Chapter

1
Chapter 2 Characteristics of Successful
Athletes

• From Mark H. Anshells book Sport Psychology

2
Personality Traits and Psychological Dispositions

• Competitiveness, confidence and self control
  would appear to be strongly linked to performance
  success.
• A document that examines any type of
  psychological trait is described as an inventory,
  scale, or profile.

3
Difference between Psychological Disposition and
Personality Traits

• Traits are commonly regarded as properties of
  persons that dispose them to react in certain
  ways in given situations and are narrower in
  scope than dispositions
• Are considered enduring and stable which means
• That individuals have a predisposition to act in
  a certain way in most but not all situations
• That their actions are consistent /predictable
  under various conditions
• Dispositions are broad, pervasive, encompassing
  ways of relating to particular types of people or
  situations

4
Personality Traits and Psychological Dispositions

• Personality defined in terms of traits possessed
  by an individual
• Personality Inventories have Not been shown to be
  consistent from sport to non sport situations

5
Using Personality Inventories

• Personality scales have been used inappropriately
  to examine changes in personality traits over
  time.
• This is in compatible with the design of any
  instrument that examines personality because
  traits are stable and enduring.
• Inventories can predict athletic behavior and
  success only 10 of the time.
• Sometimes th terms and factors used in
  personalities scales are not universally defined
  (Who is an athlete?)
• Some personality traits are better predictors of
  success than others

6
Using Personality Inventories

• Answers to questions on a personality inventory
  can be faked
• Lie Scales include questions inserted in the
  inventory that are either discarded when the
  results are computed or used to detect response
  inconsistencies.
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI)
• Meant to diagnose illness
• CPI Requires a reading comprehension level of
  10th grade
• MMPI, CPI, and Cattells 16 PF Do not include a
  single item related to thoughts, emotions, or
  behaviors in competitive sport situations. Thus
  inventories from these may not be valid as
  predictors of sports performance.

7
Using Personality Inventories

• Primary shortcomings is the lack of a conceptual
  (theoretical) framework with no defined body of
  literature on which to case comparisons between
  athlete and non athletes, male or female, or
  elite and non elites. Termed the shotgun
  approach.
• Limitations
• Poor sampling techniques in which whole teams are
  examined without controlling for skill level,
  age, gender, and cultural differences.
• Improper use of statistical procedures is a
  problem. Some statistics are better than others

8
Using Personality Inventories

• Evidence does not support the existence of a
  consistent psychological profile of highly
  successful performers.
• Whether these traits are inherited, developed, or
  both is not clear.
• Results of personality profile cannot predict
  sports success perfectly and therefore should not
  be used as a way to identify talent.

9
Personality and Gender Roles

• Gender Role Orientation (masculine/feminine/andro
  gynous)
• These characteristics are not on opposite sides
  of a spectrum but rather separate clusters of
  personality traits.
• Gills 1992 there is no reason why males should
  possess only masculine characteristics and female
  only feminine characteristics.
• The healthiest individuals possess both and have
  a greater flexibility of behavior.
• Gills 1992 female athletes possess more
  masculine characteristics than female non
  athletes. Competition demands assertive behavior.

10

• LeUnes and Nation 1995 females who score higher
  on perceived feminine traits will experience a
  higher degree of gender role conflict and e less
  comfortable in competitive sport situations than
  females with high androgynous and masculine
  scores.
• Gill 1992 female athletes do not express a
  feminine gender role orientation and they respond
  with more of an androgynous orientation than
  masculine orientation.
• Friedman and Berger 1991 androgynous and
  masculine female should succeed in sport without
  experiencing the sex (gender) role conflict that
  the feminine scorer would feel.

11

• Friedman and Berger 1991 three stress reduction
  techniques on stress as a function of gender,
  masculinity, and femininity include
• Jogging, relaxation training, and group
  interaction.
• Psychological masculinity influences the
  effectiveness of the stress reduction activities.
  Psychological femininity does not.
• Perceived masculinity personality traits are
  highly desirable for mental and physical well
  being in both males and females.

