Using psychological skills training to develop soccer performance - Essay Example

The present study undertook the identification of soccer-midfielder's performance requirements, further collecting such data as would allow for the accurate articulation of performance subcomponents. Developing a psychological skills intervention program, specifically tailored to the identified midfielder performance requirements, the study examined the impact of the latter on the former. The aforementioned intervention program was comprised of relaxation, imagery and self-talk on position specific performance measures. Using a multiple-baseline across individuals design, five participants had three performance subcomponents assessed across nine competitive matches. The results of the study indicated the position specific intervention to enable at least small improvements on the three dependent variables for each participant. Social validation data indicated all participants to perceive the intervention as being successful and appropriate to their needs. Following a discursive analysis of the data, the research findings are presented. The findings provide further evidence to suggest the efficacy of sport, and position-specific interventions. Key Words: soccer, psychological skills interventions, performance subcomponents Using psychological skills training to develop soccer performance Despite interest in applied psychology, evidenced in the increase in the studies examining the efficacy of psychological skills on sporting performance (e.g., Patrick & Hrycaiko, 1998; Rogerson & Hrycaiko, 2002; Thelwell & Greenlees, 2003), knowledge remains limited. Limitation has been determined by the scarcity of studies on the efficacy of psychological skills within an open skilled, team sport setting (Kendall, Hrycaiko, Martin, & Kendall, 1990; McPherson, 2000). Consequently, the present study sought to address the aforementioned shortcoming through the articulation of a role specific intervention for soccer midfielders, while examining the intervention's efficacy on role specific subcomponents, such as the execution of successful tackles, the completion of successful passes, and ability to control the ball (Luongo, 1996). Of the few studies which have examined the pertinence of psychological skills to sporting performance, only a minority has examined performance sub-components. Using a multiple-baseline design across subjects, Swain and Jones (1995) applied a goal setting intervention targeting specific basketball subcomponents. Each participant's performance subcomponents were assessed through the first half of the competitive season. Mid-season, participants were requested to select one performance subcomponent which they perceived beneficial to improvement. Using goal setting approaches to the targeted behavior, 3 of the 4 participants experienced improvement in their targeted area. No changes were evident in non-targeted behaviors. The practical implication was that while psychological skills benefit performance, performers cannot transfer acquired skills to alternative situations without understanding the how and why of their targeted utilization. Identification of the varying requirements of soccer midfielders is prerequisite to the utilization of psychological skills intervention. A primary requirement is the ability to cover great distances within 90-minutes, as supported by numerous scientific studies (e.g., Reilly, 1996; Rienzi, Drust, Reilly, Carter & Martin, 2000). Studies on elite English Premier League midfield soccer players confirm the necessity of the capacity to run approximately 12,000m per match (Strudwick & Reilly, 2001)., consequent to midfielders being required to both link the defensive and forward and act as both offensive and defensive when, and as, required. A soccer midfielder is further required to carry out complex motor skills, to possess finely tuned perceptual skills and to have advanced decision-making skills. As activity is prolonged, fatigue sets in and skill command becomes difficult (Taylor, 1995). The exigencies of exploring relaxation strategies have been established by studies which prove that they contribute to the optimization of a midfielder's performance (Hanin, 2000). As Taylor (1995) contends, relaxation strategies may benefit performers' perceptions of pain and fatigue (Thelwell & Greenlees, 2003), positively impacting an individual's decision-making and perceptual skills. (Humpreys & Revelle, 1984; Landers & Boutcher, 1998). Relaxation strategies maximize the capacity to concentrate and correct erroneous perceptions and decisions. Therefore, relaxation strategies may sustain appropriate levels of activity and skill-control. Taylor's (1995) conceptual model further establishes that imagery, insofar as it can enhance motivation and perceived competencies, can constructively benefit the soccer midfielder. Positive exploitation of imagery entails that performers imagine themselves successfully completing motor, perceptual and decision-making acts during play, including performing the requirements when fatigued. When considering the task demands of the midfielder, it would seem appropriate to suggest that imagery may be maximize confidence during latter stages of performance (where perceptual sensitivity may be reduced due to task-irrelevant factors causing