week 2

week 2 - 4/04/14:

aim of the week: to develop/increase your arousal in order to improve perfromance.

Hi, this week I am going to implement an arousal programme for you, by the way thanks for viewing last weeks blogs of goal setting i hope it has helped.

Arousal has been defined as state of anticipation and alertness that prepare the body for action.

It is evident form the Questionnaires administered that you don't have a high anxiety levels, I have however observed and from my chats with you it is obvious that you are a very laid back individual who would benefit from increasing  his arousal level up to improve performance.

Arousal effects on sports performance

The effect on sport is that your arousal levels different depending on what outcome you are willing to achieve. If your arousal level is high, then you will be more motivated to win and if you win it will increase the meaning of that win. If your arousal levels are low then it means that you are more likely to not perform as you normally can. Arousal is mental and physical. It is psychic energy-the activation of certain parts of the central nervous system that leads to physiological and behavioural changes. You can partially control arousal and thereby improve your functioning as an individual as well as an athlete.

generally there are two categories in which arousal falls into which are physiological and psychological, i will explain the symptoms of both:

Physiological/somatic:

•      Increased heart rate
•    Intense blood circulation
•   Sweat
•    Digestion slows
•       Jelly legs
•   Muscle tension

Psychological/cognitive:

•     Stressed
•   Negative thoughts
•    Reaction time
•     Overthinking
•       Mind wonder

by creating the optimal mental aleartness, interest and focus it means you need to be activated appropiately for the task. futhermore this means increasing your arousal levels. some performers prefer to increase their mental and physical arousal levels by constantly taking short, sharp and shallow breaths. i would like to ask any of the performers to try this breathing technique and then if they can accompany themselves with anything that naturally increases their arousal. it is physchologically proven that an athlete can short vigorous activity or perhaps muscles tensing can also help. however i would just like to clarify that this does not generally activate any emotional or mental aspects of arousal.

Inverted U theory:

An increase in arousal causes improvement in performance which eventually reaches optimal level. However after this point increased arousal leads to deteriorated performance.

There are a number of factors that affect position of the zone of optimal functioning:

The top athletes have an optimal arousal/anxiety level (3 categories of athlete low ZOF, mid ZOF and High ZOF). These 3 categories can be emphasised on depending on how the athlete’s performance is as well the intensity. Having a balance of both being good will result in hitting superior optimal ability. When an athlete is in the zone they often report a feeling of calmness, an ability to read the game and to also produce skills effortlessly.

Your skill level can affect your individual zone of optimal functioning. This can affect this because your skill level can vary. If you look at an athlete with an elite skill level who has mastered everything in their particular sport then they will be in the zone as they will know the correct techniques to use. An example of this would be football superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic he has conquered the 4 European leagues Your personality can also affect the way your ability is optimising. Showing a good attitude can help on the way you behave and perform. If you look at someone like Lionel Messi who is currently hailed as the best footballer in the world, he isn’t ill mannered or loud as soon as he steps onto the pitch his general attitude towards the opposition and the referee is very good which enables him to optimise in his ability and perform well. In conclusion to this if you look at his statistics it proves that he is optimising as they will blow you away. On the other hand if you look at someone with a bad personality e.g. Joey Barton his ability in football isn’t so good, mainly because his general attitude stinks and isn’t able to perform that well. If you look at the types of skills being performed by a professional footballer such as Cristiano Ronaldo he is able to do them at a fast pace and can literally do any trick in the book. This shows he has superior optimal ability. An example could perhaps be the stopover skill where he is able to dazzle past defenders and leave them for dust. On the other hand if you look at a footballer who hasn’t got such a high status they may not be able to perform skills with such a high intensity because they won’t have had enough practises and will be new to the skill. There is a difference between fine skills such as a golf put and a penalty kick. You most likely would want your arousal level to be low as you want to be calm in the situation. On the hand a sprinter would want to be hyped up fully by wanting the crowd to cheer him on so he would want a high arousal level also known as wanting the 12^th man behind him.

music can be a soloution to solving your problems, maybe you can choose some songs that really get you going. in particular look at tunes that spark emotion and aleartness examples could be the song "eye of the tiger" from the famous Rocky Balboa movie. however fast pitched songs with a good beat arent alwatys the soloution maybe you can listen to slower songs with a slower tempo which will eventually provide a powerful emotion.

week 1

week 1 - 28/03/14:

aim of the week: to develop/increase your goal setting skills in order to improve my motivation to boost/increase confidence and reduce anxiety.

