Category: Sports Science Stuff

An A to Z Guide To Sports Psychology

I have added N to Z below the A to M section so if you’ve already read A to Z then just scroll down. If you don’t already get email notifications from us and would like to please subscribe by completing the form here. Enjoy and forward.

A is for Attitude

It may be surprising but in our work, as sport and performance psychologists we actually don’t refer to attitude much. Attitude is actually just one of the many types of human cognition of which thoughts, beliefs and values are the most common. When a coach refers to an athlete as having a ‘good attitude’ or ‘the right attitude’ he or she is probably suggesting that this athlete’s values and beliefs are roughly in line with their own.

For example, both might regard sporting results as important but not as important as hard work and effort. The most interesting aspect of attitude is it is often assessed via observations (a coach watching an athlete in training) and therefore it is probably body language that is actually being appraised. Attitude, if we take the term literally, is not directly observable as it’s occurring inside the mind.

B is for Body Language

Body language is a fascinating area of performance psychology. Research suggests that it dominates how we communicate compared with the actual words we use. In sporting contexts, this makes even more sense as it is quite normal for their to be little or no verbal communication. With maybe the exception of the captains or leaders of sporting teams, most athletes of most sports don’t say very much during both training and whilst competing.

For this majority, communicating with either teammates or opponents is taking place via the body. By the body, we mean entire body from facial expressions to posture to hand gestures and everything in between. How do you improve body language? I would suggest starting out by filming yourself in a variety of situations and then watch it back with the sound off.

If you’d like some help learning from what you watch then shoot us an email to info@condorperformance.com asking about our 1-on-1 sport and performance psychology services via Skype or FaceTime video.

C is for Consistency

Sometimes we refer to consistency as ‘the holy grail’ of competitive sport. As can be read in this extensive blog by my colleague Chris Pomfret improved consistency is really just the consequence of taking the mental side of your sport (or performance area) seriously.

D is for Determination

Determination is very similar to the mental concept as motivation without being a synonym. Motivation, at least as defined by our coaching philosophy Metuf, is more about enthusiasm, enjoyment, desire and dreams. Determination might be a good word to refer to the actions we continue with during times in which the natural love and enthusiasm for our sport is not there. One of the most common examples of this is when the scoreboard is not in your favour (no way to win with time remaining) and yet you decide to preservative anyway. This is a great example of sporting determination.

E is for Enjoyment

The enjoyment we’re referring to in this instance is the kind that most kids tend to have towards their sport before it becomes ‘serious’. The fun of chasing the ball more than getting to it first. At the time of writing, my children are six and four years of age and are taking part in a variety of sports programs. One of them is Little Kickers, a football/soccer program whereby the fun factor is central to everything they do. The issue is, this enjoyment tends to dissipate once the stakes increase as far too many sporting coaches become far too intense during competitions due to a lack of sports psychology training during their accreditation.

F is for Focus 

Learning to improve focus is actually one of the easier mental skills as it really boils down to knowing when and how to switch on – and then practising this like any other skill. There are many great examples of how to do this but amongst the most effective are the short performance routines that I wrote about in our last blog article. I say easier in comparison to various other mental skills which although very effective can be somewhat critic in nature.

There is no getting away from the fact that training the mind is always going to be a trickier mountain to climb due to the investable nature of what we’re targeting for improvement. For example, areas such as focus.

G is for Grit 

Grit is a term which has gained a lot of momentum recently due mainly to the works of Angela Duckworth (see YouTube video below). Grit is defined via it’s Wikipedia page as a “…non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s perseverance of effort combined with the passion for a particular long-term goal or end state (a powerful motivation to achieve an objective). This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie on the path to accomplishment and serves as a driving force in achievement realisation. Distinct but commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology include “perseverance”, “hardiness“, “resilience“, “ambition”, “need for achievement” and “conscientiousness“.

Our monthly clients, as well as long-time readers of the Mental Toughness Digest, will rightly feel that many of these words – perseverance, effort, ambition are very familiar to them as they are cornerstone concepts of Metuf.

H is for Hard Work

There is simply no substitute for hard work. 

I is for Influence

Knowing the amount of influence you have on some of the more common aspects of your sport (or performance areas) is mighty useful. A great little exercise you can do is to start a simple three-column table. The heading of the first column is ‘Lots of Influence’, for the second write “Some Influence” and for the final one label it “Little Influence”.

Now start to fill in the table with whatever comes to mind. For example, you might be spending a lot of time thinking about an upcoming competition combined with memories of how you did at the same venue last year. So you might decide to put the Future in the middle column and the Past in the right-hand column – for instance.

