The Application Aspect of Sport Psychology - Case Study Example

Review and analysis of athlete assessment methods available for a sport psychologist Sport psychologists by virtue of their multi-level specialization in the entire arena of sports performance, while being predominantly engaged in the three principal tasks of research, education and application at the macro level, are however required to delve deeper at the micro level in areas of motor learning and performance, psychological preparation for sport, social issues in sports behaviour and professional issues in sport psychology when evaluating sports performance on a broader canvas for athlete assessment. The focus of this paper is on the application aspect of sport psychology. It attempts to deal with the modus operandi for analysis of an athlete’s sport and the importance of specific techniques to be adopted for assessment of an athlete. Given the fact that the quest for the mental edge in competition is what sport psychology is all about, it is aimed at bridging the identified gaps by an appropriately designed psychological skills training programme. Every human being is uniquely endowed with an uncanny range of skills, depending on a wide range of physical, environmental and genetic factors. Sporting excellence too is a by-product of the balance of opposites like planning and intuition, emotion and rationale, and risk taking and restraint. In the context of any sport, high levels of performance are often a reflection of one’s ability to display these multi-faceted skills comprehensively, on demand; some can be straightaway correlated to core body performance, while some others may have bearing with the complex dual effect of mind-body responses. Any modern sport demands a judicious mix of core body performance as well as mind-body combo output with a tilt more towards the latter, which in turn is linked to one’s ability to learn, develop and perfectly master the motor performance. Motor performance in simple terms is one’s ability to learn, develop and store information for reproduction and display of a wide range of ‘skills’, when needed. Any sport per se being competitive in nature, there is an inherent and consistent need for a healthy comparison of one individual with another or a team of sportsmen with another team, by scientifically acceptable means, with a view to raise the performance bar. It would in real terms imply comparison of the performance linked attributes of one with those of the other. Ready availability of ways and means of doing the comparison with an appropriate rationale would be the ideal prerequisites for the assessment of any sportsman or athlete, to probe the complex gray area of the mind-body response processes more accurately, without sacrificing their well being. The key sport psychology domains which matter among others include; distinguishing skills and motor abilities with special focus on their acquisition, presentation, performance and measurement methodologies; role played by theories of motor control and motor development; proprioception (sense of the position of parts of the body) and vision’s role in motor movement; information processing with a special emphasis on memory structure and its components; progression of various stages of learning, retention and transfer; ability to enhance capacity of ‘focused attention’ with additional resources; benefits and pitfalls of feedback; degrees of freedom; stability and multi-stability aspects of pattern formation; performing proactively, skills of complex ‘action’ with a dynamical systems perspective; and, biological basis of human behaviour etc to cite a few. Each of these domains is area of specialized study and research, warranting the sports psychologist’s attention on a global scale. Every sport demands preparation, commensurate with its uniqueness. Exercising control over avoidable distractions, stress and anxiety figure at the top of the agenda of the sport psychologist for its psychological preparation, by utilising techniques of relaxation. It is an established fact that a relaxed athlete, free from externally influencing factors like stress, anxiety and distractions is more likely to outperform those who are otherwise saddled by them. Focussing on the right thing in a right way and at the right time is what ‘Concentration’ is all about. Monitoring and controlling one’s emotions for channelizing them to lead to peak performance against competition under pressure, is a measure of one’s concentration. Devising ways and means of improving concentration is of utmost importance for achieving high levels of motivation and commitment which comes next for performing complex skills and attaining set goals. Mental exercises are aimed at stimulating the brain function for achieving focused attention. Specially designed exercises for improving self confidence for making an athlete “come out of his shell” to hit peak performance levels also form part of the psychological preparation. There are several instances of potentially bright athletes with low self esteem and lack of confidence hailing from a lower economic background, in particular, turning the corner by exposure to modern methods of enhancing mental agility and toughness. Genuine appraisal efforts at integration of the athlete’s skills to arouse him are coupled with activation inputs for “spurring him into action” – creating a kind of ‘adrenaline surge’ scenario. It is seen that humans respond to stimuli differently. Making an athlete aware of his strengths in a kind of ‘pep talk’ and in a positive way and giving a well conceived stimulus to overcome his weaknesses, can