Question

The volleyball team at Nike University has a tendency to clam up when the going gets tough (i.e., communication breaks down; the team loses its intensity, enthusiasm, and focus in critical situations and fails to make appropriate adjustments to things that are going on during competition). How would you intervene as either a sport psychologist or coach to deal with this situation? If you were a coach or administrator, how would you minimize the problems faced by Olympic athletes who did not achieve their goals? How can a sport journal and performance feedback sheets be used to increase awareness? Describe what might be included in a journal and feedback sheets. Describe what is meant by saying life skill goal-setting programs teach for goal-setting transfer. Think of your own sport and physical activity involvement and identify two goals you have set in the past. Evaluate your two goals relative to the 12 goal-setting guidelines presented in this chapter. Briefly summarize and discuss the merits of the five different approaches that have been offered to describe the relationship between stress and performance in sport. Pick a sport and describe a typical “restructuring” stress management intervention with an athlete. Compare and contrast the concepts underlying an emotion-versus problem-focused coping strategy to manage stress in sport. Develop an imagery program for an athlete in your sport using the imagery cookbook. Can imagery hurt athletes’ performance? Explain and then identify how athletes can avoid this negative imagery effect.

Answer 1

The foremost duty for the Sports psychologist to develop the effective psychological skills and the methods, game plan which should be self-regulatory in nature. These programs should be implemented in a way to increase the performance level and make them mentally healthy for the competition. There are various kinds of intervention techniques to enhance the performance of the sportsperson for example; plan oriented schemes, talking about oneself, evaluating own performance,relaxation techniques and Stress management techniques.

As a coach to help the Athletes to achieve their goals, we have to work on the techniques they apply to play and carefully oberve the steps to overcome their mistakes.Like, first setting a short targets and change the methods to achieve them. There is also a special need to focus on their health, training sessions, meals.

Sports Journals and feedback sheets are used to analyse and evaluate the goal-setting methods and its effect on the performance of the athletes. It is an effective way to learn about their performance in the field and also it helps in understanding the level of efforts, hard work required to acheive the desired goal. These journals should also address their strengths not only weakness instead, and provide knowledge or information about the sport.

Life skill Goal setting programs in sports means that players should well trained and fit, motivated and confident and in good mental status. Goal-setting is very important in any sport because teh performance of the team solely depends on this. For example, in football, the coach uses the offseason time to practice hard for the competition. He can use effective techniques to enhance their performance on a gradual basis:

1. To remind the team members about their goal timely.

2. A common goal set for the team.

3. an individual goal set for every player.

4. make short term goals and work steps wise.

5.Instruct them timelly about their performance.

6. to make players take resposilbilities about their performance.

7. encourage them and notice their development or advancement.

Stress in terms of sports is closely associated because their is always a constant demand and a mental pressure on the players to succeed and win. In many researches regarding the stress related to sports syas that there are sdeveral types of stressors (body build,heat,fatigue etc.) which can lead to low performance in the players. Therefore it is imporatnt to identify,assess these mental pressures and include the coping strategies to work on them.

Mental imagery in stress management is considered as the best and effective tool for the athletes. By creating a virtual image in their mind of performing good gives the confidence and make a balanced control on their power and speed. The key to overcome the effect of negative mental imagery to eliminate the negative inhibitors and thoughts and correctly use the positive approach to encounter their problems.