Why are Psychological Skills Important for Athletes?

Is physical practice the only component of your training program? How do you learn to maximize your performance or
even to be a consistent performer? Athletes and coaches always think they must only practice longer and harder -
they are reluctant to include psychological tools in their training and performance regime.

To be a better athlete does not necessarily mean that you must train harder or longer. It could mean that you need to
address all the components that make up a successful athletic performance - mental as well as physical. Since you
do not enter into competition with a completely empty head, you must include mental skills in your training and
conditioning programmes as well. This will enable you to develope the strategies which will prepare you to enter a
competition with the proper mindset

If you are interested in getting the most of your athletic endeavors, you can no longer treat your performance as a
combination of isolated factors which come together in some mysterious and unified way on the day of the
competition. A long distance athlete would never think to enter a long distance race without spending time physically
preparing the body to meet the conditioning demands of a race. Yet, most athletes probably enter a race without
determining what psychological skills he or she would need to help achieve the best physical performance. Almost no
one prepares and practices the necessary mental conditions.

As the science of sport performance evolves, it becomes increasingly important to integrate the mental and physical
aspect of performance. Traditionally, no attention has been given to the cognitive aspects of performance. Coaches
and athletes have devoted most of their attention to the physical components of performance.

Yet coaches, athletes and parents often attribute non- performance to things related to the mental aspects of
performance such as She was not hungry enough, He did not focus, I was so tense or I was psyched out, She is
so good but she cannot handle the competition stress, I was so scared...., I wasnt psyched enough. These are all
comments frequently used to describe competitive disappointments, but rarely do you find a coach who says that the
athlete has not been taught the proper psychological skills and strategies.

An athlete seldom realizes that the failure to achieve was related to poor or inadequate preparation of psychological
strategies. After a competition the greatest percentage of excuses are generally attributed to the mental and
emotional aspects of the game. Yet, almost no time is spent in incorporating these into the training routine. Rather, it
is a case of back to the drawing board for a new physical strategy or increased practice time.

It is much easier to evaluate cardiovascular or mechanical differences between athletes than it is to evaluate different
athletic mindsets and psychological aspects around performance. Why is it that performance differs from practice to
a competition? Improving performance is not accomplished by isolating the body from the mind but by providing
cognitive skills and strategies that deal with skilled performance.

There are no marked changes in physical capacity, in skill level or biomechanical efficiency during a competition or
between two competitions which immediately follow each other. An athlete does not suddenly lose or gain stamina,
talent, skill or speed in a day, week, month or sometimes even years. What does change is psychological control
or mindset. When an athlete loses momentum or gains momentum, the change is created by psychological and
emotional factors. He or she can gain or lose psychological control or get psyched out in split seconds, or what
psychologists sometimes call chocking. Choking can occur in close competitive situations where psychological
frame of reference interferes with skill execution.

This fluctuation in psychological regulation can be prevented by developing cognitive skills and strategies to manage
anxiety, stress, negative thoughts and emotions - in other words, to help the athlete to cope with negative stimuli from
the external world. An athlete must learn to take responsibility for recognizing their own arousal mechanism and to
perform with it under control. This will establish cognitive behaviour which in turn will allow him to perform in a
constant manner. Sometimes athletes blame the coach, parents, fans or the weather when things go wrong or if they
dont perform up to their potential. But it is the athletes own psychological mindset that controls performance.

It takes time to develop and optimize the individual behavioural skills necessary to maximize athletic performance. A
plan A, B, or C or a one day lecture will not be enough. One requires training on a regular, systematic basis to
develope and apply the correct skills. Psychological training should incorporate methods and techniques which teach
one how to interpret what is happening to you and why. Then in the following order, how to cope with whatever is
happening to and around you; how to cope with whatever you encounter; how to make decisions based on relevant
cues and how to persist despite what is happening with you and to you. In short you need to learn the cognitive skills
and strategies that are necessary for controlling sport performance and the environment. These skills are not
concomitant learning that just happens when playing, practicing or during competition. In todays world, each of us is
responsible for controlling our own behaviour. We can no longer transfer the responsibility or excuse for failures to
others or to some mysterious factor.

