Sports Psychology

It’s so easy to say sleep is crucial in the restorative process. But how much sleep do athletes really need?

As the levels of physical and mental stress increase so does the amount of sleep we need. I was working with an athlete who competed at the last 4 Olympics and is now more or less retired - he reckons he can easily sleep some 2 hours less each night now he’s not training as hard.

However, sleep seems to be the first thing to suffer with athletes needing to combine training with study and/or work. Late nights followed by poor quality sleep and early starts will clearly hurt training quality.

Sleep can impact performance in three main ways:

1. Lost sleep reduces the performance of the cerebral cortex in the frontal lobe of the brain which is responsible for the most important mental functions in sport- focus, concentration, flexibility, decision making and information processing.

2. The very deep or Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep helps consolidate activities, tasks and skills undertaken that day. It is indispensable for helping motor learning and skill acquisition.

3. Sleep is a significant stimulator of growth hormone release - the body’s natural agent for cell growth and reproduction. In addition to acting to increase muscle mass, growth hormone also stimulates the immune system. Sleep deprivation raises levels of the stress hormone Cortisol which may interfere with tissue repair and growth.

7 Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Sleep:

1. Have a regular wake up time and go to bed time each day. The body loves consistency and your internal body clock will be set around this regular patterning. It’s best to follow this pattern through weekends too, so as to reduce disruption to your body clock.

2. Avoid coffee, alcohol and other stimulants prior to heading to bed. Aim to reduce stimulant intake after 4-6 pm.

3. Try to avoid high intensity exercise and large meals after 7:30pm (assuming bed time of 10pm).

4. Create quiet time before bed. The aim is to reduce stressors and stimulators to allow the mind time to wind down. Just as we do with small children, you might like to create a bed time ritual to allow sleep fullness to grow. Also, limit exposure to loud music, bright lights, computers and work related stress just before bed.

5. Your sleep environment is important so aim for a quiet dark bedroom with a cool temperature. Get the best quality linen, mattress and pillow possible. Consider taking your own linen and pillow when traveling

6. Some say that if you are not asleep in 30 minutes then get out of bed, read or undertake another quiet activity and return to bed when drowsy. Try it and see if it works; otherwise, just lay there quietly and rest - you can’t force sleep but if you’re relaxed and peaceful you’ll rest nicely and likely go to sleep. (My friends at Sports Mind Skills may be able to help if you’re having consistent trouble getting to sleep with their Sleeping Better for Sport MP3 download).

7. Do not nap within 1-3 hours of bed time. If you do nap in the day then aim for 20-40 minutes around lunch time.

How Much Sleep for Athletes?

Many would say as much as possible! However, we don’t all have that luxury.

It’s worthwhile taking note of an ongoing study which suggests that athletes who get an extra amount of sleep are more likely to have better performance, mood, and alertness.

These findings spring from an albeit small investigation involving five students on the Stanford University men’s and women’s swimming teams.

The participants maintained their usual sleep-wake pattern for the first two weeks of the study, and then extended their sleep to 10 hours per day for six to seven weeks.

With extra sleep the athletes swam a 15-meter meter sprint 0.51s faster, reacted 0.15s quicker off the blocks, improved turn time by 0.10s, and increased kick strokes by 5.0 kicks.

Researcher Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory said “Typically, many athletes accumulate a large sleep debt by not obtaining their individual sleep requirement each night, which can have detrimental effects on cognitive function, mood, and reaction time. These negative effects can be minimized or eliminated by prioritizing sleep in general and, more specifically, obtaining extra sleep to reduce one’s sleep debt.”

“It is interesting to note that many of the athletes in the various sports I have worked with, including the swimmers in this study, have set multiple new personal records and season best times, as well as broken long-standing Stanford and American records while participating in this study,” Mah said.

The findings led Mah to recommend that athletes make sleep a part of the training program, aiming for 8+ hours most of the time. Also, athletes should extend nightly sleep for several weeks before competition to reduce sleep debt.

