Sport, Health and Exercise Psychology - Essay Example

Summary This document is a retrospective account of my recently concluded 60-day assignment as a professional sports psychologist with the Premier League football club of Hull United. My assumption that the team's recent loss of form and string of poor performances should be addressed independent of tangential controversies involving individual members, and without focus on the problems of the club that had nothing to do with football, proved to be correct during my initial assessments of team members and of the group as a whole. My strategy of using psychological interventions to improve performance however, did not produce tangible results. The team's performance has stagnated since my intervention, and I have not been able to produce professionally satisfying results. My conclusions are that administrative interference and personal agendas dominate the team. Performance on the field does not matter as much as it should. Informal performance appraisal by the team's owners and influencers detract from focusing on playing better as a team. I believe that the interventions which I initiated should be persisted with, and that the team management should be counseled to isolate the players from non-football aspects of each other's lives, and from the financial fortunes of the club as well. Introduction The recent misfortunes and desultory match performances of Hull United should not detract from the sterling achievements of reaching the Premier League of football. No team can aspire for this distinction without large measures of skills and talents. I have a decade of experience in sports psychology, though I am more accustomed to on-going assignments with younger people. I must confess to some trepidation at the prospect of a mere 2 months to effect dramatic changes in a team of professionals. This does not sit well with theories and best practices in sports psychology. Nevertheless, the opportunity to work with a Premier League football team, with a fair sprinkling of celebrities, was too tempting to refuse! I felt that the club management, which was due for a change of hands in any case, might consider extending my tenure if I was able to make a convincing first contribution. The anxiety to arrive at some agreement on both sides, made both Hull United and I commit to an assignment without thorough discussions on realistic and feasible performance goals for myself as a sports psychologist. A Basic Approach I began preparations for the Hull United assignment by careful reflection on my past successes and failures in the profession over the past 10 years. It is easy for sports psychology to intrude in to fields of technical training for specific sports, and to attempt some general psychology, and even amateur psychiatry as well. There are situations in which such tangential efforts can pay dividends. Most contact sports, and even ones that are contests of wit and other mental skills, are seamless in terms of physical techniques and mental attributes. Football at the Premier League stage in particular, involves strategies which are combinations of techniques and mental strategies. All team games involve high degrees of inter-personal communication, which is both intense and largely non-verbal. Hence, separation of sports training and sports psychology is never easy, and may not even be desirable. The media, fans, and club management, exert such pressures on team members that a majority of professional sports people require psychiatric help in any case! There are social stigma attached to seeking this kind of professional help, and it can affect the stereotyped public image if it becomes known that a player is under psychiatric treatment. Therefore, sports psychologists and even coaches are forced in to situations which force them to perform some of the tasks of a psychiatrist. I decided to stay away from these traditional meanderings of sports psychology, at least for this Hull United assignment. A 50-day period would never be enough to build bridges with the coach and the players, to an extent where such extensions of the role of a sports psychologist could be extended in this fashion. I felt that the period available should be used best to focus entirely on the essentials of sports psychology. This would mean the mental preparedness of individual players, of the team as a whole, and of the captain, to make the best of the remaining matches of the season. The most important outcome of my preparatory strategy was to isolate myself from media reports, and from casual and unsolicited impressions conveyed by the club authorities who were responsible for my assignment. I knew that some of the team members had the racy lifestyles for which star sports people are so well known. I knew that the future of the club was uncertain in many senses of the term. However, there simply was no time for me to change any of this. I had simply to concentrate on mental wellness as relevant for performance in the professional football sphere. I rounded off my preparations for the first encounter with the team, captain, and coach, with decisions to use exclusive group sessions, and an entirely transparent and unbiased approach. Individual counseling would detract from my winning group trust. Any discussions on non-football matters would distract players from the business of the remaining matches. It was important for me to make all the players and the coach appreciate my stand, and how I proposed to go about my task. I decided to work in track gear and on the field, keeping away from non-verbal communication barriers that could alienate me from the team. Assessments I Used and Why The basic approach I had prepared before my first meeting with the team and the coach, suggested to me that I should examine individual and team goals. Confluence and relevance