1. Psychological Skills Training

2. What is it?
Consistent practice of mental skills to enhance performance.

3. How is it used?
Takes ideas from mainstream psychology and applies them to performance
Creates an edge for those that practice them.

4. Consider
How much time do you spend physically training for competition?
How much time do you spend mentally training for competition?

5. Psychological factors account primarily for day-to-day fluctuations in performance.

6. Elite Athletes have: Higher confidence
Greater self-regulation of arousal
Better communication
More positive thoughts and images
More determination or commitment

7. Mental Toughness Mental resilience
Ability to focus, cope with pressure, rebound from failure, and persist in the face of adversity

8. 4 C’s of Mental Toughness
Control- feel like you exert an influence on the situation
Commitment-take an active role
Challenge- change as an opportunity to grow, not a threat
Confidence- sense of self-belief

9. Most useful PST topics

10. Confidence Building
Creating a strong sense of belief in self

11. Attention or Concentration
Focusing on the most important things

12. Goal-Setting (Commitment)
Working toward what you really want

13. Imagery and Positive Self-Talk
Think good thoughts, do good things

14. Arousal Regulation
Not being overly excited or unexcited

15. Confidence

16. Definition of Self-Confidence
Belief that you can successfully perform a desired behavior

17. Optimal Levels of Self-Confidence

18. Confidence is mainly the result of
Expectations
Of self
From others
Remember the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Efficacy- the perceived ability to perform a task
Comes mostly through achievements

19. Tips for Building Self-Confidence
Act confidently (Fake it until you make it)
Think confidently (Positive self-talk)
Use imagery
Set realistic goals
Train for physical conditions of sport
Mentally prepare
Ensure performance accomplishments using simulation training

20. Simulation Training
A way to practice coping with stressful situations in sport

21. Steps to Simulation Training
Determine a specific weakness for your sport
Psychological, not physical
Example: In dance, losing confidence and falling out of turns.
Example: In tennis, losing focus after “giving up” the first point.
Come up with a way to practice being in that situation
Practice

22. Concentration

23. Definition
Where you place your attention

24. Differences Experts Novices Usually absorbed in the present
High degree of control
Being aware of internal environment (what you are doing) and external environment (what is happening)
Make slower decisions
Do not anticipate future events
Cannot choose what to pay attention to
Unable to search systematically for cues

25. Focus Exercises

26. Ways to Control Distractions
Make a commitment before hand that you will stay positive no matter what. Write the commitment down and read it often.

27. Ways to Control Distractions
Make a conscious effort to look for the advantages in everything

28. Ways to Control Distractions
Remind yourself that you are in control of your own mind (internal distractions)

29. Ways to Control Distractions
Remind yourself that you are in control of how you react to events (for external distractions)

30. Ways to Control Distractions
Go into the big competitions expecting the conditions to be different. When they are different, you won’t be thrown off

31. Ways to Control Distractions
Go into the big competitions expecting people (coaches, teammates, family members, etc.) to behave differently. When they do, you won’t be thrown off

32. Ways to Control Distractions
Use simulation training to practice overcoming your biggest distractions.

33. Ways to Control Distractions
For distractions that are difficult or impossible to simulate in practice, visualize them and how you will overcome them when they happen

34. Ways to Control Distractions
Focus on doing everything that is within your control and letting go of everything that isn’t

35. Ways to Control Distractions
Trust your training

36. Ways to Control Distractions
Don’t think too much. Put your mind in the here and now and then let your body lead

37. Ways to Control Distractions
Shift your attention from what is going on around you to your own performance (for external distractions)

38. Ways to Control Distractions
Shift your focus from your thoughts to what is happening around you (for internal distractions)

39. Ways to Control Distractions
Use a simple word, focal point, or image to bring your attention back to the here and now

40. Ways to Control Distractions
Make a re-focus plan beforehand and stick to it when you become distracted
Write out what your biggest distractions are.
Write down what you will do to re-focus if/when each thing happens.