Hi, this week I am going to implement a goal setting programme for you, this is going to be the first of 6 weeks.

Having analysed  your strengths and weaknesses it is evident for me to require a goal setting programme. As I require improvement in some areas in football such as my confidence as I had previously spoken about lacking it along with mental toughness. In this case if my ability is tested to the limit by setting a goal it will also reduce my anxiety levels.

From my questionnaire we can see that I require improvement in goal setting as it was actually my worst category with the lowest score out of all the other questionnaires (4/12). It is important for me to improve my game in terms of mental preparation as this will also motivate me to perform better.  Goal setting is setting a target and showing that I have a target to stride for, also this means if I have a clear plan I may perform better.

Goal setting is when an individual is setting himself a target to achieve, the goal will be something they have a desire and a will to accomplish, the athlete be passionate about meeting their target.

There are three different types of goals which I have decided to follow. The first is an outcome goal in which focuses mainly on the finalised result of a competitive event such as winning a football match or a tennis match, this shows that this goal can be applied to any sort of sport individual or team. These can be classified as long-term goals. However there is a disadvantage of this for instance if the athlete doesn’t meet his outome goal he may feel disheartened.

 The second type of goal setting is a process goal in which the athlete is focusing on something they want to produce and improve ability in. the process goals are short-term and lead to the outcome goals. The last type of goal setting is performance in which a athlete is setting an actual goal to meet in performing terms e.g. setting a landmark of scoring 30 goals a season. If I apply these goals to me then hopefully my mental preparation game will improve.  SMART target is a good method of doing this.

SMART
S = specific
M = measureable
A  = acheivable
R = realistic
T = Time

I am going to set myself some goals which I want to meet. I will set myself a long term goal which is something very wishful (dream goal) and then I will set myself a few short term goals also. A long term goal which I can set myself is to make a certain amount of starts for the football team, out of 38 league matches I would love to start 26. A short term goal I would set myself is to contribute to goals scored in the matches e.g. assist or score this will mean that I am setting myself some goals.  There is a range in which tells you exactly where you are from a scale from 1-5. 1 is you being at your present state and 5 is your desired state and eventually you will move up the ranking on your way to achieve. 

Long term goal

Current position

                                                                                                                                                              

assessment week

This is an overview of how a six week psychological skills training programme and how it will be linked to athlete x associated with the sport of football. This programme will be able to show the psychological demands of athlete x. X doesn't play for a semi-pro team at the moment but plays football regularly 2-3 times a week. X prefers to play upfront and tends to swap sides but enjoys playing mostly down the left side.

For football there are demands which you need to meet in order to stay in line and not lose your cool. You need to control your emotions most importantly because the last thing you want to do is lose faith in yourselves as this will end up in a negative propose in which the team crashes and burns to ashes. In football the player needs to be confident when performing a skill and forget about the negative thoughts i.e. losing the ball etc. this will also enable the athlete to become more powerful in ability which will positively motivate him and let him meet his desires and goals. Mental toughness is required in football mainly because it is an intense sport over the course of 90 minutes in which anything can happen as it is unpredictable. Low levels of anxiety would suit
 to the athlete best as if they are participating in a game it could come to a hault if they feel nervous and worried, being cool, calm and collected is key in football. X needs to work on being more confident when performing a skill because sometimes he tends to think about what others will think about him if he isn't able to pull the skill off, this needs changing as X knows if he doesn't care about what others think his anxiety levels will vastly decrease and be able to perform better.

