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Sport and Exercise Psychology - Doc

   

Added on  2021-04-21

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Running head: SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY: A CASE STUDY APPROACHSPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY: A CASE STUDY APPROACHName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note

SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY: A CASE STUDY APPROACH1Psychological skills training or the PST refers to the systematized way of training themental skills that are involved in the enhancement of the performance of a certain player inthe concerned area of sports. The psychological factors directly affect the daily fluctuationsthat take place in the performance of the concerned sportsperson (Weinberg and Gould 2014).The psychological skills are often neglected by the concerned people due to various reasonslike the lack of the knowledge in the concerned fields, the lack of the time on the part of theconcerned person and the misunderstandings that surround the concept of the variouspsychological skills. There exist certain notions that the psychological skills are inherent in aconcerned person and cannot be acquired over the knowledge that is imparted to theconcerned athletes. The PST involves certain myths that have been maintained by the variousmembers who have been into the athletic activities. The various myths state that the PST isrequired by the athletes who belong to the elite classes or might have been facing certainproblems in the concerned field of athletics. The other myths that have surrounded theconcept of PST helps in providing the solutions that might prove to be temporary in theconcerned case. The myths further suggest that the psychological skills training might not beuseful to the concerned athletes.However, there are researchers that might suggest otherwise. In the given case study,the concerned athlete, Sally, is observed to have been suffering from the loss of confidencesince she has returned to the sport of swimming after her recovery from a shoulder injury.The swimmer is known to be one of the high achievers in any field that she sets her mind to.The swimmer is known to be of the international standards and might help the GB team toattain several accolades. The coach of Sally has been noticing the apprehension in herbehavior prior to any competitions that she has been participating (Butler and Hardy 1992).He has also noticed an increase in the anxiety levels of Sally. The coach has also noticed adecline in the performance levels of Sally since her return after the injury. The coach had

SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY: A CASE STUDY APPROACH2advised her to consult a sports psychologist regarding the issues that she had been facing. Theswimmer had been asked to identify the key mental and the physical characteristics thatshould be demonstrated by an elite open water swimmer. She was asked to rate her perceivedimportance of each of the factors as well as her current self-perception on each of thequalities that she had identified. The discrepancies in the concerned matter was calculated inorder to facilitate an identification of the areas wherein the athlete depicted weakness. Sallyhad been facing major issues while participating in her swimming activities. The swimmerwas asked to undertake a performance profiling, an activity that helps in the identification ofthe swimmer’s own perception of her strengths and weaknesses. The results of theperformance profiling revealed that the swimmer had been facing issues with theconcentration on the concerned sport activity, the lack of self-confidence in matters related toher performance in the swimming activities, her composer before the commencement of therace. She had also been facing the issues regarding the huge amount of anxiety that she hadbeen facing before the commencement of the concerned race. The swimmer was also asked togo through a psychological assessment that helps the psychologists to determine correctly thelevels of the anxiety that the athlete had been facing (Butler and Hardy, 1992). The results ofthe CSAI-II reveal that Sally had been suffering from a huge lack of confidence and isobserved to be losing control over the levels of anxiety that she has been facing before theevent starts. Sally has been reporting the fact that the she is not being able to concentrate onthe concerned race due to the fluctuations in her composure before the concerned race.The major areas wherein the swimmer depicted the highest amounts of weakness arethe areas pertaining to the concentration of the athlete, the confidence of the athlete and thecontrol of the athlete over the anxiety before the commencement of the race. Sally had alsobeen facing issues with the matters pertaining to her composure before the commencement ofany competition wherein she has been participating (Martens, Vealey and Burton 1990). The

SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY: A CASE STUDY APPROACH3following essay deals with the major issues that are predominant in the given case of Sallywith respect to her performance in the field of swimming. The essay attempts to draw on thecognitive and the somatic anxieties that the swimmer, Sally has been facing since her returnto the sport after the recovery from her shoulder injury. The essay further proceeds to employthe needed psychological intervention program that might help the improvement of thesituation that has been troubling the swimmer.There are two models that might be used in order employ the psychological training.These two models include the three phases of the PST programs and the five-stage model ofself-regulation (Keynes 2015). The psychological skills training or the PST might assumevarious forms in order to attend to the individual needs of the concerned athletes. The PSTprograms generally follow a structure that involves three distinct steps or phases. Thesephases generally refer to the education phase, the acquisition phase and the practice phase.The initial phase of the PST program tends to be educational for the concernedsportsperson due to the fact that the sportsperson generally tends to be ignorant about theways in which the mental skills might enhance the performance of the concerned athlete.During the tenure of this phase, the participants tend to acquire knowledge on the importanceof the acquisition of the psychological skills and the ways in which these skills might affectthe performance of the concerned participants of the PST program (Stenling, Hassmén andHolmström 2014). During the education phase, the athletes or the sportspersons are oftenasked about the time that they spend in the development of the mental skills that are neededfor the concerned sport as compared to the physical skills that they practice. The mostcommon answer received from the concerned participants tend to be negative responses. Theathletes are then informed and provided with the necessary information on the ways as tohow these skills might be acquired by the concerned participants (Turner and Barker 2013).The phase of educating the participants might tend to last over the time period that might

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