41. Power of Routines

42. Self-Talk What you say to yourself
Can be positive, negative, or instructional
Event  Positive Self-Talk  Positive Response
Event  Negative Self-Talk  Negative Response

43. Rules for using Self-Talk
Keep phrases short and specific
Use first person and present tense
Construct positive phrases
Say your phrases with meaning and attention
Speak kindly to self
Repeat phrases often

44. Attentional Styles

45. External-narrow
A person directs attention outward to a specific object in the environment
Ex: golfers focusing on lining up a putt

46. External-Broad
A person is attending to several things in the environment simultaneously
Ex: football or hockey

47. Internal-narrow
Person is focused on thoughts or feelings at a specific moment
Ex: baseball player at bat thinking “I can’t miss” while not focusing on the environment

48. Internal-broad
A person creates plans, strategies, or conceptualizes games
Multiple feelings at once
Ex: any sport, but takes practice

49. Attention Blindness
Not recognizing something that is right in front of you

50. Flow

51. Flow
A mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immerse in a feeling of energized focused
Developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (positive psychologist)
Other terms include:
In the moment
In the zone
On a roll
Wired in
In the groove
On fire
In tune
Centered
Singularly focused

52. Components of Flow
Intense and focused concentration (on the present moment)
Merging of action and awareness
A loss of reflective self-consciousness
A sense of personal control or agency over the situation
A distortion of temporal experience
Subjective experience of time is altered
Activity is intrinsically rewarding
All together these comprise flow

53. Mechanism People can focus on about 126 bits of information per second
Most taken up by simple daily tasks
Conversation takes 40 bits (1/3 capacity)
People generally decide what to focus on
In flow, people lose awareness of everything but the task
All the bits of information are used up

54. Conditions
One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress.
Adds direction and structure to the task
The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback.
Allows person to adjust from moment to moment to stay in the flow state
One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her perceived skills.

56. Goal Setting

57. SMART Goals

58. S- Specific Need to have a definite end
Non-example: Be a better at basketball
Example: Have 75% accuracy when shooting free-throws
S- Specific

59. M- Measurable Need to have a way to tell if progress has been made
Non-example: I want to be a better student
Example: I want to improve my GPA by .2 points
M- Measurable

60. A- Action-based Need to use action words to describe
Non-example: I want to be happier.
Example: I want to think about five more positive things a day.
A- Action-based

61. R- Realistic Need to be able to be reached
Non-example: I want to earn $1 million by Christmas
Example: I want to earn $500 working a seasonal job by Christmas
R- Realistic

62. T- Timely Goals should be achievable in a reasonable amount of time
Non-example: I want to be a millionaire some day.
Example: I want to save up enough money for my first year of college by the end of the school year.
T- Timely

63. Types of Goals

64. Outcome A goal based on the end result
Example: I want to beat the other team
Example: I want to run the race the fastest
Outcome

65. Performance A goal based on personal achievement
Example: I want to run a personal best time.
Example: I want to score a goal.
Performance

66. Process A goal that helps reach another goal
Example: I want to exercise every day this week to condition for soccer.
Process

67. Time Frames

68. Short-term Goals that can be accomplished in a few hours or days
Example: Earning an “A” on a test.
Short-term

69. Intermediate-term Goals that can be accomplished in one to six months
Example: Achieving a 4.0 for the semester
Intermediate-term

70. Long-term Goals that are accomplished in six or more months
Example: Graduating from high school
Long-term

71. What kind of Goal?

72. Being able to do triple turns by your next dance performance
Intermediate-term

73. Be on time to your next class.
Short-term

74. Learn how to fly an airplane
Long-term

75. Passing all your classes at mid-terms
Intermediate-term

76. Repainting a house
Intermediate-term

77. Save the money to take a family vacation to DisneyWorld
Long-term

78. Prepare a rough draft of a 10-page research paper.
Intermediate-term

79. Become a professional athlete
Long-term

80. Beat a stage or level on a video game.
Short-term

81. Read a book over the weekend
Short-term

82. Read 15 books this year
Long-term

83. Graduating from college with a degree in nuclear engineering
Long-term

84. Do your homework for tomorrow
Short-term

85. Make 10 free throws in a row before leaving practice
Short-term

86. Save $20 a week until Hanukkah
Intermediate-term

87. Imagery

88. What is it? Form of simulation
Uses all the senses to create a picture of what you want to happen

89. Uses of Imagery Improves concentration Enhance motivation
Build confidence
Control emotions
Acquire, practice, and correct sport skills
Acquire and practice strategy
Prepare for competition
Cope with pain and adversity
Solve problems

