On your marks – get set – go! achieve your sports dreams.
Sports psychology is the study of human behaviour in sport; it is the intersection between brain psychology – what we think – and brain physiology – what we can train the brain to do – through visualisation skills. Not only does a sports person strive to improve their physical bodies, they also need to manage their emotions and self talk. When most people think about sports psychology, they think in terms of therapy. This implies a disability or something needs healing; but it is common to use these tools in order to prevent problems occurring in the first place.
Often applying these methods of thinking and working improves mental ability and the way we deal with issues right across the board. It is better therefore to undertake some kind of psychological training right at the beginning before any set backs occur, rather than after an incident has taken its toll on performance. This helps keep motivation levels on track to reach your goals too. So you can deal easily and readily with any potential setbacks, which may arise.
So what motivates us to seek out these challenges?
To start with, it may just be the challenge of finishing a race, or finding you have a natural aptitude for a particular sport. Then once a decision has been reached with its pursuit, it becomes a question of will, desire and motivation.
Maintaining the motivation to continue the training can be very taxing and difficult to sustain. While it’s important to have the right equipment, clothing etc, it’s equally important to have the right frame of mind to effectively train on a daily basis, and it’s often the psychological aspects of training that tend to make the difference between success and failure.
Once a sports person has their goals in mind, I can help them work towards them, without dwelling on past performance – it is perhaps one of the most important aspects in long-term training, goals must be achievable though. And of course, they have to make sure they are physically fit and take into consideration possible long-term physical problems which may occur, especially considering family history. Sports psychology can help identify problems in thinking and behaviour.
Questions asked
I can also ask them a few questions to determine how serious they are about the sport:
- What is your previous experience of discipline?
- How much training have you already done?
- How much are you prepared to do?
If someone is not physically prepared then it can lead to over training and injury and this will encourage mental setbacks. There is also realising your physical peak. After the Olympics there were a number of job fairs where employers were looking for athletes who wished to retire from the sport, but had that mental training and wanted to use it in other areas. Being aware of what they want to do after they become too old for the sport can help them prepare for the psychological ups and downs.
Planning
Next to goal setting is planning. A friend of mine who runs marathons has an app on his phone that calculates how many miles he needs to run, in his plan for fitness before each race. He says it cuts out excuses such as the weather not being good so he’ll do it tomorrow. There’s no arguing with an app so he sticks to it. There’s also training outside versus the gym. I had a client come to see me who ran marathons. She’d broken her leg during a 10K race because she had only prepared over winter on a treadmill. This had not prepared her body for the pounding on the tarmac.
Once her leg had healed she couldn’t face running again. I helped her, not only get over the incident but helped her clear room in her life to start planning a training regime, which was mostly outside. She was really impressed when she started to run in all weathers over the Christmas period and
enjoyed it.
Rest
Rest is just as important as the training as overdoing it can lead to all sorts of physical problems. When an athlete has set goals, created a programme of training that increases over time and allows for periods of rest then they are on track to develop the mental stamina too.
Using visualisation
A great deal of research has been done in the States with the use of visualisation in sports. By using imagery it helps strengthens the pathways in the brain that deliver the shots or positions us just right, or scores the goals or conversions. It also helps prepare us for the unknown. Many cyclists for example will mentally rehearse a track before taking to their bikes. I used to do high jump and would mentally rehearse before each jump by
doing this you can also filter out all the cheering or jeering going around you and concentrate on the job in hand.
Some athletes find visualising in first person difficult. If that’s so try them on third person as if they are watching it on TV. Using these skills you can plan every move in your body. Having been the person standing at the end of a Glenn Catley punch I can thank visualisation for the accuracy of that punch to stop only about 1cm from my nose – the movement of the air created by his fist was enough to ruffle my hair!
It may be an advantage for athletes to watch footage of their training so they can make adjustments to their manoeuvres, but make sure they do it in a positive light and not pick holes in it. This positive self-talk is important, so when they are feeling a bit wobbly they can use phrases such as “Focus” or “Come on”. Some people think Muhammad Ali was cocky, self opinionated and arrogant, but his self-belief spurred him on. Interviews with him later show his humour and humanity.
Overdoing it
An athlete has probably overdone training if:
-
- They are more tired than usual and feel fed up.
- The muscles have been over exerted despite adequate recovery time.
- Decreased performance.
- Increased negative moods over positive ones.
- Increased heart rate at lower levels of exercise.
- Increased heart rate at resting.
To monitor how an athlete is doing using our scaling is important, and of course, the MQ paints a picture of how their performance will be when all the plans come together. Being able to focus on the final outcome is always important, as well as what went well.
Also see: Sports Performance
REFERENCES:
1) An Athlete’s Guide To Sport Psychology: How To Attain Peak Levels Of Performance On A Consistent Basis – Tony Reilly
2) Allan Wigfield and Jenna Cambria of the University of Maryland
3) Research at Democritus University of Thrace and the University of Thessaly in Greece in 2006.