Maybe it’s time for coaches to consider slumber parties rather than 6 a.m. practices!

I feel the pangs of excitement whenever I sense a juicy competition, be it in sport or otherwise. And it should be that way because that’s a great reason to love sport - a chance to test yourself against others.

Anxiety is a normal human emotion in the face of a threat. It is a state of high arousal and a feeling of discomfort. Anxiety has its benefits. In sport it can help you to succeed by motivating you to beat your opponent - if you’re are afraid of failure you might push yourself harder. But too much anxiety can get in the way of your success. If you are too anxious you might get distracted, make mistakes or even give up.

One way to keep track of how anxiety may be affecting your performance is to monitor your self-talk. Self talk is the thoughts and beliefs that you have about yourself. It can bring you up or drag you down. It can be a distraction or it can help you focus on an aspect of your game plan or technique.

Consider the difference between feeling anxious and thinking “oh no, I’m nervous, I’m not sure if I can do this” and “I feel anxious, but that’s normal, it means my body and mind are ready”.

Let’s do a practical exercise - take a moment to try to recall in your mind a time when you felt really nervous and anxious.

Perhaps it was just before a big competition. Perhaps it was during a competition when the attention and pressure was on.

Recall how your body felt. Perhaps you noticed things like rapid heart rate, sweating, shaking, shallow fast breathing, racing thoughts, butterflies, nausea, or needing to go to the toilet. Some people become quiet, others talk a lot, some yawn and some get very restless. These are all normal signs of nerves or anxiety.

Now try to recall any thoughts or beliefs you had at the time. Often when we are anxious we think worried thoughts, negative or unhelpful thoughts or extreme thoughts. Perhaps you are thinking “Don’t stuff this up”, or “My competitors look so strong, how can I possibly beat them?”

Maybe you were thinking about an injury and worried you wouldn’t hold up. Maybe you were worried you wouldn’t be able to stand the pain. Maybe deep down you believed that you were not really good enough or that everything was riding on that one event, or that if you failed it’d prove you really are a loser.

These are all common beliefs held by athletes.

On that occasion how did you perform?

Did the anxiety affect your performance in some way?

Now try to absorb yourself in a different way of thinking and a new set of beliefs. Start by challenging some of those old thoughts.

Ask yourself:

Does my anxiety sometimes drag me down?
Do I worry that I’m not good enough?
Do I focus on the negative or blow things out of proportion sometimes?
Would a different way of thinking help me perform better?
What happened last time I worried about this?
Was it better than I thought it would be?
What is the evidence for and against my worried thoughts?
What is the likelihood that my fears will come true?

Focus in specifically on whatever you need to feel less anxious about and what specifically you need to say to yourself to achieve a positive frame of mind.

Here are some examples of helpful self-talk. Chose the ones that relate to you and spend some time repeating them in your mind:

I have trained hard.
I am strong.
All I can expect of myself is to do my best at this point in time.
I can only expect what is reasonable.
I am improving all the time.
There’s lots of evidence that I’m a highly skilled athlete.
My body is recovering well.
I can find the way to beat my competitors.
I have strengths they lack.
I can push through the pain.

Now, take a moment to bring to mind the memory of a time you performed well.

Picture how you looked. Recall how it felt in your body.

When things were going right for you what could you see, hear, smell, taste and feel? What went through your mind? As you imagine these things and think these thoughts, you might start to feel more confident and strong.

Now ask yourself: What are my technical goals right now? What do I need to focus on in my training and competition? Focusing on winning or success can make you more anxious and distract you from how you are going to get there.

Reduce your anxiety by thinking about a specific goal. Talk to yourself calmly and positively about what you need to do each moment with respect to your own performance.

This reinterpretation of feelings of anxiety and deliberate focus on the process of playing your sport can raise feelings of readiness, resolve and determination.