90. When to use it? Before and after practice Before and after competition
During the off-season
During breaks in action
During personal time
When recovering from injury
Basically, all the time

91. Keys to Imagery Vividness Controllability Uses all the senses
The image does what you want it to

92. Theories of Stress/Arousal

93. Drive Theory The more anxious people become, the better they perform
Social facilitation is a type of drive theory
People do tasks to their ability level when they have an audience
Not supported by research

95. Inverted-U Hypothesis
Medium arousal/anxiety is best
If there is little arousal, the person is too relaxed and does not perform the best that he/she can
If there is too much arousal, performance is compromised

97. Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning
Everyone has their own best level of arousal/anxiety
For some it is low, some it is medium, some it is high
Includes other emotions as well: determination, pleasantness, laziness
Good support in research literature

99. Multidimensional Anxiety Theory
There is a difference between cognitive anxiety (worry) and somatic anxiety (physical reactions)
Cognitive anxiety is negatively related to performance
Somatic anxiety is related to performance in an inverted-u pattern
Best is little cognitive anxiety and moderate somatic anxiety

101. Catastrophe Model
Physiological arousal is related to performance in an inverted-u pattern only when the athlete has low cognitive state anxiety
Cognitive anxiety above the optimal level compromises performance at a steep declining rate (hence “catastrophe”)

103. Reversal Theory
Performance depends on a person’s interpretation of his or her arousal level
Ex. If a person has low anxiety, he might think he is bored and perform poorly. Another person in the same situation might think he is relaxed and perform well.
Athletes quickly change their interpretations about their levels of arousal
People perform best when they have positive feelings

105. Anxiety Direction and Intensity View
Performance is affected by how people interpret their anxiety symptoms.
Trait anxiety and self-esteem influence stress
Perception of control also determines whether anxiety is facilitative or debilitative

107. Arousal Regulation

108. Types of Arousal Somatic (Physical) Cognitive (Mental)
Multimodal (Both)

109. Somatic Anxiety Reduction
Progressive Muscle Relaxation- feel tension in muscles in order to release it
Breath control- when you are calm your breathing is smooth. When you are under pressure, your breathing is irregular
Biofeedback- learning how to control your nervous system by receiving physiological feedback not normally available

110. Cognitive Anxiety Reduction
Relaxation Response- quiet the mind, concentrate, reduce muscle tension using meditation
Autogenic training- exercises designed to produce warmth and heaviness to produce a relaxed state

111. Multimodal Anxiety Reduction
Cognitive-affective stress management (SMT)
Teaches specific integrated coping responses using relaxation and cognitive components to control emotional arousal
Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)-
Exposed to stress in order to learn how to cope with is (via productive thoughts, mental images, and self-statements)
Increase immunity to stress

112. Hypnosis
Altered state of consciousness that results in an unusually relaxed state and increased response to suggestions designed to alter perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and actions

113. Coping Strategies Problem-Focused Emotion-Focused
Information gathering
Routines
Goal setting
Time management skills
Problem-soling
Increasing effort
Self-talk
Meditation
Relaxation
Wishful thinking
Reappraisal
Behavioral withdrawal

114. General Coping Strategies for Sport
Focus on task
Self-talk
Be positive
Social support
Mentally prepare
Time management
Train hard and smart

115. What about underarousal?
It’s just as bad to have underarousal
Goal is optimal level
Tips:
Increase breathing rate
Act energized
Use positive statements
Listen to music
Use energizing imagery
Complete a pre-competition workout