12
The Elite Athlete A Profile

• Defined as athletes who are eligible for
  competition at the national, international, or
  Olympic level, or who are professional sports
  persons.
• Early Sports Personality Research
• Williams 1980 personality characteristics of
  successful athletes
• Women in individual sports were more dominant,
  aggressive, adventures, sensitive, independent,
  self-sufficient, and introverted than women who
  engage in team sports.
• Female competitors tend to be assertive,
  dominant, self sufficient, received, achievement
  orientated, and intelligent, and have an average
  to low emotionality.

13
Early Sports Personality Research

• Reilly 1979 Cattell 16 PF to assess soccer
  players and were found to be stable, extroverted,
  tough minded, highly efficient, aggressive, and
  dominant.
• Paige 1973 Football players are rough
  mindedness, extroverted, self control, but even
  though they are extroverted he is not sure of
  himself as his actions may indicate.
• Kroll and Peterson 1965 Difference between
  winning and losing football teams. Main
  difference was that the winning teams were less
  sportsmanlike. Concluded that personality was not
  an important factor in football performance.

14
Early Sports Personality Research

• Bennett 1979 Successful wrestlers scored higher
  on measures of self confidence, perceiving their
  skills as closer to their maximum potential, and
  on their ability to focus attention on task
  related issues.
• Morgan 1979 (POMS) Profile of Mood States
• Iceberg profile Reflects the consequences of
  competition among elite competitors rather than
  acting as an antecedent or predictor on skilled
  performance.

15
Recent Advances in Sport Personality Research

• POMS was developed as a measure of mood for
  psychiatric outpatients, specifically individuals
  with mental illness who are about to be
  discharged from the hospital.
• An inventory that is not used with population for
  which it was designed is invalid.
• Generally highly skilled athletes score
  relatively low in neuroticism, tension,
  depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion.

16
Recent Advances in Sport Personality Research

• They tend to score high in self confidence, self
  concept, self esteem,. Vigor, need achievement,
  dominance, aggression, intelligence, self
  sufficiency, mental toughness, independence,
  sociability, creativity, stability, and
  extroversion.
• Psychological profiles of elite athletes reveals
  a person who is mentally healthy, physically and
  psychologically mature, and committed to
  excellence.

17
Recent Advances in Sport Personality Research

• Psychological Dispositions
• Purpose of this section is to review selected
  personal characteristics of elite sports
  competitors.
• The characteristics are depicted as styles or
  tendencies of thinking and not personality
  traits.
• Vanden Auweele 1993 elite athletes possess more
  self confidence, less anxiety, both prior to and
  during competition more effective techniques for
  managing anxiety greater concentration on task
  specific goals and movements better ability to
  cope with unexpectedly poor performance and more
  positive thought content.

18
Psychological Dispositions

• Risk Taking
• Risk defined in most dictionaries as a dangerous
  element or factor, possibility of loss or injury,
  hazardous speculation, danger, or peril.
• Malones (1985) Concludes that the athletes
  perception of danger creates excitement and a
  desire to master the environment. However,
  skilled competitors will rarely perform tasks for
  which they are not well trained and physically
  fit.
• These behaviors occur most often during
  situations that require solving problems and
  making decisions.
• Elite athletes will have a go for it attitude
  where a less skilled athlete will tend to back
  off.

19
Psychological Dispositions

• Stimulus Seeking
• Or sensation seeking Athletes enjoy the
  challenge presented in competitive sport
• Stimulus seeking is a motivational factor to
  participate in sport and to engage in risk taking
  behaviors.

20
Psychological Dispositions

• Competitiveness
• Sport Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) to measure
  the extent of this desire to win along three
  dimensions
• Competitiveness
• Win orientation
• Goal Orientation

21
Competitiveness continued

• Athletes score higher on all three dimensions
  with competitiveness being the major
  discriminator.
• Elite athletes did not score uniformly high on
  win orientation but were more oriented toward the
  quality of their performance than toward the
  contests outcome.
• Measure their success by performing at their
  personal best rather than by only winning or
  losing
• Implications for coaches is that quality
  performance deserves at least as much recognition
  as the contests outcome.