lead to arousal in him which catapults him, at times, to levels of performance surpassing even his on-record capabilities and integrated skills, much to his own surprise. Empathetically coping with injuries and driving home self-healing methods, forms a very important support action for a demoralised athlete, tantamount to holding one’s hand during times of need for providing the emotional succour. A structured, need based, well designed package of the above inputs would go a long way in preparing an athlete psychologically to face the challenges of his sport with conviction. Man is a social animal. Sociology plays a pivotal role in sports behaviour. Interactions driven by compulsions of sport have intense bearing over group behaviour and social relationships. More often than not, there is a clear overlapping of psychological and sociological issues and the predominant of the two, virtually dictates the sport performance. Amidst audience and media glare, individuals constituting groups confront a host of issues relating to leadership, social bonding, gender dynamics and personality characteristics which have a direct bearing over their sports performance. Behavioural issues thus affecting individual and group performance constitute the second tier of key areas demanding individual attention of the sports psychologist. The sports psychologist playing a stellar sociologist’s role in nurturing peak performance is of prime interest to sports practitioners and trainers. The grass root level issues to name a few would among others include gender role in sport and its impact on team building; role of communication in leadership and personality development, with special thrust on articulation and public speaking soft skills; mass media and its influence on sport; tackling withdrawal, dropout and burnout syndromes; socialisation as a tool for promoting group cohesion; aggression and violence in sport and their ramifications; sport as a means for child development, dwelling on the famous “catch ‘em young” theme; role of the audience in sports performance; forging unity in diversity, particularly in group and team situations etc. The article of Carlstedt R.A., 2007, Integrative Evidence-Based Athlete Assessment and Intervention: A Field-Tested and Validated Protocol, The Journal of the American Board of Sport Psychology, [online], Volume 1, Article # 1 accessed on 10 August, 2011 and available at captures the sum and substance of the entire theme under discussion, validated over the preceding ten years, substantiating a step by step hierarchical evidence-based approach that is predicated on the comprehensive assessment of neuro-psycho-physiological athlete responses prior to, during and after practice and competition and in the context of mental training. The analysis of the requirements of an athlete‘s sport is prima facie aimed at scheduling interventions for performance enhancement through integration of movement analyses with the demands of different sports, without losing sight of the factors facilitating injury prevention. This would call for a holistic approach at tackling the interconnected issues. Walking, running, jumping and throwing constitute discreet human movement patterns which need to be subjected to a biomechanical analysis to unearth factors which influence stability against mobility in the context of Movement Analysis and is the first step at athlete sport assessment. This would entail critical analysis of sports skills and sequences deemed necessary for an athlete, including movements’ specific to the sport, athlete, team role or position. This step is followed by the evaluation of sport specific techniques and movement sequences in varied sporting contexts, for analysis of biomechanics and movement patterns leading eventually to Sports Analysis at the gross level. Exacting demands placed on the body in different sporting contexts with typical injury mechanisms and optimal performance given due weightage and its response, constitutes the critical evaluation content of Sport Analysis. No sport analysis can be deemed complete unless injury issues are factored in. Apart from identifying factors that influence injury risk and thereby to optimal performance, the next logical step is aimed at development and design of Injury Prevention Strategies (IPS) through integration of sports analysis and biomechanics with athlete specific requirements in different sporting contexts. IPS is a very important crusade aimed at evaluation and design of athlete profiling methodologies for assessing an individual’s ability to participate in physical activity and exercise, and his susceptibility to injury risk thereby affecting performance, substantiated appropriately by collation of relevant data from athletes and other professionals. Athlete’s profiling driven initiatives facilitate design of injury prevention interventions, which need to be disseminated amongst athletes, other professionals and individuals for ensuring safe and increased participation in different types of sporting activity. It is absolutely essential that the Assessor be sufficiently equipped with issues pertaining to ‘Tissue injury and Healing’ and ‘Applied Anatomy’ to ably differentiate normal human movement from the abnormal, and correlating their mechanical and physiological functioning with the basic principles of functional anatomy. Basic awareness and knowledge of the structure of joints, ligament, tendon and bone to appreciate the intricacies of ‘Muscle Mechanics’ and ‘Energetics’ is a prerequisite to be able to comprehend ‘Tissue Load Dynamics’. One ought to be conversant with different types of acute injury and illness on normal body composition and functions, for acquiring the expertise to evaluate the potential factors which can influence the rate and quality of tissue healing and thereby the process of recovery itself. Knowledge of the principles of tissue healing and pro-activation of the healing process can avert acute and chronic injury risk to bone, ligament, muscle and tendon. These interactive issues have far reaching rehabilitative consequences, particularly when a stress-and-strain-afflicted athlete is confronted with injury and is exposed to the hazards of immobilisation’, ‘detraining’ or ‘retraining’. The emphasis is therefore on the ‘body’ aspect of the athlete in relation to his sport. The need to be courant with the modern developments and related research in the specialised fields of athlete biomechanics, injury prevention and performance enhancement is thus absolutely essential. The entire exercise is incomplete without the proper profiling of the athlete. Clinical assessment techniques are applied to consolidate information relating to the athlete’s function and movement efficiency in relation to his age and the influence of factors such as pain and injury history. The analysis of individual strengths and weaknesses coupled with his preferences in relation to movement and physical activity goes a long way in building an athlete profile as the ultimate step, in consolidating physical performance capacity with the requirements of a specific sport. The follow up action would lie in identifying the gaps to bridge them, commensurate with the peak performance requirements, which in effect becomes food for thought for the development of a psychological skills training programme (PSTP) matching the genuine needs of the athlete. The outcome of athlete assessment broadly short-listed for PSTP, could comprise of two principal modules in tune with the recommendations, though suggested for the sport of fencing by John Heil & Clark Zealand (2001), Psychological Skills Testing Manual, United States Fencing Association, Technical Report (2001-01), [online] accessed on 11 August, 2011 and available at http://www.tacomafencing.com/documents/PsySkillsManual.pdf but would be very much relevant for any sport; namely; Goal Setting, in which positive and specific, and challenging but realistic performance goals are set, with provision for course corrections based on feedback, and emphasis on internalisation after initial corroboration (by the trainer/coach) leading to total ‘Self Acceptance’ by the athlete; athlete test profiling precedes proper quantification, based on integration of short term, intermediate and long term goals. The second module would be “Skills of Mental Training”, wherein inputs pertaining to Relaxation / Activation, Concentration, Self Talk, Imagery and Performance Routines are foreseen. Inculcating a spirit of self fulfilling prophecy for infusing “belief in oneself, that I can do it!” is ‘Self Talk’ in a nutshell; the sub-module of Imagery ‘catalyses the athlete to dream success’ to be able to achieve success; monitoring and controlling one’s emotions so that the energy and focus are maintained for peaking against competition under pressure, is the premise on which the ‘Performance routines’ are drawn up. The cumulative effect of such a training initiative at the behest of a sport psychologist, is expected to present a more physically and mentally fit and self-confident athlete. Enormous strides have been made in the domain of Sport Psychology in the recent decades, which are distinctly at variance with the physical and technical aspects of any sport. While there is abundant scientific information in respect of physical performance statistics running into several volumes of data for any sport, the lacuna of valid and trustworthy real-time information about the mental side of any sport and its related dynamics, has led to greater thrust in the field of applied sport psychology. The inherent lacunae of weak data and questionable assessment methods have been to a very large extent overcome in recent years by the introduction of universally acceptable procedures, ratified after extensive field trials and scientific evaluation. The Learning and Teaching Support Network of the H. E Academy, U. K referenced for the purpose of this article have come out with a Resource Guide on Sport Psychology, which critically analyses the various aspects of Sport Psychology in the U.K and the roles played by its administrators. For those interested in the detailed nuances of the subject, references of databases have been provided for extended study, apart from providing the details of relevant authors, key texts, books and journals. Sport-specific texts information is also shown compiled for the benefit of focused access to games of personal choice. Journals have been shown categorized as generic, peer reviewed, and non peer-reviewed for providing lateral spread and depth to the subject. Web based resources have been dealt with at length, involved globally in the furtherance of Sport Psychology as an important domain for development in future. Even a cursory glance at each of the references cited in this treatise and their most recent updates would provide an overview of the current status of the sport psychologist’s perspective in a nutshell, and the future it beholds for the athlete of tomorrow in respect of self assessment, and the avenues on offer for self development in a highly competitive environment. Reference: 1. 2003, Sport Psychology, LTSN Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism,[online], accessed on 9 August, 2011 and available at Read More