mental strategies for peak performance

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2. Table of contents
1. Mental Strategies for Peak Performance...................................................................................................... 1
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................................... 8
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3. Document 1 of 1
Mental Strategies for Peak Performance
Author: Wang, Jin
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Abstract: A key to controlling competitive anxiety under pressure is to develop an effective attentional strategy
to use before competition. Without pre-competition routines of attentional control, many athletes will become
overwhelmed and succumb to competitive pressure. Wang examines the causes and psychological mechanics
of pre-competitive anxiety and provide athletes with an easily understandable mental strategy for practical use
and coaches with specific guidelines for proper behavior.
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A key to controlling competitive anxiety under pressure is to develop an effective attentional strategy to use
before competition. Without pre-competition routines of attentional control, many athletes will become
overwhelmed and succumb to competitive pressure. During competition, an athlete must focus his or her
attention only on the most important and useful information. Irrelevant and distracting stimuli must be replaced,
discarded, or ignored prior to and during performance (Wang, Callahan, &Goldfine, 2003). It is common for
athletes to be bombarded with numerous stimuli including relevant and irrelevant elements. By practicing
attentional training, the athlete can learn to filter and select appropriate information, and then attend to the skill
at hand. Such ability can be learned through proper training.
Athletes who have physical talent and excellent technical ability may not necessarily reach their athletic
potential due to psychological barriers. Athletes sometimes lose control in competition because of internal
stimuli (distracters) such as negative thoughts or external stimuli, such as the audience or pressures from the
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4. coach (Wang, Callahan, &Goldfine, 2003). Extensive sports psychology research has attempted to find ways to
help athletes deal with competitive anxiety for peak performance (Hardy, Jones, &Gould, 1996; Giacobbi
&Weinberg, 2000; Murphy &Martin, 2002; Miller &Donohue, 2003; and Nietfeld, 2003). Such efforts have made
a positive impact on understanding anxiety and mental preparation for performance enhancement, but athletes
in general still do not believe in, nor do they use, psychological strategies as often or as effectively as they
should. The major reasons athletes do not implement attentional strategies are that they: (1) neglect the value
of psychological training, and (2) lack knowledge of how to implement mental strategies. Without extensive
training, both coaches and athletes feel incapable of implementing mental strategies in competition. When
competing, athletes often feel helpless in controlling competitive anxiety, and likewise, coaches are
embarrassed of their inability to help their athletes.
Coaches, the main influence on their athletes' mental state, are responsible for knowing how to positively
prepare athletes for peak performance during practice, pre-competition, or competition. Coaches should
integrate mental training into their daily skill training to enhance the athletes' ability to effectively control their
optimal mental state. The way that coaches communicate with athletes before competition is also a vital
component of how they can positively or negatively affect the athletes' mental state for the up-coming
competition. For example, most coaches emphasize the importance of the up-coming competition and
encourage athletes not to make mistakes, because the team could lose due to one athlete's small mistake. This
kind of threatening speech usually has the opposite effect of mentally preparing athletes to achieve peak
performance, and instead, only heightens the athletes' anxiety level, which is detrimental to their athletic
performance. Unfortunately, many coaches are not aware that their speech can have such a negative effect on
their athletes' mental condition for the competition. In addition, oftentimes when a team loses, the coach will
condemn the athletes instead of thoroughly examining the game, and the areas where the team needs to
improve. Thus, the development of a specific and easily understandable mental strategy would be truly helpful
for both coaches and athletes. This article will: (1) examine the causes and psychological mechanics of pre-
competitive anxiety, (2) provide athletes with an easily understandable mental strategy for practical use, and (3)
provide coaches with specific guidelines for proper behavior.
Causes and Mechanical Processes of Competitive Anxiety
Although every athlete attempts to control anxiety before competition, his or her mind may not follow such an
intention. For example, an athlete may engage in self-talk such as: "Don't worry about the competition, I am the
best athlete, calm down, and I will win the competition." Such self-talk will not ensure this athlete's optimal
mental state, and he or she may still experience high anxiety with symptoms such as a fast heartbeat, a feeling
of fear, high blood pressure, heightened muscular tension, or lack of concentration because an athlete must
have relative believable evidence in order to truly believe his or her own positive self-talk. Empty positive self-
talk is ineffective in eliminating pre-competitive anxiety. Important questions to be answered include: "Why an
athlete's mind cannot even control his or her own body?" "What are the true causes of anxiety?" "How can an
athlete voluntarily control his or her anxiety?"