My favourite reminder - You’re not asking yourself to do anything you can’t do.

(You might like to try a MP3 tool on Managing Arousal and Anxiety in Sport or Self-Talk in Sport ).

Elite athletes naturally have a will to win, but by their actions many athletes also act to motivate and inspire others to achieve their best.

With this thought in mind, we’ve put together a list, albeit controversially, of the World’s 25 Most Motivational Athletes.

The ability of an athlete to inspire others isn’t purely about their performance. Criteria for inclusion included their ability to come back from adversity, their ability to win against quality competition again and again and their sportsmanship - how they handled themselves whether winning or loosing.

(Each entry has a link for more information and a YouTube link for video).

The World’s 25 Most Motivational Athletes

1. Lance Armstrong (USA) - did well at cycling, got cancer, then came back & conquered the cycling world with seven Tour de France wins . But what cements his No.1 position is that he has put his immense power as an athlete of the world to great use through his establishment of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and commitment to the cause to end cancer.
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

2. Muhammad Ali (USA) - Cassius Clay won an Olympic Gold (1960) and three heavy weight world titles. "I am the greatest" and "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" became his trademarks as he transcended sport in his retirement. According to Ali’s website "Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian endeavors around the globe. He is a devout Muslim, and travels the world over, lending his name and presence to hunger and poverty relief, supporting education efforts of all kinds, promoting adoption and encouraging people to respect and better understand one another. It is estimated that he has helped to provide more than 22 million meals to feed the hungry."
It’s not bragging if you can back it up.

3. Michael Jordan (USA) - Definitely the greatest basketball player of all time, Jordan was probably the most effectively marketed athlete of his generation. Through multiple comebacks and a stint in Baseball, His Airness proved his athleticism again and again, inspiring millions to be like Mike. For the record, he earned six NBA titles and two Olympic Golds. His charity work in his own name and through his Jordan Brand is ongoing and so far includes $5 million to Chicago’s Hales Franciscan High School, and donations to Habitat for Humanity and a Louisiana branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.

4. Michael Phelps (USA) - 14 Gold Medals in two Olympics at just 23 years old - a testament to his remarkable ability in one of the toughest sports as well as the number of opportunities to win medals in multiple events in swimming . Phelps was a 15 year old at the Sydney Olympics, finishing 5th in the 200m butterfly. Only Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina (born 1934) holds more total career Olympic medals with 18 (nine gold), compared to Phelps’s 16 (14 gold). Extra credit to Phelps for donating a $1 million bonus from the Beijing Olympics to start his own charity.
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.

5. Andre Agassi (USA) - Andre was the child prodigy who reinvented himself as a 30-something tennis player to win eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. His post-win gesture of blowing kisses to spectators on each side of the court was admired as a humble acknowledgment of the crowd’s support of him and tennis. Wikipedia says Agassi is regularly cited as the most charitable and socially involved player in professional tennis. It has also been surmised that he may be the most charitable athlete of his generation. He is the founder of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation (in 1994), which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada.
To the US open crowd at his last match: You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could have never reached without you. Over the last 21 years, I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.

6. Steve Redgrave (GBR) - one of the most enduring successful Olympians of all time - 5 gold medals in rowing at 5 Olympics , a feat shared by just four athletes. Sir Steve is now committed to providing a better deal for the Third World through both his FiveG clothing range and the Steve Redgrave Fund which raised £5 million in five years. His charity work addresses problems associated with lack of exercise, obesity, social inclusion and confidence among children and young people in Britain.
I’ve had it. If anyone sees me near a boat they can shoot me. (After winning his 4th gold).

7. Paavo Nurmi (FIN) - Considered the greatest Track & Field athlete of all time, Nurmi won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in the 12 events in which he competed at the Olympic Games from 1920 to 1928. Nurmi has won the most Olympic medals in Track & Field, 12 total. In 1932, Nurmi was unable to compete at the Olympics, as he had received money for his running and was thus considered a professional. (Born 1987, died 1973). Mind is everything. Muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.

