Peak Performance Psychology

Common factors that can contribute to performance anxiety include; fear of performance failure, negative social evaluation and/or physical harm, as well as disruption of a well learned routine (Cox, p.201, 2007). The effects of these factors can be further heightened in correlation with importance of an event, or the level of competition. These fears and feelings of anxiety may affect the athlete’s perception of their abilities and hinder their self-confidence, which can be detrimental to their performance. Patterns of perfectionism can also lead to sport-related anxiety, mainly involving setting exceptionally high performance standards of oneself (Cox, p.202, 2007). Setting high standards can often be beneficial to a performance, but athletes that succumb to unrealistic thoughts, that nothing but a perfect/ideal performance is good enough, are more likely to experience negative emotions and heightened levels of anxiety due to the discrepancy between ideal and current self/situation (Koivula, Hassmén, Fallby, 2001).

Something that has always been in my life and repeatedly been said to me, or mentioned is that during a sporting event everything is mental. Now what I have always wondered was that everything in the mental game is based on one’s own preferences, the way one thinks and processes information and how he reacts to a situation. There are various components of an athlete’s mental game such as motivation, agility, confidence; all of which contribute in actual competitions, games or even at practice. More importantly, confidence is more complex because it is what is affected most of the mental game, that’s what makes or breaks an athlete, and that can be affected by a coach, parent, or negative teammate, it’s not just personal thoughts reflecting

There are many terms that we use in our everyday lives that also have their own application to the field of Sport and Performance psychology. For example, performance is simply performing a sport, whether it is team or individual. Commonly, athletes are striving to increase performance. Researchers record how the athlete performed at during a set task, then compare it to an equal measure and performance at a different time. An example would be, how many free throws were made out of shooting 10 shots, or how many passes were recorded in a game.

Psst... What's the answer to number four?” High school students hear things such as this all too much.“We live in the Age of Comparison. Too often, we deem our own achievements worthless if they fall short of others' standards. Our best isn't good enough if it's not as good as someone else's best” Alexandra Robbins, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. It is this type of elitist thinking that compels so many young students to copy work from pers or “cheat”. It is my belief that all work requires original thoughts to complete it.

As I put off opportunities to improve my skills, and my character, the toll only became harsher and more difficult to overcome. In turn, my status among the other athletes began to deteriorate. Witnessing my peers expedite their game as I still struggled did not phase me so much at the time. In fact, I was sure that my role on the team would remain the same. This was obviously false, as within the matter of weeks I was pushed back further in the batting lineup, and committing more errors in the field than ever before. It was during our playoff run that I had realized the resulting detriment, when each player was counted on more than ever before. We ended up making it to the championship, only being one run short of winning. Although our team was able to accomplish that much, I felt short handed when it came to the successful

This attempt at perfection opened many doors that led me to meet teammates and coaches that were shaping me into a better baseball player but also molding me into a better man. I was taught to be selfless not selfish and to put my teammates in front of me for the success of the team as a whole. Teamwork is a vital trait for me as I plan to enter into the field of business. If the people in a company do not work for the overall betterment as a whole, the company will not thrive to its full potential. The sport has also given me a great work ethic that I would not have received from any other experiences. Because I want to go as far as possible in the game of baseball, I have worked day and night in the weight room and on the field to get where I plan to end up. This determination can also be used in the business world as well because I will be able to push the company to its full potential, as well as the rest of the workers.

The live sporting event that I chose to observe was the 2015 Woman’s Soccer Big West Conference championship game with Cal State Fullerton competing against Cal State Long Beach. The game took place on Sunday, November 8th at 1:00pm at Cal State Fullerton. This game is significant because it determines who wins the Big West and who qualifies for the NCAA tournament, so pressure on the players and intensity are very high. Throughout the game, I observed the game as a sport psychologist professional and observed the player’s and coach’s behaviors that relate to Sport Psychology. The three sport psychology concepts that were interpreted during the soccer match were: situational awareness, arousal regulation strategies, and reinforcements.

Ever since I was a kid baseball has been a big part of my life. Whether I’m watching it with my dad on tv, or I’m suiting up to play under the lights on a friday night. Nerves had always played a huge part when it came to just an hour before game time. My whole body would tense up and I would feel anxious. This, of course, is a serious problem for any athlete who wants to compete at the best of their abilities. My biggest issue was always playing in the “big game”, or any game that would put an excessive amount of pressure on me. Which, when it came to me, was basically every game I played in.

Michelle Gardner Cooper AP Language 16 July 2014 Purloining Adolescence The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins combines students’ struggles with little-known facts in order to convey her distaste for the current state of education in the United States. Personal stories of teenage overachievers form the bulk on this novel. Robbins is an authority on the affect extreme pressure has on high school students from having researched it thoroughly.

Sports have been a big part of my life since I was young. When I reach one goal, I begin a new and more challenging goal to achieve. When I overcome my goals, I feel a sense of happiness, and amazement that I can be the best that I can be.

Using occasion side notes and alternative narratives from several teenagers that are outstanding and overachieving to bring up the author’s argument about the American education system.

For three years during high school, I played Varsity baseball, a game requiring nine players to field a team where each player has specific jobs to do. Often a batter needed to hit the ball in a certain way with a good chance of being out but moving his teammate closer to home. Games were won by a team effort and often at the expense of diminishing a player’s batting average. As Coach Ayres always told his players, “We is greater than me.” He instilled this value to help us realize that the team outcome was better than individual achievement. In addition, since I was one of the most

For High Performance athletes, there can be a lot riding on their results and performance in competition. If athletes develop an over-reliance on sporting success as a source of self-worth and identity, it can lead to serious emotional issues if things do not go as desired. Athletes often identify their self-worth with their ability to perform, and performance failure has been significantly associated with depression (Taylor, 2015 pg.11; Troijan, 2016, pg. 137) Athletes face many struggles and when something goes wrong it can leave them not knowing where to turn for help. They can be left with they feelings that they are nothing, undeserving, and alone. This may also exacerbate their feelings of seclusion, depression, or grief. Most athletes

According to James Loehr, a famous sport psychologist, mental toughness is defined as the ability to constantly maintain a perfect performance state during the heat of competition (Loehr, 1986). Since then, Goldberg (1998) has well-defined mental toughness as the ability to stand high in the face of difficulty, and being able to rebound from repetitive setbacks and failures. Fletcher and Fletcher (2005) defined mental toughness as the ability to manage with various

What makes champions in sport? At the end of the day, it is the moment when one stands at the top of the podium, holding up their well-deserved medals and trophies that all elite athletes strive for. Thus, experts have studied this question extensively to see which programs, or by what means, are elite athletes developed to achieve this goal. One of the many aspects to athlete development is the controversial topic of deliberate practice versus deliberate play. Deliberate practice can be defined as “any training activity (a) undertaken with the specific purpose of increasing performance, (b) requiring cognitive and/or physical effort, and (c) relevant to promoting positive skill development” (Cote et al., 2007, p. 185) On the