Psychological Skills Training

Can you learn this stuff?

The Need

Seconds pour away. Agony. Elvis Grbac screams to his teammates. They scream back. The crowd screams louder. Static rushes through Grbac’s helmet. It is fourth down. Two yards to go. Seconds pour away.

(Elvis Grbac’s baptism of fire vs. the Denver Broncos, 1998)

The Situation

Kansas City trails Denver by 4 pointsFourth down and 2 yard to go for a first down34 seconds left in the gameBall on Denver’s 20 yard lineNo time-outs remainingSpeaker in helmet not working (can’t hear the play from the sidelines)

The Result

Grbac calls his own play

Goes for a pass into the endzone

Receiver is double-covered and the pass is batted down

Kansas City loses

What Should He Have Done?

?

The Answer is . . .

Pull out your cell phone and call Dr. Lidstone!!!!

Psychological Skills Training

Psychological interventions and programs are effective in enhancing athletic performance

The Evidence

Almost all professional tennis players say they use some form of psychological strategy to enhance performanceHigher ranked players use them moreSuccessful members of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team trained together more, enjoyed crowd support, enjoyed family and friend support, adhered to mental preparation plans, and enjoyed high levels of attentional focus and commitment

Skills vs. Methods

Psychological Skills: Learned or innate characteristics of the athlete that make it possible or even likely that he or she will succeed in sport (e.g. intrinsic motivation, self-confidence, attentional control, arousal control, anxiety control)

Skills vs. Methods

Psychological Methods: Strategies, techniques or practices that lead to the development of psychological skills (e.g. goal setting, imagery, progressive relaxation, meditation, self-talk, hypnosis)

Measuring Psychological Skills

Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS-5) – Mahoney et. al (1987)

Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28) – Smith et. al (1995)

Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) – Thomas et. al (1999)

Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports

45 item inventoryMeasures anxiety control, concentration, confidence, mental preparation, motivation, and team orientationHas demonstrated the ability to discriminate among different levels of skilled performers

Athletic Coping Skills Inventory

28-item inventory

Coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting/mental preparation, concentration, freedom from worry, confidence and achievement motivation, coachability

Modest predictor of hitting and pitching performance among professional baseball players

Test of Performance Stragegies

64-item inventoryMeasures a combination of skills and methods in 2 strategic situations

1. Competitive situation: Self-talk, emotional control, automaticity, goal setting, imagery, activation, negative thinking, relaxation

2. Practice situation: Self-talk, emotional control, automaticity, goal setting, imagery, activation, attentional control, relaxation

Format of a Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP)

Phase 1: Who is the client?

Phase 2: Initial meeting with athlete(s)

Phase 3: Education of the sport psychologist relative to the activity

Phase 4: Development of a needs assessment plan

Format of a Psychological Skills Training Program (PSTP)

Phase 5: Determine psychological skills methods and strategies to be taught

Phase 6: Actual teaching and learning of selected psychological methods

Phase 7: On-going and end-of-season evaluation of PSTP

Enhancing Athletic Performance through Sport Psychology: A Case Study

Jim Lidstone, Ed.DGeorgia College & State University

Simon Earnshaw, M.Ed.Armstrong Atlantic State University

What is Sport Psychology?

Sport psychology is a science in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sport setting. These principles are often applied to enhance performance. However, the true sport psychologist is interested in much more than performance enhancement and sees sport as a vehicle for human enrichment.

Cox (1994)

Performance Enhancement vs. Human Enrichment

Performance Enhancement

Attention (concentration)

Anxiety

Arousal

Aggression/assertiveness

Team cohesion

Human Enrichment

Personality

Anxiety management

Arousal adjustment

Self-esteem

Self-confidence

Causal attribution

Leadership

Sport Psychology Intervention

Assessment

Diagnosis

Prescription

Intervention

Evaluation

The Four C’s

Consistency

Confidence

Concentration

Composure

Assessment

Interviews

- Coach

- Player(s)

Paper & Pencil Tests

- Personality Traits

- Emotional States

Observation

Paper & Pencil Instruments - Trait

Instrument Variable(s) Assessed

• Sport Orientation Questionnaire Competitiveness

Win Orientation

Goal Orientation

• Sport Competition Questionnaire Competitive Trait Anxiety

• Trait Sport Confidence Inventory Trait Sport Confidence

• Test of Attentional & Interpersonal Attentional Focus (6

Style subscales)

Paper & Pencil Instruments - State

Instrument Variable(s) Assessed

• Competitive State Anxiety Cognitive State Anxiety

Inventory - 2 Somatic State Anxiety

Self-Confidence

• State Sport Confidence Inventory State Sport Confidence

• Profile of Mood States Tension, Depression,

Anger, Vigor, Fatigue,

Confusion

Concentration

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

BET OET BIT OIT NAR RED

PlayersIdeal

Concentration - Individual

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

BET OET BIT OIT NAR RED

Player AIdeal

Pre-Competition Mood State

0

5

10

15

20

25

Ten Dep Anger Vigor Fat Conf

PlayersIdeal50th %ile

POMS - Individual Assessment

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Ten Dep Anger Vigor Fat Conf

IdealPlayer APlayer B50th %ile

Composure

0

5

10

15

20

25

Comp A-Trait Cog A-State Som A-State

PlayersIdeal

Confidence

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

SC-Trait SC-State

PlayersIdeal

Sport Orientation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Comp Win Goal

PlayersIdeal

Conclusions from Assessment

Higher than normal anxietyLower than normal self-confidenceSelf-handicapping behaviorsNo peer leadershipNegative attitude of coaches

Intervention Strategies

Coaches agreed to be more positivePlayers engaged in goal settingPlayers agreed to adhere to team rulesCoaches communicated more with playersCoaches set lineup in advance of meetsPlayers accepted lineup and roles within the teamPlayers targeted for confidence, concentration and/or composure training

Concluding Comments

“The project has helped me to modify my coaching style somewhat. I tend to be a little “hard-core” and expect the players to always show up ready to run through walls if necessary. This attitude is not prevalent among the players and so other coaching techniques are required for them to achieve their potentials. They require more motivation, patience, and positive feedback rather than being challenged or confronted. As a coach, I need to remain more optimistic, complimentary and supportive toward the players. The extra work on their mental games should help them respond in a more positive manner which has already begun to show with their pre-season conditioning program.”

The End

Sometimes it works