8. Emil Zátopek (CZE) - was probably best known for his amazing feat of winning three gold medals in athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki . He won gold in the 5 km and 10 km runs, but his final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the first marathon of his life. In total Zátopek won five gold and one silver medals at the Olympics. (Born 1922, died 2000).
Great is the victory, but the friendship is all the greater.

9. Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) - Jackie Joyner-Kersee has amassed 20 records in the heptathlon and long jump and has won three Olympic gold medals (2 silver, 1 bronze). Off the track, she is a business executive who runs her own sports-marketing firm. Her Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation sponsors programs for disadvantaged youth and has raised more than $12 million to build a safe haven for young people to come learn, play, and contribute back to their community.
The medals don’t mean anything and the glory doesn’t last. It’s all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.

10. Nadia Comaneci (ROM) - One of the world’s best known Gymnasts, Comaneci was the first gymnast to receive a perfect 10 in Olympic competition. At 14, this Romanian dynamo captured the hearts and minds of the world with her daring and perfection. More recently, as contributing editor of International Gymnast Magazine, she is still very involved in her sport. She speaks five languages and is a TV commentator at major gymnastics competitions. Nadia has spoken at the UN, is involved with the Special Olympics and Muscular Dystrophy Association. She has also personally funded the construction and operation of the Nadia Comaneci Children’s Clinic, a clinic in Bucharest that provides low-cost and free medical and social support to Romanian children. Currently she is Honorary Consul General of Romania to the United States to deal with bilateral relations between the two nations.
Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win.

11. Roger Bannister (GBR) - At the time, many well educated people strongly believed that it was not possible to run a mile in less than four minutes.  However, Banister’s determination and spirit resulted in him proving the doubters wrong, running 3:59.4 for the 1609 metres in 1954 . Since his success, thousands of others have followed in his footsteps. Sir Bannister doesn’t rate his famous run as his greatest achievement, instead he cites his "subsequent 40 years of practicing as neurologist and some of the new procedures he introduced as being more significant."
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

12. Vitaly Scherbo (RUS) - Arguably the greatest or most successful male gymnast of all time, he is the only male gymnast ever to have won a world or Olympic title in all eight events: at the 1992 Olympics , he won 6 of 8 events (team, all-around, and 4 of 6 event finals - more golds at a single Olympics than any other gymnast in Olympic history); and at various World Championships throughout his competitive years, he collectively won every event. He now runs the Vitaly Scherbo School Of Gymnastics in Las Vegas.

13. Dan Jansen (USA) - Over the course of his career, Jansen skated eight world records over 500m and 1000m, however, his mid-race falls during 1988 and 1992 Olympic races gained him notoriety for failing despite being favorite. After years of heart break, Jansen finally won an Olympic gold in his final race in 1994 in a world record time. He set up the Dan Jansen Foundation in memory of his sister, with the purpose of fighting leukemia. He is also a supporter of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation where he is a honorary board member.
I remember standing on that podium, … and for the first time probably before or since, wishing our national anthem had more verses.

14. Martina Navratilova (CZE/USA) - Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. Navratilova is involved with various charities that benefit animal rights, underprivileged children, and gay rights. Navratilova Vs Evert video .
The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are their worst.

15. Chris Evert (USA) - Evert also won 18 grand slam titles including three Wimbledons, seven French Opens, two Australian Opens and six U.S. Opens. Evert’s graceful appearance, quiet demeanor, outward appearance of gracious sportsmanship, and positive public image made her a favorite with the media and fans. Evert currently operates a tennis academy bearing her name in Boca Raton, Florida where she lives with husband and golfer Greg Norman.
I was very, very shy as a younger girl, just petrified of people. Tennis helped give me an identity and made me feel like somebody.

