1. Psychological Factors Affecting Sports Performance.
Before during and after an event.

2. Factors affecting sports performance
Personality
Aggression
Arousal, anxiety and stress
Motivation
Confidence
Concentration.

3. Personality There are 4 basic personality traits
Extrovert- outgoing, loud, confident
Introvert- shy, quiet
Stable- prefer order, creature of habit
Unstable- unpredictable, plan ahead poorly.

4. Personality
Team players tend to be more extroverted than individual sports players.
Most athletes show the following characteristics
Extroversion
Dominance
Enthusiasm
Confidence
Aggression
High activity levels

5. Cox (1994)
“an athlete is more: independent, objective, intelligent, socially outgoing, extroverted nd less anxious than a non athlete.”

6. Confidence
“to become a champion you must look and act like a champion.” (Muhammad Ali)
Confidence in your own ability
Appearing confident
Positive self talk e.g I am good at…

7. Concentration
Successful athletes have increased levels of concentration.
Successful athletes can shut out distractions e.g crowds
They have a positive focus

8. Motivation The will to win Based on rewards and punishments
Rewards- recognition, success, self esteem.
Punishments- criticism, loss of team place, failure, loss of self esteem.

9. Arousal, anxiety and stress.
Performance is affected by state of mind.
Arousal is a response to stress
Anxiety is the degree of confidence in your own ability
Stress is the demands of the situation you are in.
There are 3 main theories.

10. Inverted U hypothesis (Oxendine 1988)
Optimum performance is achieved by managing arousal and anxiety.

11. Catastrophe Theory (Hardy and Fasey 1988)
Each individual responds in a unique way to competitive anxiety. This is reflected in the individuals performance and may be difficult to predict.

12. Optimum arousal theory (Yuri Hanins 1983)
Athletes have a zone of optimum functioning (ZOF).
If their anxiety/ arousal level falls within their ZOF their performance will be at its peak.
It is a sports psychologists job to maintain ZOF during a competition.

13. Aggression This is the deliberate intention to hurt someone.
It is argued that it is either a personality trait or a learned behaviour.
Some aggression is needed to be successful.

14. Factors that increase levels of aggression.
Losing
Competing away from home.
Type of sport
Current values and norms within sport and society.
The games importance to the individual.

15. Too much aggression can lead to a decrease in performance or removal from the activity e.g being sent off.
The athlete has become more focused on the other competitors than the competition.
A05 prepare a leaflet for the England football squad preparing for Germany what factors might affect their performance? You are taking on the role of team sports psychologist.