UNIT III Positive Attitude Sports Psychology UNIT III Positive Attitude

“Beliefs determine behavior” - Dr. Dorothy Harris (Penn. State) "The only difference between the best performance and the worst performance is the variation in our self-talk and the self-thoughts and attitudes we carry around with us." - Dr. Dorothy Harris (Penn. State) In reality, you are mostly limited by what you think is possible. Maintaining a positive attitude is the only way to break past your perceptions of your ability.

Self-Fulfilling Cycle Placebo Effect: The power your mind has to make expectations become real. Used in medical research give a patient a pill that does nothing for them to help them mental fill better West Germany’s won the 1954 soccer World Cup final, the then German Football Federation doctor, Professor Franz Loogen stated: “I injected the men with vitamin C because it was supposed to raise their stamina levels…you cannot measure the effect it has, but the players believed in it“ “Special Drinks” Power Bracelets “It works, who cares why” Kobe Bryant

Self-Fulfilling Cycle Self Fulfilling Prophecy: When your mind expects something (good or bad) to happen your mind will consciously and unconsciously find a way to make it happen. Your teacher expects you to do well and she spends extra time with you preparing for the exam, so you get an A A coach expects his freshmen to be uncoordinated and unskilled so he does not play them often, and when he does they are rusty and do not perform well You don’t think you are going to win the game this week so you don’t practice as hard and you lose You aren’t confident you can make baskets in practice and you miss them during the game Both of these feed upon themselves as a cycle. Attitude is the greatest player on your actions and thoughts.

Your Choice: Positive or Negative Decision Feelings Good/Bad Attitudes Good/bad Expectations Behaviors Performance Self Image The Cycle can start and stop at any location

Self-Fulfilling Cycle If you begin with a positive attitude its a lot easier to stay positive through out all aspects of the cycle

Self - Efficacy Self Efficacy: The belief that a persons capabilities, judgments, control and thoughts determine a persons behavior. In order for you to produce any result in life / sports you must first believe you can accomplish it. If you are not performing at your potential, ask yourself if you TRULY believe you can reach it?

How to Attack Negative Attitudes Remember YOU are the only person that has the power over your attitude. We will discuss: Actual Attitude Actions Experience Self Talk

Attitude You need to be aware of your attitudes at all times. Many times people don’t realize they are have a bad attitude Elite athletes are masters of their mind and can act upon their negative attitudes when they manifest themselves. Fake it to make it Attitude is everything! Law of Attraction: If you want something bad enough you will find a way to make it happen

Actions Negative Attitudes create tension in your body. You need to know when to relax and when you to increase your arousal (excitement). Key: Focus on the HERE and NOW.

Experience Your perception of an event is what leads to your attitudes. You could have had a good game but focused on the bad parts of your game or you could lose a game and still choose to see the positives. What are you FOCUSED ON!!!!

Experience Always look at the positives of every situation even if it means Learning from your mistakes. (This isn’t easy because you have to honestly evaluate your mistakes) Life lessons are a positive experiences if you take time to learn from them. Tip: You can’t control what happens to you but you can control how you let it effect you.

Self-Talk You are the only one who can control how and what you think. Many athletes falsely believe they can’t control there own thoughts THEY ARE WRONG The athletes who think they can’t, can’t. YOU can if you try

Self-Talk Tips to help you control your thoughts: Rephrase negative thoughts to positive thoughts. “Oh no its windy this is going to throw me off Say “Oh no its windy it is going to affect both me and my opponent the same. But because I have been practicing how to focus I will be able to block out the distractions better then them”

Self-Talk Tips to help you control your thoughts: Rephrase negative statements as temporary and not permanent. “when ever I get in this situation I always choke” Say “I choked last time I got into this situation, but I’ve been practicing and I’m ready now”

Self-Talk Tips to help you control your thoughts: View your success as purposeful and not as an accident. “Well, sure I won that one game, but that’s just because I got lucky that once and it probably won’t happen again Instead say “ I won that last game because I have worked hard and my skill is real I can handle it”

Self-Talk Its your expectations of an event that has the most influence on your performance. You can ALWAYS see a positive aspect to every event… good or bad it is YOUR Choice. Going into a Game or season with the expectation to fail is athletic suicide!!!!

Positive Perception Expansions A loss sometimes becomes a gain If you do what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten. Your imagination is more powerful that the will. - Don’t be afraid to be creative and innovative. When your body works perfectly; your mind gets in the way - After learning a skill, allow your body to perform - Don’t think too much, sometimes our thoughts paralyze us Limitations are temporary Events only are given the meaning that you give them Getting better is more important then winning. - Winning will take care of itself if you only focus on increasing your ability. You will play the way you practice The more you expect from the situation, the more you will achieve. Anyone can do any sport better.

What we say to ourselves becomes what we believe about ourselves. Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality. by Gary Zukav, the Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics