Communication skills for coaches
Importance of communication skills in sports
• By improving communication skills, coach can improve his own life
• To be effective leader or a coach must master communication skills.
• Communication is included verbal and nonverbal communication skills.
• Communication skills are important to send message effectively and to receive information clearly.
• Communication skills involves to improve interpersonal relations, proper understanding and to lead the team towards successfully.
Coach needs to take following steps to improve to improve his communication skills.
1. becoming aware of the need to improve communication skills
2. identify the behaviors involved in improving your communication skills
3. practice the behaviors
4. receive feed back how well you are practicing the communication skills
5. integrate the new or improved communication skills into your day to day life
Sender
1. The communication process begins when you decide that you want some one else to know what you know.
2. thought must be translated into message to communicate(encoding)
3. Person should articulate message into words.
4. The message you goes through some channel.
5. the message should be interpreted (decoding)
6. Interpersonal response happens to the receiving message.
Guideline for sending effective message.
1. Message should be direct
2. message should be owned by the person
3. message should be complete and specific
4. avoid double messages and it should be clear and consistent
5. clearly state your needs and feelings
6. message should separate fact from the opinion
7. message should be focused on one thing at time
8. message should be delivered immediately
9. message should not contain any hidden things
10. Message should be supportive
11. Your message should be redundant
12. Obtain feedback that your message was accurately understood.
Listening skills
1. Listen with empathy.
2. Listen with openness
3. Be mentally prepared to listen
4. Practice improving concentration
5. Don’t judge a speaker by his or her appearance or reputation
6. Listen with your eyes by observing the body language of the speaker
7. Listen for main ideas
Non verbal communication skills
• Body language
• Spatial relations
• Paralanguage
• Body language:
body language refers to how we communicate through our physical appearance , our posture, gestures, touching behavior , and especially the changes in our facial and eye movements.
Proxemics
Proximics is the study of how communicate by the way you use space – the distance between you and others.
• Intimate zone -0-18’’ for lovers and very close friends
• Personal zone – 1- ½-4 comfortable for talking with friends
• Social zone- 4-12 formal business and social gatherings
• Public zone – 20 or more teaching class and coaching on the field
Paralanguage:
It refers to vocal components of the speech.
• Pitch – the highness or lowness of the sound of your voice
• Resonance –the richness or thinness of your voice.
• Articulation –the way you enunciate the words.
• Tempo - the speed at which words are spoken
• Volume-the loudness or softness with which you speak
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Sociological issues for optimizing behavior and performance
Sociological issues for optimizing behavior and performance
Team work, player – coach interactions, and group dynamics play an important role in the success of teams and groups.
Group
Group is a unit composed of two or more individuals who came into contact for a special purpose (mills 1997).
Or
Group is collection of individuals who are in cooperative, interdependent with one another.
Group process:
Group process is a complex movement involving the constantly changing and shifting of roles.
Greater unity, disunity, group production, lower group production, an activity in relation to group goals ,feeling of morale , decreasing morale, wellbeing on the part of members, , conflicts, cooperation frustrations, happiness ,and all these things happen in group process.
In the group, group may influence individuals or individual may influence group.
Several groups at a time , family , peers , playmates , teammates etc. affect the persons attitudes , values ,habits , ideology and sentiments .
Athlete is a part of group or team and he must confirms to certain policies and adjust to the teammates and coaches.
At same time he must maintain his own individuality and independence.
A sport is an important ingredient (part) in supportive set up. The sharing of victory and defeat has a supportive influence and encourage better understanding.
In order to make coaching and training effective, the coach must understand the following factors.
Interactions
It usually takes in the form of cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation and assimilation
Exchange of Ideas
Sport groups practice together, plan for the training & competition, and discuss the related matters for the smooth functions of groups.
Suggestions from the coach or management, advice from elder players are important for group production.
Conflict:
Coaches and others working with team try their utmost to develop cohesion and complete harmony within in the group by resolving the conflict among the team members.
Collective goal:
Involving entire group in goal setting activities results in a form of psychological contracting (psychological agreement).
That increases commitment to team goals.
Group conformity:
Group expects a certain type of behavior from their members and this behavior is determined by the group.
Individual has to conform to these norms and work for the group goals.
A coach major role is to integrate the group into a smooth working unit by being firm.
Assimilation:
Assimilation is the process where by persons and groups adopting the culture of other group in which they come to live, by adopting its attitudes, values, patterns of thinking and behaving in short its way of life.
Accommodation:
It is the altering of negative interaction with positive interaction between individuals and groups in order to avoid conflict and promote coexistence and adjusting oneself to the new environment.
Sympathy
Sympathy is to feel as others player feel.
To be effective member of the group, one should be sympathetic ties.
This will enhance the group productivity.
Structure of the group:
Every group develops its own structure, which begins to emerge even at the group’s first meeting.
Group structure depends largely on the interactions of its members-how they perceive one another and what they expect of themselves and each other.
For a group of individuals to become an effective team, certain structural characteristics must develop.
Two of the most important are group roles and group norms.
Group roles
A role consists of the set behaviors required or expected of the person occupying a certain position in a group.
E.g. coach or teacher has specific roles within their professions and within the society.
As coach you are expected to perform such behaviors as teaching, organizing practices. Etc.
Similarly, head athletic trainers are expected to perform such behaviors as assigning and evaluating trainees
Formal roles:
These are dictated by nature of the organizations. Athletic director, coach and captain are like examples of specific roles.
Informal roles:
These develop from interaction among group members.
E.g. Mediator who solves problems among teammates.
Role clarity:
We can improve a team’s effectiveness by making sure players understand and accept their roles.
Unclear roles hurt a team’s performance.
Open communication clarifies every ones role.
Role acceptance:
Coaches can help players accept their roles by minimizing the status differences among roles and emphasizing that the success of team depends on each individual’s contribution.
Group norms:
A norm is a level of performance, pattern of behavior.
Those groups members are have to adhere to the norms.
Each norm carries specific expectations and behavior that group members are supposed to adhere to.
Norm for productivity
A group will establish level or rate of performance called the norm for productivity.
Norms for productivity, attendance, preparedness for both practice and competitions have to be followed by every athlete
Anything falling below or above this level is not supported by the group.
Group dynamics
Group dynamic refers to the forces operating in a group and changes that take place within groups.
A team will progress through four stages in its development. These stages are forming, storming, norming and performing
Forming:
This is the initial forming stage, the process of team selection.
Once the team is selected it becomes essential for the coach to clarify and explain each player’s role and responsibilities. Program standards, purpose, and mission of the program should also be clearly communicated.
During this stage team goals and individual goals are formulated.
Storming:
In this stage conflict must be addressed and dealt with previously established program standards and group norms. If not dealt with in this manner, conflicts and disagreements can rapidly decrease team morale and cohesion.
Once the conflict is resolved, the group or individuals involved recommits to the programme standards and team goals.
Norming :
In this stage each member in the group fulfils the responsibilities of his or her assigned roles. Team work becomes evident in this stage as team members openly support and encourage each other.
Performing:
At this stage, accepted roles are maintained as the team artistically, creatively and effectively accomplishes its goals.
Creating an effective team climate.
Team climate develops from how players perceive the interrelationships among the group members. The player’s positive perceptions and evaluations that set the team climate.
Social support
Mutual support and respect Increases in feelings of team cohesion and team climate.
The different types of social support are as follows.
Provide appraisal, information, reassurance, and companionship.
Reduce uncertainty during times of stress
Aid in mental and physical recovery and improve communication skills.
Proximity:
People are more likely bond when they are near each other. Close contact with teammates promotes interaction, which in turn can hasten the group’s development.
Distinctiveness
When group feels distinct, its feelings of unity and openness increase. In sport, distinctiveness is traditionally achieved through team uniforms and mottoes, special initiation rites, or special privileges by making team members feel unique and distinct from other teams, a coach helps develop and mold a team concept.
Fairness
An important component of team climate is trust, and at the core of trust is athlete’ perceptions that they are being treated fairly. Athletes should feel that their play, effort, and contributions to the team’s success are evaluated objectively and evenly. The fairness with which a coach treats athletes influences their level of commitment, motivation, and satisfaction
Similarity
Similarity among the team members in commitments, attitudes, aspirations, and goals is important to developing a positive team climate
Group cohesion;
Talents win games but team work wins championship
(Carron 1982) defined group cohesion as a dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of goals and objectives. Athletic teams may exhibit two specific dimensions of cohesiveness
Task cohesion:
Involves members of specific group working together to achieve a specific and identifiable task.
Social cohesion:
Concerns whether members of team like each other and enjoy others company.
Guidelines for building team cohesion.
What leaders have to do?
Communicate effectively
Leaders need to create an environment where every one is comfortable to express their thoughts and feelings.
Explain individual roles in team success.
Coach should clearly outline individual roles to team members.
Set challenging group goals.
Setting specific, challenging goals has a positive impact on individual and group performance
Encourage group identity
By ordering team jackets and scheduling social functions a coach can encourage team identity.
Avoid formation of social cliques
Coach should quickly determine why they are forming and should take the steps to break social cliques up.
Avoid excessive turnover
It is important to make newcomers feel welcome and part of these groups as well.
Conducting periodic team meetings
Coach should conduct periodic meetings to allow positive and negative feelings to resolve internal conflict
Know the team climate
Coach or leader should identify the group members who have high interpersonal prestige and status in the group. They can be linked for communication for group unity.
Know something about group members
Coach should know simple things about every player, such as knowing and remembering birth day or grade in the class so that athlete fells care form the coach
What group members have to do?
Get to know members of the group
The better the team members to know each other, the easier it is to accept individual differences. Individuals should take time to get to know their teammates, especially the new members in the group.
Help group members whenever possible.
Helping each other creates team spirit and brings team members closer.
Give group members positive reinforcement
Supporting teammates, instead of being negative critical, goes a long way toward building trust and support. Team members should be especially sensitive, positive, and constructive when a teammate is going through adversity. The helps support given to this player also helps team.
Communicate honestly and openly with the coach or leader.
Team members should communicate with the coach openly and honestly. The every one understands each other, the better the chances for team success and harmony.
Reduce conflict immediately
If a team member has a complaint or a conflict with the coach or a teammate, he should take initiative to resolve the problem.
Give 100% effort at all times.
Working hard especially in practice, helps bring the team together.
Currons model identifies four antecedents or factors affecting the development of cohesion in sport and exercise settings.
Currons model identifies four antecedents or factors affecting the development of cohesion in sport and exercise settings
Environmental factors
Environmental factors like, size of the group, proximity, distinctiveness, social support, and family member’s eligibility requirements influence the coaches and athletes decision to stick with the team but also the type and extent of cohesiveness.
Personal factors
Demographic attributes (age, similarity, and gender), cognitions and motives (responsibility, anxiety), and behavior adherence, social loafing) influences the team cohesion.
These are the individual characteristics of the team members
Leadership factors:
This includes the leadership style; clear, consistent, unambiguous communication from coaches, decision style and the personality of the coach influences the team cohesion.
Team factors:
Team factors refer to group productivity norms, desire for group success, group roles, group position, and team stability and strong desire for group success exhibit high levels of group cohesion.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS:
Definition:
Leadership is the action of an individual to influence others towards setting goals achieving goals.
• Leadership is develops the social and psychological environment, what we call it as team culture.
• Leadership charts a course, to give others direction by having vision.
• leadership involves of selecting, motivating, rewarding, retaining, and unifying members of the team – players
• Excellent leaders give them team vision, and know how to translate this vision into reality.
• Coaches in their leadership roles, seek to develop an environment where by each every athlete has the maximum opportunity to achieve team success
• Leadership emphasizes interpersonal relationships and direct impact on motivation
• Leaders establish open lines of communication, clear goals and objectives.
Four components of effective leadership:
I. Leader’s qualities:
Empathy:
• Recognizing the need to empathetic
• Taking the time to understand the members of the team
• Taking action based upon this understanding to help the team members.
Other qualities:
• Leaders tend to act like leaders.
• They are not only problem solvers, even they are problem finders.
• Leader should develop trust in others.
• Leader should have self control.
• Leader should work always hard to develop and to improve his skills.
• They should respect others.
• They should be responsible for team activities.
• They should be flexible and pragmatic.
II. Leadership style
Autocratic style: -
• Win centered,
• Command style
• And task oriented
Democratic style: -
• Athlete – Centered,
• Cooperative style,
• People oriented.
III. Situational Factors:
• Different situations required different leadership functions.
• When leaders required quick actions, decision must make quickly at this times Autocratic leaders hip style is required.
• Team sports required task oriented leaders.
• Highly successful athletes prefer coaches who are more athlete oriented, who will provide emotional support and work with athlete
IV Follower’s Characteristics
When the followers not warm and receptive to direction, leaders are most likely to use an Autocratic style
Team work, player – coach interactions, and group dynamics play an important role in the success of teams and groups.
Group
Group is a unit composed of two or more individuals who came into contact for a special purpose (mills 1997).
Or
Group is collection of individuals who are in cooperative, interdependent with one another.
Group process:
Group process is a complex movement involving the constantly changing and shifting of roles.
Greater unity, disunity, group production, lower group production, an activity in relation to group goals ,feeling of morale , decreasing morale, wellbeing on the part of members, , conflicts, cooperation frustrations, happiness ,and all these things happen in group process.
In the group, group may influence individuals or individual may influence group.
Several groups at a time , family , peers , playmates , teammates etc. affect the persons attitudes , values ,habits , ideology and sentiments .
Athlete is a part of group or team and he must confirms to certain policies and adjust to the teammates and coaches.
At same time he must maintain his own individuality and independence.
A sport is an important ingredient (part) in supportive set up. The sharing of victory and defeat has a supportive influence and encourage better understanding.
In order to make coaching and training effective, the coach must understand the following factors.
Interactions
It usually takes in the form of cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation and assimilation
Exchange of Ideas
Sport groups practice together, plan for the training & competition, and discuss the related matters for the smooth functions of groups.
Suggestions from the coach or management, advice from elder players are important for group production.
Conflict:
Coaches and others working with team try their utmost to develop cohesion and complete harmony within in the group by resolving the conflict among the team members.
Collective goal:
Involving entire group in goal setting activities results in a form of psychological contracting (psychological agreement).
That increases commitment to team goals.
Group conformity:
Group expects a certain type of behavior from their members and this behavior is determined by the group.
Individual has to conform to these norms and work for the group goals.
A coach major role is to integrate the group into a smooth working unit by being firm.
Assimilation:
Assimilation is the process where by persons and groups adopting the culture of other group in which they come to live, by adopting its attitudes, values, patterns of thinking and behaving in short its way of life.
Accommodation:
It is the altering of negative interaction with positive interaction between individuals and groups in order to avoid conflict and promote coexistence and adjusting oneself to the new environment.
Sympathy
Sympathy is to feel as others player feel.
To be effective member of the group, one should be sympathetic ties.
This will enhance the group productivity.
Structure of the group:
Every group develops its own structure, which begins to emerge even at the group’s first meeting.
Group structure depends largely on the interactions of its members-how they perceive one another and what they expect of themselves and each other.
For a group of individuals to become an effective team, certain structural characteristics must develop.
Two of the most important are group roles and group norms.
Group roles
A role consists of the set behaviors required or expected of the person occupying a certain position in a group.
E.g. coach or teacher has specific roles within their professions and within the society.
As coach you are expected to perform such behaviors as teaching, organizing practices. Etc.
Similarly, head athletic trainers are expected to perform such behaviors as assigning and evaluating trainees
Formal roles:
These are dictated by nature of the organizations. Athletic director, coach and captain are like examples of specific roles.
Informal roles:
These develop from interaction among group members.
E.g. Mediator who solves problems among teammates.
Role clarity:
We can improve a team’s effectiveness by making sure players understand and accept their roles.
Unclear roles hurt a team’s performance.
Open communication clarifies every ones role.
Role acceptance:
Coaches can help players accept their roles by minimizing the status differences among roles and emphasizing that the success of team depends on each individual’s contribution.
Group norms:
A norm is a level of performance, pattern of behavior.
Those groups members are have to adhere to the norms.
Each norm carries specific expectations and behavior that group members are supposed to adhere to.
Norm for productivity
A group will establish level or rate of performance called the norm for productivity.
Norms for productivity, attendance, preparedness for both practice and competitions have to be followed by every athlete
Anything falling below or above this level is not supported by the group.
Group dynamics
Group dynamic refers to the forces operating in a group and changes that take place within groups.
A team will progress through four stages in its development. These stages are forming, storming, norming and performing
Forming:
This is the initial forming stage, the process of team selection.
Once the team is selected it becomes essential for the coach to clarify and explain each player’s role and responsibilities. Program standards, purpose, and mission of the program should also be clearly communicated.
During this stage team goals and individual goals are formulated.
Storming:
In this stage conflict must be addressed and dealt with previously established program standards and group norms. If not dealt with in this manner, conflicts and disagreements can rapidly decrease team morale and cohesion.
Once the conflict is resolved, the group or individuals involved recommits to the programme standards and team goals.
Norming :
In this stage each member in the group fulfils the responsibilities of his or her assigned roles. Team work becomes evident in this stage as team members openly support and encourage each other.
Performing:
At this stage, accepted roles are maintained as the team artistically, creatively and effectively accomplishes its goals.
Creating an effective team climate.
Team climate develops from how players perceive the interrelationships among the group members. The player’s positive perceptions and evaluations that set the team climate.
Social support
Mutual support and respect Increases in feelings of team cohesion and team climate.
The different types of social support are as follows.
Provide appraisal, information, reassurance, and companionship.
Reduce uncertainty during times of stress
Aid in mental and physical recovery and improve communication skills.
Proximity:
People are more likely bond when they are near each other. Close contact with teammates promotes interaction, which in turn can hasten the group’s development.
Distinctiveness
When group feels distinct, its feelings of unity and openness increase. In sport, distinctiveness is traditionally achieved through team uniforms and mottoes, special initiation rites, or special privileges by making team members feel unique and distinct from other teams, a coach helps develop and mold a team concept.
Fairness
An important component of team climate is trust, and at the core of trust is athlete’ perceptions that they are being treated fairly. Athletes should feel that their play, effort, and contributions to the team’s success are evaluated objectively and evenly. The fairness with which a coach treats athletes influences their level of commitment, motivation, and satisfaction
Similarity
Similarity among the team members in commitments, attitudes, aspirations, and goals is important to developing a positive team climate
Group cohesion;
Talents win games but team work wins championship
(Carron 1982) defined group cohesion as a dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of goals and objectives. Athletic teams may exhibit two specific dimensions of cohesiveness
Task cohesion:
Involves members of specific group working together to achieve a specific and identifiable task.
Social cohesion:
Concerns whether members of team like each other and enjoy others company.
Guidelines for building team cohesion.
What leaders have to do?
Communicate effectively
Leaders need to create an environment where every one is comfortable to express their thoughts and feelings.
Explain individual roles in team success.
Coach should clearly outline individual roles to team members.
Set challenging group goals.
Setting specific, challenging goals has a positive impact on individual and group performance
Encourage group identity
By ordering team jackets and scheduling social functions a coach can encourage team identity.
Avoid formation of social cliques
Coach should quickly determine why they are forming and should take the steps to break social cliques up.
Avoid excessive turnover
It is important to make newcomers feel welcome and part of these groups as well.
Conducting periodic team meetings
Coach should conduct periodic meetings to allow positive and negative feelings to resolve internal conflict
Know the team climate
Coach or leader should identify the group members who have high interpersonal prestige and status in the group. They can be linked for communication for group unity.
Know something about group members
Coach should know simple things about every player, such as knowing and remembering birth day or grade in the class so that athlete fells care form the coach
What group members have to do?
Get to know members of the group
The better the team members to know each other, the easier it is to accept individual differences. Individuals should take time to get to know their teammates, especially the new members in the group.
Help group members whenever possible.
Helping each other creates team spirit and brings team members closer.
Give group members positive reinforcement
Supporting teammates, instead of being negative critical, goes a long way toward building trust and support. Team members should be especially sensitive, positive, and constructive when a teammate is going through adversity. The helps support given to this player also helps team.
Communicate honestly and openly with the coach or leader.
Team members should communicate with the coach openly and honestly. The every one understands each other, the better the chances for team success and harmony.
Reduce conflict immediately
If a team member has a complaint or a conflict with the coach or a teammate, he should take initiative to resolve the problem.
Give 100% effort at all times.
Working hard especially in practice, helps bring the team together.
Currons model identifies four antecedents or factors affecting the development of cohesion in sport and exercise settings.
Currons model identifies four antecedents or factors affecting the development of cohesion in sport and exercise settings
Environmental factors
Environmental factors like, size of the group, proximity, distinctiveness, social support, and family member’s eligibility requirements influence the coaches and athletes decision to stick with the team but also the type and extent of cohesiveness.
Personal factors
Demographic attributes (age, similarity, and gender), cognitions and motives (responsibility, anxiety), and behavior adherence, social loafing) influences the team cohesion.
These are the individual characteristics of the team members
Leadership factors:
This includes the leadership style; clear, consistent, unambiguous communication from coaches, decision style and the personality of the coach influences the team cohesion.
Team factors:
Team factors refer to group productivity norms, desire for group success, group roles, group position, and team stability and strong desire for group success exhibit high levels of group cohesion.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS:
Definition:
Leadership is the action of an individual to influence others towards setting goals achieving goals.
• Leadership is develops the social and psychological environment, what we call it as team culture.
• Leadership charts a course, to give others direction by having vision.
• leadership involves of selecting, motivating, rewarding, retaining, and unifying members of the team – players
• Excellent leaders give them team vision, and know how to translate this vision into reality.
• Coaches in their leadership roles, seek to develop an environment where by each every athlete has the maximum opportunity to achieve team success
• Leadership emphasizes interpersonal relationships and direct impact on motivation
• Leaders establish open lines of communication, clear goals and objectives.
Four components of effective leadership:
I. Leader’s qualities:
Empathy:
• Recognizing the need to empathetic
• Taking the time to understand the members of the team
• Taking action based upon this understanding to help the team members.
Other qualities:
• Leaders tend to act like leaders.
• They are not only problem solvers, even they are problem finders.
• Leader should develop trust in others.
• Leader should have self control.
• Leader should work always hard to develop and to improve his skills.
• They should respect others.
• They should be responsible for team activities.
• They should be flexible and pragmatic.
II. Leadership style
Autocratic style: -
• Win centered,
• Command style
• And task oriented
Democratic style: -
• Athlete – Centered,
• Cooperative style,
• People oriented.
III. Situational Factors:
• Different situations required different leadership functions.
• When leaders required quick actions, decision must make quickly at this times Autocratic leaders hip style is required.
• Team sports required task oriented leaders.
• Highly successful athletes prefer coaches who are more athlete oriented, who will provide emotional support and work with athlete
IV Follower’s Characteristics
When the followers not warm and receptive to direction, leaders are most likely to use an Autocratic style
PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION
Psychological preparation in sports:
Definition: psychological preparation refers to the mental preparation of the player before competition, during the competition, after the competition
Importance of psychological preparation
• Mental training is important as well as physical training
• Mind trains the body hence it is necessary to train the mind for high level performance in sports
• Psychological preparation helps the player to meet the demands of competition situations and everyday problems.
• Psychological preparation is important because it helps the player to deal with negative emotions like anxiety, fear of competition and arousal etc.,
• It helps the player to develop qualities like developing self awareness, and control, positive attitude, self confidence, tough-mindedness, strong will power and determination etc.
• It also helps the player to develop their concentration, decision making, and goal setting
• Psychological preparation helps to resolve the interpersonal conflict and to improve interpersonal relationships with team mates and the coach.
• It helps the athlete to learn mental skills.
Psychological preparation continuum
Types of psychological preparation
I. Short term psychological preparation
II. Long term psychological preparation
Long term psychological preparation
Pre competition phase
Stage 1: psycho diagnosis:
• The psycho diagnosis includes psychological tests which have to be designed keeping in mind the demands of the particular game, age and skill level.
• Broadly the psychological tests can include the area of psychomotor abilities, information processing, personality, motivation and social psychological factors.
• The testing is to be conducted during selecting a player or even when the training camps are in progress
Stage 2: Psychological recommendations:
• After the psychological assessment is done in the first stage, psycho pedagogical recommendations are given.
• The recommendation is to be given to different personal involved with the team.
• This includes coaches, players, doctors and other paramedical staff for further improvement of player’s performance.
Stage 3: psychological preparation
• Psychological preparation of team will include different exercises (relaxation training, managing stress, positive thinking, regulation of self, mental practice, training for concentration, and self talk) to improve those qualities which have been evaluated.
• The psychologist and the coach should be sensitive to observe the motivational levels of athletes and group dynamics of the team.
• Psychological stress management training has to be an integral part of training.
Competition phase or immediate phase:
Phase 4: Psychological control of player and self regulation during competition
• Psychological control during competition (pre game, start of match and competition period) will be achieved if the sports person has learned the psycho regulative techniques during long term preparation.
• During critical period of the competition, well meaning suggestions offered by the coach elicits change in athlete’s behavior.
• Pep talk, psycho regulatory techniques and brief counseling during the competition will help the player for better performance.
Post competition phase:
Stage 5: Evaluation
• Every competition provides a feed back of strengths, weaknesses and strategies used.
• Coach and player should together analyze the reasons for winning and defeating the match
• Based on these, future strategies can be chalked out and psychological preparation of the players should be continued.
Short term psychological preparation:
A. General planning:
• Under this category the player is helped to tolerate distractions like the pre match meal, timing of the meal, physical activities prior to the competition, details of equipment and travel, mental rehearsal programme.
B. Stress management:
• Relaxation exercises should be used more often. Sometimes interaction with other players and player’s interaction with significant others also reduce stress.
Definition: psychological preparation refers to the mental preparation of the player before competition, during the competition, after the competition
Importance of psychological preparation
• Mental training is important as well as physical training
• Mind trains the body hence it is necessary to train the mind for high level performance in sports
• Psychological preparation helps the player to meet the demands of competition situations and everyday problems.
• Psychological preparation is important because it helps the player to deal with negative emotions like anxiety, fear of competition and arousal etc.,
• It helps the player to develop qualities like developing self awareness, and control, positive attitude, self confidence, tough-mindedness, strong will power and determination etc.
• It also helps the player to develop their concentration, decision making, and goal setting
• Psychological preparation helps to resolve the interpersonal conflict and to improve interpersonal relationships with team mates and the coach.
• It helps the athlete to learn mental skills.
Psychological preparation continuum
Types of psychological preparation
I. Short term psychological preparation
II. Long term psychological preparation
Long term psychological preparation
Pre competition phase
Stage 1: psycho diagnosis:
• The psycho diagnosis includes psychological tests which have to be designed keeping in mind the demands of the particular game, age and skill level.
• Broadly the psychological tests can include the area of psychomotor abilities, information processing, personality, motivation and social psychological factors.
• The testing is to be conducted during selecting a player or even when the training camps are in progress
Stage 2: Psychological recommendations:
• After the psychological assessment is done in the first stage, psycho pedagogical recommendations are given.
• The recommendation is to be given to different personal involved with the team.
• This includes coaches, players, doctors and other paramedical staff for further improvement of player’s performance.
Stage 3: psychological preparation
• Psychological preparation of team will include different exercises (relaxation training, managing stress, positive thinking, regulation of self, mental practice, training for concentration, and self talk) to improve those qualities which have been evaluated.
• The psychologist and the coach should be sensitive to observe the motivational levels of athletes and group dynamics of the team.
• Psychological stress management training has to be an integral part of training.
Competition phase or immediate phase:
Phase 4: Psychological control of player and self regulation during competition
• Psychological control during competition (pre game, start of match and competition period) will be achieved if the sports person has learned the psycho regulative techniques during long term preparation.
• During critical period of the competition, well meaning suggestions offered by the coach elicits change in athlete’s behavior.
• Pep talk, psycho regulatory techniques and brief counseling during the competition will help the player for better performance.
Post competition phase:
Stage 5: Evaluation
• Every competition provides a feed back of strengths, weaknesses and strategies used.
• Coach and player should together analyze the reasons for winning and defeating the match
• Based on these, future strategies can be chalked out and psychological preparation of the players should be continued.
Short term psychological preparation:
A. General planning:
• Under this category the player is helped to tolerate distractions like the pre match meal, timing of the meal, physical activities prior to the competition, details of equipment and travel, mental rehearsal programme.
B. Stress management:
• Relaxation exercises should be used more often. Sometimes interaction with other players and player’s interaction with significant others also reduce stress.
MOTIVATION
Motivation
Role of the motivation/importance of motivation in sports.
Motivation Enhances Sports Performance
Motivation is the fuel for an athlete’s performance.
Motivation is internal state which tends to direct a person’s behavior towards a goal.
Motivation can influence decisions, learning and performance in sport.
If a performer is not in a positive psychological state, mistakes will be made in the performance, and they will not perform at their level best.
Motivation has varying levels of intensity and efficiency.
Performance is directly related to the intensity of motivation.
Levels of motivation differ among athletes.
Motivation is important for the learning process.
It plays an important role in coaching.
Success of a sport program depends on coaches’ ability to motivate the athletes.
Motivation can be defined simply as the direction and intensity of ones effort (sage1977).
Direction of effort
The direction of effort refers to whether an individual seeks out, approaches, or is attracted to certain situations.
e.g.: a student may be motivated to go out for the tennis team.
Intensity of effort
Intensity of effort refers to how much effort a person puts forth in a particular situation.
The relationship between direction and intensity
Students or athletes always arrive early typically expend great effort during participation.
Types of motivation
Intrinsic motivation: Motivation to perform an activity for its own sake.
This type of motivation comes directly from the performer. They are factors such as personal satisfaction or enjoyment. Biddell (1984) suggested those performers who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to continue participating then those who aren’t. This is
because of personal ambition and the drive to have fun. An example of
this could be an individual wishing to play squash as a form of
recreation, to develop their fitness levels, but also to see if they
can master the game.
Intrinsic motivation is three types:
A) Knowledge:
Individual engages in an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction.
Sports person or athlete experiences pleasure and satisfaction while learning, exploring or trying to understand acquiring knowledge about something.
e.g:Learning new skills in sports.
b) Accomplishments
The person feels pleasure and satisfaction whenever he accomplishes something in sports.
e.g.: mastering a difficult dive.
c) Stimulation:
Person engages in an activity in order to experience pleasant sensations such as fun excitement and pleasure.
e.g.: feeling pleasure of climbing a mountain.
Extrinsic motivation:
Performing for a material reward is called extrinsic motivation.
e.g.: medals, trophies and money.
a) Integrated regulation
Activity is personally important, because of a valued outcome
b) Identified regulation:
Athlete participates in a sport for his/her growth and development.
c) Integrated regulation:-
The individual is motivated by internal prods and pleasures.
e.g.: an exerciser who stays in shape to impress the opposite sex.
d) External regulation:
The behavior is completed by external sources such as rewards and constraints.
e.g.: trainer who spends lots of time in the training room simply to get raise salary.
Amotivaion:-
In this case individuals are neither intrinsically nor extrinsically motivated.
maslow theory of motivation
The theory was proposed by Abraham Maslow .
It sates that human motives from a hierarchy with the primary or physiological needs on the bottom. Safety and security next, love and belongingness are the next highest category. Self esteem: success, achievement and power are immediate higher than love and belongingness .The self actualization: the need to develop ones talents and capabilities is in the top of hierarchy.
Most of humans strive first to satisfy primary needs like hunger, thirst, need for sleep and air etc. Then go on to safety needs to be safe and secured called security needs. Satisfaction of each need leads to next in the hierarchy as shown in the figure
According Maslow, once a need is satisfied and remains so, it no longer is a need and the person moves up the hierarchy to the next higher needs from numerous sources.
ACHIVEMENT MOTIVATION AND COMPETTITIVENESS
It is important to understand why some people seem so highly motivated to achieve their goals and why some others seem to go for the ride.
We will start discussing two related motives that influence performance and participation in sport achievement motivation and competitiveness.
Achievement motivation: this is person’s effort to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, perform better than others, and pride in exercising talent. (Murray 1938)
It is person’s orientation to strive for the task success, persist in the face of failure, and experience pride in accomplishments. (gill200)
These are precise characteristics that allow athletes to achieve excellence to gain high levels of fitness, and students maximize learning.
Competitiveness: it is a disposition to strive for satisfaction when making comparisons with some standard of excellence, in the presense of evaluative others.(martens 1976).athlete with competitiveness comapare their performance with their previous performance.
What theories of achievement motivation tell us
Motivational orientation High achiever Low achiever
Motivational orientation High motivation to achieve success Low motivation to achieve success
Low motivation to avoid failure High motivation avoid failure
Attributions Ascribes success to stable and internal factors within ones control Ascribres success to uinstable external factors outside ones control
Goal adopted Usually adopts task goals Usually adopts outcome goals
Perceived competence Has high perceived competence and feels that achievement is within own control Has low perceived competence and feels that achievement is outside own control
Task choice Seeks out challenges and able competitors/tasks Avoid challenges: seeks out very difficult or very tasks
Performance conditions Performs well in evaluative conditions Performs poorly in evaluative conditions
Developing achievement motivation
Coaches and teachers can help young people develop their achievement motivation by making sure they are not confronted with repeated failure.
1. Parents should encourage independence and reinforce a child’s efforts at becoming independence.
2. Parents (especially mothers) should be warm and encouraging to their children.
3. parents should comfort and support and support their children when setbacks, fear, and discouragement occur.
4. Parents should expect their children to be able, competent, and response.
5. Parents can demonstrate confidence in their ability by resisting the urge to “take charge” when they experience difficulty in mastering a task.
6. Parents should allow and expect many trials for a child to master a task. Do not keep track of trials .appreciate small steps.
7. Keep track of a child’s success and applaud them. Do not dwell on failures.
8. Parents should pay attention to their Childs efforts. Listen to their problems and pay attention to their feelings.
MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES
The following are the some of the motivational techniques that can be used by the coaches.
1. Provide for successful experiences
Perceived success strengthens feelings of personal competence give positive feedback about what participants are doing right.
1. Verbal comments
Verbal comments are perhaps the most familiar motivational technique.
Pep talks have been considered some of the most effective motivators in sports.
eg: praising , pat on the back
These are technical in nature that are aimed at improving performance
These are aimed at helping the athlete to develop favorable attitude towards performance
2. Gimmicks and charts
It is a nonverbal technique
Posting news paper clippings i.e. sports related write ups and pictures,
Painting slogans on the walls of the dressing room are commonly thought of as gimmicks and charts for performance
3. Rewards and punishments(reinforcement )
Both punishment and reward can be used to motivate
Coach should know the likes and dislikes of the athletes and choose reinforces accordingly.
In the early stages of learning, continuous and immediate reinforcement is desirable: in the later stages of learning, however, intermittent reinforcement is more effective.
Terminal reward
Wining contest is an example of a terminal reward.
Concurrent reward
Athlete can receive reward that he/ she performed well even though the team was defeated
Punishment either can be mental or physical
A participant who has made a mistake and is taken out of contest (competition) might experience mental punishment.
A method of physical punishment employed by coaches is exercise (making the athlete to run ten laps) so that athlete will not repeat the same mistake again
4. Spectators and motivation
The size of the audience seems to have an effect on performance.
Another variable is the mood of the audience
Home crowd always motivates athletes
Some times athletes can also be motivated by antagonistic crowd mood of the audience has an important effect on performance
5. Music and noise
Music can also be used to affect performance during athlete’s contests.
Music can make time pass more quickly
Coaches also use tape recorded game noise during preparation for the games or matches (the noise may include people talking, cheering, and yelling of the crowds)
6. changing Routine and motivation :One of the most effective ways of motivating is changing routine
Once the coach found the effective drills, they should use skills day after day
Inclusion of short drills within a practice session is another technique coaches use to sustain motivation.
Another motivational technique is to allow the players to plan a practice session. Practice at different times is another way to provide change in routine
1. Involve participants in decision making
Allow participants more responsibility for making decisions.
e.g.: suggesting how to organize a practice sessions, make up team or class rules, and game strategy.
7 expectations and motivation
Coach must understand that athletes differ in their ability
Coach should establish realistic expectations
Don’t say anything to athlete who can set realistic goals
Offer negative criticism but use it should be carefully used
8. Competition and recreation
Competing against other people, following norms of the competition and competing against ones own record naturally motivate the player.
Athletes often also want to have fun and enjoy the companionship of their fellow athletes. Coaches also pay attention to the motives of fun and fellowship, along with physical training.
Goal setting
Definition of goal:
Many people define a goal as an objective, or an aim of some action.
Benefits of setting goals/importance of goal setting
• Goals improve the quality of the practice.
• Goals clarify expectations.
• Goals help to relive boredom by making more challenging
• Goals increase intrinsic motivation
• Goals increase pride satisfaction and self confidence
• A well planed goal setting improve performance in sports.
• Goals decide your athletes attention
• Goals mobilize athletes energy and effort
• Goals increase the performance persistence when performance is painfully slow.
• Motivation depends on your goal setting.
Types of goals
Subjective goals
Subjective goals are general statements of intent.
e.g., I want to do well
Objective goals
The goals which focus on attaining a specific standard of proficiency on a task, usually within a specified time are called objective goals.
E.g. attempting to attain specific amount of weight loss with in 3 months. Objective goals include outcome, performance and process goals
1. Outcome goals
These goals typically focus on competitive results of an event, such as winning race, earning a medal or scoring more appoints than an opponent.
2. Performance goals
Performance goals focus on achieving standadards.
Usually making comparisons with ones own previous performance.
Performance goals tend to be more flexible and within our control.
E.g.: Running a mile in 6 minutes and 21 seconds.
3. Process goals: These goals focus on the actions of an individual must engage during performance to perform well.
E.g., a swimmer may set a goal of maintaining long stretched –out arm full in his free style stroke.
Using a combination of goal strategies (outcome, performance and process) produce better performance.
That means different types goals may be more effective at different times.
E.g. Competition versus practice.
Principles of goal setting:
A number of goal setting principles have been identified from research and practice.
The correct applications of these principles provide a strong foundation for designing a goal setting – setting program.
1. Set specific goals
Specific goals are more effective because they direct behavior more precisely and communicate clear expectations to the athletes.
E.g., to score a 100 in the championship round on some day
2. Set realistic goals
Moderately difficult goals lead to best performance. Goals that are too difficult to achieve can lead to frustration, reduced confidence, and poor performance. Professionals must know the capabilities and commitment of the individuals they are working with.
3. Short term vs. long term goals
Focusing only on long term goals does not improve performance.
Long term goals can not be very realistic challenging.
Setting short term goals rather than long term goals is challenging and realistic.
4.Performance vs. outcome goals
Performance goals are greatly superior to outcome goals, because athletes have greater control over their performance.
The best way to win a championship or beat a particular opponent is to focus on performance or process goals.
5. Team goals vs. individual goals
Team goals can help to motivate athletes to work more effectively together but they must be accompanied by individual goals that hold the individual responsibility and that are within his or control.
6. Provide evaluation and feedback about goals
Goal settings works only if there is timely feedback showing progress towards the goal. Feedback directs the behavior and motivates athletes.
E.g. goal: losing 20 pounds in 6 months
Evaluation/ feedback: A client informs to fitness instructor of his/her weight every weak.
7. Record goals
Out of site out of mind has relevance to goal setting procedures.
Once goals are set, they should be record and placed where they can be easily seen.
8. Foster an individual’s goal commitment
A person will not achieve a goal without commitment to achieving it.
Instructors should promote goal commitment by encouraging progress and providing consistent feedback.
9. Provide goal support.
Support from coaches, teachers, and friends makes goal setting effective.
Group goals refer to the attainment of specific standards of group (not individual) proficiency, usually within a specified time.
The following six principles will allow you to effectively set and achieve the group goals.
Establish long term goals first.
Establish clear paths of short-term goals enrote to long -term goals.
Involve all members of the team in establishing team goals.
Monitor progress towards team goals.
Reward progress made toward team goals.
Foster collective team confidence or efficacy concerning team goals.
Role of the motivation/importance of motivation in sports.
Motivation Enhances Sports Performance
Motivation is the fuel for an athlete’s performance.
Motivation is internal state which tends to direct a person’s behavior towards a goal.
Motivation can influence decisions, learning and performance in sport.
If a performer is not in a positive psychological state, mistakes will be made in the performance, and they will not perform at their level best.
Motivation has varying levels of intensity and efficiency.
Performance is directly related to the intensity of motivation.
Levels of motivation differ among athletes.
Motivation is important for the learning process.
It plays an important role in coaching.
Success of a sport program depends on coaches’ ability to motivate the athletes.
Motivation can be defined simply as the direction and intensity of ones effort (sage1977).
Direction of effort
The direction of effort refers to whether an individual seeks out, approaches, or is attracted to certain situations.
e.g.: a student may be motivated to go out for the tennis team.
Intensity of effort
Intensity of effort refers to how much effort a person puts forth in a particular situation.
The relationship between direction and intensity
Students or athletes always arrive early typically expend great effort during participation.
Types of motivation
Intrinsic motivation: Motivation to perform an activity for its own sake.
This type of motivation comes directly from the performer. They are factors such as personal satisfaction or enjoyment. Biddell (1984) suggested those performers who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to continue participating then those who aren’t. This is
because of personal ambition and the drive to have fun. An example of
this could be an individual wishing to play squash as a form of
recreation, to develop their fitness levels, but also to see if they
can master the game.
Intrinsic motivation is three types:
A) Knowledge:
Individual engages in an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction.
Sports person or athlete experiences pleasure and satisfaction while learning, exploring or trying to understand acquiring knowledge about something.
e.g:Learning new skills in sports.
b) Accomplishments
The person feels pleasure and satisfaction whenever he accomplishes something in sports.
e.g.: mastering a difficult dive.
c) Stimulation:
Person engages in an activity in order to experience pleasant sensations such as fun excitement and pleasure.
e.g.: feeling pleasure of climbing a mountain.
Extrinsic motivation:
Performing for a material reward is called extrinsic motivation.
e.g.: medals, trophies and money.
a) Integrated regulation
Activity is personally important, because of a valued outcome
b) Identified regulation:
Athlete participates in a sport for his/her growth and development.
c) Integrated regulation:-
The individual is motivated by internal prods and pleasures.
e.g.: an exerciser who stays in shape to impress the opposite sex.
d) External regulation:
The behavior is completed by external sources such as rewards and constraints.
e.g.: trainer who spends lots of time in the training room simply to get raise salary.
Amotivaion:-
In this case individuals are neither intrinsically nor extrinsically motivated.
maslow theory of motivation
The theory was proposed by Abraham Maslow .
It sates that human motives from a hierarchy with the primary or physiological needs on the bottom. Safety and security next, love and belongingness are the next highest category. Self esteem: success, achievement and power are immediate higher than love and belongingness .The self actualization: the need to develop ones talents and capabilities is in the top of hierarchy.
Most of humans strive first to satisfy primary needs like hunger, thirst, need for sleep and air etc. Then go on to safety needs to be safe and secured called security needs. Satisfaction of each need leads to next in the hierarchy as shown in the figure
According Maslow, once a need is satisfied and remains so, it no longer is a need and the person moves up the hierarchy to the next higher needs from numerous sources.
ACHIVEMENT MOTIVATION AND COMPETTITIVENESS
It is important to understand why some people seem so highly motivated to achieve their goals and why some others seem to go for the ride.
We will start discussing two related motives that influence performance and participation in sport achievement motivation and competitiveness.
Achievement motivation: this is person’s effort to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, perform better than others, and pride in exercising talent. (Murray 1938)
It is person’s orientation to strive for the task success, persist in the face of failure, and experience pride in accomplishments. (gill200)
These are precise characteristics that allow athletes to achieve excellence to gain high levels of fitness, and students maximize learning.
Competitiveness: it is a disposition to strive for satisfaction when making comparisons with some standard of excellence, in the presense of evaluative others.(martens 1976).athlete with competitiveness comapare their performance with their previous performance.
What theories of achievement motivation tell us
Motivational orientation High achiever Low achiever
Motivational orientation High motivation to achieve success Low motivation to achieve success
Low motivation to avoid failure High motivation avoid failure
Attributions Ascribes success to stable and internal factors within ones control Ascribres success to uinstable external factors outside ones control
Goal adopted Usually adopts task goals Usually adopts outcome goals
Perceived competence Has high perceived competence and feels that achievement is within own control Has low perceived competence and feels that achievement is outside own control
Task choice Seeks out challenges and able competitors/tasks Avoid challenges: seeks out very difficult or very tasks
Performance conditions Performs well in evaluative conditions Performs poorly in evaluative conditions
Developing achievement motivation
Coaches and teachers can help young people develop their achievement motivation by making sure they are not confronted with repeated failure.
1. Parents should encourage independence and reinforce a child’s efforts at becoming independence.
2. Parents (especially mothers) should be warm and encouraging to their children.
3. parents should comfort and support and support their children when setbacks, fear, and discouragement occur.
4. Parents should expect their children to be able, competent, and response.
5. Parents can demonstrate confidence in their ability by resisting the urge to “take charge” when they experience difficulty in mastering a task.
6. Parents should allow and expect many trials for a child to master a task. Do not keep track of trials .appreciate small steps.
7. Keep track of a child’s success and applaud them. Do not dwell on failures.
8. Parents should pay attention to their Childs efforts. Listen to their problems and pay attention to their feelings.
MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES
The following are the some of the motivational techniques that can be used by the coaches.
1. Provide for successful experiences
Perceived success strengthens feelings of personal competence give positive feedback about what participants are doing right.
1. Verbal comments
Verbal comments are perhaps the most familiar motivational technique.
Pep talks have been considered some of the most effective motivators in sports.
eg: praising , pat on the back
These are technical in nature that are aimed at improving performance
These are aimed at helping the athlete to develop favorable attitude towards performance
2. Gimmicks and charts
It is a nonverbal technique
Posting news paper clippings i.e. sports related write ups and pictures,
Painting slogans on the walls of the dressing room are commonly thought of as gimmicks and charts for performance
3. Rewards and punishments(reinforcement )
Both punishment and reward can be used to motivate
Coach should know the likes and dislikes of the athletes and choose reinforces accordingly.
In the early stages of learning, continuous and immediate reinforcement is desirable: in the later stages of learning, however, intermittent reinforcement is more effective.
Terminal reward
Wining contest is an example of a terminal reward.
Concurrent reward
Athlete can receive reward that he/ she performed well even though the team was defeated
Punishment either can be mental or physical
A participant who has made a mistake and is taken out of contest (competition) might experience mental punishment.
A method of physical punishment employed by coaches is exercise (making the athlete to run ten laps) so that athlete will not repeat the same mistake again
4. Spectators and motivation
The size of the audience seems to have an effect on performance.
Another variable is the mood of the audience
Home crowd always motivates athletes
Some times athletes can also be motivated by antagonistic crowd mood of the audience has an important effect on performance
5. Music and noise
Music can also be used to affect performance during athlete’s contests.
Music can make time pass more quickly
Coaches also use tape recorded game noise during preparation for the games or matches (the noise may include people talking, cheering, and yelling of the crowds)
6. changing Routine and motivation :One of the most effective ways of motivating is changing routine
Once the coach found the effective drills, they should use skills day after day
Inclusion of short drills within a practice session is another technique coaches use to sustain motivation.
Another motivational technique is to allow the players to plan a practice session. Practice at different times is another way to provide change in routine
1. Involve participants in decision making
Allow participants more responsibility for making decisions.
e.g.: suggesting how to organize a practice sessions, make up team or class rules, and game strategy.
7 expectations and motivation
Coach must understand that athletes differ in their ability
Coach should establish realistic expectations
Don’t say anything to athlete who can set realistic goals
Offer negative criticism but use it should be carefully used
8. Competition and recreation
Competing against other people, following norms of the competition and competing against ones own record naturally motivate the player.
Athletes often also want to have fun and enjoy the companionship of their fellow athletes. Coaches also pay attention to the motives of fun and fellowship, along with physical training.
Goal setting
Definition of goal:
Many people define a goal as an objective, or an aim of some action.
Benefits of setting goals/importance of goal setting
• Goals improve the quality of the practice.
• Goals clarify expectations.
• Goals help to relive boredom by making more challenging
• Goals increase intrinsic motivation
• Goals increase pride satisfaction and self confidence
• A well planed goal setting improve performance in sports.
• Goals decide your athletes attention
• Goals mobilize athletes energy and effort
• Goals increase the performance persistence when performance is painfully slow.
• Motivation depends on your goal setting.
Types of goals
Subjective goals
Subjective goals are general statements of intent.
e.g., I want to do well
Objective goals
The goals which focus on attaining a specific standard of proficiency on a task, usually within a specified time are called objective goals.
E.g. attempting to attain specific amount of weight loss with in 3 months. Objective goals include outcome, performance and process goals
1. Outcome goals
These goals typically focus on competitive results of an event, such as winning race, earning a medal or scoring more appoints than an opponent.
2. Performance goals
Performance goals focus on achieving standadards.
Usually making comparisons with ones own previous performance.
Performance goals tend to be more flexible and within our control.
E.g.: Running a mile in 6 minutes and 21 seconds.
3. Process goals: These goals focus on the actions of an individual must engage during performance to perform well.
E.g., a swimmer may set a goal of maintaining long stretched –out arm full in his free style stroke.
Using a combination of goal strategies (outcome, performance and process) produce better performance.
That means different types goals may be more effective at different times.
E.g. Competition versus practice.
Principles of goal setting:
A number of goal setting principles have been identified from research and practice.
The correct applications of these principles provide a strong foundation for designing a goal setting – setting program.
1. Set specific goals
Specific goals are more effective because they direct behavior more precisely and communicate clear expectations to the athletes.
E.g., to score a 100 in the championship round on some day
2. Set realistic goals
Moderately difficult goals lead to best performance. Goals that are too difficult to achieve can lead to frustration, reduced confidence, and poor performance. Professionals must know the capabilities and commitment of the individuals they are working with.
3. Short term vs. long term goals
Focusing only on long term goals does not improve performance.
Long term goals can not be very realistic challenging.
Setting short term goals rather than long term goals is challenging and realistic.
4.Performance vs. outcome goals
Performance goals are greatly superior to outcome goals, because athletes have greater control over their performance.
The best way to win a championship or beat a particular opponent is to focus on performance or process goals.
5. Team goals vs. individual goals
Team goals can help to motivate athletes to work more effectively together but they must be accompanied by individual goals that hold the individual responsibility and that are within his or control.
6. Provide evaluation and feedback about goals
Goal settings works only if there is timely feedback showing progress towards the goal. Feedback directs the behavior and motivates athletes.
E.g. goal: losing 20 pounds in 6 months
Evaluation/ feedback: A client informs to fitness instructor of his/her weight every weak.
7. Record goals
Out of site out of mind has relevance to goal setting procedures.
Once goals are set, they should be record and placed where they can be easily seen.
8. Foster an individual’s goal commitment
A person will not achieve a goal without commitment to achieving it.
Instructors should promote goal commitment by encouraging progress and providing consistent feedback.
9. Provide goal support.
Support from coaches, teachers, and friends makes goal setting effective.
Group goals refer to the attainment of specific standards of group (not individual) proficiency, usually within a specified time.
The following six principles will allow you to effectively set and achieve the group goals.
Establish long term goals first.
Establish clear paths of short-term goals enrote to long -term goals.
Involve all members of the team in establishing team goals.
Monitor progress towards team goals.
Reward progress made toward team goals.
Foster collective team confidence or efficacy concerning team goals.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Pre competitive anxiety
Pre competitive anxiety is a state of arousal that is unpleasant or negative and occurs prior to competition.
Symptoms of Pre competitive anxiety
Muscle tension,
Butterflies,
Desire to urinate,
Cotton mouth
Self focused thoughts
Self defeating and negative thoughts
Sources of Pre competitive anxiety
1. It results form an imbalance between perceived capabilities and the demands of the sport environment.
2. Fear of failure
3. Feeling inadequacy (poor conditioning, UN prepared)
4. Loss of control
5. Guilt (concerns about hurting an opponent)
d
Recommendations for athletes.
1. become more aware of your optimal level at arousal.
Think of the times when you felt ready going into a competition and it worked for you
2. Focus on things that are within your control.
Payer should think about the performance but not worrying about factors that are beyond our control.
3. Use performance cues to develop or retrain your arousal level.
Practicing mental routines and practicing them until they become automatic.
Psychological manifestations of pre start states
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.
This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.
Diagram
pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever •
high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. •
Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.
Pre competitive anxiety is a state of arousal that is unpleasant or negative and occurs prior to competition.
Symptoms of Pre competitive anxiety
Muscle tension,
Butterflies,
Desire to urinate,
Cotton mouth
Self focused thoughts
Self defeating and negative thoughts
Sources of Pre competitive anxiety
1. It results form an imbalance between perceived capabilities and the demands of the sport environment.
2. Fear of failure
3. Feeling inadequacy (poor conditioning, UN prepared)
4. Loss of control
5. Guilt (concerns about hurting an opponent)
d
Recommendations for athletes.
1. become more aware of your optimal level at arousal.
Think of the times when you felt ready going into a competition and it worked for you
2. Focus on things that are within your control.
Payer should think about the performance but not worrying about factors that are beyond our control.