were the two main aspects of goals which interested me. I needed to know whether there were conflicts between what the team members wanted to get out of the remaining matches. Were they able to articulate their aims Were the goals specific, measurable, and time bound Were the players and the coach realistic about what could be achieved in the rest of the season It bears repetition that I was determined to stay away from any personal goals that the players may have had, and not to discuss the financial matters of the club either. My introduction to the team was uneventful. I began by making a clean slate of my background, and past achievements. I explained the basic approach on which I had decided for my 2-month assignment, and why I had decided to focus exclusively on football related matters. This part of my work proved to be smooth and easy, and I discerned support, at least amongst team members for my approach and role. My own impressions of team spirit and commitment were positive. We decided that my sessions would precede each day's regular schedule. My idea of meeting on the field in a casual setting went down well, though it was a bit of a surprise, considering the earlier notions that players had about psychology! I found that players came for my sessions on time and participated with constructive attitudes. The coach was not always present, even after my repeated requests to this end. He generally kept to himself, and rarely participated. There seemed to be a distinct line between my sessions and the coaching-perhaps this was for the best, but since club management was never available in the mornings, my sessions seemed somewhat bereft of demonstrative support. I had to de-freeze everyone from the tough situation of that time, and used cricket as a starting point. Cricket is also a team game, and the national team had been performing as indifferently as Hull United! So I told the team that I would like to discuss the fortunes of the country's cricket team, and understand what each of us had to offer by way of advice to the team members. This had the effect of alienating the coach even more, as he declared at the outset that he had no interest in sports other than football. However, the players were enthusiastic about getting their minds away from the quagmire in which Hull United found itself, and I could not stop the flow, having initiated the idea. The ploy worked well, because some of the cricket players had racy lifestyles interfering with their games, as was the case with this team, if the media was to be believed. Similarly, there were controversies over management support for some players, and bias against others, so it was useful to understand the analyses of the Hull United players for situations very similar to theirs. It enabled each of them to see their own roles and performances in objective ways, and gave me an excellent opportunity to analyze each of the players in an unobtrusive way. I had to move back to football eventually. The players and I had become reasonably trusting of each other, and I had to get the coach involved. I moved the discussions to earlier seasons, major tournaments in other countries, competing teams, and star players at the national level. I leveled with the team on my reasons for doing this, which was generally appreciated. I began to discern group formations within the team, and some sharp divisions once the discussions moved closer to the home situation. There was a lot of technical content on tactics in the field, but I noticed that the captain clearly had authority. He rarely took a strong position as we discussed match controversies involving other teams, but once he did, dissenting views from the other players quietly subsided. The coach was brusque, and continued to distance himself from all my efforts as much as he could. The frequency and durations of his presences also diminished. I decided to go for the kill, and brought on the reported incident of confrontation between the captain and the coach, the very next time the coach showed up for one of my sessions. The outcome was not as bad as one may imagine. There was consensus that differences were not necessarily bad, and everyone underscored the fact that the incident had occurred during a private training session, which was supposed to be out of public view. I ended my assessments by directly asking each player to articulate his goals with respect to the rest of the season, and related matters. The coach also took part constructively in this part of the discussions. I feel in retrospect that the informal methods I used to assess goal confluence and relevance were appropriate for the time frame in which I had to work. I was able to form a clear impression of what I needed to do. Interventions and Rationale The rationale for the interventions which I planned and executed has to follow from my conclusions of the assessment phase. On the positive side, I was able to rule out the need for any formal psychiatric analysis and treatment for any of the people under my charge. Everyone's mental functioning strongly indicated general wellness. Individual and team commitment to match success was not missing either, and the general feeling was that the recent past might have been no more than a passing phase. Players had firm ideas of what was expected of them on playing fields, and seemed to be confident of delivering the goods. The captain clearly had strong control and influence over the team. The team lacked focus, and was not able to translate general intentions in to specific objectives. Some of the players were vague in their expressions, and unable to put figures and limits on qualitative aims. The normal process of priming up and peaking in performance terms before major events was lacking. The team performed below par and potential. I was often surprised by the gaps