Ten Minute Talk

I am here today to talk to you about psychology in sport and how it
can be used to
enhance the performance of athletes. There are a number of factors
which if taken
together can greatly enhance the performance of athletes and I will
endeavour to describe
these to you.

(1) THE MIND-BODY LINK

There is a strong link between mind and body and it is accepted that
psychology can play
a large part in achieving success. I will give you a couple of examples
of this to show the
importance of positive thinking and how it is possible to underachieve
by having negative
thoughts.

Cliff Young was an unknown farmworker in the early 60's who entered
the
Sydney to Melbourne long distance race. The other athletes prepared
with special
training whilst he just ran round his sheep station. The other athletes
wore special kit
whilst he just wore boots and overalls. They considered that the race
should be run like a
marathon whilst he just shuffled along. The other athletes ran for 18
hours and slept for 6
hours whilst he did not realise you were allowed to sleep. In the end
Cliff Young won by
one and a half days, beating some of the world's greatest athletes. It
is believed that this was because he did not allow conventional beliefs
to restrict him. The other athletes had
what is called conventional wisdom and this cluttered up their thoughts
acting like a form
of hypnosis. Their beliefs influenced their thoughts and in turn
affected their
performance.

Another example is in the breaking of the 4-minute mile, by Roger
Bannister, opening the flood gates within a year for many more athletes
to run the mile in four
minutes. It was as if the gates had been opened once it had been shown
it was achievable.

The opposite side of the coin can have sportsmen/sportswomen choking
on the
verge of victory because they believe that they should not be in that
position. On a
personal level this happened to me in a long distance race of over 100
competitors. In the
final stages of the race I was out in front and heard spectators saying
that one of their
school members was winning. Upon hearing this I seemed to freeze, as
prior to this, I
was running on auto-pilot and had been fully focused on covering the
ground. However, I
allowed thoughts to enter my mind and decided that I had no right to be
in front, as in the past, I had not been a winner. As a result of this
thinking I allowed three athletes to
overtake me and felt satisfied that this was my rightful place.

(2) GOALS AND GOAL SETTING

It is important to set yourself goals as research has shown that
people who set
themselves targets achieve better results than people with equal
abilities who have none.

In goal setting you could define what your ideal world or lifestyle
would be like
in 3 years time, insuring that you have covered all important aspects
of your life. It is
important to be precise e.g. if you want a new car or house then
describe them in detail.
Check that your description is challenging and will stretch you and
that is what you really
want. Also, imagine what you will see, hear and feel when you are
successful. Once you
have done this you should repeat the process for six months, three
months and one week
goals.

You should regularly review your goals at least weekly but ideally
every day. Many
people find this difficult to do but it will only take a few minutes
and is a worthwhile
exercise.
(3) RAS

If I was to ask you to count the number of red cars you pass on your
drive home and the following day to ask you how many blue and green
cars you had passed the
previous evening, the chances are, that you would not be able to.
Although there will
have been an equal proportion of other coloured cars and you will have
known they had been there you will not have noticed them. It is because
of the Reticular Activating
System (RAS). Everybody has RAS. It is a cluster of brain cells that
acts as a filter to
your perceptions. It filters in information that is consistent with
your beliefs and goals
and irrelevant information is filtered out. Think how this might
influence your
performance. An example could be a footballer taking a penalty kick,
thinking about
where he is going to place his shot and shutting out all other thoughts
e.g. crowd noises, movement from the goal keeper etc.
(4) BELIEFS

A persons belief can greatly affect that persons performance. Often
our beliefs
will stop us from trying certain things or they will affect our results
in a particular way.

A hypnotist can convince a person that a pen is too heavy for them to
lift from a
desk. When the person comes out of the trance they find it impossible
to lift the pen
because the thought has been placed in their mind and there is a strong
unconscious drive
to behave consistently with our beliefs.
(5) SELF-TALK

What do you think when things go wrong? What do you say to yourself
when
presented with a challenge? What do you think when something
embarrassing happens?
These thoughts are our "self-talk".

This "self-talk" is determined by our beliefs. This "self-talk" is
also the way we
make sense of our results. A confident athlete who performs well, will
tend to have
different thoughts than those of a person lacking in confidence who
performs equally as
well.

The confident athlete will say: "that is what I can do consistently"
whilst the
person lacking in confidence will say: " it was a fluke". The confident
person is more
optimistic and research has shown that optimistic people outperform
pessimists. People can, however, learn to be more optimistic and this
process can be taught quickly.
HANDOUT 1
(6) COMFORT ZONES

This is a psychological area or zone. It is defined by the activities
and situation in which a person feels comfortable. As a person moves
into new areas that are unfamiliar,
they may become uncomfortable. If people are well outside their comfort
zones they may
experience some or all of the following:
* Panic Attacks * Poor Co-ordination * Palpitations
* Memory Loss * Dry Throat * Nausea
* Sweating * Energy Loss * Muscle Tensions/Spasms

Just think how these physical and psychological experiences influence
sporting
performance. A footballer is used to playing in the reserves where he
always performs to
high level. Suddenly he is asked to turn out for the first team. He has
stepped outside of
his comfort zone he obviously has the talent as he has been selected
for the first team,
however, psychologically he is not prepared and his beliefs about his
ability determine
how he will perform at the higher level. HANDOUT 2
(7) VISUALISATION

This is sometimes called mental imagery or imaging. The aim is to
bring to mind
a powerful performance. To recall what was seen, heard, smelt, felt (by
touch and
emotion) and tasted.

To give you an example, a footballer could remember a game when he had
a
particularly good match. He could picture the surroundings on that day,
how he felt,
weather conditions and the sounds he experienced. In doing this, all
his senses will be filled with positive feelings and that is what he
will bring to bear in his present match.
HANDOUT 3
(8) REFRAMING

Reframing means removing negative feelings and the effects they have
on
performance. It involves using psychological techniques to remove these
feelings. There
are times when you get a picture in your mind which is disturbing. It
might be a bad
memory of a particularly bad defeat by a certain team. These are a
number of things you
could try such as:
* changing the colours in the picture
* putting a frame around the picture
* making the picture smaller
* making the picture darker etc.

Once you have made the changes that wipe out the negative emotions
repeat the
sentence over and over again. When you have done this try to bring back
the negative
feelings, if you cannot do so then you have finished. If you still have
some negative
feelings then repeat the process until they have all gone.

To sum up if you think like a winner you will be a winner. If you have
negative
thoughts you will be putting barriers in the way of achieving your
goals.