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Importance of sport psychology
Importance of sport psychology
Sports psychology paper mental training
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Performance psychology involves the process of facilitating the development of skills needed by the performer during his time to shine in a performance. Also, the process is almost entirely related to the events prior to the performance since they are the foundation of the desired result. This preparation involves practicing not only physically, but also mentally, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally. In fact, the physical aspect of a performance has much less bearing than the mind and soul aspects. Tennis is a perfect example of this. No matter how much a player practices, if in the face of a match the player becomes too nervous, all of his body will freeze and will make unforced errors very easily. That used to happen quite often at the beginning of my matches until I managed to train my mind to stay focused on playing rather than winning. I also remember reading a book about tennis when I was about 8, and there was a question that said something like, “How much of a tennis match is technical, tactical, physical, and mental?” and several professional players answered by saying that the mental part contributes with just about the entire game. At first, since I had not experienced a real, challenging match before, I thought to myself, “No, that’s not right. It’s 25% each. It makes sense; it’s math”. Looking back I realize how silly my comment was because I had no idea what a true performance was like, and that the physical aspect although important, is more relevant in the preparation for a match. Any performance is made up of various smaller elements that each contribute to the big picture, just like the piece of a puzzle; however, each one has a unique placement that no other piece can fill in.
The variables that affect performance can be mostly classified into three major domains: motor active, affective, and cognitive. Some variables are internal, while others are external. The externalities, or outside factors that affect a performance, vary from situation to situation; nonetheless, they need to be dealt with in some way, so that the show can go on. The motor active domain is the one that is involved with the physical aspect of a performance; in tennis that refers to practicing all the shots that exist; synchronizing the bending of knees with having the right angle for a swing and hitting the ball a certain way (e.g: with topspin, flat, slice); as well as doing conditioning exercises to increase physical strength and endurance. The affective domain is the one involved with the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspect of a performance. In tennis, the way a player prepares himself in those areas depends solely on his style. I usually use self-talk and tell myself that I’m going to play great and going to have fun; I also take my mind off of tennis completely by doing something productive like homework for example so that I don’t think too much about the match to exhaust my mind, but I’m also doing something that requires my mind to focus on one thing. In fact, I’m writing this paper right now when I have a match in 5 hours. The cognitive domain is the one involved with the neurobiological aspect of a performance, or the changes that occur in the body as a result of the other variables. In order to deal with this domain, the player needs to deal with the variable that causes the change in the body. For example, if in a match I start feeling very tense and start sweating from being nervous, I might find out that instead of using positive self-talk, I was letting my mind worry about the people that are watching me rather than stay focused on playing. Biochemically, my brain is sending signals to cells that prompt them to make me feel tense and nervous. In order to reverse that, I’d have to convince myself that there is no real reason for feeling nervous and that there is no point in worrying about whoever is watching me. It’s all about perception in the end.
The motor active domain is like the frame of a puzzle when one has assembled the outside pieces first. The variables under this domain represent the individual pieces of the frame. At first look, since the perimeter of the frame is large, it appears as though it makes up a large part of the puzzle, but in fact, the frame is made up of only a small number of pieces. This is also true in a performance: the motor active skills appear to be the greatest factors, but the truth is, there is only so much one can improve physically. Practice improves skills and creates a technique, or a particular way of executing a task. In tennis, that is closely linked to the strategy, or plan, of a player’s game-style. For example, I’m more of an offensive player who likes to make the opponent run from corner to corner and then, at the right time, hit a powerful, well-placed shot that the opponent cannot get to; in simpler terms...
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...tremely well. It’s common sense to eliminate the thoughts and emotions that hinder my ability to play well. This is also an example of how life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it, or how we process that information based on our individual perception. Since we associate things after facts, it’s important to make the right associations; that, however, tends to be ineffective because of our personal, subjective views. This is why the cognitive and affective domains are just about directly proportional to each other. Also, the body’s performance is not the same year-round: it oscillates from poor to excellent, which is why there are peaks in a performer’s career where everything seems to be going right.