3. Use performance cues to develop or retrain your arousal level.
Practicing mental routines and practicing them until they become automatic.
Psychological manifestations of pre start states
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.
This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.
Diagram
pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever •
high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. •
Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.
personality
Personality
Alport defines personality as the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine the unique adjustment to his environment.
Personality is the sum of those characteristics that make a person unique.
Personality traits
cattell’s personality dimension include the source traits and surface traits
Surface traits:
These are based upon frequently occurring observed behavior.
These are interrelated group of behavior and manners observed to occur across various kinds of environmental settings
These are related elements of behavior
e.g.: dependability
Source traits:
These are underlying structure or sources that determine behavior.
E.g. Reserved, honesty
Systematic view of personality structure
1. Psychological core
It is a deepest component,
It includes attitudes and values, interest’s motives and beliefs about oneself.
One’s basic values might revolve around the importance of his or her family, friends, and religion.
2. Typical responses
These are the ways we each learn to adjust to the environment or how we usually respond to the world around us
e.g.: shy, tempered
3. Role related behavior
This is how one acts based on what he perceives his social situation.
This is most challengeable aspect of personality.
Behavior changes as your perceptions of the environment changes. Different situations require playing different roles.
Personality development &sports participation
Or
Athletic participation and personality changes.
Sports participation change the basic ways in which individuals behave &feels.
Personality changes in personality due to sports may be due to heightened social status and increase in self concept.
Sportsmen’s exposure to intense exercises may result in mood changes which may be reflected in personality (positive factors)
Sports men have to abide to certain norms and controlled situations which may help in developing personality in a particular direction.
Political importance and maturity involving patriotism (we feeling towards our country) and society aim to be fulfilled through sports activity.
Sports man has to face many conflicting problems and situations as chances for failure and success are equal. Personality development is enhanced if adjustment can be made to stride a balance.
Sports participation help in reducing frustrations and anxieties and aids in keeping mental equilibrium and achieve social recognition.
Sports activities help in channelizing energies discussing adolescent years and shaping the personality avoiding destructive tendencies.
Approaches to personality
Psychodynamic approach
Id: it is the biological root of the personality.
It contains primitive urges and desires.
It directs people to seek pleasure and avoid pain at all costs.
Ego:
Ego is the moderating component of personality.
It helps to engage in rational and logical thought.
It keeps the person in some kind of stable relationships with others.
Super ego:
The super ego enables the person to come up with moral values of society.
Trait approach:
Personality traits are enduring and consistent across a variety of situations. So that we tend to behave in the same way in most situations.
According to this theory, it is therefore possible to predict how a performer will behave and a profile of an individual can be developed to help coaches make predictions.
Traits are considered to predispose a person to act in a certain way, regardless of situation of circumstances.
e.g.: if an athlete is competitive he /she will be influenced to playing hard and giving all regardless of the situation or score.
The situational approach
This approach argues that behavior is determined by the situation or environment.
This approach holds that environment influences reinforces and shape the way one behaves.
e.g.: player may act confident in one situation. But tentative in another situation. if the influence of the environment is strong enough, the effect of personality traits will be minimal.
The interactional approach:
The interactional approach: this approach considers the situation and person co determinants of behavior.
In other words, knowing both an individual’s psychological traits and particular situation is helpful in understanding behavior.
e.g., a frustrated spectator at foot ball game controls his aggression in front of his mother,
Concept of athletic personality:
Coach must know the different personality types of athletes to use the varied approaches available to help different athletes.
I.e. form of communication, motivational techniques and teaching procedures as per the individual athletes.
Every athlete possesses some traits but these traits differ to person to person.
From personality point of view, an individual may respond to similar stimulus differently. In two different situations
No two individuals (athletes) would be alike and they may respond to same stimulus differently in the same situation.
Personality refers to what person actually is and that is appraised by a personality test or as perceived by others during interpersonal transactions in social life.
The goal of sports personality is to explain the role of personality of athletes in sport.
The study of personality helps the coaches, sports psychologists and others professionals to work better with athletes and exercisers.
Traits of athletes.
1. Drive
Athletes with drive desire to win or to be successful. They are competitive.
2.Determination:
Athletes with determination do not give up things easily
They practice long and hard to achieve his goals.
They spend much time working on his skills.
3. Intelligence:
Intelligent athlete can grasp things quickly.
4. Aggression:-
Athletes will try to rectify the mistakes through criticizing and arguing.
It is an important part of athletic success.
Athlete with aggression will be anxious.
5. Leadership:-
This characteristic likes to influence his teammates.
Athletes with Leadership make good decisions, plans and good goals.
Athletes are quite outspoken.
Organization:
Athletes effectively place things, able to plan and making structure, the organization quality is important for athlete.
7. Coachability
Athlete with coachability respects the coach, accepts his advice and training rules.
8. Emotionality:
Athletes with emotionality are matured, stable and controls his emotions.
9. Responsibility:
This enables an athlete to accept responsibility for his success and defects.
10. Sociablity:
Athlete with this trait accepts social norms ad values.
More conventional in nature.
11. Extroversion.
Extroverts are more outward.
They are interested in events, activities. Their response is faster
Their attention will be better during short sessions.
Introverts:-
These are more inward.
They tend to have less concern with other people.
Attention will be better during long session. They take time to respond.
Mental toughness.
These are self motivated
They are positive but realistic
They control emotions
They are calm and relaxed
Highly energetic
Determined
Mentally alert and focused.
And they are fully responsible for their failures and success.
Personality of athletes and non athletes.
Athletes who played team sports exhibited less abstract reasoning, more extroversion, more dependency, and less ego strength compared to non athletes.
Athletes who played individual sports displayed higher levels of objectivity, more independent, less anxiety, and less abstract thinking.
However athletes are more achievement – oriented, more dominant, and displayed low levels of anxiety. They are less compulsive and impulsive, having greater tolerance to pain and higher social adjustment than non athletes.
Female athletes vs. male athletes.
Females are more passive and dependent, and some are more aggressive, goal oriented, organized, and rule governed.
Male athletes were rated as more active, aggressive, competitive, dominating controlling, and public.
Mental health profile of athletes.
The most successful work on personality differences between successful and unsuccessful athlete has been conducted by Morgan.
Based on large body of research studying elite athletes, Morgan identified a personality profile of successful athletes. Successful athletes enjoy greater positive mental health Marked by low levels of tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion, but high levels of vigor.
Diagram
Some sports psychologists believe that personality data can be predictive of athletic success.
While others believe that personality profiles can not be used to predict athletic success.
Case study:
The case study method is a form of qualitative analysis which involves observations of a social unit, be that unit a person, a family, an institution or a cultural group. Case study deals with processes that take place and their inter relationship. It helps to locate the factors that account for the behavior pattern of the given unit as an integrated totality.
Interview method:
The interview method involves presenting verbal stimuli and reply. The interviewer collects information personally from the sources concerned. In certain cases interviewer records the responses of a predetermined set of questions himself which is an interview schedule.
Structured interview:
It follows a rigid procedure asking questions in a form and prescribed.
Unstructured interviews:
It is more flexible in nature and is more useful in explanatory research studies.
Direct interview:
It is face to face contact. Interviewer initiates the interviewer.
Non direct interview:
The interviewer function is to encourage the respondent to talk about the given topic with a bare minimum of direct questioning
Alport defines personality as the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine the unique adjustment to his environment.
Personality is the sum of those characteristics that make a person unique.
Personality traits
cattell’s personality dimension include the source traits and surface traits
Surface traits:
These are based upon frequently occurring observed behavior.
These are interrelated group of behavior and manners observed to occur across various kinds of environmental settings
These are related elements of behavior
e.g.: dependability
Source traits:
These are underlying structure or sources that determine behavior.
E.g. Reserved, honesty
Systematic view of personality structure
1. Psychological core
It is a deepest component,
It includes attitudes and values, interest’s motives and beliefs about oneself.
One’s basic values might revolve around the importance of his or her family, friends, and religion.
2. Typical responses
These are the ways we each learn to adjust to the environment or how we usually respond to the world around us
e.g.: shy, tempered
3. Role related behavior
This is how one acts based on what he perceives his social situation.
This is most challengeable aspect of personality.
Behavior changes as your perceptions of the environment changes. Different situations require playing different roles.
Personality development &sports participation
Or
Athletic participation and personality changes.
Sports participation change the basic ways in which individuals behave &feels.
Personality changes in personality due to sports may be due to heightened social status and increase in self concept.
Sportsmen’s exposure to intense exercises may result in mood changes which may be reflected in personality (positive factors)
Sports men have to abide to certain norms and controlled situations which may help in developing personality in a particular direction.
Political importance and maturity involving patriotism (we feeling towards our country) and society aim to be fulfilled through sports activity.
Sports man has to face many conflicting problems and situations as chances for failure and success are equal. Personality development is enhanced if adjustment can be made to stride a balance.
Sports participation help in reducing frustrations and anxieties and aids in keeping mental equilibrium and achieve social recognition.
Sports activities help in channelizing energies discussing adolescent years and shaping the personality avoiding destructive tendencies.
Approaches to personality
Psychodynamic approach
Id: it is the biological root of the personality.
It contains primitive urges and desires.
It directs people to seek pleasure and avoid pain at all costs.
Ego:
Ego is the moderating component of personality.
It helps to engage in rational and logical thought.
It keeps the person in some kind of stable relationships with others.
Super ego:
The super ego enables the person to come up with moral values of society.
Trait approach:
Personality traits are enduring and consistent across a variety of situations. So that we tend to behave in the same way in most situations.
According to this theory, it is therefore possible to predict how a performer will behave and a profile of an individual can be developed to help coaches make predictions.
Traits are considered to predispose a person to act in a certain way, regardless of situation of circumstances.
e.g.: if an athlete is competitive he /she will be influenced to playing hard and giving all regardless of the situation or score.
The situational approach
This approach argues that behavior is determined by the situation or environment.
This approach holds that environment influences reinforces and shape the way one behaves.
e.g.: player may act confident in one situation. But tentative in another situation. if the influence of the environment is strong enough, the effect of personality traits will be minimal.
The interactional approach:
The interactional approach: this approach considers the situation and person co determinants of behavior.
In other words, knowing both an individual’s psychological traits and particular situation is helpful in understanding behavior.
e.g., a frustrated spectator at foot ball game controls his aggression in front of his mother,
Concept of athletic personality:
Coach must know the different personality types of athletes to use the varied approaches available to help different athletes.
I.e. form of communication, motivational techniques and teaching procedures as per the individual athletes.
Every athlete possesses some traits but these traits differ to person to person.
From personality point of view, an individual may respond to similar stimulus differently. In two different situations
No two individuals (athletes) would be alike and they may respond to same stimulus differently in the same situation.
Personality refers to what person actually is and that is appraised by a personality test or as perceived by others during interpersonal transactions in social life.
The goal of sports personality is to explain the role of personality of athletes in sport.
The study of personality helps the coaches, sports psychologists and others professionals to work better with athletes and exercisers.
Traits of athletes.
1. Drive
Athletes with drive desire to win or to be successful. They are competitive.
2.Determination:
Athletes with determination do not give up things easily
They practice long and hard to achieve his goals.
They spend much time working on his skills.
3. Intelligence:
Intelligent athlete can grasp things quickly.
4. Aggression:-
Athletes will try to rectify the mistakes through criticizing and arguing.
It is an important part of athletic success.
Athlete with aggression will be anxious.
5. Leadership:-
This characteristic likes to influence his teammates.
Athletes with Leadership make good decisions, plans and good goals.
Athletes are quite outspoken.
Organization:
Athletes effectively place things, able to plan and making structure, the organization quality is important for athlete.
7. Coachability
Athlete with coachability respects the coach, accepts his advice and training rules.
8. Emotionality:
Athletes with emotionality are matured, stable and controls his emotions.
9. Responsibility:
This enables an athlete to accept responsibility for his success and defects.
10. Sociablity:
Athlete with this trait accepts social norms ad values.
More conventional in nature.
11. Extroversion.
Extroverts are more outward.
They are interested in events, activities. Their response is faster
Their attention will be better during short sessions.
Introverts:-
These are more inward.
They tend to have less concern with other people.
Attention will be better during long session. They take time to respond.
Mental toughness.
These are self motivated
They are positive but realistic
They control emotions
They are calm and relaxed
Highly energetic
Determined
Mentally alert and focused.
And they are fully responsible for their failures and success.
Personality of athletes and non athletes.
Athletes who played team sports exhibited less abstract reasoning, more extroversion, more dependency, and less ego strength compared to non athletes.
Athletes who played individual sports displayed higher levels of objectivity, more independent, less anxiety, and less abstract thinking.
However athletes are more achievement – oriented, more dominant, and displayed low levels of anxiety. They are less compulsive and impulsive, having greater tolerance to pain and higher social adjustment than non athletes.
Female athletes vs. male athletes.
Females are more passive and dependent, and some are more aggressive, goal oriented, organized, and rule governed.
Male athletes were rated as more active, aggressive, competitive, dominating controlling, and public.
Mental health profile of athletes.
The most successful work on personality differences between successful and unsuccessful athlete has been conducted by Morgan.
Based on large body of research studying elite athletes, Morgan identified a personality profile of successful athletes. Successful athletes enjoy greater positive mental health Marked by low levels of tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion, but high levels of vigor.
Diagram
Some sports psychologists believe that personality data can be predictive of athletic success.
While others believe that personality profiles can not be used to predict athletic success.