16. Arnold Schwarzenegger (AUT/USA) - Arny’s sheer size , action-hero movie roles and great accent has seen him transcend sport. Schwarzenegger, the current Governor of California, is also among the richest in the list with as much as $200 million in assets on conservative estimates. He donates his Governor’s salary of $175,000 per year to charities.
For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

17. John Maclean (AUS) - The first athlete in a wheelchair to swim the English channel, complete the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon and the Molokai Challenge (ocean kayaking). He also rowed at the Beijing Paralympics (Silver medal), completed a Sydney-Hobart yacht race and was in the Australian Olympic Team in 2000 where he was a finalist in the 1500m wheelchair race. Maclean puts back into sport with gusto as well, especially via his John Maclean Foundation which provides support and assistance to Australian wheelchair users under the age of 18.
From thinking there was no way I could go on, I was now thinking there was no way I could not.

18. Dara Torres (USA) - Torres won three Silver Medals in the pool at the Beijing Olympics. Unremarkable in this field, but she was 41 years old and the mother of a two-year old. In total, Torres is a nine-time Olympic medalist (four gold, four silver, four bronze), first taking gold in the 4 x 100m at the 1984 Olympics in LA. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.
I feel like I have so many middle-aged women who look up to me. I want them to feel proud, and feel like they can do what they set out to do.  I would never do anything to disappoint these women.

19. Jenny Thompson (USA) - The 10-Time Olympic Swimming Medalist and has won the most medals by any U.S. female Olympic athlete. Of late, Thompson received her medical degree and now works as an anesthesiologist in Boston.

20. Annika Sorenstam (SWE) - The most dominant player in women’s golf. Throughout her career , she has established new records in the LPGA (72 wins) and Ladies European Tour, won countless awards and events, and brought unprecedented attention to women’s golf. Her achievements have changed how women’s golf is played, covered and viewed, and in her rise to mainstream athlete and celebrity, she has had a positive impact on all women’s sports. Her Annika Foundation is "dedicated to providing inspirational experiences, and educational and financial resources that will help children in need to realize their full potential".
If you think about it, the golf ball doesn’t know which country you’re in.

21. Wayne Gretsky (CAN) - Called the greatest player of all time and despite his unimpressive stature, strength, and speed, Gretzky’s intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. His current activities include TV and movie appearances, endorsements, a restaurant in his own name and the Wayne Gretzky Foundation which had raised over $1 million dollars in support of youth in hockey.
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

22. Dean Karnazes (USA) - This ultra-fit man most recently made big news for running 50 marathons in 50 states of the US in 50 days. He used the runs to send the message to Americans to get off the couch and reclaim their health . His charity, Karno Kids, aims to improve youths’ health and wellness and preserve the environment and open spaces.
Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.

23. Tiger Woods (USA) - Just saying his first name is enough to know who. Tiger demands respect - so far he’s won 14 majors and been the No 1 golfer the longest. His list of achievements is longer than his drive and which, in turn, has driven massive earnings. Hence, his charitable actions include the Tiger Woods Foundation (focusing on youth development), the Tiger Woods Learning Center (a school in California), and contributions through golf events and a concert which bears his name. And when all his activities tire him, there’s his sports drink, Gatorade Tiger. Listen to Earl Woods talk about Tiger.
Tiger is no longer a candidate for this list due to his indiscretions.

24.  Erik Weihenmayer (USA) - The first blind person to climb Mt Everest in 2001, Weihenmayer has since climbed the seven tallest peaks on each continent. Erik’s feats have earned him an ESPY award, recognition by Time Magazine for one of the greatest sporting achievements of 2001, an ARETE Award for the superlative athletic performance of the year, the Helen Keller Lifetime Achievement award, Nike’s Casey Martin Award, and the Freedom Foundation’s Free Spirit Award. He speaks to audiences on harnessing the power of adversity, the importance of a "rope team," and the daily struggle to pursue your dreams.
People get trapped into thinking about just one way of doing things.