J is for Junior Sport

If I were in charge of sport in a particular state or country I would flip funding so that the vast majority of recourses went into the junior or developmental side of sports. In other words, the best coaches, equipment and facilities normally only accessible to the top 0.1% of athletes would be diverted to athletes under the age of 16.

For example, those regarded as the very best coaches – like Wayne Bennett in rugby league – would be invited to coach junior rugby league players instead. I would make sure that whatever position was created for this had the same or greater salary as top-flight professional coaches.

11 K is for Keeping Going

Maybe the most powerful cue words in sport. Your mind will virtually always quit on you before your body does. Tell it to Keep Going and see what happens.

12 L is for Learning

There is a reason why some of the very best sporting coaches of all time – for example, Jake White – are formers teachers. They treat the process of performance enhancement as one long learning experience for both themselves and their players. The most appealing aspect of this angle is that poor performances are used as learning opportunities. Errors, for example, are considered as invaluable elements of feedback – data that can be used to inform better choices moving forward. 

13 M is for Monitoring

If you are not monitoring at least one aspect of your endeavours you’re missing out. At Condor Performance we encourage our sporting and non-sporting clients to record one or more “monthly checks”. As can be read in detail from this recent blog post these monthly checks are like our key performance indicators. As long as you know the right number of monthly checks to monitor (not too many) and the amount of influence you have on each of these results (not as much as you think) there is zero downsides to this kind of self-monitoring and plenty of upsides.

N is for Numbers

Whether you like it or not competitive sport – especially at the elite level – is full of numbers. In fact certain sports, like cricket and baseball are so mathematical in nature that the coaches of these sports would be forgiven for thinking of themselves more like statisticians from time to time. This is one of the reasons why we encourage our monthly clients to monitor their own progress – to allow them to function, even thrive in a results-oriented world. The other reasons have already been mentioned above in the M for monitoring.

O is for Objectivity

Both the M and the N above help with objectively but alone might not be enough. Objectively is roughly the opposite of subjectively with the latter being heavy on opinions with the former much more based on facts. For example, it’s quite normal for athletes and coaches to assess past performances based mostly (or only) on memory or even worse, based on the final result. This is highly subjective and a bit like any human pursuit we’d want to be careful about how much of our analysis is subjective. Objective analysis – for example, the number of missed tackles –  will be more valuable as the numbers don’t lie.

Actually, this is not true – numbers can lie but are less likely to do so than opinions.

P is for Pressure

‘Pressure’ is one of the most fascinating aspects of sports psychology. For a start, it’s 100% internal – it’s a feeling with very real physiological sensations – a little bit like hunger. Because it’s going on inside it’s less tangible and therefore harder to manage. To start with, it’s really important not to consider pressure as being good or bad. Let me use hunger to explain. Hunger, for most of us, is simply a signal for us to go an eat something. Once we do, the hunger goes away. The food that alleviates the hunger that is pressure is practice. That’s right, high-quality practice is like a pile of organic veggies.

Of course, there is also a benefit to learning to deal with hunger/pressure in case there is no food/practice available. By far the best way to do this – in my opinion – is to work with a qualified sport/performance psychologist like one of the members of our team.

Q is for Quantity and Quality

This is how we break down practice or effort. Quantity is ‘how much’ and wants to be in the right amount. Quality is how good and wants to be as high as possible. We often find it useful to multiply these together. For example, if the highest score for each is 10 then combined the highest score is 100.

What number did your last training session get?

R is for Routines

See my recent blog post for a full break down on routines.

S is for Stigma

There are still a huge number of people out there whose beliefs about what sports psychologists or performance psychologists do get in the way of us being able to help them. The stigma comes from the word ‘psychologist’ which too many people still associate with having some kind of mental problem. The general premise of working with a psychologist being a sign of weakness needs to be broken. A band-aid solution to this is to refer to ourselves as a coach or performance coaches or mental skills trainers instead. The issue with this is it doesn’t help to remove the stigma. Also, it seems a pity not to be able to use the title psychologist that took us seven or so years to earn.

T is for Time Management

Being able to manage your own time, your needs and your wants is one of the most underrated of all mental skills. I work with a LOT of young elite athletes (teenagers on track to be the world’s best in their chosen sport) and on the whole, they come to me with either poor or non-existent time management skills. Sometimes, a simple suggestion like buying a $5 diary to start recording upcoming commitments can do wonders in terms of accountability, planning, knowing when to say ‘no’ or ‘yes’ to invitations and moving their mindset more towards effort and further from results.