strengths:
There are many strengths to write about athlete x classified as an attacking midfielder by name,  is also versatile and can play as a striker is tipped to be a blend of a centre forward If this potential is utilized well, he surely would be an important team player. His ability and composure on the ball, coupled with technical presence is a joy to behold with the exceptional talent that he possesses at such young age. Training  can surely raise his play notches higher. physically the strengths of X are his shooting because he is able to compose a lot of velocity and power forcing the ball to hit its target with some venom, as well as this he is able to hit a good strike at goal from a dead ball as he is able to produce accuracy, precision and whip so the ball is whipped over the wall and is sailed into the back of the net. another strength for athlete x is he is able to provide a variety of passes including; long, short and pinging. when x is tipped of just behind the striker he prefers to play in the hole and provides good valuable through balls for the strikers to finish, as well as this he is able to ping the ball wide for the wingers to get to and then the wingers can try to put the ball into the box helping the strikers to score. one of the main strengths of athlete x is the fact that he can hold the ball up and try to bring other team members into play.

weaknesses:
Getting accustomed to the physical demands will be a big challenge. Inexperience is the most inescapable and the most noticeable at this level. athlete x lacks ability in defending. Things such as tracking back can cost the team.

opportunities:
To improve on my football skills I will need to attend more sessions regularly in order for me to practice my skills and technique. This will help me a lot because the coach that helps me with my football will be vastly more knowledgeable than me about the sport itself and they can use their experience to teach me how to become a better footballer all round. Also to improve i could also go to a empty training field get 50 balls to hit and practice my target accuracy therefore i could have been given more chances to get my technique right and learn new shots which could have improved my golf game.

Time:
time is the actual process of a sessions. athlete x needs to ensure that his mind is free from other duties so that the athletes main focus is on football. also by doing this the athlete is making sure that he has more time on his hands and will be able to divise a good plan. the time they have with their sessions will give them the best possible time as well as a suitable mindset on the sport. henceforth to adhere this athlete x will convey this improving ability with accuracy and sharpness.

week 3

week 3 - breathing and centering

aim of the week: to apply breathing and centering in order to reduce somatic anxiety.

Hi there i hope you have been visiting my blog page and keeping up to date with all the elements I have spoken about, hopefully it will have helped you and benefited you guys to an extent where you will be happy.

Somatic anxiety can be defined as anxiety which is provoked by bodily symptoms of tension such as butterflies in the stomach. It is commonly contrasted with cognitive anxiety which is that provoked by mental concerns or worry.


I have chosen breathing control and centering as it is a foundation technique on which other more advanced psychological skills can be built, such as imagery, relaxation techniques etc.  It is important to stay relaxed at all times so i though it would be good to apply this.
outside the coaching session

rhythmic breathing can be a way of reducing somatic anxiety as it can be a very useful technique to help athlete x cope with pressure, furthermore which will lead into performing better. It is all down to the style and technique you use in rhythmic breathing, most importantly stay as relaxed as you can and don't speak whilst you are in the process as this can affect your breathing.

Place your hand on the bottom of your rib cage and breathe deeply or in other words inhale heavily and at the same time count to three, after you have counted to three then exhale deeply to the count of three. Repeat this process a few times until you think you have felt the inner physical and mental state, if somehow you cant feel the difference perhaps repeat the whole process but take two recording of your pulse rate, one before and one after the rhythmic breathing session.

To help you appreciate how this style of breathing can reduce the high levels of physical arousal associated with fatigue and somatic anxiety, i would like you to carry out some physical exercises for a period of time which causes mild fatigue e.g. running up and down the stairs continuously for 2-3 minutes. after this now perform the rhythmic breathing process. you will hopefully discover that by using this you can recover much quicker than usual and regain your optimal state.