It is no longer appropriate to talk in psychological terms as if knowledgeable in psychology if we do not make some
effort to become informed and educated in this area. This is a problem with many coaches. It is unreasonable to
continue contributing shortcomings in performance to psychological factors and not to do something about it. The
days of coaching and/or performing through hope are no longer appropriate or effective. There are brilliant
techniques and strategies in the field of sport psychology that enable us to control and monitor our behaviour in sport.
By using these techniques we can develop consistent performance and maximize our potential.

It stands to reason that no athlete performs correctly and perfectly all the time. However, you can be taught to
analyze your own thoughts and behaviour so that you can recognize the cause of performance inconsistencies. The
athlete that is taught to work toward consistent control over behaviour learns to analyze and determine the factors
that influence it. In order to develop a sport-psychological skill strategy for control of behaviour, situations that are
characteristic of the specific sport and the required behaviour for that specific sport must be understood. Once the
athlete understands the behavioural demands being placed on him, he can cope better with these demands.

An athlete who competes competitively faces stressful situations and anxious moments hundreds of times over the
course of a competitive career. You dont have to be a professional athlete to experience those anxious moments
when your hearts starts pounding, your hands are sweaty and you feel weak in the knees. Regardless how many
times you have been in the situation, you still react in the same way. In other words, experience is not always the
best teacher.

Moments of panic, anxiety and emotional ups and downs can interfere with the physical performance at every level.
Athletes, who continue to perform with some degree of consistency despite of their feelings of anxiety, have learned
to cope in one way or another. Relatively few of us, however, have been taught skills and strategies that would
enable us to cope and maintain consistency in performance. Athletes have been helped with their physical skills and
strategies, but few have attempted to help them with the development of the mental side of sport and sport
performances.

Many athletes with superior physical capabilities have been systematically eliminated from competitive sports
because they could not perform on the day of the competition. They might perform beautifully in practice but choke
in competition. Coaches, parents and teachers have pulled their hair out over athletes who do things so correctly in
practice for an entire week and on the day of competition just couldnt do it again. Why do these things happen? Has
it happened to you? What can you do to try to prevent these situations from repeating themselves year after year,
season after season? What can we do to help an athlete who is physically talented but who does not appear to be
able to perform on the big day. How can an athlete help himself or herself to perform consistently?

Many people feel having someone to teach psychological skills to an athlete means that the athlete is unstable, or
has mental problems or is totally mad. There is a feeling among coaches and even some athletes is that
psychologists are people who provide help to those who are disturbed or maladjusted. They would never consider
that a normal athlete has the need of positive cognitive assistance of someone trained in psychology and
specifically sport psychology. Further, many coaches want only tough minded athletes and they do not want what
they think are head cases. Coaches have eliminated athletes who had all the necessary physical assets because
they did not appear to be able to perform with any degree of consistency or because they choked under pressure.
They have never stopped to ask if certain skills could be taught to these athletes which would enable them to use
their physical abilities even more effectively.

I think that some athletes and coaches think that an athlete does not need this mental training. They are much like
Avis, the Number 2 car rental agency who just tries harder! Trying harder is not always the solution; in many cases
trying harder creates even greater problems. You may think that going back to the fundamentals and practicing
harder and longer is the only solution to inconsistent performance. Frequently, longer and harder practices are used
as punishment for not performing up to your expectations or to the coachs. Obviously, too much emphasis has been
placed on the physical aspect of sport performance without understanding all the components of psychological or the
cognitive part of performance.

No one can dispute the fact that the state of mind has a lot to do with performance. Yet almost nothing has been
done to identify the emotional and/or mental factors that tend to prevent good performance any more than trying to
identify those factors that produce poor performance. Basically what sport psychology does for the athlete is to teach
her/him how to identify the factors that lead to good performance and those that lead to poor performance. This
provides a basis for understanding why an athlete performs well or inconsistently. The athlete will not have to say I
had a good competition or I had an off-day, he or she will be able to analyze why it was a good or bad competition.

If you were told that the body and mind do not interact, you would most likely disagree. Examples to demonstrate how
this interaction occurs such as experiencing fear and having the perception of fear being accompanied by sweating,
increased heart rate, altered breathing, feelings of muscular weakness and nausea. Our bodies are a highly complex
entity composed of a multitude of different, yet highly, integrated, biological systems which promote effective
interaction between our internal and external environments. These highly different systems are integrated and
monitored by the nervous system. This nervous system is anatomically divided into the central and the peripheral
nervous systems. The brain and spinal cord compose the central nervous system; the network of nerves connecting
the various organs and systems of the body to the central nervous system makes up the peripheral nervous system.