22
Psychological Dispositions

• Self confidence
• Self confidence (sport confidence) is one of the
  most important mental states for success in sport
  competition.
• It is the athletes belief about his/her ability
  to be successful in performing a desired skill.
• Feltz 1988 defined self confidence as the
  belief that one can successfully execute a
  specific activity rather than a global trait that
  accounts for overall optimism.
• State Sport Confidence is the belief or degree
  of certainty individuals possess at one
  particular moment about their ability to be
  successful at sport

23
Self confidence continued.

• Trait Sport Confidence is depicted as their
  usual belief about their sport success.
• Maintaining high confidence is accompanied by
  positive emotions, improved concentration,
  increased effort, lower susceptibility to mental
  distractions, reduced muscular tension, improved
  ability to remember and use game strategies, and
  more rapid and accurate decision making.
• Coaches and the athletes must employ mental and
  behavioral strategies that induce self
  confidence.
• Self Efficiency a concept associated with
  confidence, is a situational specific form of
  self confidence the athletes convection to
  perform successfully skills that are required to
  produce a certain desirable outcome.

24
Psychological Dispositions

• Attention to Style
• Nideffer 1979 defines attention to style as a
  predisposition to attend to the environment in a
  certain personalized manner, depicted internal,
  external, broad, or narrow.
• Each person possesses a unique manner of
  attending to environmental stimuli
• Important issues in depicting elite performers
  are their ability to shift attention as the
  situation demands and that their attentional
  style is compatible with the types of skills they
  most often perform.

25
Psychological Dispositions

• Expectations for Success
• One reason for upsets in sports is that more
  successful teams do not perceive their opponent
  as threat to their success.
• Expectation of success must be as high as
  possible.

26
Psychological Dispositions

• Mental Toughness
• Dr. James Loehr (1982,1991,1994) Generated the
  term mental toughness meaning to reach and
  sustain high performance the athletes ideal
  performance state under pressure by expanding
  capacity physically, mentally, and emotionally.
• The belief in a mental toughness gene is very
  tempting because it absolves the athlete of
  feeling responsible for failure.
• This is self destructive thinking.
• Mentally tough competitors are self motivated and
  self directed, positive but realistic, in control
  of their emotions, calm and relaxed under fire,
  highly energetic and ready for action,
  determined, mentally alert and focused, dogged
  self confidence, and fully responsible.

27
Psychological Dispositions

• Ability to Regulate Stress
• Terry Orlick (1986, 1990) claims that the
  ability t remain cool under situations of tension
  and stress is the true sign of a champion.
• Key is not to eliminate stress but to regulate it
  by using proper coping techniques
• The ability t cope with failure is another trait
  of the successful athlete

28
Ability to Regulate Stress

• Coaches should be careful not to overreact to an
  athletes mistakes.
• Participant will be cautious in order to avoid
  further mistakes, and risk taking will be the
  last thing on his or her mind.
• Better players learn from their mistakes then put
  them out of their thoughts.

29
Behavioral Tendencies

• Pregame preparation can take the form of
  superstitious behaviors.
• Preevent and event behavioral tendencies pg
  41-43

30
Routines

• Routines are thoughts and behaviors that are
  automatically integrated into our day.
• Purposes Reducing the amount of in depth
  thinking that must be done, maintaining emotional
  control, regulating our physical, mental, and
  emotional performance preparation, both before
  and during competition.
• Rituals help athletes move from the cognitive
  stage to the automatic stage of performing sport
  skills.

31
Routines

• Rituals help the competitor maintain self control
  and concentration under conditions of high duress
  and pressure.
• Loehr 1990 Repetition of the right physical,
  mental and emotional habits eventually brings
  them under automatic control.

32
Routines

• The 16 Second Cure Loehrs 4 stage mental and
  physical routine.
• Stage 1 The Positive Physical Response
• Purpose is to help the athlete maintain positive
  emotion, and reduce the chance of anger,
  disappointment, and frustration.
• 3-5 Seconds
• athlete makes a quick decisive move (clap hands)
• Self talk is no problem, come on, nice shot

33
The 16 Second Cure Loehrs 4 stage mental and
physical routine.

• Stage 2 The Relaxation Response
• Allows athletes body to recover from physical
  and emotional stress of the previous point
• 6-15 seconds
• The more stressful the point the more time you
  take.
• Think calming thoughts settle down, relax

34
The 16 Second Cure Loehrs 4 stage mental and
physical routine.

• Stage 3 The Preparation Response
• Pre serve period for what the athlete intends to
  do before the next serve.
• Project confident and aggressive image
• Self Talk I have full confidence in winning
  the point
• Plan strategy

35
The 16 Second Cure Loehrs 4 stage mental and
physical routine.

• Stage 4 The Automatic Ritual Response
• 4 seconds
• Deepen concentration and produces an instinctive,
  automatic form of play.
• This delay in serving reduces the tendency to
  rush the next serve under pressure.
• Avoid thoughts of technique and self talk
• Serve should be mentally rehearsed
• Same rituals should be repeated on second serve
  if first is missed.

