1. Psychological Skills Training
Can you learn this stuff?

2. The Need
Seconds pour away. Agony. Elvis Grbac screams to his teammates. They scream back. The crowd screams louder. Static rushes through Grbac’s helmet. It is fourth down. Two yards to go. Seconds pour away.
(Elvis Grbac’s baptism of fire vs. the
Denver Broncos, 1998)

3. The Situation Kansas City trails Denver by 4 points
Fourth down and 2 yard to go for a first down
34 seconds left in the game
Ball on Denver’s 20 yard line
No time-outs remaining
Speaker in helmet not working (can’t hear the play from the sidelines)

4. The Result Grbac calls his own play Goes for a pass into the endzone
Receiver is double-covered and the pass is batted down
Kansas City loses

5. What Should He Have Done?

6. The Answer is . . .
Pull out your cell phone and call Dr. Lidstone!!!!

7. Psychological Skills Training
Psychological interventions and programs are effective in enhancing athletic performance

8. The Evidence
Almost all professional tennis players say they use some form of psychological strategy to enhance performance
Higher ranked players use them more
Successful members of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team trained together more, enjoyed crowd support, enjoyed family and friend support, adhered to mental preparation plans, and enjoyed high levels of attentional focus and commitment

9. Skills vs. Methods
Psychological Skills: Learned or innate characteristics of the athlete that make it possible or even likely that he or she will succeed in sport (e.g. intrinsic motivation, self-confidence, attentional control, arousal control, anxiety control)

10. Skills vs. Methods
Psychological Methods: Strategies, techniques or practices that lead to the development of psychological skills (e.g. goal setting, imagery, progressive relaxation, meditation, self-talk, hypnosis)

11. Measuring Psychological Skills
Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS-5) – Mahoney et. al (1987)
Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28) – Smith et. al (1995)
Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) – Thomas et. al (1999)

12. Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports
45 item inventory
Measures anxiety control, concentration, confidence, mental preparation, motivation, and team orientation
Has demonstrated the ability to discriminate among different levels of skilled performers

13. Athletic Coping Skills Inventory
28-item inventory
Coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting/mental preparation, concentration, freedom from worry, confidence and achievement motivation, coachability
Modest predictor of hitting and pitching performance among professional baseball players

14. Test of Performance Stragegies
64-item inventory
Measures a combination of skills and methods in 2 strategic situations
Competitive situation: Self-talk, emotional control, automaticity, goal setting, imagery, activation, negative thinking, relaxation
Practice situation: Self-talk, emotional control, automaticity, goal setting, imagery, activation, attentional control, relaxation

15. Format of a Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP)
Phase 1: Who is the client?
Phase 2: Initial meeting with athlete(s)
Phase 3: Education of the sport psychologist relative to the activity
Phase 4: Development of a needs assessment plan

16. Format of a Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP)
Phase 5: Determine psychological skills methods and strategies to be taught
Phase 6: Actual teaching and learning of selected psychological methods
Phase 7: On-going and end-of-season evaluation of PSTP

17. Enhancing Athletic Performance through Sport Psychology: A Case Study
Jim Lidstone, Ed.D
Georgia College & State University
Simon Earnshaw, M.Ed.
Armstrong Atlantic State University

18. What is Sport Psychology?
Sport psychology is a science in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sport setting. These principles are often applied to enhance performance. However, the true sport psychologist is interested in much more than performance enhancement and sees sport as a vehicle for human enrichment.
Cox (1994)

19. Performance Enhancement vs. Human Enrichment
Attention (concentration)
Anxiety
Arousal
Aggression/assertiveness
Team cohesion
Human Enrichment
Personality
Anxiety management
Arousal adjustment
Self-esteem
Self-confidence
Causal attribution
Leadership

20. Sport Psychology Intervention
Assessment
Diagnosis
Prescription
Intervention
Evaluation

21. The Four C’s
Consistency
Confidence
Concentration
Composure

22. Assessment Interviews - Coach - Player(s) Paper & Pencil Tests
- Personality Traits
- Emotional States
Observation

23. Paper & Pencil Instruments - Trait
Instrument Variable(s) Assessed
Sport Orientation Questionnaire Competitiveness
Win Orientation
Goal Orientation
Sport Competition Questionnaire Competitive Trait Anxiety
Trait Sport Confidence Inventory Trait Sport Confidence
Test of Attentional & Interpersonal Attentional Focus (6
Style subscales)

24. Paper & Pencil Instruments - State
Instrument Variable(s) Assessed
Competitive State Anxiety Cognitive State Anxiety
Inventory Somatic State Anxiety
Self-Confidence
State Sport Confidence Inventory State Sport Confidence
Profile of Mood States Tension, Depression,
Anger, Vigor, Fatigue,
Confusion

25. Concentration

26. Concentration - Individual

27. Pre-Competition Mood State

28. POMS - Individual Assessment

29. Composure

30. Confidence

31. Sport Orientation

32. Conclusions from Assessment
Higher than normal anxiety
Lower than normal self-confidence
Self-handicapping behaviors
No peer leadership
Negative attitude of coaches

33. Intervention Strategies
Coaches agreed to be more positive
Players engaged in goal setting
Players agreed to adhere to team rules
Coaches communicated more with players
Coaches set lineup in advance of meets
Players accepted lineup and roles within the team
Players targeted for confidence, concentration and/or composure training

34. Concluding Comments
“The project has helped me to modify my coaching style somewhat. I tend to be a little “hard-core” and expect the players to always show up ready to run through walls if necessary. This attitude is not prevalent among the players and so other coaching techniques are required for them to achieve their potentials. They require more motivation, patience, and positive feedback rather than being challenged or confronted. As a coach, I need to remain more optimistic, complimentary and supportive toward the players. The extra work on their mental games should help them respond in a more positive manner which has already begun to show with their pre-season conditioning program.”

35. The End
Sometimes it works