The Glass MenagerieThe Glass MenagerieIn earlier days sports psychology was mostly concerned with developing assessment methods that would identify those people with the potential to become serious superior athletes. Today the focus is on psychological training, exercises that strengthen the mental skills that will help athletic performances on the path to excellence. These skills include mental imagery and focus training. If an athlete is serious about becoming the best he or she can possibly be, the most essential ingredient is commitment to practice the right things. It takes incredible commitment to reach the top: a commitment to rest and train the body so it can perform under the most demanding conditions and a commitment to train the mind to focus totally on executing your best performance skills under the most stressful circumstances. (Millman, D.1999pg5)To excel in a sport is a contest with yourself, to call upon the natural abilities within you own mind and body. Each person begins at a different location mentally, physically and with respect to the support we are given. An athlete quest for personal excellence requires the most of what you have- whatever that may be. People who go to school to become sport psychologist often get their graduate degree because this field is a low paying job. The average pay for this job as of 1999 starting is 28-32k per year.
Sport psychologist are interested in how participation in sport, exercise, and physical activity may enhance development and well-being throughout a human being life-span. Sport psychologist also assist coaches working with athletes as well as helping improve athletes motivation.
One of the best practice fields for peak performance is the mind. Many athletes use mental imagery for quick rehearsal before an event: A diver, for instance, might perform a double somersault with a half twist one final time in his mind as he readies himself on the board. Mental imagery can also help people prepare for possible hazards. A squash player might run through a difficult back court return in his or her mind to rehearse the various options that might be necessary in case of a delayed reaction. Psychologists suggest that people develop an image bank of various scenario’s they can call on to help relax, to get motivated, or to revisit a finest hour to help build confidence. Visualization is a common term used to describe guided imagery or the process of forming images in our mind like pictures or moves, images recreating our best performances, and the way it feels to perform just the way we want it to. These images can be visual, kinesthetic- how our body feels, tactile-how it feels to the touch, auditory-how it sounds, even olfactory-what we smell. Using mind power we can call upon these images over and over, enhancing skill through repetition rehearsal. The mind and body can become more prepared to actually perform the skill, and can improve both physical and mental reactions in certain situations. The developing athletes, who make the fastest progress and who ultimately become their best, make extensive use of mental imagery. They use it daily, as a means of directing what will happen in training, and as a way of pre-experiencing their best competition performances. Mental imagery often starts out simply, as you think though your goals, your moves, and your desired competitive performances.
Kelly Kryczka, former world champion in synchronized swimming duet discuses the use of on site imagery. “We did a lot of imagery during training sessions, especially as the competition approached. When we were doing compulsory figures in practice, a minute before doing certain ones the coach would say, “Okay, you are going to do a best one. You are going to do a whole compulsory figure.” So before we went out there and did it, we would sit on the edge of the pool and image ourselves doing it right on, and feel how it feels. You image yourself right on, perfectly. Then go out there and do it. Doing a lot of imagery was the major difference in our preparation last year, not just the duet, but also the compulsory figures.” The ultimate goal is to draw on all of your sense to feel yourself executing skills perfectly.
When an athlete is focused in sport he or she is aware of only those things that are critical to their performance, to the exclusion of everything else. In a very real sense an athlete and his or her performance becomes one, and nothing else in the world exists for that period of time. In individual sports, best performances occur when athletes are totally connected or riveted to their performance, often to the point of performing on autopilot and letting their bodies lead, without interference. In team sports best performances likewise occur when players are totally focused and absorbed in the crucial aspects of their performance(Millman, D.1999pg55). They are totally aware of the flow of relevant play around them, completely trusting
The athlete and the coach are the major players in a sport. The player as coach is responsible for guiding the activity (Schnall, T.P., et al., 1996). The coach (both the gamekeeper and athlete) is not responsible for any particular action, or decision making and is responsible for the communication and support of the game. The player is the primary authority on all important decisions around games. In addition, the player is responsible for helping and assisting the gamekeeper with various other responsibilities from being able to provide any needed assistance or help with training (Schnall, T.P., et al., 1996). The decision maker was also the primary authority on everything else like the games and teams. In this context the sports may be played as a combination of game and practice, but in this way it is understood that team sports are similar. The “two-player sport” and “practice” are usually both a “one-player” version and sometimes a two-player version, with practice taking a few hours to complete but with practice lasting a few more (see above). The three-player sport is more familiar (and at times extremely difficult to play) to sports where the three-person model is used more commonly. In the same way that soccer generally involves no practice on the ice, soccer is played both on or off the ice. The three-player model, as used by the two-player model is in many ways an evolution of the four-player model in athletics. During the first two centuries it was very common for athletes to practice for a very long time. A coach, on the other hand, used the first two centuries of their lives playing for two decades before beginning to play on and off the ice. Today there are more than 80 such sports. During the most recent century the four-player model was used more often than any other sports and was used more (especially for professional football and rugby).
4. Role of the coach in training
The role of the coach, or an individual trainer, is always a critical aspect of training. The roles of both coach and trainer will vary greatly from athlete and non-athlete to athlete and non-athlete. With respect to the role of the coach, many athletes, coaches, and athletes (who also go by the term “performance trainer” or “performance analyst”) have both coached and worked out their teams and their individual responsibilities in the course of their personal work with others and in the community, including athletes. The roles of both trainer and athlete in sports include providing information, advising, and assisting the coaches; providing coaching, development and training materials, counseling, and educational services (see below); building programs and schedules and providing training materials; and providing coaching, development and training materials and instructional activities. A trainer can provide the trainer with information about personal performance, such as the way in which he or she has performed since training to prepare for this performance. Training is usually done with