Now select some training and competitive  situations that you feel  that you could use the breathing / centeing technique in. Examples of these situations where you can apply this style is just before you are going to take a penalty, free kick, one on situation. if you think deeply all these things have the somatic anxiety affect in common so this breathing style can reduce it.

within coaching session which will then lead to competitive situation

I will try to help the athlete put this style into practice now when he is attending training, the situations which I have across before, I will try to re-create those exact situations in training. Hence I will try to encourage and support the athlete as much as possible in terms of applying and adapting the breathing technique. I will to be effective when it comes to this as i will need to think about how the athlete will need to come across this situation, I perhaps may set a free kick competition or penalty competition in which the athlete will need to come across this style of breathing.

Eventually after I have constantly applied the breathing style to the athlete, he will hopefully get to the stage where he doesn't need reminding. furthermore he will be able to adapt this style to himself in a competitive situation. It is vital for me to know how it is effecting the athlete so I could perhaps st a log book in which the athlete will note down every time  he uses this style.

week 6

week 6

date: 10/05/14

aim of the week: to decrease anxiety levels by increasing self-confidence through self-talk to improve performance

Hi thank you for completing last week’s tasks, after completing them you should have felt that performance had further increased in both training and competition as your anxiety levels were lower and looking at your results that is what has happened. 

this week i will talk to you about how you can increase self-confidence through self-talk and how it can improve performance, im sure the blog i done in imagery helped and i have decided to tie this in with that this week as they are related and based on the same foundation. 

why this will help and reason why i have chosen it?

i have decided to give this task because when i looked at you're results for the CSAI-2 questionnaire that you filled in, it shows that your self-confidence level is high, however i hope you can maintain this approach as it is vital on affecting you're individual performance. you scored 31 on you're questionnaire which shows you have a god level of self confidence. Having a low self-confidence level will automatically make you performance decrease because you don’t believe in yourself and you don’t believe that you can win when competing but having more self-confidence will help you will performance because the more you believe in yourself then the better you will perform because you believe that you can win therefore you want to push yourself so that you come in first place. I am aware that you wont really have to change you're actions much mainly because you are already performing at a high level in terms of self-confidence and believing in yourself. Previously i have already set a self talk exercise to reduce cognitive anxiety, self talk is also a valid way of increasing self confidence.   



what is self-confidence and self-talk?

all athletes will get to that point where they experience doubts in their performances due to negative self-talk undermining feeling of self-confidence and self-esteem and interfering with performance.  

Self-confidence can be defined as a feeling of trust in a person’s abilities, qualities, and judgement. 

many sporting athletes need self-confidence because this is the difference between winning and losing a competition because if you don’t believe in yourself when performing, many sports persons need help with their self-confidence as this is something that lacks in many athletes and is a key thing.

Self-talk is where you are convincing yourself that you are good enough to perform by changing negative thoughts into positive thoughts. 

self-talk is something which is required by an athlete in order for them to reduce their anxiety levels and improve their self confidence, athletes do this training and competition as it turns all their thoughts from negative to positive 

technique - what it involves.

self-talk is where you change all your negative thoughts into positive thoughts. An example of using self-talk to increase performance just before you go on the football pitch to perform for you're team you should think of all the positive thoughts e.g. instead of " what if" you should be thinking "yes come on". To increase your self-confidence we are going to use something called self-talk and as explained above, self-talk is where you change all your negative thoughts into positive thoughts. this will be very effective because you are giving yourself more confidence instead of self-doubt. This is something many performers will do just before they are about to perform to help with their confidence levels.

i would like you to gain more knowledge about self-talk being linked in with self-confidence so i would like you to complete two tasks for me, these tasks should be completed in a quiet place but make sure at the same time you are relaxed and don't force answers for this task.

below is a table that I would like you fill out and send it back to me. Within this table I would like you to think of a situation, an example could be something like I haven't recently been getting picked for my team.I would then like you to state whether you thought what was going through your mind was a positive or negative self-talk. Once you have thought of the situation I then want you to think about the thoughts that were going through your mind at the time.

