Step 1: make sue the problem is not technical in nature.

Step 2: Identify the type of problem.

Step 3: confront past trauma.
Step 4: Use cognitive restructuring
Step 5: Use Self-talk
Step 6: Use mental Imagery and relaxation with gradual stimulus presentation.

THORNDIKE’S CONNECTIONISM THOERY

EDWARD LEE THORNDIKE- was an American psychologist.

BORN- 31 August 1874 & died 9 August 1949
KNOWN FOR- father of educational psychology; Law of Effect; Behavior Modification
His work on comparative psychology and the learning led to the THEORY OF CENNECTIONSIM and
helped lay the specific foundation for educational psychology.

Connectionism theory is based on the principle of active learning and is the result of the work of
the American psychologist Edward Thorndike. This work led to Thorndike's Laws. According to
these Laws, learning is achieved when an individual is able to form associations between a
particular stimulus and a response.

Thorndike’s theory consists of three primary laws:

 law of effect – responses to a situation which are followed by a rewarding state of

affairs will be strengthened and become habitual responses to that situation,

law of readiness – a series of responses can be chained together to satisfy some

goal which will result in annoyance if blocked,

law of exercise – connections become strengthened with practice and weakened

when practice is discontinued. A corollary of the law of effect was that responses that
reduce the likelihood of achieving a rewarding state (i.e., punishments, failures) will
decrease in strength.
Example

The classic example of Thorndike’s S-R theory was a cat learning to escape from a
“puzzle box” by pressing a lever inside the box. After much trial and error behavior,
the cat learns to associate pressing the lever (S) with opening the door (R). This S-R
connection is established because it results in a satisfying state of affairs (escape
from the box). The law of exercise specifies that the connection was established
because the S-R pairing occurred many times (the law of effect) and was rewarded
(law of effect) as well as forming a single sequence (law of readiness).

Application

Connectionism was meant to be a general theory of learning for animals and

humans. Thorndike was especially interested in the application of his theory to
education including mathematics (Thorndike, 1922), spelling and reading (Thorndike,
1921), measurement of intelligence (Thorndike et al., 1927) and adult learning
(Thorndike at al., 1928).
APPLYING CONNECTIONISM THEORY IN COACHING ATHLETES

REWARD CORRECT TRIALS

Thorndike’s believed that learning occurs by rewarding correct trials ( behavioral

response), which leads to a satisfying state of affairs.

For example, the coach who ask athletes to perform skills they are not ready to
execute is unlikely to see the correct response, Consequently, these athletes rarely,
if ever, receive any intrinsic or extrinsic reward, they feel dissatisfaction with their
sport and are likely to look for another sport or other endeavor

ESTABLISH ATHLETE READINESS

Learning readiness, then, is important for determining the learning tasks and for
achieving success, reward, and a satisfying state.

It is important that athletes experience success during the learning process. Too
much failure can result in displeasure, dislike, avoidance behavior and feeling
helplessness.

Coaching is both an art and a science. The artful ans scientific coach takes into
consider maturation; skill proficiency and skill progression; motivation; psychological
stability; and individual differences.

ESTABLISH ATHLETE LEARNING ATTITUDES

According to Thorndike’s law of set or attitude, people often respond to novel

situations In term of predetermined sets, or attitudes, that they possess.

Coach and athletes need to be aware of positive and negative attitudes, then work
toward accentuating positive attitudes and avoiding negatives ones.

For Example, coaches can encourages athletes to develop attitudes such as placing
a high value on effort and performance rather than place of finish, making creative
changes in practice rather than performing the status quo, supporting teammates
instead of undermining them, achieving personal bests rather than social
comparison, and taking responsibility for their development rather than relying solely
on their coach.
ATTRACT ATHLETE ATTENTION

According to Thorndike’s subsidiary law of prepotency of element, people tend to

react to the most significant or prepotent, element of a situation rather than the entire
situation.

For Example, when teaching a new skill, stress one or two main point rather than
inundate your athlete with too many or the finer details.

TEACH GENERALIZATION

Generalization occurs when a previously learned response is transferred to a

different but somewhat similar situation. In other words, when a new stimulus is
presented, the individual reacts to its as though it were the familiar old stimulus
already encountered.

CONCLUSION

Whats is more important, particularly in the early stage of skill acquisition for young
athlete: to teach the motor skill or to teach a love for the sport?

THE SALIVATING ATHLETES

Like Pavlov's salivating