Assessment Analysis

Questionnaire

 

 The Athletic Coping Skill Inventory (ACSI-28)

The Athletic Coping Skill Inventory (ACSI-28) is a survey that can be used to select players or to measure strengths and weakness around specific mental game domains: Coachability, Peaking under Pressure, Freedom from Worry, Coping with Adversity, Concentration, Goal Setting and Mental Preparation as well as Confidence and Achievement Motivation. A coach can give the survey to players to obtain a baseline of psychological strengths in an effort to determine which areas need to be developed in the athlete.

0 = ALMOST NEVER 1 = SOMETIMES 2 = OFTEN 3 = ALMOST ALWAYS

*For statements that have an asterisk against them the rating is reversed*

 

Statement	Rating
On a daily or weekly basis, I set specific goals that guide what I do.	3
I get the most out of my talent and skills.	2
*When a coach tells me how to correct a mistake I take it personally*	0
I can focus my attention and block out distractions.	2
I remain positive and enthusiastic no matter how bad things are.	2
I tend to play better under pressure because I think more clearly.	1
*I worry quite a bit about what others think about my performance*	1
I tend to do lots of planning about how to reach my goals.	3
I feel confident that I will play well.	0
*When a coach or manager criticizes me, I become upset rather than helped*	0
I can distract thoughts from interfering with something I am watching.	3
*I put a lot of pressure on myself by worrying how I will perform*	1
I set my own performance goals for each practice.	2
I don’t have to be pushed to practice or play hard; I give 100%.	1
If a coach criticizes or yells at me, I correct the mistake without getting upset.	3
I handle unexpected situations in my sport very well.	1
When things are bad, I tell myself to keep calm, and this works for me.	0
The more pressure there is during a game, the more I enjoy it.	1
*I worry about making mistakes or failing to come through*	3
I have my own game plan worked out in my head before the game begins.	2
When I feel myself getting tense, I can relax my body and calm myself.	1
To me, pressure situations are challenges that I welcome.	1
*I think about and imagine what will happen if I fail or screw up*	3
I maintain emotional control no matter how things are going for me.	1
It is easy for me to direct my attention and focus on a single object or person.	2
When I fail to reach my goals, it makes me try even harder.	3
I improve my skills by listening carefully to advice from coaches.	3
I make fewer mistakes when the pressure’s on because I concentrate better.	1

Coping Score – The higher the score the more likely you are to remain calm, positive and enthusiastic when things go badly. You are more likely to be able to overcome setbacks in a performance situation. The statements needed for this scale are: 5, 12, 21 and 24 = 5 points

 

Coachability Score – The higher the score the more likely you are to be receptive to guidance from your coaches and to concentrate on using their instructions to benefit your performance rather than upsetting and taking the comments to personally. The statements needed for this scale are: 3*, 10*, 15 and 27 = 12 points

 

Concentration Score – The higher the score the less likely you are to become distracted by different things; you are likely to focus on important aspects of your performance. The statements needed for this scale are: 4, 11, 16 and 25 = 8 points

 

Confidence and Achievement Motivation – The higher the score the more likely you are to give 100% in both competitive and training situations; you are more likely to be confident in your skills and abilities as well as being motivated by challenges. The statements needed for this scale are: 2, 9, 14 and 26 = 6 points

 

Goal Setting and Mental Preparation Score – The higher the score the more likely you are to set yourself effective goals and produce appropriate plans to achieve your goals. You are more likely to plan out your sport performance effectively. The statements needed for this scale are: 1, 8, 13 and 20 = 10 points

 

Peaking Under Pressure Score – The higher the score the more likely you are to find high pressure situations challenging. It is likely that you will use them to help performance as opposed to viewing them as threatening and allowing them to hinder performance. The statements needed for this scale are: 6, 18, 22 and 28 = 4 points

 

Freedom From Worry Score – The higher the score the less likely you are to put pressure on yourself by worrying about performance, making mistakes and what others think about your performance. The statements needed for this scale are: 7*, 12*, 19* and 23* = 4 points

 

The total score of the questionnaire ranges from 0 indicating low levels of psychological skills and 84 signifying high levels of psychological skills. Total Psychological Skills Score – The higher the score the higher level of psychological skills you have. By adding the 7 subscales together will give you your total score = 49 points

Analysis

The results from each subscale of this questionnaire show that athlete X is most likely to accept guidence from their coaches and can concerntrate on the benefits of enhancing their performance by listening to the advice that is being given out. It also shows that they are less likely to be distracted by others and can therfore focus on their performance and because of this the questionnaire suggests that athlete X gives 100% effort which results in the athlete setting and achieving effective goals so that they can achieve more things personally. This questionnaire states that the athlete is less likely to remain calm when things go badly such as being under pressure due to them having low levels of self confidence.