Case study:
The case study method is a form of qualitative analysis which involves observations of a social unit, be that unit a person, a family, an institution or a cultural group. Case study deals with processes that take place and their inter relationship. It helps to locate the factors that account for the behavior pattern of the given unit as an integrated totality.
Interview method:
The interview method involves presenting verbal stimuli and reply. The interviewer collects information personally from the sources concerned. In certain cases interviewer records the responses of a predetermined set of questions himself which is an interview schedule.
Structured interview:
It follows a rigid procedure asking questions in a form and prescribed.
Unstructured interviews:
It is more flexible in nature and is more useful in explanatory research studies.
Direct interview:
It is face to face contact. Interviewer initiates the interviewer.
Non direct interview:
The interviewer function is to encourage the respondent to talk about the given topic with a bare minimum of direct questioning
precompetetive anxiety
Pre competitive anxiety
Pre competitive anxiety is a state of arousal that is unpleasant or negative and occurs prior to competition.
Symptoms of Pre competitive anxiety
Muscle tension,
Butterflies,
Desire to urinate,
Cotton mouth
Self focused thoughts
Self defeating and negative thoughts
Sources of Pre competitive anxiety
1. It results form an imbalance between perceived capabilities and the demands of the sport environment.
2. Fear of failure
3. Feeling inadequacy (poor conditioning, UN prepared)
4. Loss of control
5. Guilt (concerns about hurting an opponent)
d
Recommendations for athletes.
1. become more aware of your optimal level at arousal.
Think of the times when you felt ready going into a competition and it worked for you
2. Focus on things that are within your control.
Payer should think about the performance but not worrying about factors that are beyond our control.
3. Use performance cues to develop or retrain your arousal level.
Practicing mental routines and practicing them until they become automatic.
Pre competitive anxiety is a state of arousal that is unpleasant or negative and occurs prior to competition.
Symptoms of Pre competitive anxiety
Muscle tension,
Butterflies,
Desire to urinate,
Cotton mouth
Self focused thoughts
Self defeating and negative thoughts
Sources of Pre competitive anxiety
1. It results form an imbalance between perceived capabilities and the demands of the sport environment.
2. Fear of failure
3. Feeling inadequacy (poor conditioning, UN prepared)
4. Loss of control
5. Guilt (concerns about hurting an opponent)
d
Recommendations for athletes.
1. become more aware of your optimal level at arousal.
Think of the times when you felt ready going into a competition and it worked for you
2. Focus on things that are within your control.
Payer should think about the performance but not worrying about factors that are beyond our control.
3. Use performance cues to develop or retrain your arousal level.
Practicing mental routines and practicing them until they become automatic.
pre competetive states
Psychological manifestations of pre start states
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.
This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.
Diagram
pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever • high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. • Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.
This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.
Diagram
pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever • high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. • Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.
pre competetive states
Psychological manifestations of pre start states
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.
This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.
Diagram
pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever • high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. • Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.
This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.
Diagram
pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever • high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. • Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.
Monday, August 16, 2010
emotion
Chapter II
Emotions in sports
Definition: Emotion is defined as a reaction to a stimulus event (either actual or imagined)
e.g. child tries to run away when sees the bull coming towards him.
Feeling nervous by imagining about competition
It is a disturbed muscular activity.
Role of emotions in sports
Emotions are driving forces of life.
The emotions are important in social interaction and in forming social connections.
Learning how to manage our emotions is an important skill that we continually develop throughout our lives.
Problems arise when emotions persist for longer than normal periods.
Various functions like thinking, reasoning, perception, learning, and memory are all determined by emotions.
The failure and achievement are all directed by emotions.
When a sports person is overpowered by strong emotions of fear, he fails to discriminate the right and the wrong.
Types of emotions
Positive emotions Negative emotions
Joy sorrow
Happiness fear
Love jealousy
Determination frustration
Enthusiasm anger
Interest boredom
And fear
Anxiety
1. stress and anxiety
Stress
It is defined as the non specific response of the body to any demand made upon it (Hans selye 1975)
Stress occurs when you are not able to meet environmental demands.
e.g.: over training
Types of stress
1. Eu stress (positive stress)
Joy
Happiness
Pleasant
2. Distress (negative stress )
Fear
Worry
Apprehension
Anxiety
Consequences of stress:
Chronic stress leads to general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
These are the profound physiological changes in the endocrine and other organ systems resulting from stress.
1. Alarm stage :
This phase consists of bodily changes that occur with emotional responses – eg:increasing heart beat, increased pulse rate, poor functioning of bodily organs .
2. Resistance stage:
During this stage a human recovers from the emotional alarm reaction and attempts to cope with situation.
3. Exhaustion stage:
However stresses of diseases, exposure, or injury can often result in exhaustion and organism will die unless treated.
Anxiety:
It is a negative emotional state with feelings of nervousness, worry, and apprehension.
Types of anxiety
State anxiety:
It is characterized by apprehension, fear and tension accompanied by physiological arousal. It is a situational anxiety.
a) cognitive state anxiety: it is the thought component of anxiety
b) somatic state anxiety : It is bodily related anxiety
Trait anxiety: it is the part of the personality. Perceiving a wide variety of situations as being threatening or dangerous and to respond to those situations with state anxiety.
Relationship between Trait Anxiety and State Anxiety
Research shows that those who score high on trait anxiety measures also experience more state anxiety
Individual fact
What triggers anxiety?
Athlete anxiety triggers from the fear of failure, fear of success, fear of injuries, rejection by the coach, fans, family and significant others .
How does increased anxiety affect the athlete ?
Chronic feelings of fear and anxiety result in psychosomatic illness
Migraine headache,
Gastrointestinal problems
Body pains.
Increased heart rate
Increased blood pleasure
Increased sweating,
Increased respiration,
Increased muscle tension.
Psychological changes associated with increased stress and anxiety
Inability to take decisions,
Feeling confused,
Inability to concentrate,
Not feeling control.
Behavioral changes associated with increased anxiety and stress
Rapid talking,
Nail biting,
Foot tapping,
Muscle twitching,
Pacing scowling,
Increased blinking,
Yawning,
Broken voices,
Measuring anxiety
There are many psychological and physiological ways to measure anxiety.
Physiological measures
1. Galvanic skin response: it measures the electrical activity in the arterioles and veinules
2. (Electro cardiogram) ECG: It measures the electrical activity of the heart beat
3.(Electro encephalogram) EEg: it measures the record of electrical current developed by the cerebral cortex.
4.electro myogram (emg) it measures the electrical activity of the muscle
5. Sphygmomanometer (BP): it measures arterial blood pressure
Psychological measures:
people rate their anxiety with series of statements.
E.g., anxiety questionnaires
stress management
Three ways to manage stress and anxiety
I. Environmental engineering
1. Reducing uncertainty
E.g. let the players know well in advance of the game situations
2: Decrease importance
Eg: Ask parents to discontinue the practice if player faces more anxiety in practice in presence of the parents.
II. Cognitive stress management techniques :
Imagery relaxation
self directed relaxation
progressive realxation
Awareness of negative thinking
Rational thinking
Smart talk
Stress inoculation training
Autogenic training
III.Somatic stress mangament
Self directed relaxation technique
Progressive relaxation technique
Biofeedback relaxation
Breath control
Emotions in sports
Definition: Emotion is defined as a reaction to a stimulus event (either actual or imagined)
e.g. child tries to run away when sees the bull coming towards him.
Feeling nervous by imagining about competition
It is a disturbed muscular activity.
Role of emotions in sports
Emotions are driving forces of life.
The emotions are important in social interaction and in forming social connections.
Learning how to manage our emotions is an important skill that we continually develop throughout our lives.
Problems arise when emotions persist for longer than normal periods.
Various functions like thinking, reasoning, perception, learning, and memory are all determined by emotions.
The failure and achievement are all directed by emotions.
When a sports person is overpowered by strong emotions of fear, he fails to discriminate the right and the wrong.
Types of emotions
Positive emotions Negative emotions
Joy sorrow
Happiness fear
Love jealousy
Determination frustration
Enthusiasm anger
Interest boredom
And fear
Anxiety
1. stress and anxiety
Stress
It is defined as the non specific response of the body to any demand made upon it (Hans selye 1975)
Stress occurs when you are not able to meet environmental demands.
e.g.: over training
Types of stress
1. Eu stress (positive stress)
Joy
Happiness
Pleasant
2. Distress (negative stress )
Fear
Worry
Apprehension
Anxiety
Consequences of stress:
Chronic stress leads to general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
These are the profound physiological changes in the endocrine and other organ systems resulting from stress.
1. Alarm stage :
This phase consists of bodily changes that occur with emotional responses – eg:increasing heart beat, increased pulse rate, poor functioning of bodily organs .
2. Resistance stage:
During this stage a human recovers from the emotional alarm reaction and attempts to cope with situation.
3. Exhaustion stage:
However stresses of diseases, exposure, or injury can often result in exhaustion and organism will die unless treated.
Anxiety:
It is a negative emotional state with feelings of nervousness, worry, and apprehension.
Types of anxiety
State anxiety:
It is characterized by apprehension, fear and tension accompanied by physiological arousal. It is a situational anxiety.
a) cognitive state anxiety: it is the thought component of anxiety
b) somatic state anxiety : It is bodily related anxiety
Trait anxiety: it is the part of the personality. Perceiving a wide variety of situations as being threatening or dangerous and to respond to those situations with state anxiety.
Relationship between Trait Anxiety and State Anxiety
Research shows that those who score high on trait anxiety measures also experience more state anxiety
Individual fact
What triggers anxiety?
Athlete anxiety triggers from the fear of failure, fear of success, fear of injuries, rejection by the coach, fans, family and significant others .
How does increased anxiety affect the athlete ?
Chronic feelings of fear and anxiety result in psychosomatic illness
Migraine headache,
Gastrointestinal problems
Body pains.
Increased heart rate
Increased blood pleasure
Increased sweating,
Increased respiration,
Increased muscle tension.
Psychological changes associated with increased stress and anxiety
Inability to take decisions,
Feeling confused,
Inability to concentrate,
Not feeling control.
Behavioral changes associated with increased anxiety and stress
Rapid talking,
Nail biting,
Foot tapping,
Muscle twitching,
Pacing scowling,
Increased blinking,
Yawning,
Broken voices,
Measuring anxiety
There are many psychological and physiological ways to measure anxiety.
Physiological measures
1. Galvanic skin response: it measures the electrical activity in the arterioles and veinules
2. (Electro cardiogram) ECG: It measures the electrical activity of the heart beat
3.(Electro encephalogram) EEg: it measures the record of electrical current developed by the cerebral cortex.
4.electro myogram (emg) it measures the electrical activity of the muscle
5. Sphygmomanometer (BP): it measures arterial blood pressure
Psychological measures:
people rate their anxiety with series of statements.
E.g., anxiety questionnaires
stress management
Three ways to manage stress and anxiety
I. Environmental engineering
1. Reducing uncertainty
E.g. let the players know well in advance of the game situations
2: Decrease importance
Eg: Ask parents to discontinue the practice if player faces more anxiety in practice in presence of the parents.
II. Cognitive stress management techniques :
Imagery relaxation
self directed relaxation
progressive realxation
Awareness of negative thinking
Rational thinking
Smart talk
Stress inoculation training
Autogenic training
III.Somatic stress mangament
Self directed relaxation technique
Progressive relaxation technique
Biofeedback relaxation
Breath control
Monday, August 2, 2010
attention
Attention and concentration:
Attention: Attention is the mental process where by athletes direct and maintains awareness of stimuli detected by their senses.
Dimensions of the attention (Types of attention):
Neideffer identified four types of antinational focus.
Broad
Internal external
Narrow
Broad external attentional focus: used to rapidly assess a situation .
E g: a soccer player rapidly assess the position of the defensive team.
Broad internal attentional focus.
Used to analyze and plan.
E.g. developing game plan.
Narrow external attentional focus:
Used to focus exclusively on one or two external cues externally.
E.g. the ball or position of opponent.
Narrow internal attentional focus:
Used to mentally rehearse an upcoming performance or control an emotional state.
E.g. mentally rehearse tennis swing or taking a breath to relax.
Guidelines for improving attention:
1. The attentional demands for each specific
Skill in your sport should be analyzed by you and
Athletes.
2. When attention is focused externally teach athletes what cues should be attended.
3. When attention is focused internally attend to positive thoughts.
4. Attend to the present and immediate forthcoming action.
Concentration:
Focusing on the relevant cues in the environment, maintaining that attentional focus overtime, having awareness of the changing situations, and shifting attentional focus when necessary. (Weinberg, 1999)
1. Focusing on the relevant cues:
Selecting relevant cues and focusing and disregarding or eliminating irrelevant cues.
2. Maintaining that focus overtime:
Maintaining attentional focus for the duration of the competition or practice.
3.Having aware of the changing situations
An athlete’s Ability to understand what is going on around him or her is known as situational awareness.
This ability allows players to size up the game situations, opponents, and competition.
4.Shifting the attentional
Often it is necessary to shift attentional focus during an event demanded by the situation.
Concentration and sport performance
Athletes and coaches certainly recognize the importance of proper attentional focus in achieving high levels of performance.
Successful athletes maintain a more task oriented focus and are less likely to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli.
Peak performers have developed exceptional concentration. They get absorbed in present and having
Attentional problems
1.internal distracters
Our thoughts, worries, and concerns are the internal distracters.
These worries and irrelevant thoughts can cause performers to lose concentration and develop an inappropriate focus of attention.
Attending to past events
Focusing on the past events has been the downfall of many talented athletes, as looking backward prevents them from focusing on the present.
