LECTURE 1: General Introduction and Motivation
Outline → general introduction, mental side of sport, motivation SDT
Sample exam question:
1. Which statement is true? Very high levels of arousal are known to impair both athletes’
technical performance & concentration skills.
2. Dutch long-track ice skater Jorrit Bergsma about his goal for the Winter Olympics 10k
race: “I didn’t have a specific time in mind for my race; I just focused on a smooth
technique during the first part of the race. And after 5k, my plan was to accelerate”
He actually said: “I do not have a self-based goal; I focused on my task-based goal.”
This lecture focuses on the psychological side. There are 4 aspects of athletic performance
(physical, technical, psychological, and tactical).
The umbrella of Sport Psychology is a video by Ryan Holiday Stoicism Motivation “You
control how you play”
Mental training is typically directed at avoiding performing losses: to teach, develop, and
maintain mental skills that help athletes to focus exclusively on “how you play” (ex: task at
hand) while ignoring distractions, including internal (self-generated concerns arising from
one’s own thoughts and feelings) and external (weather conditions, etc.)
How you play = how you CAN play - performance losses
, ● Performance losses can be from mental factors.
● Training is to increase performance level or how you can play.
● Mental side of sports is between performance gains and performance losses (the believe
that you can do and win)
● APA → Acknowledge, Practice (training and how can i maintain my performance level),
Act (visualization through different options and strategies, technical skills).
How important is the mental side of sport?
“If mental processes are crucial for athletic success, psychologists should be able to help sports
competitors to enhance their athletic performance” (Moran&Toner)
How? By increasing their performance gains & by forestalling/preventing their performance
losses.
According to APA Division 47, Applied sport psychology is about sport enhancement (similar
like physical trainer, on how the athlete can improve) & help them reach their potential (rather
than addressing mental health issues) & provide therapeutic services by working with clinical
psychologists (if the client have serious mental issues).
Ex: by developing mental toughness, regarded by athletes and as a key characteristic of
successful athletes.
What is ‘Mental Toughness’? How do you define, operationalize, and measure it?
Mental toughness by Roger Federer:
● How athlete figure their emotion on the court, find the right balance on court
● Fire (wanting to win, excitement after winning) & ice (accepting losses) situation
● See the positive in some tough moments
● Always give all you have & believe in how you plan and play
● You cannot always win, but you can always try your very best
According to Vealey (2009), the key to mental toughness is a level of self-belief “that is robust
and resilient in the face of obstacles and setbacks.”
According to the literature, mental toughness is “Hardiness is a constellation of personality
characteristics that enables people to mitigate the adverse effects of stressful situations”
(Kobasa, 1979).
Kobasa developed 3C (control, challenge, commitment), Peter Clough et al. (2002) added
confidence.
,Combining these 4, Clough et al. (2002) defined mentally tough athletes as people who have “a
high sense of self-belief and an unshakeable faith that they can control their own destiny” and
who can “remain relatively unaffected by competition or adversity”
However, little agreement exists about the construct itself actually means OR the theoretical
mechanisms underlie it. Other than the capacity to balance fire and ice, there are other examples
to illustrate mental toughness:
When thinking about mental toughness, start with the question: how do they define it?
Making sense of this profusion of definitions of mental toughness and theories about how to
develop it, requires you to develop and showcase a critical understanding of relevant material
(Moran & Toner, 2017)
Research by Connaughton (2008) interviewed athletes about the development and maintenance
of mental toughness. Result: they believed that mental toughness develops as a long term
outcome of a complex range of interacting factors (ex: motivational climate).
12 characteristics of mental toughness (Jonas et al., 2002)
1) Having unshakable belief in one’s ability
2) And in one’s unique quality
3) Having an insatiable desire to succeed
4) Having the ability to bounce back from setbacks
5) Able to thrive on the pressure
6) Able to cope with anxiety
7) Able to ignore others’ performance
8) Able to switch focus
9) Ability to remain focused on the task at hand
, 10) Ability to push oneself through physical & emotional pain
11) Ability to regain control after unexpected events.