U is for Unity

If you’d like to learn more about how to improve the team unity of your team then watch the Unity video from the Metuf online program by clicking here.

V is for Values and W is for Why

Our values and beliefs guide our thoughts so if you’d like to update your daily thought processes then it can be a good idea to think about your values. By values, we really mean what you consider to be valuable or important. A nice little exercise to get the ball rolling is to simply list everything you consider to be important in your life and why. For example, you might write ‘8 hours of sleep a night’ and follow that with ‘because it helps me get the most of various training sessions the following day’. The ‘why’ part is very important as this links our endeavours to our internal motivation.

X is for eXcellence

Are you striving for excellence? Do you want to become excellent at what you do? How would you define and measure excellence? Is your training excellence? Do you know how to increase your chances of becoming the best possible athlete or coach you can be? If not get in touch and we’ll lend you a hand.

Y is for Yourself

One of the best ways of helping others is to look after yourself first.

Z is for Zest

Zest is one of the traits that we look for when we are interviewing psychologists looking to join our team of sport and performance psychologists. Do they have a passion for sports and helping athletes and coaches become better versions of themselves? If not, getting up at 5 am to deliver a Skype session to a monthly client from another country might just prove to be too hard.

Recently I was cleaning out my filing cabinet and I came across an email from a previous coach of mine which outlined some feedback on what he felt I needed to improve on after a recent tournament.  I scanned through the email and felt a heaviness settle in my stomach.  The feelings and emotions came back from the time I first received the email many years ago.  The feedback was all negative, however, it was phrased as ‘the areas I needed to improve on’.  Most of the comments were around ‘you need to do this more’, and ‘in this situation, you need to be doing this’. 

He even finished the email with recognising that this was his ‘critical observation’.   None of the feedback was given to me during the tournament, it was all put in an email and sent when we got back and with no follow-up.  What I noticed most was that there was no positive feedback, not one bit!  After reading his email, I felt unmotivated and deflated.  I’m sure this is not what he intended, however, is this the response we want from our athletes?  Is this type of feedback going to make them better athletes and competitors?

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Happiness and Its Causes conference in Perth, and I was curious, engaged, and fascinated by the content and the vibe of the conference.  I was introduced to Positive Psychology, the science of flourishing.  Dr Martin Seligman, one of the main researchers in this branch of psychology, believes that psychological practice should be as concerned with people’s strengths as well as their weaknesses.  Positive psychology asks the question: ‘what’s good in our lives’ compared to the traditional psychology approach which can focus more on ‘what’s wrong with us and how can we fix it’. 

As a performance psychologist, I have always had a passion for helping people thrive in their work and life, so this theory sat well with me and aligned with my goals.  I started introducing positive psychology initiatives into my work in organisations and as my sporting clients grew I felt that those striving for high performance also benefitted and that positive psychology has a lot to offer sport. 

Sport is also often focused on ‘fixing weaknesses and problems’, called deficit-based coaching.  How often do you come off the field at half time and a coach says “this is what we need to change because we’re not doing it right.”  Strengths-based coaching, on the other hand, is about identifying, enhancing and exploiting athletes’ and teams’ strengths and focusing on what we do well. 

Athletes, coaches and sporting organisations generally have the goal of excellence, both on and off the field, and by using positive psychology strategies, performance psychologists are able to support athletes, staff and families develop resilience and coping skills in order to deal with setbacks, focus on strengths to achieve their goals, and to strive to increase grit (the combination of perseverance and passion for long term goals).  These mental skills are just as vital to success as being able to hit a hockey ball, run fast, or shoot a basket.  Talent and technical ability is not enough.  Whilst it is very important, we all can name truly gifted athletes that never make it. 

What sets most athletes apart is their mental toughness: their character, their grit, their positive mindset, and their belief that their ability can be developed through dedication and hard work, most recently introduced as a growth-mindset according to Carol Dweck. 

So what are the key factors of positive psychology that can be applied to sport?

Strengths focus

Research has demonstrated that it is easier to promote a strength than it is to develop a weakness, and that our areas of greatest potential are our greatest strengths.  This is not to say don’t focus on your weaknesses, but the best results will come when you are also working on your strengths.  Research shows that those who use their strengths are more likely to have higher levels of confidence, vitality and energy, are likely to be more resilient, have higher self-esteem, and to perform better.  Coaches and athletes are encouraged to know their strengths and the focus of development should be around their strengths.  Many coaches have a negativity bias and need to train their brains to focus on the good things their athletes are doing.