36

• Good for entering and maintaining their optimal
  zone for concentration and attention focus.

37
Cognitive Strategies

• Cognitive and mental strategies are used to
• Improve the processing of information and enhance
  learning and remembering
• To affect ones emotions favorably
• The Sport Psychologist (1990) athletes often
  lack knowledge about the existence of mental
  skills and how to apply them correctly.

38
Cognitive Strategies

• Pitfalls
• Paralysis by Analysis Over prescribing cognitive
  strategies (they may become distracted or less
  coordinated in performing the task at hand.

39
Cognitive Strategies

• Three things to Remember
• Mental skills are skills and need to be learned
• Athletes can be burdened by learning and using
  too many skills
• Athletes differ in their need to use certain
  types of cognitive strategies

40
Cognitive Strategies

• Help athletes select and learn the strategies
  that best meet their needs.
• Cognitive Strategies used during contest Table
  2.1 pg 46 - 47

41
Cognitive Strategies

• Relaxation
• Is the reduction or complete absence of muscular
  activity in the voluntary muscles.
• Includes progressive relaxation, autogenic
  training, biofeedback. Imagery, centering, and
  hypnosis.
• Relaxation is not always the proper response.
  Self talk may be preferred
• Used correctly it can be a valid and proven means
  of preventing or reducing muscular tension and
  anxiety while improving concentration and self
  confidence.

42
Cognitive Strategies

• Positive Self Talk
• Best way to maintain self confidence
• Purpose used to gain or to maintain self
  confidence, focusing inwardly and thinking about
  ones strengths and rather than about ones
  opponent can generate a sense of self control and
  responsibility for a contests outcome.
• And to analysis the movement positively.

43
Cognitive Strategies

• Attentional Focus
• Now where and when to focus their attention
• This allows them to exclude information that
  might slow their responses or interfere with
  their sensations.
• Do not focus on outcomes
• Attention should be directed to the task at hand
• Thinking about winning or losing within the event
  cause a lack of focus on what you need to do in
  order to win.

44
Cognitive Strategies

• Arousal Regulation
• Superior athletes know 2 things about the process
  of psychological arousal
• Their optimal level of arousal
• When and how to begin the psyching techniques.

45
Cognitive Strategies

• Making Accurate Attributions
• Attributions consist of a persons attempts to
  explain the causes of an event, specifically in
  response to a performance outcome.
• Athletes more often than not accurately explain
  the causes of and tend to feel responsible for
  their performance results.

46
Performance Expectations

• Muhammad Ali mental strategies 3 purposes
• To raise his expectations of success
• To lower the expectations of his opponent
• T eliminate or mask his fear
• Essential quality of a champion is that they are
  positive

47
Performance Expectations

• Denis Waitley The Psychology of Winning 1978
  Six attitude qualities
• Positive Self Expectancy
• Overall attitude of personal optimism and
  enthusiasm
• Gets what he/she expects
• Self talk is I was good today Ill be better
  tomorrow

48
Denis Waitley The Psychology of Winning 1978
Six attitude qualities

• Positive Self Image
• We cannot do what our self image does not allow
  us to do.
• Self talk is I can see myself growing,
  achieving, improving, and winning.
• Waitley its not who individuals are that
  holds them back, but who they think they are not.

49
Denis Waitley The Psychology of Winning 1978
Six attitude qualities

• Positive Self Control
• Taking control of the events in ones life is
  characteristic of winners

50
Denis Waitley The Psychology of Winning 1978
Six attitude qualities

• Positive Self Esteem
• Winners are inner directed
• They tend to choode modes who exemplify the high
  goals and acheivments to which they aspire.
• Winners are secure enough as individuals and as
  athletes to respect themselves as well as their
  peers and opponents.
• Losers are far less secure and need to criticize
  and undermine others.