To answer these questions, it is necessary to examine the brain mechanics of competitive anxiety. By
understanding the true causes of anxiety, the proper mental strategies can be designed and implemented. As
seen in figure 1, the mechanical processes of anxiety include six phases: (1) internal or external distracters, (2)
perception, (3) feelings, (4) physiological responses, (5) state of mental concentration, and (6) poor
performance. For example, an internal stimulus is an athlete's inner thought at a given time, which could either
positively or negatively affect his or her psychological state, depending upon the nature of the thought (Nietfeld,
2003). Examples of internal distracters or inner thoughts include: "My opponent is better than I am," "Since my
injury is not recovered yet, I am going to lose today," or "Having not slept well last night, I am now tired and am
in trouble today." According to Kerr's reversal theory (1997), the way in which arousal affects performance
depends on an individual's interpretation of his or her arousal level. Thus, what an athlete is thinking at a
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5. particular time is a determining factor of anxiety. An irrelevant or negative thought could trigger anxiety,
eventually leading to a disaster situation. Therefore, coaches and athletes must be aware of what types of
thoughts are either beneficial or detrimental to their psychological well-being. Also, the athlete must truly believe
his or her thoughts instead of engaging in self-talk at a superficial level. Most athletes have different thoughts or
engage in self-talk before competition. Some may be positive while others may be negative in nature. Athletes
should be aware of what types of negative thoughts they experience in different situations so that they can
develop strategies to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
In addition, as seen in figure 1, external stimuli can also affect the athlete's anxiety level (Weinberg &Gould,
2004). According to Schmidt and Wrisberg (2004), athletes use different senses such as vision to receive,
interpret, and respond to various environmental stimuli. For example, a scoreboard is considered an external
stimulus. One athlete looking at a scoreboard showing a score of 10 to 10 for a table tennis game may perceive
that he or she is going to lose based on previous experience, while another athlete under the same
circumstance may perceive that he or she will win the competition with a great confidence, because of a
previous winning record. Thus, the first athlete with the negative thought during that critical moment could
experience tremendous anxiety, which could drastically affect his or her play for the last two points. However,
the imperative fact is that many times athletes have no control of external distracters such as witnessing their
opponents' extraordinary ability, noise from the audience, opponents' aggravated behaviors, referees'
misjudgment, coaches' negative behaviors, etc. Thus, the athlete must restructure his or her cognitive process
to transform unwanted or disruptive external distracters into positive ones. Coaches, through example of their
own behavior, can teach their athletes how to ignore these unwanted external distractors.
Role of Attentional Training
Any sport movement results from integration of the mind and body. Human muscles have only two functions-
contraction and relaxation. An athlete's brain activity dictates his or her muscular movements. Thus, athletes
must maintain proper attention or concentration in order to perform sport skills precisely and successfully. Any
irrelevant or inappropriate stimuli can distract athletes' attention leading to failure in competition. One effective
mental strategy is to enhance an athlete's ability to freely pay attention to proper stimuli under pressures. If an
athlete can be consciously aware of the importance of attention focus and develop an effective strategy of
when, where, and how to manipulate his or her attention, the athlete can effectvely control his or her mind. For
example, many athletes before competition worry about the consequence of the game instead of preparing
themselves to play the game. The following mental strategies provide guidelines for coaches and athletes as to
what they should or should not do in order to attain proper attention. Nideffer and Sagal (1998) indicated that
there are four types of attentional styles: internal or external attention, and broad or narrow attention. An athlete
can either use internal and broad attention, internal and narrow attention, external and broad attention, or
external and narrow attention. For example, if an athlete imagines a skill execution before competition, this type
of attention style is called internal and narrow attention. In contrast, if an athlete observes his or her opponents
playing a game of five-on-five, such an attention is classified as external and broad attention. The athlete has to
switch his or her attention at a particular time and specific situation to reach his or her immediate goal, such as
controlling anxiety, keeping attention focused, manipulating attention to proper competition stimuli, or
eliminating unwanted negative thoughts.