The two key elements of a strength are “delivering a high level of performance and experiencing a sense of energy when you are doing it” (Linley, Willars, et al., 2010).  Spotting the energy is crucial to distinguishing the real strengths from learned behaviours.  So how do you know what your strengths are?  Ask yourself these questions:

• What do you love about your sport?
• What’s your favourite role?
• What do you get complimented on?
• What are you most proud of?
• What do you do in your spare time?
• How can I harness my strengths?

Growth Mindset

In 2006, Carol Dweck introduced us to the notion of growth and fixed mindset.  Those with a growth mindset are more comfortable with failure as they see it as a learning opportunity in comparison to those with a fixed mindset who believe their success is based on innate ability and talent.  Athletes with a growth mindset are more likely to see challenges as opportunities rather than barriers, and believe that they can improve, learn and get better with practice and effort.  The good news is, we can choose which mindset we want – we can choose to view our mistakes and setbacks as learning opportunities, or we can view them as limiting obstacles.  Those choosing a growth mindset are more likely to persist in difficult times than those with fixed mindsets.  And athletes know better than anyone, that if you want to achieve success, there are always barriers and obstacles in the way, including poor form, injury and confidence issues.

Positive Emotions

Sport is emotional – for athletes, coaches, and spectators.  Many emotions are felt from elation, excitement and nervousness to fear, sadness, anger and disappointment.  Emotions drive behaviour and often dictate how you perform as an athlete in competition.  To become a high performing athlete, you need to understand and manage your emotions so they help rather than hinder your performances.

Many people falsely believe that positive psychology only recognises positive aspects of people and their performances, and ignores the negative.  When viewing emotions, both positive and negative are considered, and the impact both these have on an athlete’s performances.  Negative emotions like anxiety and anger can trigger our body’s “Fight or Flight” response to threat and these emotions affect our bodies physically.  These physical effects can include increased heat rate, nausea, muscle tension, stomach aches, weakened focus, and physically drained.   Positive emotions on the other hand can have the opposite effect.  Happiness can relieve tension, lower your heart and blood pressure, strengthen your immune system and help to combat stress.  Staying calm, focused and positive can help you attend to what you need to by minimising distractions, keeping you relaxed, and increasing your confidence.  It also has the added benefit of being a pleasant person to be around!

The best way to increase your emotional intelligence in sport is to be aware of how your emotions impact your behaviour and performances, be able to manage those emotions that lead to poor performances, and create and enhance emotions that lead to good performances.

Grit

Recent research has shown that one of the key factors in success is what is termed as ‘Grit’, defined as passion and perseverance in working toward significant long-term goals.  Elite athletes across many sports are grittier than non-elite athletes.  They also commit to their sports for a longer period of time.  This concept pioneered by Dr Angela Duckworth (2007), explains why some people achieve success without being gifted with unique intelligence or talent.  So, if you are an athlete or coach who feels like you missed the talent boat, then there is hope for you.  How many of you can credit your successes to your passion, commitment, resilience and perseverance? The good news is that you can develop your grit to become grittier.  Ways to do this include:

• Develop your passion – find what you love doing, and it will be easier to stick to it.  Not many people stick to things they are not passionate about.  Ask yourself, what do I like to think about?  Where does my attention wander?  What do I really care about?
• Practice deliberately – don’t waste your time at training, practice deliberately.  Set stretch goals, practice with full concentration and effort, seek feedback and reflect on what went well and what didn’t to refine for next time.
• Consider your purpose – why are you doing what you do?  In life and sport, there are bound to be setbacks and challenges along the way.  If you have a purpose for what you are doing, then you are more likely to persevere and stay committed.  When times are tough, always go back to your ‘why’.
• Adopt a ‘growth’ mindset.  Remember, those with a growth mindset believe their abilities can be developed through hard work and effort rather than ability.  Those with growth mindsets are much better at dealing with setbacks as they view them as learning experiences, rather than being directly related to their ability. 

Grit cannot be developed overnight; it is an ongoing process.  What we do know is that it’s worth developing – the gritty athlete is not only successful, s/he is also more likely to be happier and more satisfied with his/her ability than other athletes.

The adoption and implementation of positive psychology have been shown to have a significant impact on sports performances by shifting the focus from negative (what’s wrong with you) to positive (what’s right with you). 

Understanding your strengths and how to use them, adopting a growth mindset, using your emotions strategically and developing grit all contribute to building mental toughness, optimism, motivation and resilience.  I know from firsthand experience how focusing on the positive can have a much greater impact on an athlete and bring out the best in us. 

If you’d like more information about working with me on some of these ideas then get in touch by completing our Contact Us Form here and mention my name (“Mindy”) somewhere in the comments sections and I will call you back.