A great performer understands the externalities surrounding him, so he works on, with, and around them because he wants to keep getting better, knowing that preparation is crucial toward succeeding. By Coach Wooden's definition, success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you've done the best of which you are capable. That best refers to the preparation and hard work before the actual performance; it refers to doing a good day’s work. If the preparation is done right (quality over quantity) and gets the performer ready not just physically, but emotionally, cognitively, mentally, spiritually, and neurobiologically, then working hard during the week and trusting one’s preparation will lead to that success, because one can’t outperform his preparation and belief in himself. It’s common sense though, that in order to achieve a desired performance, there needs to be equal preparation. Often times, though, a performer will let the externalities ruin the moment or the love for the performance and will let obsession rob him from the joy of the journey, which is the reward in itself. The opposite could also happen; some people, for example, can bring a performer up, but others can bring him down; nonetheless, he should not let anyone tell him that he can’t do something. And instead of getting in his own way, he should be his best friend and critic at the same time, so he can spot errors and then fix them. A supportive environment could give him the freedom to realize his potential, or the capacity of developing his skills even further; however, that might not always be the case and a performer needs to learn how to deal with the situation at hand.
Performing or public speaking of any kind is difficult, but that difficulty can help to build confidence. Fine arts gives students the ability to perform and build confidence with their own support team of people who do and love the same thing. Not having to perform alone and knowing that everything possible has been done to ensure a good performance helps performers be confident in themselves and in their abilities. “Puneet Jacob, former choristers and current assistant conductor, says kids are often afraid to perform because of fear of failure.” (Lefebvre) The more a person faces their fear, especially when they do well and the fear is disproved, the less afraid he or she will become. When students work on music or a play for months on end, they become much more confident in themselves and what they can do than they were when they first began.
Hours before a match, athletes in all corners of the world tend to freak out due to all the psychological factors that accompany performance in sports. Stop for a quick second and imagine becoming a Manchester United Striker or a Denver Broncos Wide-Receiver. For those who did not know already, these two positions are among the hardest in the sports world to play. Not only must the person assigned to these positions stay up until the early hours of the morning studying plays and formations so they might better assist their team come match day, but they also act as the main way the teams they play for get any points. If the expectation of being the team’s top scorers isn’t enough, they must also act as an inspiration to every other teammate that plays alongside them. Even though most people say psychological factors have no effect on an athlete’s performance in sport, athletes are negatively affected by the psychological aspects because of pre-game jitters they may experience, the relationship each athlete has with the stadium crowd, and the toll each match has on the athletes’ bodies.
Athletic staleness and burnout is a big problem for many of today’s athletes whether they are at the amateur or professional level. The good thing about this problem that ends up in total and complete physical and emotional exhaustion is that it can be recognized when it is taking place. It can also be treated if the recognition comes at too late of a stage of the onset of staleness and burnout. But the best remedy for athletic staleness and burnout is prevention of it in the first place. There are three different models that have been used to explain the causes of athlete burnout.
According to Weinberg and Gould (1995), mental practice is related with mental training to competition. Based on Murphy and Martin (2002), mental practice can be divide into two which is imagery techniques and verbal techniques. Imagery techniques can be visual rehearsal, kinesthetic rehearsal or emotional rehearsal. While verbal techniques are self talk and performance cues. Based on Suinn (1993), mental imagery can be defined as mental creation or re-creation of sensory experiences that appear to the person imagining them to be similar to the real event. Imagery is one of the techniques that can be used to improve sport performance among athletes. According to Morris, T., Spittle, M. and Watt, A. P (2005), the most important thing to know
The D6 coach Kate, was fairly quiet during their coaching session and when she did offer advice she would sometimes put it with a shot that didn’t necessarily match the comment, confusing the girls. This is a lower ranked team and the girls are still at quite a cognitive stage of developing their tennis skills, this means it is vital that they receive a lot of feedback and encouragement to persist with the sport. By not offering this Kate may be hindering their development. She did however put forward the following points to the girls.
Many great golf players use golf psychology to help them win major tournaments. They knew they were very talented, but needed to score a little bit better and become more consistent to achieve an elite level. Buying more expensive equipment was not the secret and neither was practicing to the point of sheer exhaustion. It has to do with the proven scientific discipline of psychology and changing your way of thinking. It helps you over come the pressure associated with tournament play and coping with a constant barrage of questions from fans and the media. It only takes a short time to change your thinking so you can start winning.
