Alberta Volleyball Association Mental Training Andrew Ling

Question #1 How many hours do you spend practicing your physical skills per week?

Question #2 How many times have you said that you lost due to too many mental lapses during the match?

Question #3 How many hours do you spend practicing your mental skills per week?

Pre-competition preparation Night before Before competition Structure - Routines Optimal activation levels Mental preparation - Imagery

Routines Itinerary Team meal, practice, meeting? Your athletes should have a comfortable routine to get ready for a game both physically and mentally Focus attention Reduce anxiety Eliminate distractions Enhance confidence

Structure Sat, Jan am Here at the UC 10am – Team Game Day 11am – Lunch NOON – Taping 1230pm – Team meeting A120 2pm – MATCH vs UBC 530pm team Dinner

Structure Cont’d Sunday Jan am here at the UC 10am – Team Game day 11am – Lunch NOON – Taping 1230pm – Team meeting A120 2pm – MATCH vs UBC 530pm team Dinner

Friday, 28 th Away game 830 am Breakfast (Free at hotel) 930 Depart for gym/Mental Preparation/Team Meeting 1030 Game #1 Noon – Lunch 1pm Mental Preparation/Team Meeting 2pm – Game #2 4pm- Team Meal 5pm- Mental Prep/Team Meeting 6pm-Game #3 8pm-10pm Meal and back to hotel

What are your athletes’ optimal activation levels? Activated, energized, psyched up? Relaxed, calmed down?

Inverted-U Hypothesis

Increase activation Positive self-talk “Explode”, “Fight” Listening to music Imagery

Relaxation Visualization/Imagery

Imagery Training – What is it? Means using all of your senses to rehearse your sport in your mind

Imagery is most beneficial when: Vivid and detailed Incorporates all senses Occurs in real-time Has positive focus Errors are corrected right away

Imagery Script Example Get into a comfortable position and close your eyes. Focus on the center of your body and take several slow deep breaths. With each inhalation, imagine that you are releasing all of your tension and negative thoughts from your body. Continue this focused breathing until your body becomes relaxed and your mind is alert and open for productive thoughts. Now imagine that you are in the gym preparing for warm-up. You take some time to run through your mental warm-up by visualizing yourself playing pepper doing several repetitions of a few basic skills. Now in your mind’s eye, focus on the specific goals and strategies for this particular competition. Imagine yourself performing perfectly, achieving your goals for the competition and successfully executing specific strategies for this opponent.

Imagery Script You feel confident in your physical and mental preparation and clearly focused on your upcoming performance. Your breathing is calm and controlled. Your muscles feel warm and elastic, ready to explode with intensity and precision. Imagine going through your competition warm-up as you have done so many times in practice. You practice your serve, passing, blocking, attacking, defense, setting and communication because these are skills required for your position. Your warm-up goes well, yet you remind yourself that you are ready for any unexpected problem or obstacle. You are confident in your refocusing ability and remind yourself that you are mentally tough. You feel optimally energized and ready to go.

Quote “You have to learn how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable” – Lou Piniella