Psychology Of Sports

Athletes “choke” or make mistakes for a number of reasons which include but should not be limited to; improper or lack of off the field preparation, not playing enough, and attempting to go beyond their abilities. If we use baseball as an example, if a player does not watch baseball games he will miss invaluable information.

 

Master commentary in addition to the players’ own ability to absorb what is going on is crucial to the players’ ability to intuit what is going to happen when he steps on the field. So for example, by watching thousands of pitch counts both the pitcher and hitter are able to immediately calculate the most efficient-predictable outcome for them. Batters should be able to automatically understand what the demand of the game situation is—so they will be able to execute.  For a fielder, he too should immediately be able to understand where to throw the ball after it has been hit to him by watching thousands of game situations.

 

Next, players need to understand their own abilities and play within those abilities. That comes through constant practice and playing. So for example an outfielder who cannot throw out a runner at home plate on a fly ball to the outfield with runners on second and third should not be attempting to do so (I see this all the time).

 

Players need to be able to avoid getting caught up in the emotion of the moment. That is–if the player gets too excited he will lose focus of the information he has which will cause him to make mistakes. Most players should be able to control being overwhelmed by anxiety by being prepared.

 

Finally, players who look to play as many games as they can will learn through exposure and in game practice, so the two (watching games and playing go together). Visualization which is one of the tolls that players employ can only be used if a player has actually seen, or done what he is supposed to do, otherwise he is just imagining what he should do!  Likewise drawing up plays would only be guesswork, if you do not know how to execute them.

So “choking” and errors really stem from a lack of preparation. The players who are most preparted generally make the least amount of mistakes–simple as that.

 

In Ryan’s three months as head coach we’ve learned he’s not shy. He proved that again when asked about his expectations for this season. “I’ve never gone into a game I didn’t think I would win,” Ryan said. “I’ll let you know when that happens. I have faced a lot of good teams, but I always thought I was going to win even though it doesn’t always come out that way. “For me to sit here and say that I hope we come third, anything but winning everything would be underselling our guys. I am not a guy that’s big on underselling just to say, ‘If we say we are going to be terrible and all of a sudden we are decent, man what a great coach.’ Forget that, I’m going to tell you the way I feel. I think we are going to be very successful — period.”

What can I say? My kind of coach. I don’t usually make these kinds of posts but I loved this one.  

I have had an long term relationship with the media. Over the years I have had a number of interesting converstations with  many reporters and television personnel. Most recently I have found a disturbing trend in that members of the media will contact me with an angle for their story. They present as already having made up their minds about their subject matter and their idea of the psychological aspects that are pertinent. If I disagree, they generally try to convince me of their position despite the fact that either research or practice does not support their position. If I don’t relent I generally do not get quoted in their story which is fine with me. They just move on until they either find someone that appears to agree with them, or they simply make it up, or shape their story to give the appearance of agreement.

If this phenomena is happening with me, then I can only imagine what is occuring with other stories of major importance to our country. Let the reader beware!!

Performance is primarily based upon off the field preparation. That includes both mental, physical, and skill development. This also includes completely understanding and immediately recognizing what adjustments you need to make during the game. You cannot “work on your game” while you are competing. If you are maximally prepared then onfield performance will be virtually automatic and just click-in. 

Youth Sport Directed Syndrome

There have been so many changes in the field of youth sport that not only would it be hard to list them it seems impossible to determine the long range effects of these changes. But the short range effects do not look to good.
Today the youth of our nation is so over-coached and directed by adults one has to wonder how our children can think at all.

Gone are the playgrounds and parks where kids worked out their differences between themselves. Gone are the pick-up games where children refereed their own games and decided if a ball was fair or foul and made their own lineups. Can you imagine?

Given the current state of youth-directed sport I cannot imagine how we ever chose up sides and played so many sports and games without adult assistance or direction.

What is perplexing about the whole thing is that for the most part it is the baby-boomer generation who played so freely and creatively who ushered in the “youth sport adult directed syndrome” we have today.

How did we get here?  The exodus to the suburbs surely had something to do with it. I think the economic affluence of this generation also had something to  do with it. Children of today have so many more things than the baby-boomer generation. Perhaps it can be blamed on technology.  Let’s face it you do not have to go to far today to be connected to another human being. If you are  reading this then you are connected, or at least have the capacity to be connected.

How does the mindset of a free thinking generation create a generation that appears to be less active, less productive in creating new and different games to play? I am not sure.