Situation	Self – talk

during competition  the reason why you didn't make the team was probably because you self-doubted yourself therefore reducing your self confidence was something which needed to be increased, now that you have established whether or not your self-talk was positive or negative, I would like you to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones.

All the factors are controllable as long as you are thinking about which ones you know you cant control. highlighting them will help as this will give you a better idea of you knowing which factors need changing so there is no need to worry about not having the ability to control these things.

Positive thoughts	Negative thoughts

week 5

week 5

date: 9/5/14

aim of the week: to improve self confidence through the use of imagery. 

thank you for constantly reading my blogs and keeping up to date i hope they have helped you. since you have completed the tasks you should have felt more confident when performing whether it has been in training or in a competitive situation. You should keep using self-talk as it is a very good way to improve confidence and not just your confidence within your sport but in day to day life too.

what is imagery?

Imagery can be defined as a way of using senses to create or re-create a situation or experience. Imagery to sport psychologists is mental practice but is more commonly known by everyone as visualisation and it means creating pictures in the mind of an event, for example, just before you walk onto the football pitch you can paint a picture of yourself scoring the decisive goal to win the match and then running wildly to the crowd to celebrate with the fans.  this all comes down to self confidence, if you create an image in your mind then your confidence will also improve. however it is important that in the image there should be many things, such as, how you felt at the time of each performance, how you felt each performance went, how you performed, what the atmosphere was like etc.

how is imagery used?

imagery is used to improve performances of athletes and emphasise on what contributes to the success. Imagery is used mostly just before an event is going to take place or before you are going to perfrom, imagery can be used to programme the body for successful execution. There is a mind-body connection which occurs whether you actually perform a task or just think about performing the task. So for you, athlete X, try painting the best picture you can of you having the performance of your life this is important because you can plot the seed which will eventually grow into a tree as your confidence improves.

why have i chosen imagery?

For you self-confidence on your CSAI-2 questionnaire that you completed you scored quite high. however this doesnt mean you can lean back, it is still vital for you to maintain this as it could be the defining factor between successful and unsuccessful athletes.


Types of imagery and the benefits of each:

There are two types of imagery, internal and external. 

External – external imagery, also known as visual perspective, is probably the most common type of imagery as external imagery is where you watch a video of yourself doing something in particular e.g.  as a footballer you would watch yourself perform on the pitch.

Internal – internal imagery is where you would picture the image in your mind of the surroundings. This type of imagery is as if you are looking at something through your own eyes so you can see and feel the movement that is around you as well as how you are feeling e.g. sitting in wembley stadium alongside all the other fans.

effective imagery:

Relaxation – you need to have a relaxed mind and body so that you can feel your body moving and so you can feel your emotions and all the emotions are that you are about to feel. This relaxation stage should act like an eraser so that all your worries and thoughts are wiped away. By erasing all thoughts means that it will be easier to concentrate on image/thought at a time without distractions of something else cropping up into your thoughts.

Realism – this means that when you are creating the imagery in your mind that you create it so realistic that the brain believes that the body is actually executing the skill. It is your duty to try and make the picture as clear as possible so when it comes to performing you will have a clearer mind. there are 4 things needed to take into consideration when creating the picture;

Clarity – making the picture easy to see so that the vividness and control of the image can be enhanced.

Vividness – this is to bring in as many of your senses as possible. For the situation to be as vivid as possible you also need to take into account all your body movements so you can re-create them because you know what it is supposed to feel like when executing the skill, e.g. free kick, how your body is supposed to twist and how your leg needs to be positioned.

Emotional feelings – visiting competition sites before a competition or remembering what the site was like if you have been there before so that your body and mind can refresh itself/get used to the site – how it looks, what the smells are, how to get around, what the atmosphere was like the last time you were there, etc.

Outcome – you need to be able to imagine a positive outcome because if you think more positively then you are more likely to succeed but if you think negatively then you are more likely to fail and it works the same with imagery, if you imagine yourself making a mistake and missing your target then this is more likely to happen when in the competition but if you think about doing everything right and hitting your target then this is more likely to be the outcome.