51
Denis Waitley The Psychology of Winning 1978
Six attitude qualities

• Positive Self Direction
• Winners have an action plan to turn fantasy into
  fact.
• Game plan for life, called the power of purpose
• It is comprised of knowing what they want to
  accomplish on a day to day basis
• Having a purpose for life allows us to survive
  and to feel fulfilled.
• Self direction is about finding your purpose,
  your contributions to life to feel satisfied

52
Denis Waitley The Psychology of Winning 1978
Six attitude qualities

• Positive Self Awareness
• Cratty 1984 - Most superior athletes prefer to
  know all they can about themselves
• Winners know who they are and their potential
  both as individuals and as athletes
• The have learned to ask for and to accept the
  feedback and judgments of others
• Winners say I know who I am and where I am going

53
Peak Performance A state of altered consciousness

• Athletes mental state just prior and during peak
  experiences is characterized by complete
  absorption in the task at hand
• This allows for the proper internal attentional
  focus
• Quicker and clearer focus on movement cues
  results in faster reaction time and movement in a
  controlled skillful manner
• A persons peak performance does not necessarily
  exceed that of other persons, but rather
  surpasses what could be anticipated for that
  individual in a particular situation.

54
Peak Performance A state of altered consciousness

• Describes peak experiences as being temporary,
  non voluntary, and unique.
• There is an absence of thinking during the skill
  execution.
• Emotionally, peak performers report an extremely
  fulfilling and happy psycho emotional state
• Focused Attention and feelings of confidence were
  the most apparent mental states are associated
  with peak performance.

55
Peak Performance A state of altered consciousness

• Being in the flow the experience of performing in
  an emotional high
• Athletes are in the state of flow when they are
  totally involved in an activity and experience a
  number of positive feelings, including freedom
  from self consciousness and great enjoyment of
  the process

56
Peak Performance A state of altered consciousness

• Cratty 1984 classified flow states into 4
  categories
• Anxiety or arousal
• Extremely Good Feelings
• Positive in performance phenomenon in which a
  well prepared athlete develops very positive
  feeling during most of the period of the
  competitive period

57
Cratty 1984 classified flow states into 4
categories

• Mental Escaping
• Runner high
• Performers can dissociate themselves from the
  physical demands, even pain, of prolonged,
  arduous physical activity.
• Mentally floating
• Postcontest mental break
• The need to recuperate from the physical and
  psychological demands buzzing out or coming
  down period.

58
Peak Performance A state of altered consciousness

• Garfield and Bennett (1984) asserts that the
  most important factor for experiencing peak
  performance is letting go.
• Figure 2.3 The flow state scale pg. 52 and Cues
  of Peak Performance Feelings pg. 53

59
Flow State Scale by Jackson and Marsh (1996)
studies identify nine components of flow

• Challenge Skill Balance My abilities matched the
  high challenge of the situation)
• Action Awareness Merging things just seemed to
  be happing automatically)
• Clear Goals I knew clearly what I wanted to do
• Concentration at the task at Hand My attention
  was focused clearly on what I was doing

60
Flow State Scale by Jackson and Marsh (1996)
studies identify nine components of flow

• Sense of Control I was not concerned on how I
  was presenting myself
• Loss of self consciousness I performed
  automatically
• Transformation of time at times it was if things
  were happening in slow motion
• Autotelic experience the experience left me
  feeling great
• Flow state scale should be used immediately after
  performance in order to ensure accurate and
  immediate feeling.

61
Preparing an Athlete for Peak Performance

• Routines that are conducted on the day of, and
  immediately before, the event also help athletes
  regulate their stress, anxiety and arousal levels
  
• One method is to use a checklist that list all
  of the required behavioral and cognitive
  strategies to be performed at some point, usually
  within one week of the competition
• Mental Game Checklist Figure 2.4 pg. 55
• This review process sets in motion a self
  expectation that each point is necessary for
  success and therefore will be followed.

62
Preparing an Athlete for Peak Performance

• Finally, the list should be reviewed at some
  convenient time after the event to determine
  which aspects could be improved before the next
  competition. Each item is worded so that higher
  scores are more desirable.
• The athlete is invited to add his/her own items
  is viewed desirable and a natural part of the
  athletes routine during a particular time period
  from week to week
• Having a desirable attitude or emotional
  intensity (anxiety or aggression), or engaging in
  a specific action (intake of food/drink, or
  taking a walk)
• Purpose is to ensure that an athlete current
  score is as high as or better than the previous
  scores.

