Performance psych for gifted kids

National Association for Gifted Children Annual Convention, Nov 16, 2012

Sport and Performance Psychology:
What’s In It for Academic Talent
Development?
Steve Portenga, PhD, iPerformance Consultants
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, PhD, Center for Talent Development,
Northwestern University

Tracy Cross, PhD, College of William and Mary
Frank Worrell, PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Rena Subotnik, PhD, American Psychological Association
© iPerformance Consultants 2012
Monday, November 19, 12

Long-Term Athlete Development

Optimal training, competition, and recovery
programming with relation to biological
development and maturation


“You can’t make the grass grow faster
by pulling on the blades”

African Proverb


This starts with you!


Build overall motor skills

Learn all fundamental sport skills

Build the ‘engine’ and consolidate
sport-speciﬁc skills

Fine-tune the ‘engine,’ skills, and
performance

Maximize performance, skills, and
‘engine’


The 10 year rule

It takes 10 years of extensive practice to excel in
anything !

10 year or 10 000 hour rule (Ericsson and Charness, 1994)

For the athlete and coach this translates as
slightly more than three hours of deliberate
practice daily for 10 years


Chronological/Biological age vs.
Developmental age
Typically training
and competition
is based on
chronological
age

Athletes can be
4-5 years apart
by maturation
level


Introduction to the
Psychology of Performance


The Mental Side of Sports

Sports are NOT
90% mental!

But the head is the
gatekeeper to the
body

There are no
shortcuts, quick
ﬁxes, or pixie dust


It is

• Confidence

• Concentration

What is FOCUS? • Composure

• Poised

• Courage
It’s WAY MORE than just • Commitment
CONCENTRATION!
• Resilient

This is the wellspring of • Totally in the moment
FLOW! • Ready

• Engaged

• Control

• Choice…

And it’s COOL!!!


Competitiveness

Competitiveness is having the natural or
developed psychological edge that enables you
to:

Generally, cope better than your opponents
with the many demands (competition, training,
lifestyle) that sport places on a performer.

Speciﬁcally, be more consistent and better
than your opponents in remaining determined,
conﬁdent, and in control under pressure.
(Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2002)

Performance Psychology
Skills


Cool under cabin pressure.
PREPARATION

Concentration: Prepare Deliberately

Prepare Deliberately

The major diﬀerence between experts and
amateurs is the capability to deliberately practice

“The practice, in itself, is nothing special; the care
and consistency with which it is made is”
(Chambliss, 1989)

The diﬀerence between expert and amateurs’
practice has more to do with the quality of
training than the quantity


Prepare Deliberately

Coaches and parents:

• Need to help younger athletes learn how to
practice eﬀectively

• Teach discipline; “If you’re going to do it, learn to
do it right”

• Challenge on a daily basis and celebrate small
improvements


Commitment

Developing achievement motivation

Four key questions
1.Can I succeed?
2.Do I even care about this?
3.Why do I want to succeed? What deﬁnes
“success?”
4.What do I have to do to succeed?


Why do I want to succeed?

Three basic human needs
• The need for autonomy
• The need for competence
• The need for relatedness

Autonomous motivation: goals connected to
personal interests/values

Controlled motivation: goals based on external
or internal pressures

Conﬁdence

Confidence

A sense of “pre-knowing” that you CAN deliver,
that you WILL deliver, and that you will
SUCCEED!

Surely it is preferred over …
Doubt…Worry…Anxiety…Fear

There are two basic principles for experiencing
conﬁdence, and they each require the individual
to make a personal choice.


Competence Builds Conﬁdence

Focus conﬁdence on the performance,
not the outcome


Composure: React Adaptively to Distractions

Adaptive Reactions to Distractions

To develop in youth:
1. Give them lots of experiences to learn from
2. Teach achievement comes from eﬀort, not inborn abilities
3. Encourage them to believe that they can turn adversity
into opportunity
4. Highlight times when they do so!

Turn stress into a problem to be solved: Do not
cope by avoiding
• Ask: “How could it be better or worse?”
• Then take action to make it better


Panel Reactions


Questions?
steve@iperformanceconsultants.com

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