The 30-minute time period before competition is the critical period of mental preparation for peak performance.
How an athlete controls his or her attention plays a key role in determining if he or she will perform well in
competition. During that time many Olympic athletes engage in internal and narrow attention exercises by
visualizing particular techniques or skill routines, while other elite athletes may mentally practice internal and
broad attention exercises by mentally imagining a particular strategy of competition. Since both strategies are
effective, the one that should be used depends largely on the particular sport the athlete is competing in or the
precompetition routines the athlete has established. Athletes must know how to manipulate their attentions to
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6. keep their minds in optimal states for peak performance. The following mental strategies provide athletes with
the imperative guidelines of proper attention focus before or during competition.
Proper Attentional Focus Before Competition
Before competition, although athletes are busy warming up, observing opponents, talking to coaches,
examining equipment, interacting with teammates, etc., athletes' thoughts or certain attention determine their
anxiety level. Since attentional focus and cognitive restructuring are two major mental strategies before
competition, the following mental strategies are highly recommended prior to competition.
What athletes should do before or during competition:
* Mentally prepare game strategies.
* Focus attention on mechanics of skills or skill routines.
* Focus attention on competition routines and every detail of competition.
* Imagine self-strengths, ability, and previous successful experiences.
* Compare your strengths to opponents' weaknesses.
* Relax muscles by deemphasizing the importance of the competition and set performance goals.
* Visualize perfect performance routines.
* Smile.
* Meditate to relax mind and body.
* Imagine your perfect skill executions.
* Enjoy the current moment.
* Mentally concentrate on what you are currently doing.
* Relax your muscles by using self-talk or other mental techniques.
* Imagine you are the best one in comparison to all other athletes.
* Think about positive comments that coaches have given to you.
* Think of opponents' weaknesses and ways to attack these weaknesses.
What athletes should not do before or during competition:
* Do not set outcome goal.
* Do not predict result of competition.
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7. * Do not think of the importance of the game relating to your future.
* Do not think about the consequences of losing the game/competition.
* Do not think about the strengths of your opponents.
* Do not perceive that your opponents are better than you.
* Do not focus on self-weakness.
* Do not focus on previous mistakes or failures.
* Do not focus on your incorrect skill executions.
* Do not focus on your win/loss record, and instead focus on how to make the best effort to play in competition.
* Do not pay attention to the audience, friends, family members, and other people who are irrelevant to
competition.
* Do not pay attention to the result of the competition.
* Do not predict if you will make mistakes or fail today.
* Do not focus on what the coach is thinking right now.
* When you are ahead or tied in competition, never think your opponent will surpass you.
As discussed previously, coaches' behaviors and interactions with athletes have a profound impact on athletes'
mental state. It is crucial for coaches to have self-awareness about what they say to athletes before
competition. The following guidelines will assist coaches in identifying the recommended coaching behaviors
and proper communication approaches before competition.
What coaches should do before or during competition:
* Emphasize the challenge of the game instead of emphasizing the importance of the game.
* Tell athletes how to prepare themselves strategically and technically to meet the challenge of competition
instead of setting up an outcome goal.
* Instruct athletes with proper technical routines.
* Emphasize opponents weaknesses and develop strategies of how to beat opponents.
* Remind athletes of their previous positive performance and achievement, good skills, feats, etc.
* Have a well-planned strategy of how to play game or competition.
* Deemphasize importance of winning.
* Use positive reinforcement approaches to help athletes build confidence.
* Emphasize what athletes should do.
* Be aware of individual differences when communicating with athletes.
* Encourage athletes to pay attention to game situations; disregard irrelevant stimuli.
* Give special assignments to athletes before competition so that athletes can mentally prepare skills and
strategies.
What coaches should not do before or during competition:
* Do not tell an athlete how many goals or points he or she has to make.
* If athletes are already self-motivated, do not make a motivational speech.
* Do not put too much pressure on key players.
* Do not remind certain athletes of past mistakes. Tell them what they should do, instead of what they should
not do.
* Do not criticize athletes before competition.
