Mental Skills Training Program For The Tennis Athletes

Management of performance and competitive anxiety can be challenging. The first strategy would be to consult with a clinical psychologist, who will often suggest a behavioural approach. These approaches have been found to be the optimal coping strategy for sport-related anxiety, specifically Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) (Patel et

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

While my athleticism developed, I neglected honing my mental strength, leading me to not achieve my potential during matches. Allowing my mind to dictate my emotions rather than produce strategies led to frequent defeats. However, with motivational tales recounted by my coach and plenty of work on my part, I gained the ability to focus and rise up to become a nationally competitive tennis player.

82 male and female undergraduate students from Princeton University were randomly assigned to a sports intelligence condition, or a racial primed/not primed condition (Stone et al., 1999). Participants who were assigned to the sports intelligence condition read instructions that stated that the true purpose of the test was to measure personal factors that were related to the ability to think strategically during the performance of a task (Stone et al., 1999). Participants who were assigned to the racial prime/no prime condition were given instructions that stated the purpose of the test was to measure psychological factors that were related to general sports performance (Stone, Lynch, Sjomeling & Darley, 1999). Additionally, all participants were asked to fill out a five-item self-report measure on anxiety along with a demographic questionnaire where they were asked to indicate their age, race, gender, and year in school (Stone et al., 1999). This demographic questionnaire was presented first for the racial primed condition and last for the condition that did not receive any racial priming (Stone et al., 1999). During the performance task, participants were given a golf club and ball and were asked to hit the ball into one of three holes using the fewest strokes possible (Stone et al., 1999).

Gymnastics competitions create increased levels of anxiety for athletes. Cottyn, Clercq, Pannier, Crombez, and Lenoir (2006) investigated competitive anxiety during balance beam performance in eight elite female gymnasts. Anxiety was measured by heart rate monitoring and a self-report of nervousness during practice and competition routines. A negative correlation was found between the self-reports of nervousness and overall routine performance. The heart rates were significantly higher during the competition routines in comparison to the practice routines.

Our findings do match this research as mental practice combined with physical practice establishes optimal learning of motor skills. Many sports such as golf, tennis and skating not only require physical skills, but a strong mental game as well. Most coaches believe that sports are 90% mental and only 10% physical. Especially in sports where hundredths of a second or tenths of an inch determine the winner, an extra edge can be extremely crucial. Imagery can be useful in improving confidence and positive thinking and maintaining mental freshness during injury.

Many athletes would agree that they have felt butterflies in their stomach or a sudden rush of adrenaline before an important game. This feeling can either translate into legendary performances or monumental failures. According to Sharon D. Hoar (2007), to fully comprehend anxiety’s effect on performance, one must understand the discrimination between two unique sets of sources: trait and state anxiety, and cognitive and somatic anxiety. Anxiety symptoms are numerous and unique to every athlete. Hoar suggests that athletes might report cognitive symptoms (eg. Inability to focus), somatic symptoms (eg. Sweaty palms), or both. The author discusses a variety of sources of anxiety and argues that it can have both positive and negative effects

Thoughts and actions of mentally tough athletes are mental plan (pregame and game), emotional control, optimal arousal, confidence, intrinsic motivation, optimism, controlled anxiety, concentration and attentional control (alert and mentally focused), performs automatically, proper situational appraisal (challenge and threat),good coping skills (deals effectively with adversity) projects a positive attitude (positive body language) sense of enjoyment in the competitive setting.

It has been identified that through sports psychology one can improve their physical ability and performance. Sports psychology is the study of how the mind, mental states and behaviour effect sporting performance. There are several sport psychology techniques, which have helped me become a better volleyball player. These techniques include planning for performance, controlling arousal levels, mental rehearsal and concentration.

Athletes have many ways of preparing for games. Some use a path of mental strength to use over competitors. This could be done through a mental training program (MTP). These programs started appearing about 20 years ago, and target adult athletes to help improve performance (Doganis, 2004, p. 118). On the other hand some athletes are conditioned to use their mental strength and chanel it into confidence (Grandjean, Taylor, & Weiner, 2002, p. 325) or some older athletes are just naturally different in their mindset due to years of practice and performance (Gyomber, Kovacs, & Lenart, 2016, p. 228).

The connection of the mental game and the athletes for any rank of sports has been extremely underestimated. While some believe that all athletes are “all brawn and no brain,” this disregards how much mental activity is brought into any sport. It connects to the fear and separation of mental health for athletes. If an athletes is showing signs of any type of mental issue or disorders, their spot on the team has been threatened. The coaches and staff sometime cannot simply understand the importance of treatment for an athlete. Depression, anxiety, burnout and other disorders causes athletes to do poorly with their mental game, making them appear that these athletes would not be

At a young age, sports is more of a mental game because athletes consciousness and vocabulary are still developing. Coaches need to realize how important it is to have mental toughness as athlete. Mental toughness plays a role in athlete by build confidence that transfers from practice to competition. It teaches the athlete to supercharge focus and confidence before competition and let go or move on from mistakes, losses, and setbacks. The sport psychology knowledge will help the coaches manage distractions and negative self-talk to perform with laser-like focus of the athlete. When a young athlete learns the concepts of sport psychology during sports, it will help they develop into confidence individual without reacting negative when they are off their game. When working with young athlete, the individual need to know how to encourage and making sure they are confident. Young athletes mental state at young age is important because you can hurt them or benefit them depend on how you teach

Many athletes get ready for a practice or a game by hydrating, fueling their body, and by getting their muscles warmed-up and limber. Even though properly preparing your body before you exercise is a very important aspect of being prepared, it leaves out the other half of the equation, preparing your mind with positive visualization. As an athlete, having your mind and body in balance can be a strong determinate regarding your competitive success or failure. Your mindset is everything, and it is also a reflection of who you are as a person. Plus it’s good for your brain! Mental training is just as important as physical, and can help achieve team goals and improve performance.

Children who participate in sports are developing rapidly in sports skills, sportsmanship, and psychologically, but does this come from organized sports are just nature’s process. Children develop emotional and social benefits from participating in sports. Children experience character and leadership development through peer relations leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in anxiety levels. Children will get opportunities to experience positive and negative emotions throughout their practice and games trials. It is important for the coach to understand the “psychology of youth sports and physical activity participation” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011 p.516).

In the Lane et al. (2010) study, the researchers have explored the findings of how emotional intelligence is related to emotions experienced before successful and unsuccessful performances and how certain emotions are correlated with successful performances and poor performances. Previous research has shown that emotional intelligence is correlated positively with pleasant emotions and negatively with unpleasant emotions. Further, Lane et al. (2009c) found emotional intelligence scores correlated with frequent use of psychological skills. Athletes reporting frequent use of psychological skills (Thomas et al., 1999) also appear to report high