Kenny, 25. He is an advance badminton player, he often go for tournaments represent his team and individual events. I had an interview him and doing a survey using the mental skill assessment questionnaire to improve his performance. I can identified that he is highly motivated for the competition but somehow he is lacking of confidence and concentration before and during his games, he cannot focus his game due to both internal and external distracted of poor officiating, crowd noise, panicky, negative thoughts and emotions before and during competition, he cannot handle pressure and perform well during a team event games.
In psychology aspect he is cognitive anxiety and loss of concentration. Anxiety is a negative emotional state characterized by nervousness, worry and apprehension associated with arousal of the body. One of the strategies I will implement is listen to relaxing and calming music. Concentration is the ability to maintain focus on relevant environmental cues or thinking of the past or future raises irrelevant cues that often lead to performance errors. One of the strategies I will implement is using a self-talk technique.
One of the strategies I will implement on Kenny for cognitive anxiety is listen to relaxing and calming music before game start. Sports can be broadly categorized into team sports and individual sports. As there may be more pressure and personal exposure associated with individual sports than team sports, we imagined that cognitive anxiety and self-confidence would be more strongly associated with athletes’ performance in individual sports. The purpose of listening calming music is to enable athletes to feel relaxed in both mind (cognitive) and body (somatic). Feeling relaxed can help athletes focus effectively on performance aspects.
There are two forms of relaxation that performers could conduct. One form relates to practices beyond the training pitch and competition settings. This form of relaxation can relate to listening to music. The other form of relaxation can be within the changing room environment prior to competition. Within this environment, athletes can use positive intent statements, use calming breathing techniques or listening to calm music. Listen 3 to 4 calm music before game. According to leading sports psychologists, music is a powerful tool, which can give a competitive advantage at any level.
While listening to music, an athlete’s attention is narrowed which can divert attention away from the sensations of fatigue during a physical activity. This process can be compared to the cognitive strategy of dissociation, which tends to encourage a positive mood state (Karageorghis & Terry, 1997). For instance, Wales (1986) supported the relationship between music and affect, finding that music that was upbeat in tempo and stimulating enhanced exercise performance by lowering anger, depression, and fatigue significantly. Moreover, music has shown to reduce perceived exertion rates during exercise (Boutcher & Trenske, 1990).
Researchers have revealed that when exercising and listening to music, the perceived exertion rate is lowered because attention is diverted to the music. To move forward rather than becoming overwhelmed and backing up when anxiety strikes, make use of the strategies presented so you can channel anxiety into commitment to taking the next step. Remember that FEAR means to “Face Everything and Respond. ” To perform at a champion’s level, let the butterflies fly in formation. (Afremow, THE CHAMPION’S MIND, 2013) One of the strategies I will implement on Kenny for his loss of concentration is using a self-talk technique.
Concentration and attention control are perhaps the most important mental skills to master in badminton. As there are so many potential distractions during play (sights, sounds, feelings, thoughts), remaining optimally focused pays dividends. Selective attention is the ability to choose the most appropriate stimuli to focus on, while concentration is the ability to sustain attention over time.
Concentration and attention are often enhanced with strategies such as reciting key phrases to oneself, remaining centered in resent, sustaining attention during distractions, and using imagery and self-talk to refocus when distracted. If thoughts determine feelings, then feeling influence performance. That being the solid-gold truth, learn to think more positively about yourself and your game. This is one of the most important life lesson we can ever learn. (Afremow, 2013) Self-talk technique you can implement during the game by engaging in positive selftalk, you can eliminate the negative mental chatter and focus on what you need to do to perform optimally.
Typical negative thoughts an athlete can have include “I suck at this”, “I’m not good at this”. (Afremow, 2013) For tasks requiring fine skills or improved technique, “instructional self-talk” was found to be more effective than “motivational talk. ” In other words, when playing a doubles game and about to smash a shuttle, it would be better for the athlete to use self-talk such as “do a smash” or “smash to your opponent center court” rather than motivational speech like “I’m the best! On the other hand, motivational selftalk was found to be effective during tasks requiring strength or endurance, boosting confidence and psyching-up for competition. Example “I can do it! “, “few more points to go! ” this can be an encouraging thought. If athletes are engaging in negative self-talk, their affective experience may be one of frustration, anger, or extreme anxiety. These emotional states challenge breathing, increase muscle tension, and create a loss of concentration and focus, resulting in lower performance.
Although you cannot probably eliminate all of the negative thoughts, you do have the power to challenge these thoughts and replace them with more positive and useful idea. I will use a video based technology during a match to analysis Kenny’s behavior after those mental skills strategies implemented to him. Video based technology is becoming commonplace in the sports world. Video is used to gather information on athlete techniques during training or team play during competition. Video provides information related to the movement and behavior of the athletes.
However, video does not provide information on the forces exerted on or by the athlete. Video Technology can cover many fields and processes within a Sport Organization. We can use a live replay feedback, video reply or performance analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of those mental skills strategies that implemented to him is it positive. Conclusion Being a successful athlete is about more than just physical strength and agility, your mind plays a key part in your winning performance.
You can use sports psychology techniques to build confidence and improve your focus. Sports psychology isn’t limited to athletes. As a coach, you can use sports psychology to help your athletes achieve their goals. I will foresee from Kenny that he will be more focus and calm with confidence after the implementation of my proposed strategies. Focus is one of the most powerful tools in sports psychology. Whatever sport you compete in, the ability to focus is essential to success. Seek to improve the quality of your thoughts and to quiet you mind.