Thought and memory are the responsibility of the central nervous system. However, the entire nervous system allows
the body to interpret consciously and unconsciously to our external and internal environments. Some nerves are
specialized for sight, smell, touch, temperature, pain etc., but the entire nervous system coordinates bodily responses
to the internal and external environments. In sport, as well as all other situations, a combination of reactions occurs.
Some of these reactions are at the conscious level while others may occur at a subconscious level.

So the truth is that our muscles do not function unless directed to do so by the brain. We do not perform physical
skills in isolation without mental skills. Sport performance must be approached from a holistic perspective to integrate
the thinking with our muscles to produce high levels of performance.

Hardly anyone disputes the fact that your mental state has a great deal to do with your physical performance. We all
know that worry, negative emotions and anxiety about your performance can cause sub-par performance. One of the
ways to avoid this and prepare the whole person is through holistic coaching and preparation. That is, to incorporate
physical and mental skills and strategies in practice and performance of any talented athlete. After an athlete
becomes aware of how this relationship affects performances, he or she will be ready to learn skills and strategies to
help control factors like worry and anxiety.

An Olympic champion said he choked terribly in his first Olympic Games. I had worked very hard but wasnt mentally
prepared. In his preparation for the next Olympic Games he talked with other Olympic champions about how they
had prepared mentally and he employed sport psychology strategies, ultimately developing his own mental training
programme. He practiced his programme regularly for the next four years and credits this for his gold medal
performance at the next Olympic Games.

The vast majority of elite athletes recognize the importance of psychological training for competition. Sport
performances are 90% mental, and many great athletes also credit the mental side of the game as crucially important
in determining the outcome. These athletes know the importance of physical skill and preparation. What they mean
when they stress the psychological preparation as extremely important, is that once athletes have developed their
physical skills to a high level and when they are competing at that level, is that the winner is more likely to be the
person who is best prepared psychologically. Coaches also recognize the significance of being mentally prepared in
order to compete well. Yet many coaches remain reluctant to send their athletes to a sport psychologist. So, if the
mental side of the game accounts for 90 percent of the outcome or only 50 percent, or even only 10 percent, doesnt
it make sense to devote at least some time to mental training?

Why is sport psychology neglected? The answer is most likely that coaches do not know how to teach athletes the
essential psychological skills. There are also coaches that are of the opinion that psychosocial qualities are innate
characteristics that cannot be taught. Some of them think that athletes either have these psychological qualities or
that they dont. If they dont, then competition will eliminate them as they compete at higher and higher levels. A few
coaches also believe that psychological training is unimportant and that only hard physical work is necessary to
prepare athletes.

Nowadays the vast majority of coaches, parents and teachers recognize the importance of psychological training, but
simply do not know how to implement such training.

Some athletes and coaches feel that it is a waste of time to practice these skills and think that just developing an
awareness of the relationship of anxiety and performance is sufficient. It should be emphasized again and again that
only practice on a regular basis can attain the skill. Once all psychological skills are learnt, they are incorporated into
regular practice sessions and then into competitions, without a specified time being set aside for their practice. As
 athletes begin to acquire the skills, many of the responses are subtle. Most athletes are not aware of them unless
they are really tuned in to their bodies. At the same time, the practices scheduled for mental skills should be short
compared to the physical practices. It is important to practice for short periods of time and on a regular basis.

In short, like most other things, the more you use it appropriately, the better you will become. With time the responses
practiced and the psychological skills and strategies learnt become automatic. Eventually, this type of behavioural
responses becomes a way of life. It comes a way of responding to a particular situation in a more effective, positive,
controlled way. These more conducive responses will help to realize your potential in whatever you pursue. Sport
psychological principles are the same for regulating your awareness and managing your worries about performance
whether it is on the athletic field, being interviewed for a job, taking an examination, public speaking, acting or giving
a musical performance on stage. Learning these sport psychological skills will last you a lifetime and allow you to
enjoy your performance much more at a much higher level than you have previously attained.

