For athletes to improve their "game," they have to replace
old, ineffective habits with new, effective ones. Continuing
my Psychological Skills Training series in pelinks4u,
today's article is the first in a two-part series on Mental
Rehearsal (2nd part March 2014). Today's article combines
previously learned skills that you can review from articles
in the pelinks4u archives
(Dec.
2011, Feb.
2013 & June/July
2013). A coaches' script and a handout for athletes to
use when practicing at home are provided.
Psychological
Skills Training: Mental Rehearsal, Phase I
written by Dr.
Christine Lottes, Kutztown University, Pennsylvania
Psychological Skills
Training series: previous issues
- Training
Your Athletes to be Mentally Tough
- Mental
Training Tools
- Goal
Setting and Self-Confidence
- Imagery
- Relaxation
and Energization
- Self-Talk
Skills
- Energy
Management
- Stress
Management Skills
- Breathing
Easy Drill
- Staying
on the Ball Drill
Coach's Script for: Mental Rehearsal,
Phase I
Bring to practice: Coach’s script,
copies of the athlete’s handout, balls or other equipment
connected with your sport, pencils or pens, dry board markers
or chalk
Review:
- During our psychological skills training we’ve
learned a variety of techniques to make us mentally tougher.
- In previous sessions we’ve learned how to get loose
(muscle relaxation), breath easy, and concentrate on relevant
cues (staying on the ball).
- Today's practice will combine these tools by mentally
rehearsing a situation that happens during play, with the
goal being to react automatically during competition.
Today: Mental Rehearsal, Phase I. (NOTE.
For the sake of clarity in understanding this lesson, the
sport of volleyball, is used as an example.) Coaches can replace
all VB references with specific references from their own
sport.
- To improve your game, you have to replace one habit with
another. But you can’t do that during a game. As a
serve is whizzing into your court, you have to react automatically
to it. You can’t be telling yourself, “Move
your feet.” Your reaction must be automatic.
- Mental Rehearsal helps you make
that automatic reaction a desirable reaction.
You will have desirable reactions (behaviors) by overlearning
them so that they become a habit you can do without thinking,
like riding your bike (or driving a car).
- To make the desirable patterns
automatic, successful athletes go over them in their minds
- the movements and plays they want to execute. They also
go over plays they are likely to see and their responses
to them. Top U.S. athletes have been taught mental rehearsal
skills and have used them with great success.
- What is Mental Rehearsal? It
is practicing the correct moves and strategies
so that what you would most like to do is turned into what
you will most likely do. In your mind, you are seeing yourself
do a volleyball movement so that your muscles will respond
to your thoughts during a game without you having to tell
them to do it step-by-step. Your response will be automatic.
For example, you will find yourself having recovered from
one area of the court to where you now need to be without
having had to tell yourself to reposition.
- What does Mental Rehearsal do?
It is an extension of the relaxation-concentration process
that we learned. It carries your focused attention right
into the upcoming action and keeps it there. It’s
a way of getting used to keeping your mind in the here and
now as you go through the sports action.
- Through mentally rehearsing the
successful play you will shut out anxieties and thoughts
both positive and negative about the result of the previous
play or nervousness about the outcome of the next . You
will focus on what you can control - practicing the moves
you want to make and giving yourself the best possible chance
of doing them the right way.
- It's essential to always mentally
rehearse the correct action, imagine the successful
play. Rehearse the successful play- the correct motions
and strategies.
- This overlearning of the action
will make it so familiar that under pressure you are most
likely to do it automatically.
- Mental rehearsal will also help
you cope with emotional stress because you will learn to
concentrate on the correct action, not on the past or future.
Preparation of Mental Rehearsal Script:
As coach you must provide a sample drill of what you want
rehearsed. In the future, athletes can also be invited to
provide scenarios for rehearsal.
Sample Drill for Volleyball:
- Player starts in defensive position.
- Setter yells free and transitions
to target position.
- Player transitions to free ball
position.
- Coach throws ball over the net
to where the player should be standing.
- Player passes ball to setter.
- Repeat 1-5
Begin:
- Give each athlete a volleyball or a picture of a volleyball
(actual ball is preferred).
- Go over the drill that you will
have the athletes rehearse.
- Do the “Getting Loose"
(Dec. 2011) and “Breathing Easy” (Feb. 2013)
exercises for five minutes.
- Do the "Staying on the Ball"
(June/July 2013) routine for another five minutes. Have
athletes concentrate on the volleyball in front of them.
- Set the ball aside.
Now begin the Mental Rehearsal
exercise: Coach reads the following:
- Introduction.
Sit down at a desk with a volleyball (or picture of one)
and a copy of the drill in front of you.
- Drill. Study
the drill for a few moments as I read through the entire
sequence twice.
- Imagine the sequence
in slow motion. Close your eyes and imagine yourself
going through the same sequence. Imagine this in slow motion.
Note the crucial components of each stage of the actions-
where your feet are; what your legs are doing; what your
hips, back, and arms, are doing; where your head is; what
your hand motions are. Imagine the sensations; check how
each part of your body feels - where your balance is, how,
when, and where strength is applied. Imagine what you see
when you make the play. Look at the ball, then see where
it goes from start of play to end of play.
- Study and imagine the
sequence again. Now look at the drill again while
I read it through. See if you missed anything or got anything
wrong. If so, correct it. Now imagine the action with your
eyes closed again, in slow motion.
- Repeat sequence five
times in more detail. Repeat this procedure five
times, each time in more detail, looking at the drill, and
then closing your eyes and imagining yourself doing this.
Always imagine the play from start to successful conclusion.
Bring out the feeling. Sharpen up the image. Keep checking
your drill to keep motions correct. When you can go slowly
through the action, start to finish, smoothly in detail,
and without error, then you’ve “got the picture.”
You may not be able to reach this point the first time you
try it. If so, don’t pressure yourself about it. It
won’t be long before you have it.
- Imagine the sequence
at normal speed ten times. Close your eyes and
this time imagine yourself going through the play at normal
speed. Imagine the play is the best you have performed.
See it through from start to finish, and say to yourself,
That was a terrific play. Check over the drill,
close your eyes and repeat your “best play”
again. Do this ten times.
NOTE. Athletes will finish each step in varying amounts of
time. Let them know that if they finish the reps early to
do more until you go on to the next step with the whole team.
Summary
- The skills that I am teaching you take only 20 minutes
per day. Athletes who take the 20 minutes per day will find
that after six weeks they will be mastering them and more
successful than they would have been without them.
- Here is a handout to take home
and use at home to practice each day (distribute the Athlete
Handout).
- You can use the drill we did
or you can write another one.
- I want to encourage you to write
out series of movements that you need to do during play,
and practice them. Also, see me if you’d like me to
write out a drill that is specific to you and your position.
NOTE. Sports Psyching Techniques are taken with modifications
from Sports Psyching by T. Tutko & U. Tosi.
Upcoming article on Mental Training...
In the March 2014 edition of pelinks4u will be Mental
Rehearsal, Phase II - overcoming game pressures and the emotions
they elicit. Provided will be the coaches’ script and
a drill that athletes can use at home.
Download
Athlete's Handout Here!
Biography: Dr. Christine Lottes is a professor at
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches Coaching
Education, Sport Psychology, Sport Sociology and Sport Ethics.
She volunteers with youth and college athletes in the area
of mental training. It was through this work that she became
interested in helping coaches to present mental training to
their athletes in the pre-season and then have athletes continue
to "work out mentally" throughout the season as
part of practice and competitions.
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