63
Anxiety about Failure and Success

• Ronald Smith (1984) most common sources of
  anxiety in athletes are fears of failure and
  resulting social disapproval or rejection.

64
Fear of Failure (FOF) or motive to avoid failure

• Defined by Atkinson (1966) as a disposition to
  avoid failure and/or a capacity for experiencing
  shame or humiliation as a consequence of failure
• Failure provokes fear
• FOF will be high for athletes whose self esteem
  is firmly entrenched in successful sport
  performance or successful outcomes while for
  others whose self esteem is derived from multiple
  sources (fitness and health, family, social
  relationships, academic success, religion), FOF
  in sport context will be reduced.
• Fearing failure is one primary cause of
  competitive trait anxiety.

65
Recommendations for coaches and parents to help
prevent or reduce FOF in the athlete

• Regardless of the outcomes be supportive of the
  individuals attempts to perform at his/her best.
• Emphasize better effort and avoid informing an
  athlete that losing was due to low ability.
  Persistent feelings of low competence bring on a
  sense of helplessness, depression, and low self
  esteem.
• Define success and failure broadly. Even in a
  loss the team did something right.
• Have reasonably high expectations of the athletes
  performance

66
Look for signs of FOF. Include

• Chronic complaining (excuse for anticipated
  failure)
• Excessive Talking/ Continued Boasting (cover up
  for anxiety)
• Inability to sit still (display of nervous
  energy)
• Crying (stress release mechanism)

67
Look for signs of FOF. Include

• Frequent absenteeism from practices and games (If
  I dont try I wont fail)
• A quick temper (a sign of considerable fear and
  insecurity)
• Frequent Injury or abnormal recovery time from an
  injury
• Tendency to avoid taking risks

68

• Avoid asking the athlete about his/her emotions
  (tends to invite stress. The athlete thinks that
  the coach expects these type of thoughts or
  further direct the athletes attention toward
  such feelings

69
Fear of Success (FOS)

• 9 syndromes that may explain the source of
  antecedents of FOS
• Athletes fear of social and emotional isolation
  that accompanies success (ostracism)
• Athletes guilt from self assertion in
  competition
• Athletes protect themselves from competition
  because they fear discovering their true
  potential fears of succeeding are derived from
  fearing failure

70
9 syndromes that may explain the source of
antecedents of FOS

• Athletes may feel anxiety about surpassing a
  previous record by an admired performer
• Dealing with the pressure to constantly match or
  exceed ones previous best performance This
  explanation is the most valid. Trying to live up
  to the fans and Medias expectations can be to
  demanding.

71
9 syndromes that may explain the source of
antecedents of FOS

• Cratty (1983) the individuals involved simply
  were afraid of being the best, thus creating a
  situation in which others would direct their
  energies toward defeating them. There is also the
  fear that by winning they lose support because
  fans will cheer the underdog.
• Some athletes are fearful of living up to the
  expectation of others after they have
  demonstrated competent performance

72
9 syndromes that may explain the source of
antecedents of FOS

• Too much pressure to maintain high standards and
  are unable to deal with criticism from others.
• Silva (1982) men athletes had less FOS than
  female athletes
• It is the drive to succeed that truly separates
  winners.

73
Choking

• Defined as reduced performance quality under
  pressure circumstances the inability to perform
  up to previously exhibited standards.
• Baumeister (1984) 2 Factors that Causes Choking
• High pressure to succeed
• Heightened state of self consciousness

74
Choking

• Subjects with low SC dispositions placed in self
  conscious situations brought on by the
  expectations of the observers cope least well
  under pressure
• Highly self conscious persons would actually be
  less likely to choke than persons who are
  habitually less self conscious.
• Choking is greater among those habitually low in
  self consciousness who are less accustomed to
  dealing with high pressure conditions confirms
  that the athletes inability to cope with the
  pressure, that is, to choke, may be partly
  created be an evaluative (highly expectancy)
  audience.