Sports Psychology
Sports psychology is a specific area of psychology that deals with the mental well-being of athletes and
the mental and emotional factors that can affect sports performance. Psychologists who study and work
in sports-related fields use similar methods and techniques as other psychologists, but simply have a
more distinct focus on athletes (both amateur and professional) as opposed to other types of patients.
Sports psychologists may help athletes or provide research concerning a number of issues, including:
Stress and anxiety control
Performance enhancement through psychological techniques
Group sports psychology
Motivation for sports performance

For many athletes, sports psychology can be an extremely helpful discipline. Psychologists offer athletes
better performance and less mental distress during competitions. Sports psychologists can provide a
tremendous service for their clients and the public through the application of their techniques and can
provide valuable insight into the minds of athletes.

If youre interested in finding a sports psychologist or learning more about the profession, here are a few
crucial things to keep in mind.

The Benefits Of Psychology In Sports

Sports psychology has been beneficial to both athletes and non-athletes, as the field studies both the
psychology of athletes and the effect of exercise on mental well-being in general. Teams that use sports
psychologist improve their performance in many cases, particularly in team situations; in fact, sports
psychology began when groups of cyclists were studied and found to be better performers in groups than
they were alone.
Other techniques used by sports psychologists include specialized techniques for improving an athletes
positive outlook on his or her sport. Athletes are also taught to deal with criticism, both internally and
externally, and to develop a healthy self image that avoids the risks of overtraining or related issues.
Sports psychologists may be most valuable for their ability to alleviate the stress of many athletes, many
of whom feel enormous pressure to perform and succeed, especially at professional levels. However,
psychologists can work in all areas of sports, from the high school level to the professional level, and the
application of sports psychology can be valuable in any athletic situation. However, as sports psychology
uses research and established psychological principles, you should look into the requirements of sports
psychologists carefully before using their services (or if youre interested in sports psychology as a career
choice).

Requirements Of A Sports Psychologist

As is the case with many forms of psychology, sports psychologists are expected to be highly educated.
Top-tier jobs are very difficult to get, as employers generally require either a masters degree or a
doctorate in sports psychology, clinical psychology, or a very closely related field from an accredited
university.
In addition to a degree in psychology, sports psychologists need to have extensive experience. This is
usually developed through internships and temporary jobs after a bachelors degree in psychology has
been earned. Sports psychologists will often devote themselves to a specific area of focus, but sports
psychologists are generally able to handle patients from any of a number of sports, as the core concepts
and techniques of the profession are still the same.
Psychological organizations often provide accreditations, testing, and resources for sports psychologists
and their employers. An example of an organization specifically created for sports psychologists (and
probably the most famous example of such an organization in the United States) is the Association for
Applied Sports Psychology (AASP). This organization is a great place to start if youre interested in more
information about sports psychology and the requirements of professionals who take up a career in this
highly specialized field.
Link to This Page

The Benefits of Sports Psychology for

Athletes
by Dr. Patrick J. Cohn

Mental Game Coaching is that the segment of sports psychology that concentrates
specifically on helping athletes break through the mental barriers that are keeping
them from performing up to their peak potential. By focusing on the mental skills
needed to be successful in any sporting competition, mental game coaching seeks
to achieve the overall goal of performance improvement.

Sports Psychology is about improving your attitude and mental game skills to help
you perform your best by identifying limiting beliefs and embracing a healthier
philosophy about your sport.

Below is a list of the top ten ways that you can benefit from sports psychology:

1. Improve focus and deal with distractions. Many athletes have the ability to
concentrate, but often their focus is displaced on the wrong areas such as
when a batter thinks I need to get a hit while in the batters box, which is a
result-oriented focus. Much of my instruction on focus deals with helping
athlete to stay focused on the present moment and let go of results.

2. Grow confidence in athletes who have doubts. Doubt is the opposite of

confidence. If you maintain many doubts prior to or during your
performance, this indicates low self-confidence or at least you are sabotaging
what confidence you had at the start of the competition. Confidence is what I
call a core mental game skill because of its importance and relationship to
other mental skills.

3. Develop coping skills to deal with setbacks and errors. Emotional control is a
prerequisite to getting into the zone. Athletes with very high and strict
expectations, have trouble dealing with minor errors that are a natural part
of sports. Its important to address these expectations and also help athletes
stay composed under pressure and when they commit errors or become
frustrated.

