List two ways that athletes might use self-talk to enhance practice performance.
Enhancing motivation
Using key words for skill acquisition and performance
Also known as proprioceptive feedback, we are able to internally 'feel' an action of movement we have performed before.
What are kinesthetic sensations?
List the three components of a strategy used with professional hockey players to help them “stay in the game” when sitting on the bench in between shifts on the ice. Describe examples of self-talk for the last two components.
What are relax, regroup, and refocus?
Why should mental rehearsal of a well-learned skill at a competition enhance the likelihood of that skill being performed optimally (there are two reasons)?
Imagery can help recall kinesthetic feelings of a skilled performance that may increase the likelihood we will experience those feelings when trying the skill again
Mental rehearsal may help minimize distractors
Immediately after an action is performed, an athlete does this and feels what the actual action felt like. These improve muscle memory.
What are instant mental replays?
In several sentences, describe how a golfer used thought-stopping to decrease negative thinking, plus prompts to increase alternative desirable thoughts, to maintain his focus when he was in competition in a golf tournament.
He used the yanking arm hair technique when he found himself thinking negatively. Immediately after the thought-stopping, he would follow it up with desirable thoughts like “stick with your routine” and would go through his pre-shot routine as many times as he needed to without getting distracted. In between shots he would talk with his caddy about predetermined topics as a kind of thought-stopping/prevention technique.
This specifically refers to the visual imaging of a scenario or action. It should not be used interchangeably with mental rehearsal because it is reserved to visual imagery while mental rehearsal involves kinesthetic feelings.
What is visualization?
What are two problems with an athlete thinking about what they want to do just before performing a skill?
It focuses on negative outcomes and can lead to feeling nervous
It’s almost impossible to follow (saying “don’t think of this” always makes people think of what they aren’t supposed to)
Example: A hockey player has seen a puck on the ice many times, coupled with hearing the word “puck”, they are able to visualize a puck on the ice when they close their eyes.
What is conditioned seeing?
Thinking about so many things during performance of a skill that the performance is disrupted.
What is paralysis by analysis?
This is when we imagine ourselves performing an activity.
What is mental rehearsal?
Using an example that is not in this chapter, describe how self-talk might be used to help an athlete focus on the appropriate external stimuli at a particular point during an athletic performance.
A hockey player stepping onto the ice acknowledges and gets used to the broad external stimuli (crowd cheering, other players, sensation of skates on the ice). When they get ready for a faceoff, they focus on the one external cue of the referee with the puck and ignoring other distracting stimuli like chirps from opponents or arena music.
List three rules for using key words to improve performance of a skill at practices.
When learning a skill, key words should prompt specific positions or movements to perform it properly
Self-talk should centre on the “should” rather than the “should not”
Too much self-talk can cause paralysis by analysis
Briefly describe each of Nideffer’s four major categories of stimulus control of athletic performance and illustrate each with a sport example not in this chapter.
These serve as prompts for specific positions or focusing attention.
What are key words?
List five ways that athletes might use mental imagery to enhance practice performance.
Energize before practice
Using instant mental replays
Imagery practice sessions away from the sport environment
Imagery at practices before performing previously learned skills to increase the likelihood of performing successfully
Visualization to simulate the competitive environment
This is physiological activity associated with at least one of our senses under the control of a previously neutral stimulus.
What is conditioned sensing?
Describe an example that is not in this chapter that illustrates how a word might function as both a desired mood word and as a partial rule.
A baseball player who says “knees bent” uses this as a desired mood word to keep things light and easy, and this is a clear partial rule of keeping their knees bent and flexible.
List four ways that athletes might use mental imagery and/or visualization to enhance competitive performance.
Imagery for emotional control
Imagery for mental toughness
Mental rehearsal of a skill just before performing
Imagery to help tune out distractors
Distinguish between internal vs external imagery.
Internal: athletes feel themselves performing the activity
External: athletes imagine watching themselves performing the activity
List five ways that athletes might use self-talk to enhance their performance in competitions.
These are words that elicit certain emotions associated with past successful experiences.
What are desired mood words?
Describe how an athlete might use imagery to elicit feelings of relaxation to decrease nervousness before an athletic performance.
Imagery will likely cause an athlete to reexperience some of the emotion we felt during the time we are imaging. Before a hockey game, after warm-up but before the game, a player may imagine they are in a past relaxing experience like sitting by a lake and fishing.
Describe an example that is not in this chapter to illustrate how an athlete might use key words to transfer a skill from practices to a competition.
A swimmer says “calm” at every wall turn in practice to help them stay focused when doing multiple laps, which keeps them calm in a low stakes practice. Doing the same thing at competitions will help them relax in a tense situation.
Describe the strategy for programming stimulus generalization referred to as “programming common stimuli.” How was that strategy used for Tess Virtue and Scott Moir?
Using the same self-talk (key words) consistently during practice, and also using them at a competition. Those skilled performances done in practice will be replicated in the competition.