This shows that athlete X needs to work on their low confidence and low anxiety levels in order to enhance their sporting performance. This can be done by using the psychological skills that have been chosen for each session which in time will allow athlete X to become a better performer.


 

 

Personal Profile

Athlete X is 18 years of age and has been playing volleyball for the past 3 years and enjoys what they can bring to the team as an individual in order to make the team unite as a whole. Athlete X acknowledges their strengths and weaknesses as an individual and takes on all the advise that is given in order to improve their performance. Athlete X is keen to get started on their training regime as soon their plan is given to them which makes it easier for the athlete to complete their role on the team. Pressure is a key point that they welcome even though the athlete does not always come out on top, it has been suggested by the athlete that this is because thye don't like having all the attention on them as ti makes the athlete nervous. The athlete can take on a lot of things that are thrown at them ranging from family, friends, college, work and training reuirements which results in them being an all rounder and capable of handling anything that is thrown at them.



This diagram shows athlete X's personality to which there are many aspects to this will help me find out their strengths and weaknesses within the sport that the athlete participates in.

Research

 

Psychological Aspects

 

 

Anxiety is a negative emotional state with feelings of worry, nervousnesss and apprehension that is associated with the activation of the body.

 

 

Arousal is a feeling or sensation that an athlete feels when playing sport, it increases muscle tension and effects an athlete's coordination positively. 

 

 

Stress is an imbalance between the demands that someone feels or their feelings of capability to meet the demands of the sport.

 

 

Control is the ability for an athlete to maintain emotional control regardless of distraction.

 

Confidence is a belief in one's abilities or where an athlete believes that they can achieve things.

 

Coordination is when an athlete can use more than two parts of their body at the same time in order to achieve a goal successfully. 

 

Techniques Used

 



 

Imagery
 

Is the process by which you can create, modify or strengthen pathways important to the co-ordination of your muscles, by training purely within your mind. It involves all senses; visual, kinesthetic, auditory, tactile, moods and emotions. Imagery allows you to practice and prepare for events and eventualities you can never expect to train for in reality. It allows you to pre-experience the achievement of goals.

 

 

 

Goal Setting

 

 

Creates attention and focus, it provides an incentive to reach further and it affects psychological factors such as anxiety, confidence and satisfaction. Setting goals with the athlete will raise their feelings of value, give them joint ownership of the goals and therefore become more committed to achieving them.

 

Music

 

The use of music increases arousal by narrowing a performers attention this allows the athlete to have an elevated mood state and will bring their levels up to match the requirements of the sport.

 

 

 

Progressive Muscular Relaxation

 

The process of first tensing then releasing muscles aids the body in returning to a correct, more relaxed position. The body responds to anxious thoughts by tensing muscle groups, creating a cycle in which the tense muscles then increase more anxiety. This type of relaxation has been found to lower pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration and decrease perspiration.

 

Self Talk

 

Developing positive self talk is at the heart of many mindfulness-based programs. For an athlete, negative internal messages and thoughts are among the biggest contributors to pre-race jitters and performance anxiety. It’s this connection between the words and the belief that is the ultimate goal of this technique.

Breathing Control

This process involves counting backwards from 10 whilst using a variety of breathing techniques from breathing at a rhythmic pace which enables the athlete to calm down when they are in a situation where they are hyperactive or stress out.


 

Introduction

Facts about a psychological skills training programme

What

 

A Psychological Skills Training is an individually designed combination of methods selected to attain psychological skill needs.Each program is individualised based on the psychological state of the athlete and their sport. The skills in a PST programme are the psychological qualities or attributes that need to be developed and the PST method is the tool that will be used to help improve the skill.

Who and Why

 

They are for athletes who want to enhance their performance, this may be because they want to improve themselves further, they are injured or they are showing signs of high or low levels of arousal, anxiety, motivation and confidence which need to be brought up or down in order to allow the athlete to give their best performance.

When

 

A PST Programme can be used at any time either before, during or after an event or training situations. It should be used 3 to 5 times a week and each session should last up to about 20 minutes in total in order for it to work effectively.

Where

 

The location of the programme being undertaken is decided by the psychologist and the client, this must be an agreement in order for the programme to work properly. The programme should be carried out away from an athletes comfort zone so that they can really concertrate on each aspect of the programme however the training grounds and competition should be introduced to the programme so they can get use to using them without the psychologists help.

How

 

A psychologist should use a range of methods such as questionnaires, interviews and performance profiling in order to gain information about the athletes performance. This enables the psychologists to plan a programme with the client and based on the information that was collected so that it can improve their performance for the greater good.