Biofeedback training uses instruments to help people control responses of the autonomic nervous system. People suffering from chronic anxiety or illnesses caused by anxiety can often benefit from biofeedback training. Helps to learn to reduce functions of the sympathetic nervous system, they are indirectly learning to reduce anxiety and tension.

1. BIOFEEDBACK TRAINING
PRESENTED BY: HARLEEN KAUR NAGI
MPT SPORTS

2. • It has been demonstrated that humans can voluntarily control functions of the autonomic nervous system.
• Biofeedback is a relatively modern technique that is based upon this principle.
• For example, a participant monitors an auditory signal of her own heart rate and experiments with different
thoughts, feelings, and sensations to slow the heart rate.
• Once the participant learns to recognize the feelings associated with the reduction of heart rate, the instrument is
removed and the participant tries to control the heart rate without it.

3. INTRODUCTION
• Biofeedback training uses instruments to help
people control responses of the autonomic nervous
system.
• People suffering from chronic anxiety or illnesses
caused by anxiety can often benefit from
biofeedback training.
• Helps to learn to reduce functions of the sympathetic
nervous system, they are indirectly learning to
reduce anxiety and tension.

4. INSTRUMENTATION
• Biofeedback can be very useful to athletes who suffer from excessive anxiety and arousal.
• If athletes could be trained to control their physiological responses in the laboratory, they should
be able to transfer this ability onto the athletic field.
• The main drawback : It is expensive .

5. Measurement techniques used in
biofeedback training

6. Skin Temperature
• The most commonly used and least expensive form of biofeedback is skin
temperature.
• When an athlete becomes highly aroused, additional blood is pumped to the vital
organs.
• Part of this additional blood supply comes from the peripheral blood vessels,
leaving the hands feeling cold and clammy.
• The effect of stress is to decrease the skin temperature of the extremities.
• Participants can monitor skin temperature to discover what kinds of responses,
thoughts, and autogenic phrases are most effective in increasing it.
• Participants are trained to use progressive relaxation techniques and autogenic
phrases to assist them in the biofeedback process.

9. ELECTROMYOGRAPHY

10. • Electrodes are attached to a particular group of muscles in the arm or forehead, and the subject tries to reduce
muscular tension by using auditory or visual cues of muscle electrical activity.
• Auditory cues typically come through earphones in the form of clicks.
• Visual cues come through an oscilloscope that the participant watches.

11. Electroencephalogr
am

12. • Use of the EEG is commonly called brain- wave training.
• Tiny electrical impulses from billions of brain cells can be detected by electrodes placed on the scalp and
connected to an EEG.
• Four basic types of brain waves are associated with EEG recordings.
• Beta waves predominate during periods of excitement and high arousal. Alpha waves predominate when the
participant relaxes and puts his mind “in neutral.”
• It is the alpha waves that the participant tries to produce.

13. OTHER METHODS
• Several others are used to a lesser degree, including the galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate, and blood
pressure.
• In addition to these six biofeedback methods, other potential techniques include
1. monitoring of respiration rate
2. vapor pressure from the skin
3. stomach acidity
4. sphincter constriction
5. blood chemistry

14. Galvanic Skin Response
• The galvanic skin response (GSR), also known as electrodermal activity (EDA) or skin conductance,
measures electrical changes in the skin caused by sweat gland activity in the palms and fingers.
• It can provide important information about the body’s level of physiological arousal, or activation
and excitement, in response to stimuli.

15. Heart rate
• Monitoring heart rate variability (HRV)
can help with stress management
• HRV provides information on the
physiological response of the organs to
stress.
• Individuals can detect early signs of
stress and intervene before they worsen
by regularly monitoring their HRV

16. • The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls various involuntary bodily
functions, including heart rate.
• The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) handles the “fight-or-flight”
response, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) controls the
“rest-and-digest” response.
• Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), resulting in an
increase in heart rate and a decrease in heart rate variability (HRV).
• Chronic stress can disrupt the balance of the sympathetic nervous system
(SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), resulting in lower total
heart rate variability (HRV).

17. • HRV biofeedback is a technique for increasing HRV and managing stress.
• It is a much more active and controlled stimulation of the neurological
system to create changes in baroreceptor reflex, respiratory sinus arrythmia,
and other physiological systems that connect to the lungs, cardiovascular
system, and brain system.
• Gives participants real-time feedback on their HRV patterns and supporting
them in acquiring self-regulation strategies to enhance parasympathetic
activity and decrease sympathetic arousal.

