 50 Paralympic athletes over the past 10 years, Ultimately, I whole heartedly believe that athletes with a disability can make use of the same psychological skills strategies as an Able bodied athlete . For example, learning how to self-regulate through goal setting and positive self-talk can enhance and maintain motivation and efficacy and be useful in managing stress and anxiety. So the strategies we use are the same as with any other athlete, but the clue is in understanding how to make the adaptations and knowing your athlete. We all know the classic Ravizza quote of ‘they need to know you care before they care what you know “applies as does the fact that they are a person first and an athlete second, but knowing and taking time to understand their story is vital – and in particular to avoid making assumptions about the athlete’s disability – the issue may be physical but the nature of how it impacts on the ability to perform can be complex. So it is these subtly that might be the defining factors for consideration that arent big eureka issues but can really help give you insight as a practitioner. E.g. pre competition routine may have to include personal care considerations which for an athlete who is competing at 8am, means not just getting up at 6am for breakfast but more like 3am to do personal care routine which if not done properly can lead to additional anxiety about their performance and fear of embarrassing themselves, so it those level of detail that you need to educate yourself on.

Limitations Lack of applied examples of how to deliver Psychological Skills Training (PST) to athletes with a disability. Psychometric tools are at risk of being “able- bodied” centric – caution needed. Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire – 2 (Roberts et al., 2008). Movement Imagery Questionnaire – 3 (Williams et al., 2012). Physical Self Perception Scale (Fox & Corbin, 1989). Like any support, there are the same obstacles and hurdles to overcome to gain entry, build trust and rapport with athletes But the key issue for me is from personal experience and links with the lack of concrete examples for us to work off. I have found that the psychometric measures available for use in the field are at risk of being what I have termed “able body centric”. This came to light when working with my wheelchair basketball players (I have a poster later on this subject so come have a look) and we were working on imagery ability. I wanted some measures so went to the VMIQ-2 and mIQ-3 and found them somewhat inappropriate for use with a disabled population. One may have argued they are indirectly discriminant towards those with a disability. Let me explain, the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ3) and the VMIQ-2 – both require the athlete to focus on movements such as “running, jumping, and standing with your feet shoulder width apart” – without knowledge of this and from my experience, you need to be flexible and creative enough to make adaptations in a timely fashion if you want to have appropriate measures to use with your athletes. One of the key issue raised with my athletes was the bug bear that they hated any lower limb movements to be automatically adapted to be upper body – equivalents are needed. Other examples lie in the Physical self perception scale – this tool asks athletes to rate their perceptions of themselves on a scale of not true for me, very true for me and includes items such as “some people feel that compared to most, they have an attractive body BUT others feel that compared to most their body is not quite so attractive” and other items such as “some people feel embarrassed by their bodies when it comes to wearing few clothes but others do not feel embarrassed by their bodies when it comes to wearing few clothes”. I think that considerations need to be made before such psychometric tools are used – consider for example the impact of me administering the VMIQ-2 to my athletes – the impact it would have had on their belief in me would have been shattered. But caution is needed to ensure that the items are appropriate.

Moving forward Call for more research and examples of work focusing on athletes with a disability (Poster 57). https://bangor.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/adapted-imagery-movement-questionnaire More practitioners should consider supporting athletes with a disability. Challenge the methods and measures available for use and embrace the adaptations that you can make to support your athlete. Get in touch a.faull@worc.ac.uk Poster session tonight 5-7pm SIG disability Get involved – I have learn valuable lessons from every athlete I have worked with young, experiences, grass roots to professional so don’t discount it. If you are keen to work in the area get in touch.