“Sports are 90% mental” agree or disagree?
DISAGREE ANSWERS
● If people lack the competence, do not have the fitness, strength, technical, and tactical
skills required, the mental piece is completely irrelevant.
● People tend to overestimate the impact of mental factors. Amateur athletes tend to
explain their inconsistency or lack of progress to mental factors. (“its between my ears”)
● However, low-competent individuals typically perform inconsistently, also in low
pressure situations. Thus, competence rather than mental factors determine (fluctuations
in) performance.
● High level = consistent performance.
AGREE ANSWERS
● When competing against an opponent of similar ability, mental factors make the
difference → at some level an athlete is picked based on mental level. (ex: penalty on
football)
● Why? Mental factors are more sensitive to pressure situations than physical, technical,
and tactical factors. It determines athlete’s performance losses and it facilitates the
development of physical, technical, and tactical expertise (ex: performance gains).
How important is the mental side of sport?
● It's not possible to determine the weight of each separate component. Why? Weight is a
function of (among others) person, time, context, moment. Moreover, the different
components (body and mind) are actually inseparable.
● In any case, mental factors, as part of a holistic system, are critical predictors of
performance gains & performance losses. And the ‘90% mental’ statement stimulates
discussions about the mental side of sport!
Video Talent vs Training
● Untrained individuals try identical exercises. Different individuals saw different
improvements.
● Individuals related by blood saw similar improvements (genetics played a role in their
athletic potential) → high responder OR low responder→ 50% of athletic improvement
was linked to genetics.
● Individuals can have high OR low baseline endurance levels without any training. Turns
out, a different set of genes gives some people a higher baseline.
● Athletes train so hard regardless of great genetics. Talent is trainable.
● Great athletes might be born with great genes but there are also supporting factors
(training, baseline, social support, athlete support programs, birthdate, birthplace).
Outline → general introduction, mental side of sport, motivation SDT
Sample exam question:
1. Which statement is true? Very high levels of arousal are known to impair both athletes’
technical performance & concentration skills.
2. Dutch long-track ice skater Jorrit Bergsma about his goal for the Winter Olympics 10k
race: “I didn’t have a specific time in mind for my race; I just focused on a smooth
technique during the first part of the race. And after 5k, my plan was to accelerate”
He actually said: “I do not have a self-based goal; I focused on my task-based goal.”
This lecture focuses on the psychological side. There are 4 aspects of athletic performance
(physical, technical, psychological, and tactical).
The umbrella of Sport Psychology is a video by Ryan Holiday Stoicism Motivation “You
control how you play”
Mental training is typically directed at avoiding performing losses: to teach, develop, and
maintain mental skills that help athletes to focus exclusively on “how you play” (ex: task at
hand) while ignoring distractions, including internal (self-generated concerns arising from
one’s own thoughts and feelings) and external (weather conditions, etc.)
How you play = how you CAN play - performance losses
, ● Performance losses can be from mental factors.
● Training is to increase performance level or how you can play.
● Mental side of sports is between performance gains and performance losses (the believe
that you can do and win)
● APA → Acknowledge, Practice (training and how can i maintain my performance level),
Act (visualization through different options and strategies, technical skills).
How important is the mental side of sport?
“If mental processes are crucial for athletic success, psychologists should be able to help sports
competitors to enhance their athletic performance” (Moran&Toner)
How? By increasing their performance gains & by forestalling/preventing their performance
losses.
According to APA Division 47, Applied sport psychology is about sport enhancement (similar
like physical trainer, on how the athlete can improve) & help them reach their potential (rather
than addressing mental health issues) & provide therapeutic services by working with clinical
psychologists (if the client have serious mental issues).
Ex: by developing mental toughness, regarded by athletes and as a key characteristic of
successful athletes.