75
How Spectators Affect an Athletes Performance

• Contends that one of our greatest needs on our
  way to self actualization is the need for
  recognition from others.
• Elite athletes are not only comfortable with
  being observed by others, they prefer it.
• Swartz and Barsky (1977) concluded that the home
  team won only 53 to 64 percent of the time.
  During the playoffs home team lost more pressure
  home games in basketball and baseball

76
How Spectators Affect an Athletes Performance

• Courneya and Carron (1992) Explanations for
  better performance at the home arena might
  include higher arousal and aggression levels by
  the home team.
• Zajonc (1965) Social Facilitation (effect of an
  audience on sport performance)
• Critical factor that decides whether an audience
  will improve or inhibit performance is whether
  the performers dominant response is correct or
  incorrect.

77
Three Factors decides the correctness of a
response

• Task difficulty
• The persons skill level
• The type of audience (those who the athlete
  believes are qualified might inhibit performance
  if the task is complex for the athlete)

78

• An evaluative audience may improve performance if
  the individual finds the task simple.
• Simple tasks are not performed well while
  responses to complex tasks tend to improve
  measurably when athlete performs in front of a
  passive audience where they do not feel
  threatened.
• The degree to which an athlete perceives and
  reacts to the makeup of an audience is referred
  to as its Evaluative Potential
• Evaluative Apprehension If evaluative potential
  hurts performance.

79

• Less complex skills are better performed in the
  presence of an evaluative audience than with
  passive observers.
• More difficult tasks are likely to be better
  performed in the presence of passive observers
  than evaluators.

80
What can athletes and coaches do about
apprehension?

• Focus their attention on the task at hand
• Athlete who is learning a complex skill should
  practice until the skill is mastered before
  performing it in a competitive setting.
• Ignore the crown and focus on the task at hand
• The effect of the audience can predict
  performance only 3 of the time

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Coping with Stress

• Have the ability to quickly recover from, or
  ignore, less pleasant aspects of competitive
  sports.
• Winners are capable of redirecting their energies
  in a productive manner.
• Failure to quickly adapt to unpleasant
  experiences often result in poor performance.

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Coping with Stress

• Krohn and Hindel (1988) found that vigilant
  coping strategies (focusing on threatening
  information) are more harmful to the athletes
  emotional and performance responses to acute
  stress than cognitive avoidance strategies
  (avoiding threat relevant information)

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Coping with Competitive Situations

• Top Competitors Cope with stress by
• Plan each aspect of their performance
• Have at least one alternative behavior for every
  planned action.
• Quality players calmly plan and correctly execute
  changes in strategy in response to an opponent
  who is experiencing success.
• Orlick (1980) the best way to prevent panic
  situations and anxiety is to begin thinking about
  and implementing solutions before problems get
  out of hand.

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Coping with Pain

• Why some players can cope with sports related
  pain better than others.
• Ryan (1976)
• No difference in the pain threshold of the three
  groups
• Differences were noted in pain tolerance in which
  contact sport athletes tolerated the most pain.

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4 steps in Coping with the Onset of Pain

• They Use Cognitive Strategies Developing self
  statements and mental imagery to handle it.
• They Confront and Handle the Pain Self
  statements such as you will get through this or
  Ignore my body, and concentrate on the
  opponent.

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4 steps in Coping with the Onset of Pain

• Elite Athletes Cope with Pain at Critical
  Moments Focus on their injuries only between
  plays, but will ignore injuries when executing
  movements on the field or when concentrating on
  opponents.
• They use Reinforcement Self Statements When the
  stressful activity ceases, they assess the coping
  strategy by asking Was it better to keep my
  feelings inside? Should I tell others of my
  discomfort? Ect

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• Elite athletes tend to use one of two mental
  techniques in coping with physical discomfort,
  Association and Dissociation.
• Association Is to be in touch with ones body
  and to maintain the necessary effort and
  motivation to meet challenges and personal goals.
  Demands internal focus. It can backfire due to a
  mis-focusing of their attention.
• One reason injured athletes do not return is that
  their attention is incorrectly aimed toward the
  injured area rather than on environment factors.

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• Dissociation entails being mentally preoccupied
  with external events as opposed to internal
  feeling and sensations. Attention externally on
  the musical input and away from the physical
  responses to vigorous exercise.

