Psychological Skills Training: Body Rehearsal*

written by Dr. Christine Lottes, Kutztown University, Pennsylvania

Continuing our Psychological Skills Training series in pelinks4u, this article focuses on getting the most out of the physical motions of sport by paying attention to how the motion feels. To focus on how the motion feels, we will utilize previously learned skills you can access from the pelinks4u archives: Getting Loose (Dec. 2011), Breathing Easy (Feb. 2013), Staying on the Ball (June/July 2013) & Mental Rehearsal I (Dec. 2013). I am sharing a coach's script you can use with your athletes, and a handout for athletes to use when practicing at home.

Psychological Skills Training series: previous issues

1. Training Your Athletes to be Mentally Tough
2. Mental Training Tools
3. Goal Setting and Self-Confidence
4. Imagery
5. Relaxation and Energization
6. Self-Talk Skills
7. Energy Management
8. Stress Management Skills
9. Breathing Easy Drill
10. Staying on the Ball Drill
11. Mental Rehearsal, Phase I
12. Mental Rehearsal, Phase II

Coach's Script: Body Rehearsal

Bring to Practice: coach’s script, copies of the athlete’s handout.

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, concentrate on relevant cues (staying on the ball) and to mentally rehearse correct actions so that we react automatically during competition.

Today: Body Rehearsal
NOTE. For the sake of clarity in understanding this lesson, the sport of volleyball (VB) is used as an example. You should replace all VB references with specific references from your own sport. Modify your language to suit the grade level and understanding of your athletes.

Introduction

• What is Body Rehearsal? Before competing, most athletes go through the physical motions of their sport (e.g. volleyball players jump at the net or swing their serving arm through its motion). To get the most of this "muscle sense" of a movement, body rehearsal involves going through the motion while paying attention to how muscles feel.
• What does Body Rehearsal do? An experiment with body rehearsal was conducted with basketball players back in 1952 by Lloyd Percival to test out psychologist Coleman Griffith's statement that most basketball players depend too much on sight and not enough on sensory feedback from their muscles.
• Two groups of college players who had equal shooting ability were picked (they averaged 20-21 baskets out of 50 attempts).
• During a four-week program, the first group of players practiced shooting for 20 minutes each session.
• The second group of players practiced the same shots for the same amount of time but spent some of the time blindfolded and getting feedback from an observer who told them where each shot went and who reminded them to pay attention to how their muscles felt.
• Results: Following this training, when both groups of athletes performed under similar conditions, the group that had trained blind-folded were averaging 39/40 while the first group only shot 23/50.
• The researchers discovered that by blocking out vision, athletes focused on how a successful shot felt.
• Later, when under pressure, athletes performed more confidently as they recalled the muscle memory of a successful shot.

Begin the first half of the 20-minute session (10 min.)

• Do "Getting Loose" exercises for a minute then "Breathing Easy" exercises. You only need to do two or three of them unless your still feel a bit tense, then do several more, until you feel the relaxation effect (about 2 minutes).
• Do the "Staying on the Ball" exercise by closing your eyes for a few seconds, visualizing the ball, and saying the word to yourself - Ball.
• Then go right into the Mental Rehearsal - both slow motion and normal speed - of any successful play play (about 3 minutes).
• In your mind, recreate an emotional situation you have encountered in sport and then do the relaxation techniques again as soon as you start to feel tension (about 2 minutes).
• Tell yourself to concentrate and mentally rehearse the play, again in slow motion (about 3 minutes).

Now begin the Body Rehearsal session (10 min.) Use a ball during this part of the drill.

• Serve in slow motion, eyes open. Using the serving motion, stand and physically go through the serve at about 50% of game speed. Focus on all body parts. Are your feet, legs, hips, back, shoulders, arms, hands and head moving correctly? Repeat this two more times.
• Serve in slow motion, eyes closed. Repeat step one but with your eyes closed. Focus on each part of your body and when and where you are using muscle power to accomplish the serve. You may feel off-balance.
• Serve in slow motion, eyes open and then eyes closed, ten times.
  • Repeat step one with eyes again open. If you felt off-balance with eyes closed, work to keep your balance while focusing on all body parts and how they feel.
  • Then repeat step two with eyes again closed, always focusing on all body parts and how you are using your muscles to accomplish a powerful and accurate serve.
  • Repeat ten times with eyes closed and ten times with eyes open. Concentrate on how the muscles feel.
• Serve at normal speed, eyes open and then closed, ten times.
  • Do ten sets of serves at normal speed, alternating between eyes open and eyes closed.
  • Freeze during the third set and check yourself to see that all details of your body position are correct. Stop just before you would contact the ball and check the position of your shoulders, arms, hips, and so on. If you aren't in the correct position, do another slow motion serve set to get it right before you go back to the regular sets at normal speed.

NOTE. Athletes will finish each step in varying amounts of time. Let them know that if they finish the reps before others, to do more until you call them back together.

Summary

• The skills I'm teaching you take only 20 minutes of practice per day. Athletes who take the 20 minutes per day will find that after six weeks they will be mastering them and being more successful than they would have been without them.
• Like all skills, the more you use these sports psyching techniques, the more effective they will become.
• Here is a handout to use at home to practice each day (distribute Athlete Handout).

* NOTE. Sports Psyching Techniques are taken with modifications from Sports Psyching by T. Tutko & U. Tosi.

Upcoming Article on Mental Training
In a future edition of pelinks4u we'll be looking at the mental toughness side of pre-game warm-up routines. A coach's script and a drill that athletes can use at home will be provided.

Download Coach's Handout Here!

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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