AO4 – Review two

Psychological Skills Training

techniques

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Who the client is
 Name – Steve Harmison
 Age – 30
 Nationality - English
 Sport - Cricket
 Competition level - International

2
First Meeting
 What would you say was your best achievement in
your sport?
Becoming number 1 ranked test bowler in the world
and winning the ashes in 2005
 When was the period you think you was in your best
form?
2004 – 2005, Away series in The West Indies and the
home series against Australia in 2005
 What would you say you enjoy the most about your
sport?
Touring with England and taking on the worlds best
players
 Who would you say is the person you look up to the
most?
Simon Brown

3
Analysis of meeting
 It was obvious after this initial meeting that he
loved playing for his country no matter what.
Despite lower back injuries he still managed to rip
through the West Indies batting line up with ease
and it was easily his best moment in his career
over the 2005 ashes success.

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What will be used to collect
data for the athlete
 Meetings with the athlete

 Discussions with coach/captain/family

 Observation of training/games

 CSAI –2

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Discussion with coach
(Andy Flower)
 Why do you think Steve’s career has stalled?
Back injuries, lack of help from the pitches, a change in his bowling action,
missing his family during tours
 What’s been done by the coaching staff to help him out?
Got in a new bowling coach to work on his action, dropped him from
international team to go back to his county and work up from there.
 Is there any problems between him and other players within the dressing
room?
There was rumours of a dressing room rift between the ex captain and ex
coach, with players divided on who to support, but overall each player gets
on as they have to spend most of the year on tour with them.

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Analysis of meeting
 There is a obvious number of reasons why Steve’s
international career has stalled, the main 1 being
that he has the whole nation on his shoulders
when he’s bowling and after his 2004-2005 form
when he was number 1 bowler in the world, the
country expected him to repeat that form time and
time again. However with pitches now favouring
batsmen and dressing room unrest it’s had a
negative effect on him personally.

7
Discussion with brother
(Ben Harmison)
 You and your brother both play at Durham don’t you?
Yeah, since 2006
 Do you think that this has made Steve think that he has to
out perform you in each game?
Not really, we get along on and off the pitch and help
each other as much as possible
 Why would you say his career has stalled?
Injuries, change of bowling action, no help from pitches
and family commitments.
 Would you say that the rumours of dressing room unrest
within the England camp have had a effect on him?
Yeah because he got on really well with the captain and
coach. 8
Analysis of meeting
 Ben said that Steve got on well with the ex coach
and ex captain, especially after the ex captain got
him back into the test team and ODI team. It also
seems that Ben and Andy Flower both agree that
injuries, lifeless pitches, bowling action and family
has played their part in his international career.

9
CSAI-2 Questionnaire
 Before I observed 1 of Steve’s matches I gave him
a CSAI-2 questionnaire to fill in to see what really
was causing him problems physically and
mentally.

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CSAI-2 Results
Cognitive Anxiety
Intensity Direction
27 -14

Somatic Anxiety
Intensity Direction
21 1

Self Confidence
Intensity Direction
19 0

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CSAI-2 Graph - Cognitive

12
CSAI-2 Graph - Somatic

13
CSAI-2 Graph – Self
Confidence

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 Observation of
match
 After seeing a video of Steve during the period in which he
described as his best period of form and looking at him now it is
very obvious how his bowling action has changed over the
years.

 This may be due to his back injuries over the years, or how the
different bowling coaches have told him to do the action.

 Comparing him from 2004/2005 to now, I can see that he is

very nervous when he’s about to bowl.

 An example is the 2006 Ashes in Australia where the 1st ball of

the series of his ended up at 2nd slip and proved to be the
downfall of him.
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Bowling Video’s
 The short clip shows Steve in 2005 and
then again in 2006, the main point of this
is to show the difference in his bowling
technique in just over a year.

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Problems and
Identifications
Problem How it was identified

Injuries Discussion with coach and brother

Poor pitches Discussion with coach and brother,

watching video’s

Change in leadership Discussion with coach, brother and

looking at newspaper articles

Change in bowling action Watching video’s and discussion

with coach and brother

Family commitments Discussion with coach and brother

Dressing room unrest Discussion with coach and brother

and looking at newspaper articles

Anxiety CSAI-2 results, expressions during

game, brother, coach.
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Three phases of
psychological skills
training
 Education phase

 Acquisition phase

 Practice phase

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Education phase
 In this phase the athlete starts to recognise how
PST can have a positive affect on their future
performances.

 The athlete tells the psychologist what they think is

making them perform lower than their potential
and then has the psychologist watch them training.

 Also the athlete in this phase learns how PST can

be learned just as easily as physical skills and
incorporate it into

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Acquisition phase
 In this phase the athlete is being demonstrated the
techniques that they can learn for the psychological skills
that they are about to use in their training programme.

 This can be done by informal and formal discussions so

that these skills can be put into their programme, so that
they are performed before physical training starts.

 Yet again informal and formal meetings can take place to

ensure that the athlete is practising these skills properly
and seriously

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Practice phase
 In this stage this is where the athlete starts to do the PST
techniques on their own without the aid of the
psychologist.

 In this stage there are 3 goals: automate skills through

learning, teach athletes and coaches to integrate PST
into performance situations and simulate skills athletes
would want to do in a real situation.

 Finally the coach needs to make sure that the programme

is being followed by monitoring it regularly and making
time for it.
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When the programme
will start
 This programme will start once Steve has returned
to pre season training in January.

 This is because their is more time to learn these

skills, and because Steve wont be focused on
trying to win anything during training.

 These skills will be done at the beginning and end

of each training session he participates in and will
last for about 15 minutes.

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Techniques that will be
used
 There are two categories that techniques to
manage anxiety, Cognitive and Somatic

 Cognitive - Mental Rehearsal

 Somatic – Progressive Muscular Relaxation

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Mental Rehearsal
 This is where the athlete goes through the routine
in their head so that just before the routine is
performed they can see it being done successfully
in their head.

 Steps of mental rehearsal – Goal statement,

centre yourself, start the rehearsal, create success
image, positive self talk, reward the image

 When you replay positive images in your mind,

you increase your confidence and chances of
good performance.
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Progressive Muscular
Relaxation
 This is where an athlete would lie down in a quiet
and relaxing place and listen to peaceful music.
Whilst listening to the music they would be doing
muscular relaxation exercises.

 Two steps of PMR – Tensing muscle groups,

Release the tension.

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Evaluation of mental
rehearsal
 Rating of 1-5 (1 being excellent, 5 being very poor)
 How would you rate this technique?
1
 How would you rate the helpfulness of your
coaches with this technique?
2
 How well did this technique work for you?
1
 Would you recommend this to your team mates?
1

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Analysis of MR results
 Steve told me that he enjoyed doing this technique
as it helped him realise the benefits of playing well
and what media profile he would gain from playing
well. However he said that his coach didn’t help
him as much as he had hoped, but like with PMR
he said he would recommend this technique to his
team mates for future games.

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Evaluation of PMR
 Rating of 1-5 (1 being excellent, 5 being very poor)
 How would you rate PMR?
1 or 2
 Did your coach try and help you with this as much as
he could?
1
 Would you recommend this to your team mates?
1
 Would you carry on with this technique throughout
your career?
1

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Analysis of PMR results
 Steve told me that this technique had helped him
relax a lot more than he used to do when playing
in big matches. He also preferred doing this on his
own rather than having someone watching over
him and telling him what to do. Also he said that
he would definitely recommend this technique to
his team mates and persuade them to do it.

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