Regularity – you must practice this approximately 5 times a day for 3-5 minutes whilst in a quiet place so you cannot be interrupted. This is vital as you need to stay composed in a situation like this as it is good practise it should be done on a regular basis but you should remember not to over-do it as it can lead into boredom or fatigue.

imagery exercise:

if you have little experience then try to prepare for it step by step e.g. make sure you are comfortable, take in a long slow breath, think of the venue where you will train and try picturing everything about it, try using your senses by trying to feel and hear things pretend you can hear the atmosphere whilst you are running along the football pitch, run the concentration through your mind untill the image wavers.

another way of setting an exercise could be if you make the athlete answer some questions but the answer would be to circle a number from 1 - 5 e.g. how vividly did you see the images?

week 4

week 4

aim of the week: to be able to provide a programme which will help reduce cognitive anxiety.

Hi there i hope you have been visiting my blog page and keeping up to date with all the elements I have spoken about, hopefully it will have helped you and benefited you guys to an extent where you will be happy.

cognitive anxiety can be defined as the  the mental component of state anxiety, caused by fear, negative self-evaluation and threat to self-esteem.

off the training ground

In the cognitive the individual athlete is thinking what the outcome could be then has a self-doubt which concludes to a negative approach, in the somatic anxiety the individual is hyping too much as he has superior confidence and believes he has the ability to perform however just before kick off he feels surrounded by negative thoughts and is then forced to think negatively which affects his anxiety levels in a negative form.

Graph of cognitive anxiety: as you can see in this graph the level of anxiety drops as his performance is affected by all the self-doubts and negative thoughts.

The build-up may depend on the situation and may vary sometimes you can get butterflies. anxiety is fear. Anxiety is normal. It's normal to feel scared before a big event. Anxiety can show up as a variety of body signals: elevated heart rate, excessive sweating, cold hands, diarrhea or those butterflies in your stomach. It can also show up as difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating, and jumbled thoughts. These symptoms are telling you that you are feeling threatened and they are your body’s way of telling you to "get ready".

The pressure experienced by football players especially at a professional level is recognised as influencing playing performance. Heavy playing schedules, competition for team places, the media and fans as well as the pressure to win trophies all play a part in players developing high stress and anxiety levels. Even experienced players can suffer from pre-match stress. Developing ways to control this is important in order to prevent players from "falling" apart. 


As you can seen from the questionnaire you scored 14 in the cognitive anxiety section however we have to maintain this as it is a very important factor which may affect your sports performance.

In order to help athlete x i will ask him to have a brainstorming session and tell him to write down all the negative and positive things which will affect him in training, pre-competition and during competition. this will balance out his emotions and thoughts and will help me identify what exactly goes on in his mind.

	Training	Pre – competition	During competition
Negative or irrelevant thoughts/statements
positive or relevant thoughts/statements

athlete X filled the table in:

	Training	Pre – competition	During competition
Negative or irrelevant thoughts/statements	“ I don’t think I’ve been good in training today, manager might not pick me”	“ what if I embarrass myself in front of everyone by performing a silly mistake”	Misses crucial chance to earn all 3 points. Gets the ball on 89th minute, rounds the keeper but misses open goal
positive or relevant thoughts/statements	“ I was happy with my performance, don’t think there’ll be any problems for me getting picked”	“ im going to score today”	Let’s fly from 25 yards in the 75th minutes and sends the ball sailing into the top corner to send his team up to first in the league

on the training ground

I will try to help the athlete put this style into practice now when he is attending training, the situations which I have across before, I will try to re-create those exact situations in training. Hence I will try to encourage and support the athlete as much as possible in terms of applying and adapting the reconstruction . I will to be effective when it comes to this as i will need to think about how the athlete will need to come across this situation, I perhaps may set a free kick competition or penalty competition in which the athlete will need to come across this style.

verbalising positive alternatives out loud can also help to deliver the message as this can alert their attention and will also intrigue the athlete.