decrements in motor performance (Munroe, Giacobbi, Hall, & Weinberg, 2000). A final beneficial psychological skill is self-talk. Motivational self-talk, as established by previous research, (e.g., Taylor, 1995; Hardy et al., 2001), can be utilized for drive and arousal sustenance and increase. Both effort and arousal are essential prior to and during a performance due to the heavy physiological component of midfielders' roles. Motivational self-talk is further integral to concentration on task-relevant resources for each role-specific action (Bull, 1989). Secondly, mastery self-talk, which may include issues such as focus, self-confidence and coping with difficult situations, is relevant to the position. It would appear that this form of self-talk would enable an individual to achieve appropriate focus on process goals, and have appropriate motor coordination throughout a performance, rather than allowing a focus on task irrelevant factors, which may occur when fatigued or following an error (Hardy et al., 2001). Method Participants The participants were five male midfield members (age range = 19-23 yrs) of a University soccer 1st team who participated in the British University Sports Association (BUSA) South-East region league. All had played in a midfield position for the greater part of their career. The participants reported 'limited knowledge' of sport psychology and none had previously undertaken a structured psychological skills training package. All volunteered for the study and signed consent forms, after reassurance of confidentiality and anonymity. Dependent Variables The dependent variables were 1st touch percentage, pass percentage, and tackle percentage. Each of the dependent variables were defined as the number of 1st touches, passes, tackles, that were successful, divided by the total number attempted, and multiplied by 100. Experimental Design To examine the effects of the psychological skills intervention package on subcomponents of soccer performance, a single-subject, multiple-baseline across individuals design was employed (Martin & Pear, 2003; Thelwell & Greenlees, 2003). The testing period spanned nine BUSA South-East region league matches. The introduction of the intervention typically takes place when a stable baseline of the dependent variable is achieved, or performance moves in a direction opposite to that expected following treatment (Kazdin, 1992). As the present study has three dependant variables, the aforementioned approach was deemed inappropriate. Therefore, the research team made an 'a priori' decision as to when the introduction of the intervention would take place for each of the participants. While this was in conflict with Martin and Pear's (2003) recommendation, the employment of a 'primary' dependent variable for determination of intervention time was inappropriate. For example, participant 1 received the intervention after match 3 and participant 2 received the intervention after match 4. The same pattern continued throughout. Psychological Skills Training Package The package including relaxation, imagery, and self-talk was delivered to each of the participants across a three-day period by a British Association of Sport and Exercise Science (BASES) accredited sport psychologist. For each component, a series of workbook exercises were provided in the form of "homework" and were discussed at the next meeting. Relaxation strategies were introduced in three stages. Following an introduction on the meaning and benefits of relaxation, participants experienced it through Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). The second stage focused on a centering strategy, allowing for relaxation without physical involvement in play. Participants were informed that the primary objective of this strategy was to enable quick and effective relaxation while focusing on relevant environmental cues (Hardy & Fazey, 1990). Participants were encouraged to use the strategy during training, play breaks or following an erroneous play. Breathing strategies were the focal point of the final stage, (Hogg, 1995). Each participant was encouraged to observe their breathing rhythms and patterns when they were not playing well, with the intent being to make them realize that performance mistakes led to tension, concomitant with uncontrolled breathing, lading to more mistakes. Participants were encouraged to become more self-aware of when their breathing became inappropriate, and consequently, know when to employ the appropriate breathing strategy. Following from the above, players were introduced to imagery and its benefits for the midfielder. The participants completed exercises designed to articulate the differences between internal and external imagery, variant image speeds, and images related to performance success and recovery. As regards performance subcomponents, players were required to engage in multi-sensory imagery allowing them to see and feel a successful first touch, and other well-executed performance subcomponents. Finally, different elements of self-talk were introduced to the participants in a three-step process. Firstly, participants were aided in the construction and use of appropriate positive self-talk, via use of key words and competition affirmations. The benefits of the varying forms of self-talk were discussed in the light