25. Rocky Balboa (USA) - Ok, ok, the Sylvester Stallone character in these six movies is fictional, but Rocky’s rugged tenacity has inspired millions to fight with their heart. Who can’t remember the running up the stairs montage!
Yo Adrian!

How’d we go? Did we leave out your favorite inspirational athlete? Your comments are also welcome.

I was trying to think of nice by-lines for this blog and just before I thought of ‘Preparing for Real Competition’, the play on words, ‘Train Like a Locomotive’ came to me.

Train big, strong, powerfully.

I love such short, powerful sayings - you know, the kind you see dotted around the gym walls, designed to inspire and motivate.

A great use of such terms can be during the execution of skills. These cue words, which can be as simple as ‘drive’ or ‘push’, serve to focus attention and lead the effort.

When doing a bench press I’d think to ‘drive it through the ceiling’ - obviously, a fairly lofty goal, but it provides a solid directive.

I came up with another set of words - ‘roll, dash, hike, trim’ to key me into the actions needed to so a tack while sailing. Sailing’s a sport where there is a lot going on and then suddenly you have to execute a different skill. So, it can help to have these words to cue up the necessary actions in your mind just before doing it.

Go ahead and think now of a word that creates positive images or feelings in your mind that might help you with a specific task in your sport. You could ‘float like a butterfly’ or ’sting like a bee’, to quote boxing great Ali.

Here’s a list which might help:

To increase effort: Strong, Drive, Push, Explode, Pump, Kick, Lift, C’mon!

To focus skills and technique: Follow through, Strreeettch, Feel.

To settle and improve efficiency: Smooth, Relax, Steady, Breathe.

Cue words will help anchor your mind, but they’re personal, so choose a combination which will work best for yourself.

The impact of cue words may also wear off after a while, so it’ll pay once a year to decide whether a refresh is needed.

The term cohesiveness has long been associated with the amount of ‘togetherness’ displayed by a team both on and off the field. Team cohesion is commonly defined as a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency of a group to remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objectives (Carron 1982).

There are two dimensions within cohesion:

1. A task dimension which reflects a team’s ability to work together to achieve a goal, and
2. A social dimension which reflects the degree to which team members like each others’ company.

Research conducted by Lenk (1969) found that social cohesion was not an important component in achieving a successful performance in elite rowing, i.e., the rowers do not have to like one another for top performance. Sometimes, that’s just as well!

However, when contemplating the larger majority of active athletes (i.e., the non-elite) social cohesion may well prove to be quite important.

Performance success will facilitate feelings of greater cohesion and satisfaction. Similarly, cohesion itself will also result in a greater sense of satisfaction.

Satisfaction is how an individual feels about their participation in a team. If an individual has a high degree of satisfaction they are more likely to feel good about themselves and their participation and want to continue participating.

If a crew lacks the ability to gain satisfaction substantially through its performance in the short term, cohesion may provide the level of satisfaction required to maintain motivation. Thus, as performance improvements due to training have an opportunity to emerge, this reinforces the positive feelings gained from achievement.

Over time, encouraging participation at novice levels will increase both the size and standard of the pool of athletes from which elite squads are selected. In this light the development of social cohesion at a non-elite level may well be extremely important to any sport.

What Makes a Team Cohesive?

A ‘crew concept’ is essential for cohesion to develop and stems from five key issues (Williams 1986):

1. Proximity: close personal contact between team members that facilitates interaction.
2. Distinctiveness: team members perceiving themselves as a unit and as different from others outside the crew.
3. Similarity: team members perceptions of themselves as having similar attitudes , aspirations, commitment and abilities.
4. Goals and rewards: emphasis is placed on groups performances and rewards rather than individuals of sub-groups.
5. Team structure: individuals should understand, accept and enthusiastically undertake their role in the team and be aware and conform to team norms (acceptable behaviors).

