Question

Describe the components of the healthy philosophy of winning that is taught in MAC, and indicate how this orientation is designed to combat competitive anxiety.

Describe the procedures that can be utilized to increase coach’s self-awareness and their compliance with coaching guidelines.

In what types of situations and with what types of individuals might it be appropriate to use and ACT intervention?

Answer 1

3.2.

MAC or the Midfulness Acceptance Commitment is series of treatment module applied in Sports Psychology that is used to alleviate the psychological conditions of anxiety and depression which are found in athletes and otherwise sportspersons who engage in competitive sports . The pressure of winning causes a lot of psychological stress on the individuals and it puts excessive demands on their coping mechanisms. They develop negative cognition such as a debilitating sense of hopelessness about their work condition and survival and show symptoms of generalised anxiety such as an excessive worry, irritation on one hand to Panic attacks and chest pain, breathlessness on the other.

Midfulness is considered important for management of thoughts and feelings, and it promotes the awareness and acceptance of of internal experiences of fear of losing while leading the individual to recognise and seek external structures of rewards and accordingly determine their consequent behaviour towards success. This would entail addressing both their physical health as well as their mental health. MAC as a treatment responds to the patients’ psychological well being and provides a gradual understanding of their level of anxiety and training in development of available coping responses as a part of improving their performance.

Some of the key strategies which are involved in the MAC procedures focus on developing cognitive and behavioural efforts and adaptive emotional reactions. These include:

1. Cognitive strategies which involve helping the person to accept and acknowledge the level of his/her physical abilities.

2. Shifting the locus of control to external causes rather than the tendency to blame the self for failure.

3. Behavioural efforts such as seeking active engagement or participation in interpersonal and social relations with family, peers, team, coaching staff, etc.

4. Encouraging the individuals to practice adjustment responses such as Fighting Spirit, described as a highly optimistic attitude, accompanied by a search for greater information and knowledge about the type anxiety symptoms that one may experience before or during performance.

The idea behind this strategy is that Knowledge is power and information about one’s feelings can empower the performer to deal with his/her condition in an optimistic way. Mental adjustment is seen as a significant component of the training of sports personnel’s. To this end,the treatment in MAC is administered or facilitated through the agency of professional coaches.

Midfulness in sports is practiced and professed through the agency of the coach who is himself/herself trained to understand his/her inner thoughts and feelings. Thus, an equal stress is laid on increasing the coaches’ inclinations towards complying with the coaching guidelines and create a more holistic work environment for their trainees in order to minimise the negative impact of competition in their work. MAC procedures extend some crucial strategies for increasing the level of self awareness of the coaches:

a) Goal setting- Giving the athletes a meaningful direction to work towards the final outcome allows them to take a more proactive role throughout the game rather than work passively. Coaches are trained to be mindful of their need to control the athletes and are instead encouraged to share the responsibility with the athletes through mutual defining of goals.

b) Positive self-talk- This includes directing the coaches to attend to positive statements which work towards instilling self-confidence in situations before performance which may cause anxiety in the coach and the sportsman/ sportswoman, for instance, leads such as “ I have done this before and I can do it again.”can help to prepare for the competition.

c) Labelling- Identifying and giving terms to one’s thoughts and feelings related to high levels of anxiety can help a coach to prepare athletes for competition. For instance, labelling increased heart rate as a positive indication of one’s readiness for the competition can help to alleviate the negative ideas associated with bodily changes and channelling one’s energy towards performing.

These are some of the important strategies which act as guidelines both for the coach and the athletes in sports to combat the negative effects of performance anxiety. Training in MAC procedures entails a mutual work between the coaches and the athletes. MAC modules have have been found to yield positive outcomes with young athletes ranging from track performers, gymnasts, to swimmers. Also, female sports personnel’s with an optimum score of 5-7 on the State anxietytests tend to respond more effectively to the behavioural procedures of MAC. Thus MAC is an effective method for capacity building in competitive sports training in the long term.