of each performance subcomponent and the participants developed a list of affirmation statements that they were able to use in a competitive setting. The second stage consisted of identifying when participants use negative self-talk and understanding its impact on performance. Each participant completed an exercise designed to restructure unwanted negative thoughts to positive, motivational or challenging ones. A final aspect of the self-talk was to identify when instructional talk would be appropriate for each participant. To achieve this, participants completed an exercise to identify what they say to themselves when carrying out each of the performance subcomponents, and discover if they could employ more appropriate self-talk. Procedure Initial contact was made with the participants and the head coach on a volunteer basis. Participants and coach were offered information sheets and a brief oral overview of the required. Following that, participants signed consent forms Throughout the data collection period, each participant attended two training sessions and played one competitive match per week. One training session would comprise fitness aspects while the other would be skills-based. Performance data were collected using match analysis procedures (Reilly, 1996) for each competitive league match over the nine-match period for the three role specific sub-components, and when each participant's turn came to receive the intervention, it was administered over a three-day period. Relaxation was covered on day one, imagery skills on day two, and self-talk skills on day three. Each session was conducted at the University campus where the first author was based and lasted for a maximum of one hour. Treatment of data Participants' performance scores for passing, tackling and 1st touch were plotted for each of the nine competitive league matches. Visual inspection recommendations by Martin and Pear (2003) and Hrycaiko and Martin (1996) were adhered to. These include: (a) crossover of data points between the pre- and post-intervention phases, where the lack of overlapping data points supports the effectiveness of the intervention, (b) immediacy of an effect following intervention, (c) the size of an effect after intervention, and, (d) the number of times that effects were replicated across the participants, where increased consistency indicates a generalized pattern of the experimental effects. Social Validation At the conclusion of the study, close-ended social validation questionnaires were administered to assess participant reactions to treatment procedures and experimental outcomes (Pates, Maynard, & Westbury, 2001). The social validation was designed to provide information concerning the importance of the study and the effectiveness of the intervention, as perceived by participants. Results Data and Procedural Reliability To accurately identify the three performance subcomponents' data, the researchers and an independent researcher attended a series of training sessions and competitive matches, prior to data collection. During matches and training sessions, the researchers and the independent fourth individually rated performance subcomponents. In each of the training sessions and matches, the researchers and independent researcher individually rated the performance sub-components. Attendance at training and matches took place until inter-observer reliability was greater than 0.8 (Hrycaiko & Martin, 1996). Having achieved suitable inter-observer reliability, the independent researcher embarked upon performance data collection for each participant for each performance subcomponent across the matches except for participant 1 in match 6 and participant 5 in match 1 due to their injury-absence. Procedural reliability was ensured by requesting the independent researcher to check that each intervention had been consistently and accurately applied. Intervention Effects 1st Touch. Figure 1 presents the results for the 1st touch data. Although all 5 participants improved their 1st touch performance following intervention, there were numerous overlapping data points and the size of improvement varied across participants. Passing. In support of the 1st touch data, all participants improved their percentage of successful passes (figure 2). Again, the magnitude of the effect varied as did the number of overlapping data points across individuals. Tackling. Figure 3 depicts the data for the tackling performance of the five participants, indicting that all improved on this performance subcomponent post-intervention. As in the above, the magnitude of the effect varied as did the number of overlapping data points across individuals Social Validation Post-study completion, social validation was assessed via brief questionnaires. When asked to rate the importance of a performance improvement, the average response from the participants was 5.8. Similarly, positive responses were obtained when participants rated how significant an improvement in performance was to them. On average, the participants' average response was 5.6. The responses for the final two questions suggested overwhelming support for the efficacy of the intervention with average ratings of 6.2 and 6.5. Discussion The study's primary aim was the analytical assessment of the effectiveness of psychological skills intervention