As the definition of team cohesion states, it is a dynamic process and implicitly therefore is capable of change, growth, modification and improvement.

How to Create Team Cohesion

Coaches can facilitate the development of social cohesion within their teams by:

• Opening communication channels between themselves and their charges and between team members.

• Seek input when making decisions and address conflict when it arises.

• Develop pride and a collective identity by setting realistic goals with the team and gain their commitment by involving them in the process.

• Develop common expectations of behavior (e.g., arriving on time or early to training).

• Acknowledge personal contributions by stressing the importance of each individual’s role. This acknowledgment will also enhance the individual’s motivation and commitment.

• Conduct periodic meetings at which team members can air their grievances and resolve conflict.

• Use senior members to help implement change where necessary.

• Discuss the positive aspect of a performance before the negatives.

• Reinforce distinctiveness by training in a common uniform and interacting socially as well as at training.

• Avoid early failures where possible.

• Avoid excess team substitutions.

• Avoid clique formation (negative alliances) by randomly assigning individuals to groups for off-field training.

In conclusion, team cohesion can be use as a tool by coaches, organizers and PE teachers to maintain participation in sport. The development of cohesion takes on even greater significance if the team has begun a season with poor performance and gains little satisfaction from their results.

If the individual feels a sense of belonging and has committed themselves to team goals, satisfaction will also be gained from the process of combined effort. In turn, this provides a source of satisfaction and the subsequent feelings of worth can provide motivation to carry on. Therefore, social cohesion is important at a non-elite level in order to provide a solid base for elite athletes to develop within.

If you’re interested in learning about formal strategies to develop team cohesion have a look at Developing Team Unity and Leadership.

Some say being an athlete is a very selfish pursuit - you have to sacrifice your normal involvement with partners, friends and parents to go about the tasks you need to do to improve your performance - things like training, resting, eating, training, resting and eating.

And if you’re an athlete’s partner, parent or friend, you’ll notice that at different times your athlete will be stressed, anxious, fatigued, and seem low in mood for a number of reasons.

This is especially the case in the led up to the target event for the year. The time you will spend with your athlete in the final weeks until the end of the event will usually be limited. And, depending on the individual all they will be interested in talking about will be their sport, or anything but their sport!

Here’s a few tips for these extra-stress times in the lead up to big events like World Championships or Olympics:

• Make contact with your athlete consistently - not excessively.

• Always give praise and encouragement to your athlete at all times rather than give advice on performance.

• Always remind your athlete of your support.

• Be available to support your athlete at anytime.

• Athletes will have bad days – they like to express frustration to parents, partners, and friends – provide support by listening rather than trying to provide solutions.

Sometimes, things won’t be going well and so here are some things to be wary of:

• The athlete is describing poor performances, worry about performance outcomes, or injuries and this is consistent over a period of time (i.e., 2 weeks).

• The athlete is uncharacteristically expressing negative thoughts such as “I don’t know what to do” “I am not good enough to do this”.

• Athlete is not providing any strategies or solutions to improve current situation – e.g., communicate with coach, communicate with other athletes, communicate with the psychologist working with the sport.

If any of the above should appear on the radar, then suggest your athlete attempt the following strategies:

• Make an appointment to see the psychologist working with team.

• Speak to other senior athletes from the sport and ask for advice.

• Speak to coach about identifying one thing to focus on in training and/or competition.

• Identify three things they can focus on doing tomorrow in training or competition.

• If injured, ask whether goals and exercises prescribed by the doctor and physiotherapist are being followed. If not – speak to a doctor and physiotherapist about more specific (shorter term – day to day) goals for rehabilitation.

(If your child plays sport, be sure to check out Wayne Goldsmith’s Fifty Things You Can Do to Help Your Child Achieve in Sport ).

Whenever he saw fellow competitors staring for a long time at a results sheet at an event we were at, a training partner of mine would mutter ‘keep staring, they’ll change soon’.