What is ‘Mental Toughness’? How do you define, operationalize, and measure it?
Mental toughness by Roger Federer:
● How athlete figure their emotion on the court, find the right balance on court
● Fire (wanting to win, excitement after winning) & ice (accepting losses) situation
● See the positive in some tough moments
● Always give all you have & believe in how you plan and play
● You cannot always win, but you can always try your very best
According to Vealey (2009), the key to mental toughness is a level of self-belief “that is robust
and resilient in the face of obstacles and setbacks.”
According to the literature, mental toughness is “Hardiness is a constellation of personality
characteristics that enables people to mitigate the adverse effects of stressful situations”
(Kobasa, 1979).
Kobasa developed 3C (control, challenge, commitment), Peter Clough et al. (2002) added
confidence.
,Combining these 4, Clough et al. (2002) defined mentally tough athletes as people who have “a
high sense of self-belief and an unshakeable faith that they can control their own destiny” and
who can “remain relatively unaffected by competition or adversity”
However, little agreement exists about the construct itself actually means OR the theoretical
mechanisms underlie it. Other than the capacity to balance fire and ice, there are other examples
to illustrate mental toughness:
When thinking about mental toughness, start with the question: how do they define it?
Making sense of this profusion of definitions of mental toughness and theories about how to
develop it, requires you to develop and showcase a critical understanding of relevant material
(Moran & Toner, 2017)
Research by Connaughton (2008) interviewed athletes about the development and maintenance
of mental toughness. Result: they believed that mental toughness develops as a long term
outcome of a complex range of interacting factors (ex: motivational climate).
12 characteristics of mental toughness (Jonas et al., 2002)
1) Having unshakable belief in one’s ability
2) And in one’s unique quality
3) Having an insatiable desire to succeed
4) Having the ability to bounce back from setbacks
5) Able to thrive on the pressure
6) Able to cope with anxiety
7) Able to ignore others’ performance
8) Able to switch focus
9) Ability to remain focused on the task at hand
, 10) Ability to push oneself through physical & emotional pain
11) Ability to regain control after unexpected events.
“Sports are 90% mental” agree or disagree?
DISAGREE ANSWERS
● If people lack the competence, do not have the fitness, strength, technical, and tactical
skills required, the mental piece is completely irrelevant.
● People tend to overestimate the impact of mental factors. Amateur athletes tend to
explain their inconsistency or lack of progress to mental factors. (“its between my ears”)
● However, low-competent individuals typically perform inconsistently, also in low
pressure situations. Thus, competence rather than mental factors determine (fluctuations
in) performance.
● High level = consistent performance.
AGREE ANSWERS
● When competing against an opponent of similar ability, mental factors make the
difference → at some level an athlete is picked based on mental level. (ex: penalty on
football)
● Why? Mental factors are more sensitive to pressure situations than physical, technical,
and tactical factors. It determines athlete’s performance losses and it facilitates the
development of physical, technical, and tactical expertise (ex: performance gains).
How important is the mental side of sport?
● It's not possible to determine the weight of each separate component. Why? Weight is a
function of (among others) person, time, context, moment. Moreover, the different
components (body and mind) are actually inseparable.
● In any case, mental factors, as part of a holistic system, are critical predictors of
performance gains & performance losses. And the ‘90% mental’ statement stimulates
discussions about the mental side of sport!
Video Talent vs Training
● Untrained individuals try identical exercises. Different individuals saw different
improvements.
● Individuals related by blood saw similar improvements (genetics played a role in their
athletic potential) → high responder OR low responder→ 50% of athletic improvement
was linked to genetics.
● Individuals can have high OR low baseline endurance levels without any training. Turns
out, a different set of genes gives some people a higher baseline.
● Athletes train so hard regardless of great genetics. Talent is trainable.
● Great athletes might be born with great genes but there are also supporting factors
(training, baseline, social support, athlete support programs, birthdate, birthplace).
