Cole Burchfield

Arousal Lab
Part 1:
As a performer-
For me to reflect on my best and worst performances was very emotional for me because my
activity was football which is a sport I no longer play. Reflecting on my best performances
brought a smile to my face and made my blood start rushing as I felt almost like I could strap the
pads back on and get back out there one last time on the field. When thinking about my worst
performances I realized I do not miss the game as much as I thought. The person portraying the
practitioner helped me elucidate my feels in making me feel comfortable and like he had been in
similar situations. He also gave me helpful suggestions of feelings to use. Now, looking back on
my zone, I truly believe my zone reflects my optimal performance state well. When looking at
how my zone flows and the seven feelings of fearful, distracted, nervousness, tension,
confidence prepared, loose, and overly confident I need to stay close to or away from, I believe
this is me and how I and best perform as an athlete. When reading the textbook, I see a
connection between this arousal lab and this activity and my textbook in chapter five. Chapter
five talks about cognitive anxiety on page seventy-eight of the fifth edition of our textbook. I can
relate my personal feelings from my worst performances to this topic of cognitive state anxiety.
When looking back at my worst performances I can tell cognitive state anxiety played a major
role in why I was performing poorly.
As a practitioner-
When I was playing the role of the practitioner, I attempted to help the performer decide on his
descriptions of his best and worst performances. I did this by making sure he was comfortable
with me in that he knew I had experienced similar descriptions or feelings. This is very important
to make sure the relationship is best between the practitioner and the performer so the performer
feels like he can always answer freely and without judgment. I also made sure to give him
options to use for his descriptions as I felt like he was struggling to find the perfect fit. Looking
back at my performance as a practitioner, there are more ways in the future I can help a
performer recognize and describe their target zone. The main way I personally help a performer
recognize and describe their target zones is by being an overall better active listener. When a
performer is describing to me their personal best and worst performances, I will be actively
listening, hopefully letting the performer know I am listening to them and understand them. In
class we learned ways arousal and anxiety can inhibit optimal performance. Arousal can inhibit
optimal performance if a performer is overly aroused or under aroused. Anxiety can inhibit
optimal performance by somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, or even trait anxiety. If coaches or
other practitioners asked my advice as to how to help athletes find and get into their zone more
readily, I would tell them to make sure they making sure to develop their performer’s
confidence. Page ninety-seven of the fifth edition of the textbook states boosting your performer
confidence is one of the most effective methods of controlling their stress and anxiety.
Part 2:
1. When talking to the performer in my second attempt at being a practitioner, I made sure to
actively listen and make sure this student performer knew I was listening and comprehending
everything she was saying in order to better extract information from her. I did this by making
eye contact while listening to what she was saying to me. I also asked a couple of questions in
order to better understand her best and worst performances to help lead her to the descriptions
 Cole Burchfield
Arousal Lab
she wanted to use. Asking questions also made the student performer realize I cared about what
she was saying and allowing her to feel like she can share anything with me and that I will not
judge her. Especially since we were talking about best and worst academic performances it is
important to have a trusting and open relationship between practitioner and performer and active
listening can help build that.
2. The main thing I learned about my girlfriend’s academic performance profile is that it is
actually very similar to the performance profile I completed in class about my performance in
football. I thought this was very interesting because her performance profile was from her
success and failures in her academics in college while mine was based on my successes and
failures in football in high school. From this, I learned that people’s performance profiles can be
similar or even the same even if the performances are very different. When comparing my
performance profile to my girlfriends, they were not only similar shape, but she also used three
of the same feelings as I did. This could be due to the fact I was helping her come up with ideas
for her different feelings by giving here some I used in my performance profile to help her when
she was struggling to think of some.
3. For a coach that has athletes that have different optimal performance profiles, I would mainly
recommend for the coach to work individually with each athlete based on their individual
optimal performance profiles. By working individually with each athlete, the coach has the
ability to help each individual athlete stay close to their specific feelings for optimal performance
in each athlete’s own performance profile. If a coach does not make sure to work with each
athlete individually with their optimal performance profiles, it will make it hard for his or her
athletes to succeed. Some athletes may need to feel one feeing more than another, and if the
coach is presenting a feeling to all of his or her athletes that only some need to feel, then it may
harm the performance of these other athletes. The athletes will also know the coaches are
working with them individually creating a better connection between coach and player or athlete.