as pertains to soccer midfielder performance. In addition to the stated, the study aimed towards the development of a research base for the examination of the use of psychological skills in an ecologically valid, open skill, team sport setting. Findings illustrated that the intervention comprising relaxation, imagery and self-talk enabled participants to improve each of the soccer-midfielder specific dependent variables, with four of the five participants showing definitive improvements on all dependent variables. Participant 3 experienced small improvements on the dependant variables but, of equal or greater value, produced a much higher level of consistency around the mean. This evidences that psychological skills training is beneficial to both improving, and enhancing performance consistency (Thelwell & Maynard, 2003). A possible explanation for the reason why participants experienced varied levels of performance improvement is that not all midfielders fulfill the same roles. Although the requirements of a good first touch, passing and tackling may be of generic importance, an offensive midfielder may be unconcerned with improving because his game is based on ball control and accurate passes. Alternatively, a more defensive midfielder may require greater focus on tackling capability rather than passing due to the nature of their specific positional role. Within the present study, the participants were not classified into the various types of midfielder, which may help to explain the findings within the present study. From an applied perspective, practitioners need to be aware of the role specific requirements for the performers with whom they work, following which the practitioner need identify the appropriate psychological priorities and methods for psychological skill development, as would maximize performance (Thelwell & Greenlees, 2003). An issue worthy of further consideration with applied-based research and one which may have influenced the interpretation of the findings within the present study is that of the method of performance assessment. The present study employed an objective scoring measure for the three dependent variables, although several factors may have influenced the validity of the performance measures. In particular, it could be claimed that there are concerns with the adoption of objective measures within a team setting, due to the number of uncontrollable variables. For example, when assessing the passing component of performance, a correct pass is identified by the player, but not read or anticipated by the recipient, and consequently intercepted by an opponent. Objectively, such an example would be negatively marked, whereas, from a subjective approach, the performer would have gained credit for identifying the correct pass. The aforementioned suggest future research areas. The development of a subjective marking assessment for evaluating performance levels when analyzing varying dependent variables, as would allow for the consideration of the erroneous uncontrollable factors that may influence objective performance measures, should be researched. Contemporary literature is replete with examples of the use of subjective methods of assessment (e.g., Maynard, Hemmings, & Warwick-Evans, 1995; Maynard, Smith, & Warwick-Evans, 1995; Thelwell & Maynard, 1998) and it may be of value to compare the effects of psychological skills on performance subcomponents using both subjective and objective methods of performance assessment (Randle & Weinberg, 1997). On a related point, the development of a subjective scoring system for consideration of the level of situational difficulty levels is important. Attaining this is predicated on the adoption of more stringent methods of inter-observer reliability (e.g., filming the behaviors being assessed) than employed in the present study (Tkachuk, Leslie-Toogood, & Martin, 2003). The influence of psychological skills on the decision-making ability of performers deserves attention. Within open skill activities decision-making is critical, and there have been several examples of research in soccer examining the effects of experience (McMorris & Beazeley, 1997; McMorris & Graydon, 1996a), exercise (McMorris & Graydon, 1997; McMorris, Myers, MacGillivary, Sexsmith, Fallowfield, Graydon, & Forster, 1999; McMorris, Sproule, Draper, & Child, 2000), and task complexity (McMorris & Graydon, 1996b) on decision-making capability. Therefore, investigating how psychological skills benefit decision-making is worthwhile. Finally, the potential influence of psychological skills on performance in the second half of matches in the post-intervention period compared to the second half of matches in the pre-intervention period deserves attention, as fortified by the fact that has a heavy physiological requirement (Strudwick & Reilly, 2001). Research indicates (e.g., McMorris & Graydon, 1997; McMorris et al., 1999) that the level and intensity of exercise influences performance subcomponents. Therefore, it may be that the psychological skills enabled participants to cope more efficiently with the endurance aspect, in turn benefiting sub-component performance levels. In conclusion, the results of the study prove that sport and position specific psychological skills to be beneficial to role-specific performance indicators. Read More