Visualisation is the most common and effective technique used within mental imagery in sport (Harmison, 2011). To do this you envision yourself executing physical sequences of the sport (Harmison, 2011). It has been shown that visualization helps the athlete to perform at a higher level, through increasing traits of the ‘ideal mentality’. In the process of visualization your must imagine correctly and successfully all aspect of the motion, going through frame-by-frame and using all senses. Studies looking into visualization have shown that mental practice can increase real strength and performance creating an almost virtual iron aspect. This study by ( ) has also proven that visualization activates the same neural circuits that actual seeing does, visual imagery activates the brains visual cortex therefore through the imagining of movement it actives the motor ...
Suinn, R. M., & Clayton, R. D. (1980).Psychology in sports: methods and applications. Minneapolis, Minn.: Burgess Pub. Co..
Why are mental skills so important to performance and why are they often neglected by coaches and athletes? Yogi Berra has been quoted as saying, "sport is 90% mental and 50% physical." You can question his mathematical savvy, but if you're an athlete, coach or fan, you can't question his wisdom. (Hacker, 2000) Many athletes understand that while developing oneself to their physical potential is a critical element in performance potential, it is often a deficit in our psychological game rather than errors in our physical performance that keep us from performing at optimum levels in practice, games or matches. Spud McKenzie, the Budweiser poster puppy, suggested that it is important to say when, but also emphasized the critical element of knowing “when to say when”. It is often the successful athlete has recognized what needed to be done and the unsuccessful athlete was unable to do so. As a consequence, it is not the physical talents or abilities that separate athletes and teams, or successful versus less successful performance, rather, the psychological dimension that most frequently explains a given sport outcome or individual performance. For this reason games are played. Prior to each contest, judgment could be made with regard to which team or individual is the “more highly skilled”. If games were decided on who is the most physically gifted and/or talented individuals or teams, it would prove to be an exercise in futility to compete. As a result, whether you are an athlete or a coach, mastering the mental game of sport will allow you to achieve a level of success as a competitor than you could otherwise not achieve by focusing exclusively on the physical side of sport.
Impact for Athletes on the Court. The ability to maintain focus for a long period throughout sport training or competition is a skill that must be learned to achieve success in athletics. It is also a skill to learn how to ignore distraction. The practice of mindfulness can help athletes bring their complete attention to the task at hand and accept the current situation. Athletes with a increased mindfulness are more likely to experience the state of slow, which is a energized focus and full involvement during athletic performance (Bernier, Thienot, Codron, & Fournier, 2009). Aherne, Aidan & Lonsdale (2011) investigate the idea of flow and how mindfulness can impact an athlete’s flow. They define flow as "a highly coveted yet elusive state of mind that is characterized by complete absorption in the task at hand as well as by enhanced skilled performance" (p. 179). This is sometimes phrased as ‘being in the zone.' They recognize
Surprisingly, physical skills are only a small factor of the sport. The mental aspect of the sport needs to come into play, because the physical aspect can only take you so far. A lot of
Sports psychology draws on knowledge from the fields of Kinesiology and Psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors. In addition to instruction and training of psychological skills for performance improvement, sport psychology may include work with athletes and coaches regarding injury, rehabilitation, communication, and team building (Weinberg, R.S. & Gould, D.,2010)....
Tennis also teaches many positive characteristics such as, self-discipline, leadership, character, and the ability to manage mistakes. Participating in any sport requires self-disciple. Whether that discipline is through eating healthy with the proper nutrition, or being disciplined enough to practice frequently. Leadership is also a quality obtained in tennis through leading the team to success, surrounding yourself with other leaders, and helping to always improve your game and fellow teammates. These qualities improve both the character and skill of the
When competing in a sport, the performance of the athlete can be compromised if he or she doesn’t maintain a healthy lifestyle. While staying physically fit and exercising are important in any athlete’s daily routine, there are other factors to determine a “healthy” lifestyle. Similarly, an athlete should practice good sportsmanship while competing. Respect for a fellow athlete is the root of every great athlete. In order to perform well at any sport, an athlete has to enjoy the game. Take soccer for instance, if a soccer player does not enjoy playing soccer, then it will be significantly harder to perform at his or her best. Along with enjoying and respecting the sport, an athlete has to have the mindset of a champion. Thinking like a perfect athlete will provide the motivation and determination to achieve the goals of a perfect athlete. Consider Bruce Lee, a world renown martial artist and fighter. Lee is known as one of the greatest martial artist in history and is respected for his methods. “If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life”, Bruce stated. “It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.” Bruce Lee tells how the proper mindset is