NACATFCA INTERNATIONAL ATHLETIC CONGRESS

DATE: OCTOBER 11-14, 2001

WYNDHAM ROSE HALL GOLF AND BEACH RESORT

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA

NEIL HARRISON - MUNRO COLLEGE

MENTAL SESSION

Broadly speaking the coach develops his own approach with his own communication techniques- but he must be constantly aware that the objective of the exercise is for the athlete on his own;

- free himself from those mental states which will interfere with performance

- establish an optimal mental state that will support performance.

Sound technique, good levels of specific conditioning and positive mental approach are prerequisites of a successful competitive performance. Coaching has become sophisticated in the preparation of athletes to meet the demands of their events in terms of technique and conditioning. It is my view that, by comparison, preparation to meet the psychological demands of competition is underdeveloped. Very few coaches include psychological procedures in the training programmes that they design for their athletes.

When agreeing on the annual training plan, coach and athlete together identify major competitions. In such competitions there is a reduced likelihood of success and an increased importance placed on the outcome of the competition. The increased stress of such competitions can cause athletes to react both physically and mentally in a manner, which can negatively affect their performance abilities. Negative reactions in important competitions are quite common; athletes often lose competitions because they fail to keep control. They may become tense, their heart rates race, they break into a cold sweat, they worry about the outcome of the competition, in other words they find it hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Reactions like these are not conducive to a good performance that exists between technique, physical condition and psychology. Each has a direct bearing on the other.

An athlete is only likely to reap any useful benefit from training if he reacts positively and takes it seriously. A careless attitude, a lack of application or of motivation are all negative reactions which will make all his efforts worthless.

RELAXATION TRAINING:

There are quite a number of relaxation techniques which are useful in a sporting context. These have to be learned and, once learned, they must be practiced on a regular basis.

According to Canadian Sport Psychologist Brent Rushall, Relaxation Training helps with:

· The promotion of rest, recovery and recuperation.

· The removal of stress related reactions such as increased muscular tension, increased heart rates and negative irrelevant thoughts.

· The establishing of a physical and mental state which has increased receptivity to positive mental imagery.

The various Relaxation Techniques fall into three broad categories:

v SOMATIC – relaxation induced primarily through physical effort.

v COGNITIVE - relaxation induced primarily through conscious thoughts.

v PSYCHIC – relaxation induced primarily through unconscious thoughts.

The different techniques employed tend to have the following characteristics:

§ Procedures for first recognizing and then releasing tension in muscles.

§ Concentration on breathing control and regulation.

§ Concentration on sensations such as heaviness, warmth, tingling, loss of sensation, or some other feelings so as to establish a thought content compatible with a relaxed state.

§ Concentration on the immediate past.

Regardless of which technique is used, the following two conditions need to exist if the technique is to be learned:

1. The athlete needs to be motivated to learn that there is nothing to be gained in forcing athletes, who do not believe that they can learn to relax, to undertake relaxation sessions.

2. The environment and the atmosphere where relaxation training sessions take place need to be conducive to learning.

Relaxation techniques are many and varied. However some of the methods that can be easily implemented by the coach are as follows:

A. Combining relaxation training with mental training. When an athlete is in a fully relaxed state he is particularly receptive to mental imagery. Mental imagery involves the athlete imagining himself in a particular activity. By imagining the situation or the activity in a positive manner, the athlete can develop his self - concept and a positive approach to the imagined situations in real life. Coaches should therefore instruct athletes in mental training in addition to relaxation training as such training could have a positive effect on competitive performance.

B. Positive imagery for skill development. While in a relaxed state athletes can mentally rehearse a skill or a series of actions, provided that athletes have a clear understanding of the technique, positive imagery can be used as an aid to learning or to training.

Research has shown that mental rehearsal of a skill aids learning of the skill and increase performance levels. For example in situations where it is not possible to practice a skill due to injury, it is useful to have the athlete imagine himself performing the skill correctly and successfully. The use of relaxation techniques to promote recovery and recuperation has been researched with positive results. It is known that East European Countries include relaxation techniques in their general recovery procedures.

C. positive imagery in a specific environment. Athletes can use mental imagery to prepare for a certain level of competition. For example a national championship or a particular venue such as the Olympic Stadium which the athlete has never been or only rarely experiences or of which he may be apprehensive. While in a relaxed state the athlete imagines himself doing routine tasks such as warming up, getting ready for competition or actually competing in that environment and sees himself performing the task well, with competence, enjoyment and satisfaction. A positive approach will thus be developed towards that environment.

Biofeedback and Hypnosis are also forms of mediation that coaches can use to prepare their athletes.

Biofeedback:

When coaches provide the athlete with continuous feedback of physiological functions such as heart rate, muscular tension and sweat rate he learns how to control these reactions. Continuous observation of a visual or auditory stimulus allows the athlete to watch a selected physiological response decrease and a relaxed state become established.

Hypnosis:

This is the use of music in the athlete’s preparation. Surprisingly, uniform and widespread improvements have been recorded in instances in which athletes used hypnotic and visualization techniques in their pre-event preparation. The great advantage of hypnosis for the athlete is that it is so much more immediate, less time consuming and therefore easier to use than all the other techniques. The athlete can experience peak effort whilst in a state of relaxed energy by diminishing tension through hypnosis. He is able to relax the muscles, thus permitting the performance to flow more freely.