between the ideas and thinking expressed during my training sessions, and the lackluster displays just a few hours later, when confronted by opposing teams. Most successful teams sharpen focus as major occasions draw near: this one stagnated in enthusiasm on good days, and perceptibly declined in motivation on entering some fields! I was not able to get a clear fix on the technical competence of the coach, but it was apparent that his methods, nature, and customs were rather inappropriate for the players of Hull United. He is clearly a poor communicator, and cast in an outdated coat of authoritarianism. I suspect that some of his behavior which I could observe was exaggerated by some disquiet on his part about my assignment. But even after making allowances for this, I feel that his behavior and mannerisms were counter productive in terms of building team morale. More of the players would have had altercations with him, had the captain not had such a towering personality. I never probed individual players in private on this or other matters, but I feel that the team was behind the captain, but at some distance from the coach. The behavior of the club management was even worse than that of the coach. That certainly made life difficult for me, considering they were the ones to have hired me! I have heard them say a kind word to the team, and the uncertainty over future ownership was played viciously against moral in the worst possible manner. I have to say that the team showed remarkable resilience in even playing to whatever level they were able to muster! Finally, the media took its toll. Innuendoes, harsh criticism, and outright lies in stories, all took their toll of morale. I failed to persuade players to ignore the jibes, and saw it dilute their resolve and obscure focus. I planned and carried out three sets of interventions, with this background. The first related to formal goal setting. Goal setting can be a powerful tool for personal planning, and my job was to use the technique to weave greater coherence in the team. I tried through my group sessions, to make each player articulate exactly what had to be done on a match-by-match basis towards elevating the team during the rest of the season. I made the players excited about how they were able to see their roles change on a daily basis through the goal setting technique. I related individual goals as closely as I could to the conclusions about technical aspects of team performance during the recent past. This helped players see their shortcomings in a positive light, with encouraging leads on feasible self-improvement. I felt the self-confidence of the players improve after the goal setting exercises had been completed. It also helped the players relate their daily and strenuous efforts to train and to perform, to a long term vision about career objectives of top class professionals. Players were able to take pride in extolling how they had made improvements in their games, even if the outcome in terms of goals was not where it needed to be. There was also a great deal of mutual support as players reveled in the small but significant improvements that each of them made. The goals were stated in highly measurable terms, and I intervened frequently to see that they did not have too much stretch. This must have slowed down the development process, but it avoided the frustrations and disappointments of continuous negative variances in goal achievement. One deficiency in the goal-setting intervention arose from the lack of cooperation from the coach in translating the goals in to tasks during training after my sessions. He would neither take affirmative positions during my goal setting sessions, nor make any effort to implement the conclusions. It was though my sessions were entirely separate from the rest of the training activities. Players had to work on two tracks, starting the day with my sessions and instructions, and then switching off and getting back to their routine. The progress which I was able to achieve became more and more theoretical as my assignment went even over the half-way mark in terms of duration. This situation led me to transform my intervention in to the second phase of imagery and simulation. I used the imagination of the players to create situations which they would encounter in the field, and prepare to face them with peak physical conditioning. I hope that this would serve as a substitute for my freedom to intervene during real-life practice and match situations. I asked the captain and the coach to try and simulate past match situations during training, but the coach flatly refused, saying that this could disrupt the tempo of physical conditioning. The coach was of the opinion that physical fitness mattered more than physical conditioning. I was quickly running out of time to confront him on this major gap between his approach and my strategy. I therefore decided to spend the rest of my assignment duration on the third intervention. This related to focus. My intention was to try and isolate the players from all the negative feedback in the media, and from the club authorities. I hoped that this intervention would help the players just before the start of each match, and during half-time as well. Appraisal The club management was clearly dissatisfied with my performance and inputs. The coach had made his displeasure known from the beginning. The players seemed indifferent and showed no inclination to press for an extension of my assignment. My own appraisal is that I was on course, and that my appraisal and choice of 3 interventions was appropriate. Sports psychology should be an ongoing approach, and not decided in a 50-day period. Finally, the club management and the coach needed counseling quite apart from the team, and were dysfunctional in their entire attitude to the situation at hand. Read More