* Do not threaten athletes if they do not perform well in competition.
* Do not show your own nervous behaviors.
* Do not over-estimate opponents.
* Do not use a sarcastic tone to remind athletes of their weaknesses before competition.
* Do not criticize certain athletes in front of other people.
* Do not yell at athletes before or during competition for their mistakes.
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8. Conclusion
Based on the aforementioned strategies, athletes have the responsibility to understand their attentional focus
prior to competition. In a similar way, coaches need to know what types of behaviors properly or improperly
affect their athletes. After reading the above strategies superficially, coaches and athletes could mistakenly
perceive these guidelines to be common sense knowledge. In reality, however, many coaches have improper
behaviors before competition, but never realize it. Likewise, athletes incorrectly pay attention to irrelevant stimuli
or engage in negative thoughts leading to a poor performance. Critically understanding each of the above
mental strategies would significantly enhance both coaches' and athletes' ability to effectively prepare for peak
performance.
Understanding the causes of precompetitive anxiety and knowing specific mental strategies to prevent it is the
first step; changing a person's behaviors is a more difficult challenge. In order for athletes to achieve peak
performance, athletes must control their attentional focus in order to eliminate the influence of irrelevant stimuli
and to keep an optimal level of arousal. Athletes have the responsibility to be a selfmotivator, to consciously
learn these mental strategies, and to implement them accordingly. Coaches should not only be self-conscious of
their own behaviors, but should also help athletes reach their optimal mental state before or during competition.
With coaches and athletes working together, from amateur to professional levels, athletes will fully enjoy their
athletic experience and achieve peak performance.
References
References
Giacobbi, P., &Weinberg, R. (2000). An examination of coping in sport: Individual trait anxiety differences and
situational consistency. Sport Psychologist, 14,42-62.
Hardy, L., Jones, G., &Gould, D. (1996). Understanding psychological preparation for sport: Theory and practice
for elite performers. Chichester, England: Wiley.
Kerr, J. H. (1997). Motivation and emotion in sport: Reversal theory. East Sussex, United Kingdom: Psychology
Press.
Miller, A., &Donohue, B. (2003). The development and controlled evaluation of athletic mental preparation
strategies in high school distance runners. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 15(4), 321-334.
Murphy, S., &Martin, K. (2002). Athletic imagery. In T. Horn (Ed.), Advances in sport psychology (2nd ed., pp.
405-440). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Nideffer, R. M., &Sagal, M. S. (1998). Concentration and attention control training. In J.M. Williams (Ed.),
Applied sport psychology-personal growth to perk performance (pp. 296-313). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield
Publishing.
Nietfeld, J. (2003). An examination of metacognitive strategy use and monitoring skills by competitive middle
distance runners. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 15(4), 307-320.
Schmidt, R. A., &Wrisberg, C. A. (2004). Motor learning and performance-A problem-based learning approach.
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Wang, J., Callahan, D., &Goldfine, B. (2003). Choking under pressure in competition and psychological
intervention approaches. The Professional Journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, 25(5),
69-75.
Weinberg, R. S., &Gould, D. (2004). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology. Champion, IL: Human
Kinetics.
AuthorAffiliation
Jin Wang (jwang@kennesaw.edu) is a professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Sport
Science at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA.
Subject: Athletes; Mental health; Anxieties; Student behavior; Coaches & managers; Professional
responsibilities;
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9. Publication title: Strategies
Volume: 19
Issue: 4
Pages: 22-25
Number of pages: 4
Publication year: 2006
Publication date: Mar/Apr 2006
Year: 2006
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd., American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation
Place of publication: Reston
Country of publication: United Kingdom
Publication subject: Medical Sciences--Sports Medicine, Medical Sciences
ISSN: 08924562
Source type: Scholarly Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: Commentary
Document feature: Charts References
ProQuest document ID: 214556433
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/214556433?accountid=458
Copyright: Copyright American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation Mar/Apr 2006
Last updated: 2013-10-01
Database: ProQuest Central
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10. Bibliography
Citation style: APA 6th - American Psychological Association, 6th Edition
Wang, J. (2006). Mental strategies for peak performance. Strategies, 19(4), 22-25. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/214556433?accountid=458
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