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Coping with Sports Related Stress

• Chronic stress communication problems with
  coaches or other team members, low team member
  satisfaction, chronic injury or pain, and
  prolonged poor performance (slumping).
• Coping is usually defined as conscious
  psychological and physical efforts to improve
  ones resourcfulness in dealing with stressful
  events or to reduce external demands. (Anshel
  et al. 2001)

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Two important characteristics of coping

• Coping is a conscious and effortful process the
  athlete is aware of the stressors and uses
  strategies to manage the demands or enhance
  internal resources. Coping is a learned skill and
  is not a personality trait.
• It is not necessarily performed effectively.
  Coping can be adaptive (effective in reducing
  perceived stress) or maladaptive (have
  ineffective properties) in reducing the
  stressors intensity. (Smoking, Drugs, ect..)

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• Before suggesting ways to deal with stress it is
  important to separate the athletes coping style
  form the use of coping strategies.

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• Coping Style is a disposition that refers to the
  athletes preference, or tendency, to use a
  certain category of coping strategy following
  chronic or acute forms of stress.
• Examples are
• Approach and avoidance
• Attention and distraction
• Monitoring and blunting
• Problem focused and emotion focused

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• Coping Strategies are state and situational
  measures consisting of the athletes use of one
  or more cognitive or behavioral methods of
  overcoming chronic or acute stress.
• Examples
• Seeking information
• Thinking about and trying to resolve the issue.
• Seeing social support
• Discounting the source of the stressor

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• Consistent use of a certain coping strategy would
  reflect the individuals coping style.
• One important implication for identifying a
  athletes coping style is to assist coaches and
  sport psychologist in teaching coping strategies
  to athletes that are compatible with their style
  of coping.

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Coping Interventions

• Use techniques to handle stress both during and
  between contests.
• Chronic Stress Programs are implemented between
  and immediately preceding competitive events.

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Coping Interventions

• They include
• Gaurons (1986) Cognitive Self Regulation
  Program based on the athletes ability to control
  attitudes, perceptions, thoughts, and internal
  dialog.
• Meichenbaums (1985) Stress Inoculation Training
  Focuses on stratefies to circumvent the
  unpleasant effects of stress
• COPE model (Anshell 1990) describes cognitive
  behavioral strategies to handle acute forms of
  stress caused mainly by negative input from
  others, primarily coaches.

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COPE model (Anshell 1990)

• C Control Emotions
• Immediate Reaction upon exposure to hostile input
  (Fight or Flight Reflex)
• Model requires taking a few deep breaths and
  regain composure
• Athletes can remain aware of and receptive to
  any important information that will contribute to
  better subsequent performance.

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COPE model (Anshell 1990)

• O Organize Input
• Objective here is for the athlete to deal
  rationally with the stressful episode.
• Know the difference between important and
  unimportant information.
• John Feinstein (1986) A Season on the Brink
  Bobby Knight and his players reaction to him.

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O Organize Input continued

• Organizing input is to integrate all of it and
  then decide what has validity and what does not
  refers to this technique as language
  discrimination.
• Hear all of it and then develop skills to
  integrate what is desirable and try to forget
  undesirable input quickly.
• Best way to do this is
• Stop thinking about the stressful episode at
  least temporarily.
• Quickly refocus on environmental task demands

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COPE model (Anshell 1990)

• P Plan Response
• Performer must quickly begin to plan upcoming
  actins based on recent feedback and experiences.
• Acknowledge strengths, strategies or tendencies
  of the opponent or concentrate on correcting
  his/her own performance.
• Thoughts must go from integrating information to
  using it.

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COPE model (Anshell 1990)

• E Execute
• Athlete who has been intimidated or upset by
  others negative remarks will hesitate, take fewer
  risks, and lack self confidence in subsequent
  performances
• Objective at this stage is to execute purposeful
  movements with the appropriate level of
  assertiveness, arousal, and concentration.

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E Execute

• Cognitive techniques that help athletes overcome
  sudden and chronic stress
• Discounting is a mental strategy athletes use to
  reduce the importance of undesirable messages or
  experiences. It helps organize information as
  meaningful and non-meaningful.

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Psychology of Drug Abuse

• Goal of Recreational drug user is often altering
  his/her psychological state.
• Creatine Increases muscular Power and speed in
  sport events.
• Athletes were asked to respond to their
  impression and perceptions of drug taking on
  their team r among players they know.
• Males took performance drugs to be competitive
  more than any other reason.
• The most common reason for taking recreational
  drugs was to reduce tension and anxiety.
• Drug taking is primarily a function of coping
  with the pressures t succeed in sport

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Questions and Comments