4. Find the right zone of intensity for your sport. I use intensity in a broad
sense to identify the level of arousal or mental activation that is necessary
for each person to perform his or her best. This will vary from person to
person and from sport to sport. Feeling up and positively charged is critical,
but not getting overly excited is also important. You have to tread a fine line
between being excited to complete, but not getting over-excited.

5. Help teams develop communication skills and cohesion. A major part of

sports psychology and mental training is helping teams improve cohesion and
 communication. The more a team works as a unit, the better the results for
all involved.

6. To instill a healthy belief system and identify irrational thoughts. One of the
areas I pride myself on is helping athlete identify ineffective beliefs and
attitudes such as comfort zones and negative self-labels that hold them back
from performing well. These core unhealthy beliefs must be identified and
replaced with a new way of thinking. Unhealthy or irrational beliefs will keep
you stuck no matter how much you practice or hard you try.

7. Improve or balance motivation for optimal performance. Its important to

look at your level of motivation and just why you are motivated to play your
sport. Some motivators are better in the long-term than others. Athletes who
are extrinsically motivated often play for the wrong reasons, such as the
athlete who only participates in sports because of a parent. I work with
athlete to help them adopt a healthy level of motivation and be motivated for
the right reasons.

8. Develop confidence post-injury. Some athletes find themselves fully prepared

physically to get back into competition and practice, but mentally some scars
remain. Injury can hurt confidence, generate doubt during competition, and
cause a lack of focus. I help athletes mentally heal from injuries and deal
with the fear of re-injury.

9. To develop game-specific strategies and game plans. All great coaches

employ game plans, race strategies, and course management skills to help
athletes mentally prepare for competition. This is an area beyond developing
basic mental skills in which a mental coach helps athletes and teams. This is
very important in sports such as golf, racing, and many team sports.

10.To identify and enter the zone more often. This incorporates everything I
do in the mental side of sports. The overall aim is to help athletes enter the
zone by developing foundational mental skills that can help athletes enter the
zone more frequently. Its impossible to play in the zone everyday, but you
can set the conditions for it to happen more often.
 I will add that sport psychology may not be appropriate for every athlete. Not every
person who plays a sport wants to improve performance. Sport psychology is
probably not for recreation athletes who participate for the social component of a
sport or do not spend time working on technique or fitness to improve performance.
Young athletes whose parents want them to see a sports psychologist are not good
candidate either. Its very important that the athlete desires to improve his or her
mental game without having the motive to satisfy a parent. Similarly, an athlete
who sees a mental game expert only to satisfy a coach is not going to fully benefit
from mental training.

Sports Psychology does apply to a wide variety of serious athletes. Most of my

students (junior, high school, college, and professional athletes) are highly
committed to excellence and seeing how far they can go in sports. They love
competition and testing themselves against the best in their sport. They understand
the importance of a positive attitude and mental toughness. These athletes want
every possible advantage they can get including the mental edge over the
competition.

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The 4 Cs of Sport Psychology

Concentration, confidence, control and commitmentare the 4Cs
of sport psychology. They are generally considered to be essential
mental qualities important for successful performance in sports.

Concentration is the ability to maintain focus on relevant stimuli (e.g., cues) for a
period of time.
Confidence is a general term for a belief in one's capabilities.
Control is the ability to maintain emotional composure regardless of distractions.
Commitment is the ability to continue working toward ones goals.

The techniques of relaxation, centering, mental imagery, and

hypnotherapy are among the ways to assist athletes in achieving the 4
Cs of sport psychology.
 Concentration

Concentration is the first of the 4 Cs of sport psychology.

Concentration is the ability to sustain attention on selected stimuli. It
can be disrupted by our own thoughts and feelings that distract us.

Intense concentration is requires emotional energy. The harder

athletes try to concentrate, the more it can slip away. Effective
concentration is an effortless process.

Concentration comes naturally when the mind is completely consumed

with the immediate situation The athlete becomes absorbed in the
competition, paying attention to just the right cues to perform well.

Concentration is dynamic, so it constantly shifts from one point to

another. A loss of concentration occurs when attention is divided or
shifts to something irrelevant.

Confidence

Confidence is the next of the 4 Cs of sport psychology. Elite athletes

often say that confidence is fragile, especially when they compete
under pressure. Confidence allows the athlete to focus on essential
 tasks. Fluctuations can mean the difference between best and worst
performances.