Let us now look at the Implications of Psychological Preparation:

1. Psychological Preparation helps in the promotion of rest, recovery and recuperation.

2. It helps to develop self-confidence.

3. It is useful in developing pre-competition strategies which teach athletes to cope with new situations before they actually encounter them.

4. Relaxation and concentration help the athlete to focus his attention or concentration on a particular skill he is trying to learn or develop. This can take place both in and away from the training session.

5. During competition, Psychological Preparation allows the athlete first of all to relax and bring his arousal state to a base level, then by focusing his attention on the warm ups and competition tasks, it raise the athlete’s arousal to an optimal and controlled level. Psychological Preparation helps the athlete to ignore anything that’s happening in the warm up area or competition arena that has the potential to attract his attention while preparing or during the competition. In addition, by positively focusing his attention on specific tasks, there is no time for irrelevant or negative thoughts which have the potential to affect performance.

6. At competitions, relaxation on its own will not produce improved performance and there is a real danger that it could have a negative effect on performance. An athlete will either be:

- Under- excited, that is, low in arousal, find it hard to get up for competition, disinterested, etc.

- Over- excited, that is, high in arousal, over the top, nervous, anxious, scared of the competition, sick with worry, etc.

- Optimally- excited- being nervous but in control, looking forward to the competition but apprehensive, thinking positively, feeling good, etc.

If coaches were to use relaxation procedures with an over-excited athlete, they might be able to reduce his arousal level to that of being optimally excited. This would have a positive effect on the athlete’s performance. However, if the coach asked an under-excited athlete to use relaxation procedures it would only make it harder for him to “get up” for the competition.

Coaches therefore have to know their athletes and how they react in competitive situations. It is best to use relaxation techniques prior to commencing the warm up and then use the warm up to achieve an optimal level of arousal; the positive mental imagery used during the relaxation period being continued as the athlete warms up.

Relaxation and positive imagery are useful during competitions for field events; helping the athlete to stay relaxed and to keep his attention on the competition between jumps or throws. In the same way, these techniques can be useful between rounds of track events.

Coaches please note it has to be remembered that when trying out relaxation training, perseverance is important. The relaxation response is not instant, it has to be learned and practised.

In addition to relaxation training, training sessions need to combine thinking practice with physical practice to allow the skill of thought control to develop so that it can be used in a competition. Mental functioning should be trained for physical stressful conditions. At all times, in practices and competition an athlete should remain in mental control.

Some people will ask the question why mental training? I believe that how and what an athlete thinks during a contest is of paramount importance to maintaining maximum performance, efficiency and exertion. Moulding positive and unshakeable winning thoughts, feelings and emotions have an instantaneous and involuntary effect on the muscles and organs of the body.

According to Sport Psychologist Karlene Sugarman (M.A. John F. Kennedy University) ‘the mind-body connection is a powerful one’. For everything you think in your mind, your body has a reaction, regardless of whether it is real or imagined. For example, have you ever had a bad dream? Usually you will wake up and your heart is racing, you are sweating and you are very agitated even though all you were doing was sleeping. But in your mind there was something ‘bad’ going on and your body was reacting to it. Here is another example: If you are home alone and you hear a noise and interpret it as the wind, you are fine; but if you interpret it as a prowler, your fight or flight response takes over and you become fearful, your heart begins to go ‘a mile a minute’ and your eyes dilate. These are just a few examples of how strong the connection is between your mind and your body. On the premise, it becomes unmistakable how necessary it is to train both the mind and body for peak performance.

It was very encouraging to see that at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, there were approximately twenty Sport Psychology consultants present and working with the athletes. Slowly, but surely, athletes, teams coaches and managers are not only saying that they feel sports is mental but also they are doing something about it. They are hiring Sport Psychologists, reading books and devoting time to team building and mental training.

Up until about a decade ago, a Sport Psychologist or Consultant was considered a person who athletes went to see only when they had a problem, not someone who healthy and productive athletes and teams spent their time with. Luckily this stigma is changing, the change is slow, but it is evident. You will see Sport Psychologists everywhere now; recreational athletes, colleges, professional teams and Olympic athletes all seek them out. People are recognizing that no matter how good they are, they can always improve and one way to improve themselves is to become well versed in performance enhancement techniques. There is no room for complacency. The complacent ones will get left behind.

Athletes spend so much time physically practicing to get an edge on the competition. Yet what teams and athletes can really do to get an edge is right in front of their nose, or more accurately, right above their shoulders.

Competition is tight, athletes are physically fit and the margin for victory is slim. Managers, coaches and athletes are realizing that to get ahead they need an added resource, and that resource is a trained mind. Still, many coaches are blind to the importance of mental skills in their athletes. When there are two teams that are physically equal, it is the team that works smoothly and is mentally prepared and confident that will come out on top. Keep in mind though that no mental training will compensate for ineffective technique. You should give equal attention to both; that is the ideal approach. You are given the talent, it is your job to develop it and watch it flourish by combining physical and mental training with good work ethics. Oklahoma State University’s Baseball coach, Gary Ward, says, “ Combining the two elements (mental training and technical training) give the players an opportunity to establish a consistent, peak performance every time they step on the field.”

In concluding, coaches you will want yourself and your team to be totally prepared, mentally and physically, in order to increase the chances of success. Sport is 90-95% mental. Most athletes will experience fatigue mentally before they do so physically, due to the fact that their minds will not be in good shape as their bodies. So if your mind is always working why not have it work for you.