Sports Psychology

Have you ever heard? “Sports are 90% mental and only 10% physical” Explain????

Inside the Mind of Champion of Champion Athletes: Martin Haggar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG7v4y_xwzQ

Definition Psychology Sports Psychology Is the scientific study of the thought processes, feelings, and behaviour of humans in their interaction with the environment. Sports Psychology Is this field within the context of sports – how people think, feel, and behave in sporting situations, and what mental processes motivate the way they behave in training and competition

Why Sports Psych? Sport Psychologists try to make sense of a wide range of behaviours that take place in actual sporting situations.

Why do certain athletes perform well under pressure while others fail? Why does one athlete with apparently less physical ability constantly defeat a seemingly physically superior one? Why can some athletes maintain a consistent training regimen, week in and week out, while other have serious motivational problems?

All of these questions and many more are in the domain of sport psychologists. Sports psychologists consult and work with athletes and coaches to assist the athletes in achieving desired levels of performance

How? Sports psychologists use a number of tools to do their job: Observe athletes in action to see what patterns emerge in their performance Interview athletes and coaches to get their feedback on how and why certain performances were successful and others were not Apply recognized principles and research methods in psychology

Mental and Physical Connection By now we all know the brain sends out commands through the nervous system that allows our body to operate. In the case of athletic performance, the brain’s cerebral cortex plays a key role. As the source of thought, it generates the general mental state that a person finds their self in prior to an athletic event.

Mental and Physical Connection Extreme nervousness is an example. It leads to extra stimulus being placed on the muscles, which can make them hard to control. Called - “Nervous tension” or “tightening up under pressure” This can lead to involuntary muscle and glandular activity

The good news is all of these things are controllable Nervousness  Nervous Tension  Involuntary muscle and glandular activity Rapid breathing Sweating Nausea Dry Mouth Loss of coordination The good news is all of these things are controllable

Performance States Being “in the zone” is where a successful athlete wants to be Sports psychologists have a formal term that explains this - they call it the ideal performance state

Ideal Performance State- IPS What is it? The complete absence of doubt and fear of failure, and a general lack of inhibition Powerful feelings of being “in control” of one’s performance

The feeling that time has “stood still” without any feelings of urgency or being “rushed” by opponents, the game clock, and so on A very narrow focus of attention with little or no signs of distraction from the goals of competition Achieving the ideal performance state represents the ultimate psychological achievement in sport

How do we get there? Working towards this ideal performance state means first understanding key terms and concepts, along with how they can be applied in a sporting context Arousal Anxiety Relaxation Concentration Motivation

Arousal Is the state in which an athlete feels ready both psychologically and physically to do their very best Often referred to as “being psyched up” Being to high or low can lead to a poor performance Sports psychologists work with athletes to make them aware of arousal levels, and help them control and channel it into top performances

Anxiety Strong feelings of anxiety can lead to apprehension, a general sense of uncertainty about what lies ahead, and a range of physical and mental reactions such as sweating, “the butterflies”, and muscular tension, all of which can seriously inhibit performance. Sports psychologists work with athletes to limit and control anxiety

Relaxation In sport, relaxation refers to the mind-body state in which an athlete has no feelings of anxiety Feeling “loose” and ready to do their best A large part in sports psychology lies in assisting highly trained athletes to relax their mind and body.

Concentration The ability to keep one’s focus on the task at hand without being distracted from it by changes in the surrounding environment. “Focus” There is little room for thoughts about other aspects other than the competition itself

Keeping “focus” can be a difficult thing Distractions can include: External information Example – Crowd noise Internal information Example – Self-doubt Sports psychologists help athletes develop this ability using mental exercises along with mental tools needed to filter distractions

Motivation Simply defined as the “direction and intensity of effort” Two components Direction – the choice to run on a regular basis, or train for a championship swim meet Intensity – How much actual physical and mental energy is one willing to put into a sporting endeavour

Sports psychologists can help in two areas: Helping athletes maintain a vigorous work out schedule Assist in competitions – help athletes sustain the mental drive they need to achieve desired results Motivation can be internal or external Self motivation vs another person

Audience Every athlete responds differently to spectators. Sports psychologists work with athletes to help them control their response to audiences example: how to screen out crowd noise or channel it into enhanced performance

Fatigue Working with athletes in attempts to mitigate the influence of fatigue The onset of fatigue can lead to decrease in performance Through a variety of techniques psychologists can help athletes understand that fatigue can be overcome and the “pushing through the pain barrier” can lead to previously unrealized performance levels.

Psychological Skills Training People in the field often refer to the interaction between sport and psychology as psychological skills training or PST Specific tools are used to improve performance: Self-Talk Imagery/Visualization Hypnosis Relaxation/Arousal Regulation Improving Motivation Setting Goals

Self-Talk Internal monologue or self-talk that goes through one’s mind Can be positive or negative A major task for sports psychologists is to teach athletes how to regulate and control internal “talk” in a positive way Developing basic “scripts” or lines of dialogue that an athlete can recite prior to competition

Imagery/Visualization “Seeing is believing” Athletes can work with sports psychologists to help them visualize or imagine themselves succeeding Athletes often attempt to bring in sensory tools as well – such as hearing, smell, touch, and so on – to develop a broad picture of what success “feels” like

Psychologist will ask athletes to visualize: Themselves succeeding in their sport like they are writing their own movie script Past triumphs Specific plays Scenarios that are totally unrelated to sport

Relaxation/Arousal Regulation Psychologists strive to help athletes enforce a state of relaxation over the mind and body that will lead to enhanced performance. This happens by removing the inhibiting physical reactions to anxiety.

Psychologists have developed a wide range of activities that can be done prior or during competition Breathing control exercises Progressive relaxation Meditation Imagery Other forms could be listening to music, reviewing of ones goals, etc

Improving Motivation Motivation comes form a huge number of sources Where does motivation come from: Coaches The goal of winning Making money Fame Ect.

Motivation Challenges The biggest obstacles to motivation in sporting context are: What is often referred to as “staleness” – a feeling of boredom General “burnout” that accompanies training programs. After weeks, months, or years of training athletes can become bored with the same thing.

Staying Motivated How can a person regain that drive? Change factors in the athlete’s environment: Change training program Change training venue Introduction of sessions designed more for fun than for physiological benefit Development of social activities related to the sport, such as informal get-togethers away form practice field

Setting Goals Goal setting can help with motivation. Goals can be: Individual or Team Athletes need to have a clear idea of what they want to achieve before they can build up the motivation to achieve it

Coach-athlete relations requires some basic discussion on what the aims are of the team or athlete SMART Goals are a good way to set up a framework Specific – able to be precisely defined Measurable – able to be quantified Attainable – within an athlete’s limitations Realistic – attainable within constraints Timely – achievable within a set time frame

Sports Psych Videos Evan Longoria Sports Psych Article http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCH4zelZFNk Mental Imagery, visualization https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mental+visualization%2C+imagery+and+training Sports Psych Article http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SpecialEvent4/20080731/olympic_consultants_080731/