Sport research focuses on self-confidence--the belief that one has

the internal resources, abilities, and expectations to achieve success.

Researchers break down self-confidence into many sub-categories to

study and assess it and its influence on sport performance. Two basic
categories of self-confidence are state and trait.

Trait self-confidence (global) is the degree to which individuals

believe in their ability to succeed, in general.

State self-confidence is the belief that they can succeed in a

particular moment. In sport, it may be task or skill specific.

According to Feltz, the sources of self-confidence are:

Mastery experiences, or performance accomplishments, are the most critical

dimension. When athletes perform a task successfully, they are willing to try
something more difficult. On the other hand, repeated failures can diminish
confidence.
Vicarious experiences boost confidence through the emotional motivation they
provide. Vicarious experiences are those felt through the experience of someone
elses participation. One source occurs from watching successful teammates. This
stimulates the notion, if they can do it, so can I!
Imagery is another useful source of vicarious experiences. This strategy is used
to help the athlete create and experience a successful performance by imagining
the performance in as much detail as possible including the sights, sounds, and
muscle activity.
Verbal persuasion is a strategy widely used by teachers, coaches, and peers to
influence behavior. It is useful for boosting an athletes confidence by convincing
them they are completely capable of accomplishing the challenge ahead.
Physiological states such as muscular tension and butterflies in the stomach
can reduce feelings of confidence.
Emotional states relate to how the athlete controls the emotions associated
with competition, such as excitement and anxiety. Big competitions can creates
undue anxiety and self-doubt, so it is critical that the athlete learns take control
of their thoughts and emotions.
 Control
Control, the third of the 4 Cs of sport psychology, refers to emotional control, or
composure. An athlete's ability to maintain control of their emotions in the face
of adversity and remain positive is essential to winning.

Two emotions which are often associated with poor performance are anxiety
and anger. Emotions can claim the athletes level of concentration and
attentional focus. Identifying when an athlete feels a particular emotion and
understanding the reason for the feelings is an important stage in helping an
athlete gain emotional control.

Consequences of emotional responses. Emotional responses have an

impact on performance, whether positive or negative. The following describes
what can happen with emotional responses.

Intrapersonal consequences may be cognitive, physiological, or motivational.

Heightened arousal of may affect power, muscular tension, and coordination.
Cognitive consequences apply to attentional focus, information processing, and
decision-making. With high physiological arousal, attention narrows to relevant
cues or irrelevant cues, which can positively or negatively affect
performance. Anger can prompt greater risk taking in sport situations.
 Motivational consequences affect the athletes desire to
perform. Dysfunctional emotions result in an inappropriate amount of energy.
Long term, emotions could influence both persistence and commitment.
Interpersonal consequences are those that affect others. Opponents and
teammates emotions may shape a given athletes interpretations and
responses. It may influence judgements about situations, such as the intent of
an opponent to cause harm.

Commitment

Commitment is the final quality of the 4 Cs. Sport commitment is

defined as a psychological state representing the desire or resolve to
continue sport participation.

Factors that affect commitment. The Sport Commitment Model

developed by Scanlan and her colleagues (2003) suggests that
enjoyment, personal investments, involvement opportunities,
attractive alternatives, social constraints, and social support all
influence an athletes level of sport participation and commitment.
Among those factors, enjoyment has been the strongest predictor of
sport commitment among youth athletes. They also found that sport
enjoyment and involvement opportunities were the strongest
predictors of sport commitment in elite rugby and collegiate soccer
players.

It is generally agreed that motivation is a key contributing factor to

commitment. Motivation is defined as the psychological energy, or the
force that initiates, or directs, and even sustains our behaviors over a
period of time. It is the force driving you to choose certain types of
behaviors over others.

Strategies to Improve the 4 Cs of Sport

Psychology
The following strategies can help athletes accomplish the 4 Cs of sport
psychology:

State performance goals clearly.

Use pre-performance routines
Practice imagery and visualizations.
Maintain a positive pre-competitive environment.
 Provide positive feedback and praise.
Criticize the athlete's behavior, not the athlete personally.
Use positive self-talk.
Practice relaxation techniques.

If you are interested in learning more about the 4 Cs, as well as many
other topics, I highly recommend Advances in Sport Psychology. It's a
very sound and comprehensive resource in this field.