Lecture 6 - Psychological Skills 1 Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is psychological skills training?
Intervention in sports psychology
Goal is self regulation
Athletes functioning effectively on their own - systematic and consistent practice of psychological skills
What are basic psych skills?
Relaxation, goal setting, imagery, self talk - can be implemented by anyone
What are advanced psychological skills?
Controlling anxiety, self confidence, motivation and attention - implemented by a sports psychologist
What are the myths with psych skills?
Just for problem athletes - no- can be used to continue and enhance performance
Quick fix - immediate effect but it is a skill so requires practice
Just for elite athletes - can be used by anybody
What is PST based on?
Research on elite athletes
Experiences from coaches and athletes
Krane and Williams (2021)
Higher confidence, self regulation, concentration, positive thoughts, imagery, determination
How efficient is PST?
Brown and Fletcher (2017) reviewed the literature
Psychological and psychosocial improved performance
Performance effects lasted about a month
Interventions are better when coaches deliver
Somewhat greater effects for men vs women
How is anxiety shown in athletes?
Cognitive - worry and negative thoughts
Somatic - Nervousness and tension, increased perspiration, pounding heart
Behavioural - Tense facial expression, changes in communication
How do athletes cope with anxiety?
Problem focused - efforts to alter or manage the problem - info gathering, pre comp plans, goal setting, self talk, time management
Emotion focused - Regulate the emotional responses to the problem that causes the anxiety - meditation, relaxation, wishful thinking, reappraisal, mental and behavioural withdrawal
What is the matching hypothesis?
Anxiety management technique should be matched with the anxiety problem
Cognitive - mental relaxation
Somatic - physical relaxation
May be some crossover effect - Maynard et al. (1995)
What is muscle relaxation?
Kudlackova et al (2013) found pro athletes use more relaxation techniques than amateurs
Jacobson (1938) - PMR - Tensing specific muscle groups and relaxing them, learning to feel tension and let it go - Tense 5 secs, 50% release 5 secs then 100% release
Ost (1998) - applied variant
What is breathing and when is best to use it?
Breathing in and holding increases muscle tension
Breathing out decreases muscle tension
Use diaphragmatic breathing
Sport dependent - breaks in play e.g. snooker before the pot
Enhancing skill execution - Belly breathing in weightlifting
Outline pressure training
Demands of training - task stressor, performer stressor, environment stressor
Consequence of training - positive or negative on performance
Education - Teach athletes how to cope
Use Stress inoculation training - slowly overtime develop someone’s coping mechanism - relatively easy situation to a competition environment
What is self talk?
The way we talk to ourselves/ our inner monologues
Can be positive psychological skill to enhance concn and increase self confidence
Can also be negative internal distractor to our attention and concn
Cognitive behavioural psychology
What is the difference between REBT and CBT in regards to self talk?
REBT - Challenge the clients belief system - may have a faulty belief system
CBT - Challenging and breaking down the patterns between thoughts, feelings and behaviours
What are the 3 main types of self talk?
Positive - I can do it
Instructional - Keep your eyes on the ball - mainly for beginners, not for experts due to self focus model
Negative - That was a bad shot
What are the other types of self talk?
Organic and strategic
Organic can be spontaneous - unintended thoughts that come to mind naturally
Goal directed - rational response to spontaneous processes (self regulation)
Strategic - Pre-determined self talk plans to trigger motivational functions
What do we consider when doing self talk?
Individual differences
Culture - Peters and Williams (2006) found that East Asians have significantly more negative self talk
Coaching - negative coaching practices lead to more negative self talk
What is thought stopping?
A way to cope with negative thoughts
Using a trigger word to stop a thought e.g. stop
Shouldn’t be used long term as we need to address the root cause or it may create avoidance in an individual
How do we move from negative to positive self talk?
Known as reframing
Keep phrases short
First person and present self
Positive phrases
Phrases with meaning
Kind
Repeat the phrases
How do we refocus with self talk?
Recognise - Be aware of changes in your thought, easier to address negative self talk early
Reframe - Reframe the negative to positive
Refocus - Set and immediately seek to complete a process goal