Of course, no matter how long you stare at your results they won’t change, but nonetheless, I liked his humor because it kept reminding me that if I continued to work on what I could control the results would take care of themselves.

I took this to the extent that I’d never bother to look at a results sheet for the first few days of a competition. I had a pretty good idea of how I went each day and not ‘caring’ about the initial scores helped me to focus on the process and my own performance rather than think about the outcome in a few days time.

The challenge comes in maintaining the process-orientated focus while you’re in the middle of an event. One way to do this is, before the start and even during the event, to remind myself of a few key technique or tactical areas I know I need to work on. I do this by reviewing a half-page list of things I wanted to work on - gathered from errors made and refined over previous months.

So:
Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.
Focus on the process and the outcome will take care of itself.

You can get some conflicting advice with regards to how high you should set your goals. Going into my first World Championship I set a target for myself of finishing in the top 30, based on how well I finished at some regional competitions.

I ended up finishing 23rd at that Worlds and was pleased with that result as it also meant I would get a little Government funding which would help me to campaign for the next Worlds.

Later, I told that goal to our head coach at the time and he replied, somewhat gruffly, “that I needed to set my goals higher”. It was true, I did, so I set my standards higher.

After a few more years of solid training I was winning big events against the best of them, but still, I found reasons to critise my performance. And therein lies my point - to get really good at sport you have to sacrifice, expect a lot, push yourself hard and never be satisfied:
I read once that the great tennis player Ivan Lendl once celebrated a Major win with a 70km bike ride the next day.

However, after a while the ‘fun’ of this commitment and self-deprivation can wear out. And then, should you have a bad result, the fun of the sport really wears out.

So, seeing that you can’t be sure that success will keep coming your way, I took the advice to celebrate my victories - taking time to reflect on the work done to date, what that meant personally and being proud of accomplishment.

So I suggest to set your goals with imagination and passion, and while you’re doing that, have a few “stretch” goals that excite you so much that the thought of achieving them gives you butterflies. When you achieve them reward yourself!

A few weeks ago an athlete friend asked me to put together a gym program for her. She’s an Olympic rower and I don’t know a lot about strength training for rowing but I can fake it a bit. So I put a program together that I thought would target the essential things. And she loves it.

My intention isn’t to talk myself up, but to point out how good things are sometimes when they are laid out for you.

I know very well how to write a good gym program for myself and most experienced athletes could also easily develop a well-credentialed program for their sport. However, as I’ve felt myself, she was keener to follow a program that was written for her.

Using someone else’s system often intuitively feels better than using a self-created program. It’s the same sort of reason behind all the diet fads - a quick search of ‘diet systems’ reveals heaps of paid-for Google ads for Jenny Craig to Weight Watchers to NutriSystem. Sure, some people need a lot of help with this sort of thing. But a good program laid out for us means we don’t have to think about it. And if the source of the program is well-credentialed we are reassured by the positive direction that can provide.

If you’d like a fully rounded Sports Psychology program let me suggest The Way of the Champion series by Jerry Lynch.

Being happy and healthy is a good way to start any training session or competition. But most athletes know that circumstances are such that it’s not always easy to be this way.

What I find interesting are the things that work in the background, specifically, the back of your mind, that influence your overall mood and readiness for doing your sport well.

I was working with a Sports Psychologist some years back and of course the sub-text of our talks was to improve my performance. However, funnily enough, not once did we actually talk about any specifics of me playing my sport. Instead it was everything else to do with being me - what experiences I had growing up, what my parents were like, what relationships I had now and what my core beliefs and values are now.

With her help, I explored what had gone into making the person I was. She helped me resolve a few things and what that did for my training and competing was to open my mind up to my true motivations for excelling at sport. Our discussions served to take away some things that I had classed as semi-permanent distractions and gave more clarity.

The upshot was that when I’d turn up for a training session or competition I was ready because the back of my mind was on the same ground as the front.