The one constant across all disciplines of competitive sport is that of stress. Athletes are continuously placed under copious amounts of stress, yet are still expected to perform at a high level. We would not be hard pressed to come up with examples of athlete who have ‘frozen’ or ‘choked’ under pressure, and have not liven up to the high expectations. Nevertheless, at the same time there are athletes whose performance is not impaired, who succeed despite the pressure all around them. In order to help explain this difference, it has got to be understood that stress is not […]
Read more
11
Jul
2014
Resilience and Overcoming Performance Errors
Resilience, or “mental toughness,” is a key psychological aspect of sport. The ability to bounce back from a poor performance or a detrimental mistake is crucial to an athlete’s success. As much as athletes hate to admit it, failure is a part of the game. A baseball player with a batting average of .3 has failed 7 times out of 10 at the plate. It is important to recognize that mistakes and failure are part of the game (Halden-Brown, 2003). However, when an athlete places too much emphasis on his or her failures, performance begins to suffer. Athletes need […]
Read moreThe 2014 Winter Olympic Games began a day before the opening ceremonies in Sochi Russia, which may have posed a challenge for some Olympians and their ability to prepare mentally. This seemed to be the case for Team USA’s first Olympic Figure Skating Team specifically, men’s short program skater, Jeremy Abbott and pairs short program skaters Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir. The opening ceremonies provide athletes with that “game time” moment where they make the transition from celebrities and individuals in training to world-class athletes and our top competitors. It is an opportunity for athletes to release some of the nerves […]
Read more
20
Sep
2013
Now and Then
By Sunday, parents talk about five games in one day, seven in two, and you suspect some embellishment taking place. But you’ve been around this particular block far too long not to know it’s mostly true. For us, mere amateurs with just two children participating in a fall sport, there were just three games in 20 hours – one flag football sandwiched by two basketball games. Some laugh at you as if you’ve taken the weekend off, setting their coffee in their respective cup holders without taking their eyes off the field. You try to remember when this all […]
Read more
01
Aug
2013
Instilling a Championship Mindset
Coaches and captains must support team confidence to be a championship caliber team. This means instilling a strong belief in their team’s ability to be successful and obtain team goals. Coaches should start by meeting with the team in the off-season and/or preseason to discussing team goals. To get team captains involved have them write down each team goals discussed. Some of the goals can be to finish first in your conference, to play your playoff games at home, to finish the season as champions. Save the goals your captains recorded and use them a chart or bulletin board […]
Read more
08
Jul
2013
Championship Team Building Part Three
Team cohesion, motivation and the types of motivation used to promote the “team” concept are paramount in being successful as individuals and as a team. Depending on the types of motivational strategies a coach utilizes, they can maximize team and individual athletic performance, and by doing so can promote team cohesion, overall team climate and even goal setting. Whether a coach chooses BATs, speeches or a certain type of coaching style all have a motivational factor for athletes and the teams they play with. It is up to the coach to know their coaching philosophies, their teams, and individual […]
Read more
06
Jul
2013
ChampionshipTeam Building Part Two
There are many different types of motivation and reinforcements a coach can use; some may increase or decrease motivation and team cohesion, which has a huge effect on athletic performance. Behavior Alteration Techniques (BAT’s) are some motivational techniques that Martin, Matthew M., Rocca, Kelly A., Cayanus, Jacob L., & Weber, Keith (2009) elaborate on. Their research defines BATs as techniques and messages that teachers used to control their classroom students and classroom environment; they noted that there are 22 different BATs. Some of these techniques are classified as positive BATs and negative BATs. Positive BATs had a positive relationship […]
Read more
05
Jul
2013
Seven Step Goal Setting System
When you work with a Sport Psychology Consultant or Peak Performance Coach they’ll take you through each of these steps spending significant time on each one, however you can replicate the experience yourself to extremely good effect. Step Number 1 – Set your outcome goal Get really clear on exactly what you want to achieve. Give yourself permission to go a little crazy. Don’t worry if your goal currently seems out of reach. Write it down on paper and play around with the phrasing until you are completely happy with it. Step Number 2 – Picture yourself having already […]
Read more
03
Jul
2013
Can Fans Influence the Outcome?
Imagine a high profile match in any sport without the crowd. It’s hard to imagine a World Cup Final or a Wimbledon Final without the atmosphere that comes with it. The atmosphere that comes from the crowd adds that extra special thing to an event and gives the event more importance if there are people there to watch it. The crowd can behave in different ways towards an athlete. Many spectators heckle athletes while they are playing to express their opinion of them or to distract them from their performance. An example of this is an Australian darts player […]
Read more
01
Jul
2013
Outcome Goals vs Process Goals
Outcome Goals vs Process Goals – Which is better? Generally speaking, your goals will fit into one of two categories; outcome goals, and process goals. Loosely defined, outcome goals are a result you’d like to achieve, and process goals as the processes you will need to repeatedly follow to achieve that result. For an athlete this might be represented by an outcome goal of making the team, and a process goal of competing your hardest every possession. But the question remains, which is better? Are you better off concentrating on outcome goals or process goals? The truth is, both […]
Read more