18. • HRV biofeedback has been used to help with stress
management, anxiety control, and performance enhancement.

19. BIOFEEDBACK
AND
PERFORMANCE
• In a laboratory setting, the athlete learns to control the autonomic nervous system.
• The feelings and experiences associated with learning how to reduce sympathetic nervous system responses in the
laboratory are then transferred to the athletic environment.
• Biofeedback provides a way for athletes to determine their levels of physiological arousal and to learn how to make
conscious changes calculated to reduce anxiety and improve performance.

20. Arousal Energizing Strategies
• Often athletes need to be “psyched up” or energized to
prepare them for competition.
• But at the same time we need to be aware of the dangers
of getting the athlete overly energized and psyched up.
• Coaches have been looking to the sport psychologist to
learn how to maintain optimal levels of arousal in
athletes.
• The typical approach has been to “psych up” the athlete
through various kinds of pep talks and activation
techniques.

21. • Using a pep talk to increase the arousal level of four different athletes has
interesting ramifications.
• Only in situations 1 and 2 did the pep talk have the desired effect.
• In situation 3, the athlete was already at an optimal level of activation, and it was
destroyed by the coach’s pep talk.
• In situation 4, the athlete was overactivated to begin with; the intervention was
totally inappropriate.

22. Arousal Energizing
Strategies
Team Energizing
Strategies
Immediate Self-
Energizing
Strategies

23. Team Energizing Strategies
• At the beginning of the season, the athletes are generally energized and excited
about the new season and the new challenges.
• This initial enthusiasm and excitement, however, can diminish across a long
season if efforts are not set into motion to maintain it.
• This is especially true if the team or individual athletes get mired in a losing
streak or a period of energy-draining situations.

24. • As proposed by Locke and Latham (1990), goal setting is motivational in nature and is used by
athletic teams as a way to energize individual athletes.
• The coach should provide the leadership in this process, but the athletes must be equal partners
in deciding what they want to accomplish as a team and as individuals during the current
competitive season.
• Outcome goals must be addressed, the main focus should be upon process and performance
goals that give the team a chance to succeed. Goals are then monitored on a regular basis so that
progress can be determined.
• One useful strategy is to help each member of the team to set personal performance goals for the
game.
TEAM GOAL SETTING

25. PEP TALK
• A pep talk by the coach or a respected member of the team is the most common method to increase the activation
level of athletes.
• But like any verbal communication, it can be either effective or ineffective.
• Perhaps the most important element of the pep talk is an emphasis on the ingredient that is lacking in the team.

26. BULLETIN BOARD
• In many ways the messages on a bulletin board are identical to
those in a pep talk, but they are visually rather than verbally
conveyed.
• Poster-board displays should be placed where team members
cannot miss them.
• Such places as locker room dressing areas and confined training
areas are ideal.
• The bulletin board should always convey positive, motivating
thoughts and ideas.
• Athletes remember these simple phrases and will repeat them later,
when they need reinforcement.
• This poster could either reflect great performances for the season
or challenge performances for the next match.

27. One such display for a volleyball team might look like
This poster could either reflect great performances for the season or challenge
performances for the next match.

28. PUBLICITY AND NEWS COVERAGE
• Newspaper and other advertisements can
be very helpful in generating team spirit.
• Ads can be placed in the newspaper by
the coach to call attention to an important
game or contest.
• For many teams, publicity comes easy,
but for others it does not.

29. FAN SUPPORT
• Fans tell the athletes that what they are doing is important to people other than themselves.
• A full season of daily basketball, football, or tennis can burn out many players.
• Those responsible for promoting the team must do all they can to get people to support the team by
coming to watch and cheer for them.

30. COACH, ATHLETE AND PARENT INTERACTION
• The interactions between an athlete’s parents, the athlete, and the coach are an often-overlooked source of motivation
for an athlete.
• Parents provide tremendous support for an athlete’s involvement that sometimes goes completely unnoticed.

31. Immediate Self-
Energizing Strategies
• Self-energizing strategies
include :
• Individual goal setting
• Self-talk
• Attentional focus
• Imagery
• Self-activation.

32. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING