Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology Case Study

This case study focuses on a 23-year-old semi-professional football player who experiences competitive anxiety during soccer matches. The assessment involved an interview, questionnaire, and the use of the Youth Sport Consulting Method. The intervention included mental imagery, yoga, Pilate classes, and breathing exercises. The results showed a higher level of competitive state anxiety, which was affecting the client's sport performance and self-confidence. The use of mental imagery was found to be an effective strategy for reducing competitive anxiety in athletes.

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Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology
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Background of the client
In this case study, the client is a 23 years old office worker, working part time in a
supermarket. He lives in Birmingham. He studied business management in the university and
is a member of the soccer team of the company he is working for. He is a semi professional
football player and is keen to perform well in his work as well as his performance in the
soccer team. Although, he train four times a week for the match, still he is not happy with his
constant failure in performing penalty kicks during soccer matches.
Introduction
In order to conduct this assessment, there were different assessment methods that are
used. Firstly, there was an interview conducted with the client. He was asked to take part in
the interview with researcher which involve two sections in difference time. For the first
section of interview was un-structured. This is because of the fact that the interview was not
that carefully planned and was very tightly controlled. The link in between the questions and
the performance was not clear. It caused a major problem. Then I met with the client and
gained basic information about the background of the client which involved in the experience
of the sport engaged by the client, the client’s, limitation in the sport performance and the
client’s life style. The purpose of the meeting was to gained more information from the client
which was used to design the questions for the next interview. The second part of interview
was then structured as the questions prepared were related to the performance of the client on
the sport. The questions mainly related the psychological behaviour of the client such as the
reason of feeling nervous in competition, the levels of nervousness. These questions aim to
investigate the source of the competitive anxiety. The sources might come from environment
factors, personal experience, lack of preparation, influence by negative thoughts. According
to the information, I confirmed the direction of investigation and designed an appropriate

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method of intervention with the help of YSCM (Youth Sport Consulting Method) that had
served me as a supporting and guiding sport psychology practitioners for the implementation
and the delivery process of the sport psychology services for the very athlete (Henriksen et al.
2018). The assessment has made use of CASI-2 (Computer assisted self-interviewing)
method as the assessment method in order to carry on with the case study. Furthermore, in
order to conduct this assessment, some code of ethics too are been followed that was based
on certain principles and they are competence, integrity, professional and scientific
responsibility, respect for the rights and dignity of the client and the concern for his welfare.
Questionnaire:
With the same, I collected more information related to client’s psychological
behaviour from actual competition. After his interview session, he was asked to complete the
second version of Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CASI-2) that was developed by
Martens and his mates (Martens et al. 1990). He was asked so to measure the level of his self-
confidence and state-anxiety before and after the very competition. The questionnaire of
CSAI-2 was comprised of a total of 27 different question, both open and close ended. Out of
them, there were nine questions that were framed to measure the degree of the perceived
cognitive anxiety, the other nine questions were framed to measure the level of somatic
anxiety and the remaining nine questions were to assess the degree of the e perceived
confidence in a situation that is characterised by the competition. Along with the CSAI-2, the
athlete also had to answer one question about how stressful did he was perceived and that was
measured on a scale ranging from 0 to 100. 0 denotes- not stressful at all and 100 denotes- the
most stressful.
The recommended CSAI-2 was used in the study of the interrelation of the
competitive anxiety and the performance level of the athlete. As indicated by Martens (1977),

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the CASI-2 could be used to measure the cognitive state anxiety as well as the somatic state
anxiety so as to assist the sport psychologists in deeply understanding the concept related to
the competitive state anxiety. With the same, according to the multidimensional theory of
competitive state anxiety, the competitive state anxiety is combined with two separate
measurement of the somatic state anxiety and cognitive state anxiety. When compared to the
earlier questionnaires called- the SAI (state Anxiety Inventory), which was developed by
Spielberger (1983), the CASI-2 is more or less completed in the measurement of the levels of
both somatic state as well as cognitive state anxiety. Notwithstanding the fact, the CASI-2
comprised of twenty seven items that demands for about 5 minutes of answering and it is also
to be mentioned that this takes much longer time as compared to that of SAI questionnaires.
Though CASI-2 needs comparatively longer time for answering, the SAI also demands for 20
items, which is of same length like of CASI-2. However, depending on and considering the
accuracy in the methodology, I chose to opt for CASI-2 method to be used as the assessment
method in my case study. I have chosen this assessment method because of the fact that it is a
method for the collection of survey data in which the respondents, in this case the athlete, can
use computer in order to complete the survey questionnaire and that too in absence of any
interviewer administering him.
Results
The first answer of CASI-2 refer to the baseline level. The second answer of CASI-2
was compared with the first attempt. Combined the scores of CASI-2, the results shown the
client has a higher level of competitive state anxiety which is seriously affecting the client’s
sport performance and self-confidence. On the other hand, the client had numerous
experience of failure in penalty kicks in soccer matches that has lead the team down (Harris,
Blom and Visek 2017). This brought about negative thoughts and low self-confidence within
the client when he faced this situation.

