Mental Imagery In Professional Sports

Although mental rehearsal is not as beneficial as physical practice, it fairs better than no practice at all. Therefore a program involving both mental and physical rehearsal training seems to be the most beneficial to the individual. However, improvements need to be made by sports psychologists in the area of mental rehearsal, so athletes can have a better understanding of the game and what is involved to enhance their performance. Further studies need to be conducted to determine when and why mental rehearsal techniques will be effective to enhance better performance by athletes in their sporting

All athletes need to be able to regulate arousal to stay in control and focused so they can achieve and compete. Athlete who can’t successfully manage his/her stress may experience decreases in performance, as well as mental and physical distress that will lead him/her to lose competition. Only good athletes who can increase their awareness of their psychological conditions before they can control their thoughts and spirits.

Martinant and Ferrant (2007) aim to comprise clusters of athletes based on their anxiety and to compare them on their levels of perfectionism and self confidence. The authors used the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory - 2 and Sport-multidimensional perfectionism scale to gather results. The results determined five different clusters of athletes based on anxiety criteria. The subgroups not only separated by anxiety intensity and frequency, but also by direction of anxiety. For example, the anxious debilitators contained athletes with high somatic and cognitive anxiety levels with low anxiety direction, which resulted in a debilitating effect. Interestingly, the anxious facilitator group endured the same level of intensity and frequency, but directed their

From a similar stance, recent studies carried out by sport psychologists provided an indication towards a relationship between aspects of mindfulness and sporting performance, in which theories of ‘flow’ and ‘peak performance’ were evidently compatible with the constructs of mindfulness (Kaufman, Glass, & Arnkoff, 2009). Csikszentmihalyi (1990; as cited in Bernier, Thienot,

Imagery is a mental skill used in all sports and at all levels of competition however, it is a key factor in achieving success in high performance sports. It is a form of simulation meaning that the entire experience occurs in the mind, imagery can effect the success of the athlete’s game or competition. Watt, Spittle and Morris (2002) defined sport imagery use as the manner in which athletes imagine themselves, in ways that can improve learning and development of skills and can improve performance skills.

The articles employ different structures; one is written in chronological order and the other is organized by problem and solution. “Sport Psychology: the Ultimate Spring Board of Excellence” is formatted so that the reader can understand the origins of sport psychology. The author, Jitendra

Imagine this; you’re 11,000 feet in the air, with a group of trusted friends. You are in the snow and ice, perched on a 70-degree slope, climbing on your hands and feet and repeating this motion over and over. You have an ice ax in your right hand, and nothing in your left. Breathing gets harder and harder as you get higher up in elevation and every step becomes labored. The focus is unbreakable. You are focused only on the next step, and the next handhold. There is a rope that each person on your team is tied into. This gives some a sense of security-others a sense of worry. The rope does not guarantee that if you fall that you will be stopped, but it does increase the chances. It also increases the risk that if you fall you could drag your whole

Cognitive psychology is linked to sports, insofar, it allows an athlete to recognize subjective experiences that give rise to an optimal mindset, allowing one to perform mentally. Clinical sport psychologists who incorporate this theoretical framework, also believe athletes have the tendency to create maladaptive attitudes, resulting in distorted or exaggerated thoughts (Beck, Freeman, & Davis, 2004; Beck & Haigh, 2014; Keefe, Webb & DeRubeis, 2016), thus, debilitating one’s athletic achievement. For this reason, an athlete’s ability to think, rationalize or anticipate events (i.e., games or practice) affects the way they view their personal experiences. In the same way those experiences are interpreted, is likely how they can be misinterpreted,

Mesagno & Mullane-Grant studied the effects of pre- performance routines on 60 elite soccer players, their performance was looked at under both high and low pressure with some of the athletes being provided with pre performance routines, measuring levels of state anxiety (Mesagno & Mullane-Grant, 2010). The pre performance routine consisted of cue words, deep breathing, temporal consistency and extensive pre-performance routines that consisted of finding optimal arousal levels, behavioural steps and focusing on eternal zones of scoring (Mesagno & Mullane-Grant, 2010). Extensive pre-performance routines were the most successful form of intervention in Mesagno & Mullane-Grant’s study in reducing the choking in performance and decreasing the athletes levels of state anxiety (Mesagno & Mullane-Grant, 2010). This strategy is similarly seen in Wang, Callahan & Goldfine’s study looking at psychological interventions (Jin Wang, Callahan, & Goldfine, 2003). In which they suggested the use of psychological approaches including mental imagery, attentional training, self-talk in order to prevent choking in athletes, by decreasing distractions and anxiety levels (Jin Wang et al.,

In earlier days sports psychology was mostly concerned with developing assessment methods that would identify those people with the potential to become serious superior athletes. Today the focus is on psychological training, exercises that strengthen the mental skills that will help athletic performances on the path to excellence. These skills include mental imagery and focus training. If an athlete is serious about becoming the best he or she can possibly be, the most essential ingredient is commitment to practice the right things. It takes incredible commitment to reach the top: a commitment to rest and train the body so it can perform under the most demanding conditions and a commitment to train the mind to

Enhance their performance – Many times teams just can’t have their top-notch player out of form so psychologists use various strategies such as visualization, self -talk and relaxation techniques to help athletes overcome obstacles.

From a sport psychologist's perspective, I am going to describe a basketball team setting contemplating on the personality characteristics of basketball players, such as dealing with anxiety, self-confidence, leadership, and motivation. Hence, I am going to associate between the basketball setting and the various issues, theories and models in sport psychology. Also, from a sport psychologist’s perspective, I am going to critically analyze whether specific theories and models in sport psychology can account for the various behaviors and phenomena observed in the sport of

To truly witness the full effects anxiety has on an athlete’s performance, research requires the focus on cognitive anxiety (CA) and self-confidence, but SA assists when assessing the true effects (Brustad & Wiggins, 1996). Brustad and Wiggins (1996) tested

Practicing these skills will help athletes to use their psychological skills training in competition. Future research in this topic would help assist the sport psychologists to teach their athletes the benefits of using the psychological skills not only in rehabilitation, but also in competition. By doing this, athletes are better rounded in their sport and are able to overcome obstacles that may hinder their chance at success. Competition is the part in sport that can make or break an athlete. Research can advance the field of sport psych by finding ways to better the athlete mentally, rather than

The emerging field of positive psychology has gained a lot of interest in the recent years. Positive psychology has been proven to promote happiness in many individual’s lives as well as reinforce their personal feelings of self-worth. The use of positive psychology can be applied to multiple aspects of an individual’s life, making it a universal approach to happiness and less stress. One major group of individuals that can effectively carry out the use of positive psychology is athletes. Instilling and educating coaches and players about this approach could help players deal with the immense amount of pressure the players go through. Professional athletes obviously take on more pressures than younger players, but the use of