Attending to events
Athletes engage in a form of worrying or thinking about the outcome of the event rather than what they need to do now to be successful also prevents them from focusing on game.
Choking under pressure
Emotional factors such as the pressure of competition often play a critical role in creating internal sources of distraction.
Conditions leading to choking:
• important competition
• critical plays in a competition.
• evaluation by coaches, peers, and parents
Physical changes due to pressure of competition.
• increased muscle tension
• increased breathing rate
• racing heart rate.
Attentional problems due to pressure of competition
• internal focus
• narrow focus
• reduced flexibility
Performance impairment due to pressure of competition
• timings and coordination breaks down
• muscle tight ness and fatigue
• rushing
• Inability to attend to task relevant cues.
Overanalyzing body mechanics
The more analyze, the more likely you are to break the natural, smooth movement’s characteristics of high levels of performance.
Fatigue
When player gets tired, his loses concentration .this results in impaired decision making, lack of focus and intensity, and other mental breakdowns. This is why conditioning and fitness are so important.
Inadequate motivation.
If an individual is not motivated, it is difficult to maintain concentration, as the mind is likely to wanders.
External distracters.
1. Visual distracters
Spectators can cause a visual distraction and may affect some people’s concentration and subsequent performance by making them try too hard.
Score board and television cameras also causes attentional problems.
2. Auditory distracters:
Common distracters include crowd noise, airplanes flying overhead, mobile telephones, announcements on the public address system, beepers and other electronic paging devices. Loud conversations among spectators.
3. Gamesmanship
In many sports situations, competitors ploys in an effort to disrupt the concentration of their opponents; this is typically referred to as gamesmanship.
Tips for improving concentration on site
1. Use simulation in practice
Players will be physically and psychologically prepared for this pressure situation in the game. This type of practice is known as simulation training.
Practicing with distractions can help develop focus.
Cue words
Cue words are used to trigger a particular response and are really a form of self talk.
Simple and let them automatically trigger the desired response.
e .g: strong , move , relax
Employ non judgmental thinking:
Player, instead of judging the worth of a performance and categorizing it as either good or bad. payer should learn to look at your actions nonjudgmentally .
Establish routines:
Routines can focus concentration and can be extremely helpful to mental preparation for an upcoming performance.
e.g.: a tennis player during changeovers might sit in a chair, take a deep breath, and image what she wants to do in the next game.
Routines can be used before or during an event to focus attention, reduce anxiety, and enhance confidence.
Developing competition plan
Establishing precompetition and competition plans to help maintain their attentional focus .
These plans help athletes not only prepare for their events but also prepare for what they would do in different circumstances, both before and during competition.
Practice eye control
Eye control is still another method to focus concentration. Fixing eyes only on the task is the key to control our eyes not to wander to irrelevant cues.
Attention: Attention is the mental process where by athletes direct and maintains awareness of stimuli detected by their senses.
Dimensions of the attention (Types of attention):
Neideffer identified four types of antinational focus.
Broad
Internal external
Narrow
Broad external attentional focus: used to rapidly assess a situation .
E g: a soccer player rapidly assess the position of the defensive team.
Broad internal attentional focus.
Used to analyze and plan.
E.g. developing game plan.
Narrow external attentional focus:
Used to focus exclusively on one or two external cues externally.
E.g. the ball or position of opponent.
Narrow internal attentional focus:
Used to mentally rehearse an upcoming performance or control an emotional state.
E.g. mentally rehearse tennis swing or taking a breath to relax.
Guidelines for improving attention:
1. The attentional demands for each specific
Skill in your sport should be analyzed by you and
Athletes.
2. When attention is focused externally teach athletes what cues should be attended.
3. When attention is focused internally attend to positive thoughts.
4. Attend to the present and immediate forthcoming action.
Concentration:
Focusing on the relevant cues in the environment, maintaining that attentional focus overtime, having awareness of the changing situations, and shifting attentional focus when necessary. (Weinberg, 1999)
1. Focusing on the relevant cues:
Selecting relevant cues and focusing and disregarding or eliminating irrelevant cues.
2. Maintaining that focus overtime:
Maintaining attentional focus for the duration of the competition or practice.
3.Having aware of the changing situations
An athlete’s Ability to understand what is going on around him or her is known as situational awareness.
This ability allows players to size up the game situations, opponents, and competition.
4.Shifting the attentional
Often it is necessary to shift attentional focus during an event demanded by the situation.
Concentration and sport performance
Athletes and coaches certainly recognize the importance of proper attentional focus in achieving high levels of performance.
Successful athletes maintain a more task oriented focus and are less likely to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli.
Peak performers have developed exceptional concentration. They get absorbed in present and having
Attentional problems
1.internal distracters
Our thoughts, worries, and concerns are the internal distracters.
These worries and irrelevant thoughts can cause performers to lose concentration and develop an inappropriate focus of attention.
Attending to past events
Focusing on the past events has been the downfall of many talented athletes, as looking backward prevents them from focusing on the present.
Attending to events
Athletes engage in a form of worrying or thinking about the outcome of the event rather than what they need to do now to be successful also prevents them from focusing on game.
Choking under pressure
Emotional factors such as the pressure of competition often play a critical role in creating internal sources of distraction.
Conditions leading to choking:
• important competition
• critical plays in a competition.
• evaluation by coaches, peers, and parents
Physical changes due to pressure of competition.
• increased muscle tension
• increased breathing rate
• racing heart rate.
Attentional problems due to pressure of competition
• internal focus
• narrow focus
• reduced flexibility
Performance impairment due to pressure of competition
• timings and coordination breaks down
• muscle tight ness and fatigue
• rushing
• Inability to attend to task relevant cues.
Overanalyzing body mechanics
The more analyze, the more likely you are to break the natural, smooth movement’s characteristics of high levels of performance.
Fatigue
When player gets tired, his loses concentration .this results in impaired decision making, lack of focus and intensity, and other mental breakdowns. This is why conditioning and fitness are so important.
Inadequate motivation.
If an individual is not motivated, it is difficult to maintain concentration, as the mind is likely to wanders.
External distracters.
1. Visual distracters
Spectators can cause a visual distraction and may affect some people’s concentration and subsequent performance by making them try too hard.
Score board and television cameras also causes attentional problems.
2. Auditory distracters:
Common distracters include crowd noise, airplanes flying overhead, mobile telephones, announcements on the public address system, beepers and other electronic paging devices. Loud conversations among spectators.
3. Gamesmanship
In many sports situations, competitors ploys in an effort to disrupt the concentration of their opponents; this is typically referred to as gamesmanship.
Tips for improving concentration on site
1. Use simulation in practice
Players will be physically and psychologically prepared for this pressure situation in the game. This type of practice is known as simulation training.
Practicing with distractions can help develop focus.
Cue words
Cue words are used to trigger a particular response and are really a form of self talk.
Simple and let them automatically trigger the desired response.
e .g: strong , move , relax
Employ non judgmental thinking:
Player, instead of judging the worth of a performance and categorizing it as either good or bad. payer should learn to look at your actions nonjudgmentally .
Establish routines:
Routines can focus concentration and can be extremely helpful to mental preparation for an upcoming performance.
e.g.: a tennis player during changeovers might sit in a chair, take a deep breath, and image what she wants to do in the next game.
Routines can be used before or during an event to focus attention, reduce anxiety, and enhance confidence.
Developing competition plan
Establishing precompetition and competition plans to help maintain their attentional focus .
These plans help athletes not only prepare for their events but also prepare for what they would do in different circumstances, both before and during competition.
Practice eye control
Eye control is still another method to focus concentration. Fixing eyes only on the task is the key to control our eyes not to wander to irrelevant cues.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
memory
Memory vital
Memory is defined as the storage of information processing activity.
Information is picked up from the display by the receptors and held immediately for a fraction of a second in the short term sensory store.
This is a temporary and transient space.
It holds all the information from the display and begins to filter.
The stimulus is then passed on to the short term-memory, which is also called working memory.
Rehearsal of short term memory can be turned into a long term memory
Long term memory is a large storage system in which images of skills and practices from sport have been filed away, rather like the data files in a computer.
The information stored in it can last a lifetime.
e.g.: once you learned to swim, you never forget
Reaction, movement and response
Reaction time measures a performer’s ability to sense and interpret information before making a movement in sport, based on perceptual ability.
This shows us that reaction time is the time between the onsets of the stimulus to the onset of the response.
It is the processing of the stimulus before movement takes place.
E.g. At start of the race.
The reaction time is the period from hearing the gun until prior to leaving the blocks.
Movement time: it is the time from to the completion of the task.
Response time: it is from the onset the stimulus to the completion of task.
In sports the more the choices the performer has to make, the slower the response time will be.
Simple reaction time: In SRT performer needs to react to just one stimulus,
E.g. Responding to gun sound in 100mt race.
Choice reaction time: In CVRT performer has to choose from a number of points,
Midfield player in football deciding which player to pass.
Influences on reaction time and response time:
Reaction time is influenced by the following factors,
Age: so older performers tend to react more slowly.
Experienced players tend to react more quickly.
Gender: studies show that men react faster than women.
Performance enhancing drugs might affect reaction time.
The level of fitness affects reaction time
We tend to react more quickly to an intense stimulus,
e.g.: loud shout
Improving response time:
1. mental rehearsal
E.g. running through a performance in the mind without a movement.
2. Focus
3. Enhancing the fitness levels of the performer improves response time.
4. The ability to anticipate.
5. Studying your opponent on video his style of play and receiving feedback from coach helps the player to improve his reaction time.
6. Training methods improves the reaction time.
Thinking and anticipation
Thinking is one which occurs in experience when an organism (human) meets, recognizes and solves the problem.
Anticipation; when organism tries to foresee factors or expect before hand.
E.g. Anticipating pitch of the ball.
Thinking and anticipation includes analytic thinking before competition, during competition and after competition.
Different solutions may be available for different problems but the appropriate solution to be selected.
During stress situation, proper thinking may not be possible which may adversely affect the performance.
In sports, thinking can be in the following directions.
1. Preparatory thinking:
Analyzing your strengths, weaknesses and opponent’s strengths and weakness. Developing plans .
What is the problem?
How to solve the problem?
What are the ways to solve the problem?
Which is most appropriate to solve the problem?
If one way doest solve our problem we should look for alternative solution for the problem.
1. Actual thinking: practical aspects of the game.
E.g.: applying proper technique according to the situation. When to play defense and when to play attacking.
2. After thinking or reproductive thinking.
E.g.: analyzing the reasons for failure, success and rectifying the mistakes.
All the above factors aids in decision –making and anticipating matters.
Factors influencing cognitive process in sports
- Sense organs -anxiety - play fields
- Frustration -illumination
-Gender - mood -climate
-Illness/ injury etc - motivation - food
A person’s age is an important factor influencing the cognition.
The analysis and memory component is important in the decision making of the playing situations.
Sense organs and development its function aids in the information processing.
Any injury or illness of the players can be a very disturbing element affecting the attention and concentration.
To maintain the right levels of attention and concentration, the individual has to be in the positive mood with right levels of motivation and arousal.
When arousal is high, concentration narrows and becomes internally focused.
The athlete finds it difficult in listening to the coach’s instructions and gets confused.
The environmental factors include the play field facilities and the nature of the ground or the kind of illumination which players are used in training conditions and that of competitive conditions play a key role on cognitive functions.
The climate conditions of different competitive sites and the acclimatization to the same also influence the cognitive process of the players
Memory is defined as the storage of information processing activity.
Information is picked up from the display by the receptors and held immediately for a fraction of a second in the short term sensory store.
This is a temporary and transient space.
It holds all the information from the display and begins to filter.
The stimulus is then passed on to the short term-memory, which is also called working memory.
Rehearsal of short term memory can be turned into a long term memory
Long term memory is a large storage system in which images of skills and practices from sport have been filed away, rather like the data files in a computer.
The information stored in it can last a lifetime.
e.g.: once you learned to swim, you never forget
Reaction, movement and response
Reaction time measures a performer’s ability to sense and interpret information before making a movement in sport, based on perceptual ability.
This shows us that reaction time is the time between the onsets of the stimulus to the onset of the response.
It is the processing of the stimulus before movement takes place.
E.g. At start of the race.
The reaction time is the period from hearing the gun until prior to leaving the blocks.
Movement time: it is the time from to the completion of the task.
Response time: it is from the onset the stimulus to the completion of task.
In sports the more the choices the performer has to make, the slower the response time will be.
Simple reaction time: In SRT performer needs to react to just one stimulus,
E.g. Responding to gun sound in 100mt race.
Choice reaction time: In CVRT performer has to choose from a number of points,
Midfield player in football deciding which player to pass.
Influences on reaction time and response time:
Reaction time is influenced by the following factors,
Age: so older performers tend to react more slowly.
Experienced players tend to react more quickly.
Gender: studies show that men react faster than women.
Performance enhancing drugs might affect reaction time.
The level of fitness affects reaction time
We tend to react more quickly to an intense stimulus,
e.g.: loud shout
Improving response time:
1. mental rehearsal
E.g. running through a performance in the mind without a movement.
2. Focus
3. Enhancing the fitness levels of the performer improves response time.
4. The ability to anticipate.
5. Studying your opponent on video his style of play and receiving feedback from coach helps the player to improve his reaction time.
6. Training methods improves the reaction time.
Thinking and anticipation
Thinking is one which occurs in experience when an organism (human) meets, recognizes and solves the problem.
Anticipation; when organism tries to foresee factors or expect before hand.
E.g. Anticipating pitch of the ball.
Thinking and anticipation includes analytic thinking before competition, during competition and after competition.
Different solutions may be available for different problems but the appropriate solution to be selected.
During stress situation, proper thinking may not be possible which may adversely affect the performance.
In sports, thinking can be in the following directions.
1. Preparatory thinking:
Analyzing your strengths, weaknesses and opponent’s strengths and weakness. Developing plans .
What is the problem?
How to solve the problem?
What are the ways to solve the problem?
Which is most appropriate to solve the problem?
If one way doest solve our problem we should look for alternative solution for the problem.
1. Actual thinking: practical aspects of the game.
E.g.: applying proper technique according to the situation. When to play defense and when to play attacking.
2. After thinking or reproductive thinking.
E.g.: analyzing the reasons for failure, success and rectifying the mistakes.
All the above factors aids in decision –making and anticipating matters.
Factors influencing cognitive process in sports
- Sense organs -anxiety - play fields
- Frustration -illumination
-Gender - mood -climate
-Illness/ injury etc - motivation - food
A person’s age is an important factor influencing the cognition.
The analysis and memory component is important in the decision making of the playing situations.
Sense organs and development its function aids in the information processing.
Any injury or illness of the players can be a very disturbing element affecting the attention and concentration.
To maintain the right levels of attention and concentration, the individual has to be in the positive mood with right levels of motivation and arousal.
When arousal is high, concentration narrows and becomes internally focused.
The athlete finds it difficult in listening to the coach’s instructions and gets confused.
The environmental factors include the play field facilities and the nature of the ground or the kind of illumination which players are used in training conditions and that of competitive conditions play a key role on cognitive functions.
The climate conditions of different competitive sites and the acclimatization to the same also influence the cognitive process of the players
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
INTRODUCTION TO SPORTSPSYCHOLOGY
INTRODUCTION TO SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY
Definition of Sports Psychology:
The science, which studies behavior of an individual in sports environment or in physical activity setting.
Most people study sport and exercise psychology with following two objectives.
1. To understand how psychological factors affect an individual physical performance.
E.g. how does anxiety affect a basket ball player’s accuracy in free throw shooting?
2. To understand how participation in sport and exercise affects a person’s psychological development, health and wellbeing.
E.g. does running reduce anxiety and depression?
Sports psychologists are particularly interested in the variation that occurs in the behavior of individuals in sports contexts.
This includes variation among different individuals who are placed in the same situation as well as variation in the behavior of the same individual across different situations.
Sport and exercise psychologists seek to understand and help elite athletes, children, persons who are physically and mentally disabled, average participants.
Sports psychology is viewed as a sub discipline of sport and exercise science.
Goals of Sports Psychology:
1. Describing the behavior
2. Explaining the behavior in sports context
3. Predicting the behavior
4. Controlling the behavior
Branches of psychology
1. school psychology
2. child psychology
3. criminal psychology
4. political psychology
5. industrial psychology
6. clinical psychology
7. military psychology
Branches of sports psychology
1).Experimental Sports Psychology:
We apply research methods to conduct research on sports.
2.) Applied Sports Psychology
A) Clinical sports psychology
Clinical sports psychologists are trained specifically in psychology to treat athletes with severe emotional problems.
E.g. Depression, Suicidal tendencies.
b). Educational sports psychology:
Educational sports psychologists receive training in sport science and related fields and serve as mental coaches.
Role of sports psychology specialists:
1. Consulting role :
Consulting with individual athletes or athletic teams to develop psychological skills for enhancing performance.
E.g. improving self confidence, concentration and managing anxiety.
Providing crisis intervention services.
2. Teaching role:
Sports psychology specialists teach such courses like exercise psychology, applied sports psychology, social psychology of sports, personality psychology and developmental psychology.
3. Research role:
Spots psychologists conduct research to advance the knowledge within sports field.
E.g. what motivates children to be involved in youth sports?
Sports psychologists share their findings with colleagues and participants in the field.
Short History of Sport Psychology
Triplett's did experiment on motor performance of cyclists.
He found cyclists perform better when they competing against others than alone.
He reasoned that the presence of others aroused a competitive drive in the cyclists.
Coleman Griffith in 1925 established an athletic research laboratory at university of Illinois.
He wrote the following two text books
1. psychology of coaching (1926) and
2. psychology of athletes (1928)
The international society of sports psychology formed (issp) in 1965.
1965:first world congress of sport psychology is held Rome
1967:first annual north American society for the psychology of sport and physical activity conference is held (naspspa)
1986:the applied scholarly journal
Short history of sports psychology in India
In 1950 Govt of India included physical education as co curricular subject at primary school level.
At the same time they recognized the importance of psychological studies of sports and coaching for physical education teachers.
Following national bodies have been formed by Indian sports science professionals.
• Sports psychology association of India (1985)
• National association of physical education and sports sciences (1992)
• Sports sciences research foundation (1993).
Methods of sports psychology
Study of behavior can be carried out through the following methods.
1. Introspection.
It is a self -observation in which one perceives, analyses, and report ones own feelings
Oldest method
Advantages
1. Simple
2. Low expensive
3. No need of laboratory equipment
4. Direct knowledge of the mental experiences of the individual
Limitations
1. Children can not introspect
2. Not scientific
2. Natural observation method/ systematic observation
Studying the behavior of one individual by another individual under the most natural conditions.
a) Participant observation
b) Non-participant observation
Advantages
1. More reliable
2. More scientific
Limitations
1. Time consuming
2. Possibility of observer bias
3. The experimental method
Studying behavior under laboratory conditions is called experimental method.
e.g., how intelligence effect your academic performance
Advantages:
1. the most scientific method
2. Easily replicable
Limitations
1. can not be used always
2. subjects in an experiment may not behave as they normally would behave in natural settings
4. Differential method. a research technique in which information is gathered from athletes through the using of surveys or questionnaires and Calculation of individual differences
5, Clinical method
It is applicable to any individual who suffers from psychological problems.
This method is aimed at seeking maximum adjustment and welfare of the disturbed people.
Adequate physical check up, Case history
Clinical interview, using psychological tests, diagnosing the problem and solving the problems are done through this method.
6. Physiological method: Using physical devices for measuring of psychological experiences e.g. ., Brightness and loudness
Definition of Sports Psychology:
The science, which studies behavior of an individual in sports environment or in physical activity setting.
Most people study sport and exercise psychology with following two objectives.
1. To understand how psychological factors affect an individual physical performance.
E.g. how does anxiety affect a basket ball player’s accuracy in free throw shooting?
2. To understand how participation in sport and exercise affects a person’s psychological development, health and wellbeing.
E.g. does running reduce anxiety and depression?
Sports psychologists are particularly interested in the variation that occurs in the behavior of individuals in sports contexts.
This includes variation among different individuals who are placed in the same situation as well as variation in the behavior of the same individual across different situations.
Sport and exercise psychologists seek to understand and help elite athletes, children, persons who are physically and mentally disabled, average participants.
Sports psychology is viewed as a sub discipline of sport and exercise science.
Goals of Sports Psychology:
1. Describing the behavior
2. Explaining the behavior in sports context
3. Predicting the behavior
4. Controlling the behavior
Branches of psychology
1. school psychology
2. child psychology
3. criminal psychology
4. political psychology
5. industrial psychology
6. clinical psychology
7. military psychology
Branches of sports psychology
1).Experimental Sports Psychology:
We apply research methods to conduct research on sports.
2.) Applied Sports Psychology
A) Clinical sports psychology
Clinical sports psychologists are trained specifically in psychology to treat athletes with severe emotional problems.
E.g. Depression, Suicidal tendencies.
b). Educational sports psychology:
Educational sports psychologists receive training in sport science and related fields and serve as mental coaches.
Role of sports psychology specialists:
1. Consulting role :
Consulting with individual athletes or athletic teams to develop psychological skills for enhancing performance.
E.g. improving self confidence, concentration and managing anxiety.
Providing crisis intervention services.
2. Teaching role:
Sports psychology specialists teach such courses like exercise psychology, applied sports psychology, social psychology of sports, personality psychology and developmental psychology.
3. Research role:
Spots psychologists conduct research to advance the knowledge within sports field.
E.g. what motivates children to be involved in youth sports?
Sports psychologists share their findings with colleagues and participants in the field.
Short History of Sport Psychology
Triplett's did experiment on motor performance of cyclists.
He found cyclists perform better when they competing against others than alone.
He reasoned that the presence of others aroused a competitive drive in the cyclists.
Coleman Griffith in 1925 established an athletic research laboratory at university of Illinois.
He wrote the following two text books
1. psychology of coaching (1926) and
2. psychology of athletes (1928)
The international society of sports psychology formed (issp) in 1965.
1965:first world congress of sport psychology is held Rome
1967:first annual north American society for the psychology of sport and physical activity conference is held (naspspa)
1986:the applied scholarly journal
Short history of sports psychology in India
In 1950 Govt of India included physical education as co curricular subject at primary school level.
At the same time they recognized the importance of psychological studies of sports and coaching for physical education teachers.
Following national bodies have been formed by Indian sports science professionals.
• Sports psychology association of India (1985)
• National association of physical education and sports sciences (1992)
• Sports sciences research foundation (1993).
Methods of sports psychology
Study of behavior can be carried out through the following methods.
1. Introspection.
It is a self -observation in which one perceives, analyses, and report ones own feelings
Oldest method
Advantages
1. Simple
2. Low expensive
3. No need of laboratory equipment
4. Direct knowledge of the mental experiences of the individual
Limitations
1. Children can not introspect
2. Not scientific
2. Natural observation method/ systematic observation
Studying the behavior of one individual by another individual under the most natural conditions.
a) Participant observation
b) Non-participant observation
Advantages
1. More reliable
2. More scientific
Limitations
1. Time consuming
2. Possibility of observer bias
3. The experimental method
Studying behavior under laboratory conditions is called experimental method.
e.g., how intelligence effect your academic performance
Advantages:
1. the most scientific method
2. Easily replicable
Limitations
1. can not be used always
2. subjects in an experiment may not behave as they normally would behave in natural settings
4. Differential method. a research technique in which information is gathered from athletes through the using of surveys or questionnaires and Calculation of individual differences
5, Clinical method
It is applicable to any individual who suffers from psychological problems.
This method is aimed at seeking maximum adjustment and welfare of the disturbed people.
Adequate physical check up, Case history
Clinical interview, using psychological tests, diagnosing the problem and solving the problems are done through this method.
6. Physiological method: Using physical devices for measuring of psychological experiences e.g. ., Brightness and loudness
COGNITIVE PROCESS IN SPORTS
CHAPTER III
COGNITIVE PROCESS IN SPORTS
Cognition: It refers to processing information in the covert physic-psychological systems of the man.
Cognition involves all the process by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recollect, and used (neisser,1967)
It includes such complex mental activities as using thinking, remembering, conceptualizing, imagining, learning, and information processing.
Success of an athlete in the arena of competitive sports depends to a great extent on his or her cognitive functions.
For overpowering the rival in the hours of the contest, sports man requires correct goal setting, good decision making, and accurate perception, retention of motor – learning skills, and developing plans.
Sensation: the stimulation of sensory receptors and the transmission of sensory information to the nervous system are called sensation.
e.g.: sportspersons receive information from the coach/game situation by means of sensory reception.
All our contact with other human beings is mediated by senses.
Information reaches the brain by the sensory receptors and neural pathway.
When we understand the stimuli it does not remain sensation, but changes into perception
Environment stimuli act upon the human nervous system and arouses responses.
After the stimulus is received in the sense organ it must be transmitted through the nervous system to brain where it is coded and categorized.
Information is received by means of sensory reception. There are four kinds of receptors
a)Extroceptor – (located near the surface of the skin)
Heat /cold/pressure.
b) interceptor- (located in the internal organ)-hunger
c) proprioceptor-(located in muscles and joints)
d) Distance receptor – (located in the eyes and ears)
Information about distance.
Perception: Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world.
E.g. perceiving ball as ball.
When we attend to a stimulus, the sense impression will be interpreted by the respective sensory area of the cortex of the brain.
Brain organizes the transmitted sensory coded message into some meaningful pattern.
Perception includes receiving, organizing and processing of information.
Information is sorted out in the brain and becomes the foundation for decision making.
Athlete’s perception of the situation in the sport will determine the degree of the success.
Visual perception – judging the height (up-down) width (left –right) and distance (near-far) of object
Auditory perception –
Tactile perception:
Kinesthetic perception
Time perception –
Spatial perception –
Depth perception –
Stages of information processing
Input Output Decision making 
In the first stage, sensory input, involves selecting relevant information from the surroundings.
In the stage two, this information forms the basis of decision –making process .in stage three response will be selected.
After the response, feed back can be used to amend any incorrect movements.
Thewelford model
The display is the sporting environment from which information is selected.
e.g,court,umpire,crowd,and opposition
Sense organs pick up the required information from the display(from sports setting )
Seeing the flight of the ball.
proprioceptors help to provide the sense of balance, such as balance of the feet when preparing to perform particular skill, sense of touch,(feel of the rocket in the hand ) and sense of kinaesthesis(inner feeling of tension within the muscles and joints).
a decision on the appropriate response is made in the perceptual mechanisms.
once the decision taken on the appropriate action is made , Impulses are sent to the working muscles via network of nerves called the effector mechanisms.
On receiving an impulse, the muscles required to perform the movement begin to contract and repose ,
As this response is being performed, various forms of feedback can be used to detect and correct errors in the environment,
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