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Intervention
Intervention refers to the combination of the program elements and the strategies that
are specifically designed for producing the behaviour changes and to improve the status of
health among the individuals or a group of people. I have made use of Yoga, Pilate classes
and breathing exercise to help in fostering behavioural changes in the athlete and to bring him
out of his emotional and psychological trauma. There are numerous researchers who indicate
that imagery is an effective strategy for dealing with the competitive anxiety in athletes
(Vadoa et al., 1997). In this case study the mental imagery was adopted as intervention for
reducing competitive anxiety in the client. The mental imagery is a common strategy
proposed for soccer player to reduce competitive anxiety by Salmon et al (1994).
This initiative targeted for the client will run out over 4 weeks. Before the treatment
program. The client has been asked to complete the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-
Revised (MIQ-R) developed by Hall and Martin (1997) for measuring the visual and
kinaesthetic imagery ability. Based on this, assessment can be made as to which function of
imagery will be suitable for the situation of the client.
According to the imagery literature, Paivio it is indicted that there are two functions
in imagery content which is a motivational and a cognitive function (Paivio, 1985). The
motivational function relates to different goal-oriented situations and images related to
general emotional and physiological arousal. For example, athletes asked to image
themselves winning competition and perceptions of the competition. The cognitive function
is related to the general strategies of competition and mental practicing of skills. The different
functions of imagery are orthogonal that mean athletes can image a behavioural goal without
image doing the strategies successfully. In addition, they are able to image a behavioural goal
and doing the strategies at the same time.

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The previous study of imagery conducted by VanDenberg and Smith(1993), they
believed that mental imagery is an effective tool for reducing competitive anxiety in wrestlers
from high school. The participants of experiment group were asked to receive an imagery and
relaxation treatment program for nine weeks. The experiment and control group were asked
to complete the Sport Competitive Anxiety Test and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory
(CSAI-2) prior to and after the treatment program. As a result, the experiment group shown a
significant decreased both cognitive and somatic state anxiety compared with control group.
Therefore, the results demonstrated the combination of use of imagery and relaxation training
can decrease athlete’s competitive anxiety. However, the individual difference in imagery
ability in athletes would affect the result of the imagery that assume the athlete as having very
low imagery ability might not able to use imagery even received an effective treatment
program. In contrast, the athletes defined as higher imagery ability are more likely to use
imagery (Hall et al., 1992). With the same, as stated by Vadoa and his peers, the motivational
functions make use of the imagery that is more likely to decrease the level of competitive
anxiety as compared to the cognitive use of imagery (Vadoa et al., 1997). In this study, there
were about 57 elite roller skaters who took participation. All of them were asked to complete
the MIQ-R (Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised) in order to measure their
kinaesthetic as well as visual imagery ability along with the SIQ (Sport Imagery
Questionnaire) in order to measure the use of imagery a day prior to the actual competition in
the charging room (Hall and Martin, 1997). After the completion of this stage, the
participants were then asked to complete the next CSAI- 2 in order to measure and assess
their own self confidence level as well as the anxiety level (Moritz et al., 1996). As a result,
high levels of cognitive anxiety in athletes are more likely to use MG-Arousal imagery. The
findings are consistent with Jones (1995) literature that suggested the competitive state
anxiety could be both facilitative and debilitative. In the order words, using MG-Arousal

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imagery in high levels of cognitive state anxiety in athletes would receive a worse
consequence (Thelwell 2015). In contrast, if the athletes is having low levels of motivation
for a competition, adopting MG-Arousal imagery would be beneficial in this situation. The
MG-Arousal Imagery will be helping in developing expectations of the success and in
enhancing the self-efficacy of my client. It would be reflecting the feelings of anxiety, stress
and relaxation in regard to the sports competitions (Stins et al. 2015). It would be also
effective in influencing the heart rate of the athlete as well and hence, could be employed as
psych-up strategy. I would be using the Imagery for 2 days in a week for about 90 minutes at
his home. I shall be taking into consideration his imagery ability and arousal ability and
assess them. I shall be putting the imagery sessions and imagery scripts to put all the things
into place. I shall also provide the client with a timetable so that where ever he would be the
entire week, he do remember his training session and the things that would be taking place in
each session.

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References:
Hall, C.R. and Martin, K.A., 1997. Measuring movement imagery abilities: a revision of the
movement imagery questionnaire. Journal of mental imagery.
Henriksen, K., Storm, L.K., Stambulova, N., Pyrdol, N. and Larsen, C.H., 2018. Successful
and Less Successful Interventions with Youth and Senior Athletes: Insights from Expert
Sport Psychology Practitioners. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, pp.1-37.
Jones, G., 1995. More than just a game: Research developments and issues in competitive
anxiety in sport. British journal of psychology, 86(4), pp.449-478.
Martens, R., 1977. Sport competition anxiety test.
Moritz, S.E., Hall, C.R., Martin, K.A. and Vadocz, E., 1996. What are confident athletes
imaging?: An examination of image content. The Sport Psychologist, 10(2), pp.171-179.
Paivio, A., 1985. Cognitive and motivational functions of imagery in human
performance. Canadian journal of applied sport sciences. Journal canadien des sciences
appliquées au sport, 10(4), pp.22S-28S.
Martens, R., Burton, D., Vealey, R.S., Bump, L.A. and Smith, D.E., 1990. Development and
validation of the competitive state anxiety inventory-2. Competitive anxiety in sport, pp.117-
190.
Salmon, J., Hall, C. and Haslam, I., 1994. The use of imagery by soccer players. Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology, 6(1), pp.116-133.
Spielberger, CD., 1983 Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y). Palo
Alto,CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

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Stins, J.F., van Gelder, L.M., Oudenhoven, L.M. and Beek, P.J., 2015. Biomechanical
organization of gait initiation depends on the timing of affective processing. Gait &
posture, 41(1), pp.159-163.
Thelwell, R., 2015. Applied sport psychology. Sport and Exercise Psychology, p.211.
Harris, B.S., Blom, L.C. and Visek, A.J., 2017. Key considerations for applied services with
young athletes. Sport Psychology for Young Athletes.
Vadoa, E.A., Hall, C.R. and Moritz, S.E., 1997. The relationship between competitive anxiety
and imagery use. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 9(2), pp.241-253.

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Appendices:
Appendix 1: Raw Assessment data of the Client