Strength and Conditioning

Preparation Course
Matt Casturo, CSCS
Topic: Psychology
Overview:

● Ideal performance state

● Anxiety
● Stress
● Drive Theory
● Reversal Theory
● Motivation
● Positive and Negative Reinforcement
● Positive and Negative Punishment
● Attention and Focus
 Stages of Motor Learning

Stages of Motor ● Motor Learning

○ Cognitive

Learning
■ Learning
■ Inconsistent
○ Associative
■ Practice
■ Conscious Effort
■ Motor
○ Autonomous
■ Performance
■ Flow
■ Automatic
Ideal Performance
Ideal performance state

State
● Focused attention
● Effortlessness
● Control
● Ex: Kobe Bryant
○ “When you get in that zone it’s just supreme
confidence that you know it’s going in…. When
that happens, you really do not try to focus on
what’s going on because you could lose it in a
second. Everything becomes one noise.”
Anxiety Anxiety

● Somatic Anxiety: physical symptoms such as

tense muscles, tachycardia, and upset stomach.
● State Anxiety: Subjective experience of
apprehension or uncertainty
○ Elevated neural outflow
○ Increased endocrine activity
● Trait Anxiety: Personal variable
○ High trait anxiety= thoughts of failure
Stress Stress

● Imbalance between:
○ Demand
○ Response capability
● Negative stress: Distress
● Positive stress: Eustress
● Stress can generate arousal or anxiety
Drive Theory Drive Theory

● Performance INCREASES with increased

arousal
○ Becomes unproductive or destructive with
complex skills or inadequate preparation
○ Ex: Pitching when bases are loaded low arousal is
needed to maintain focus.
Inverted-U Theory Inverted-U Theory

● There is an optimal point of arousal

○ Task dependent
● Individual zone of optimal function
Reversal Theory Reversal Theory

● The individual’s interpretation of Arousal and

anxiety affect performance.
○ High arousal could be exciting or worrisome
depending on the athlete
 Intrinsic:

Motivation ● Self-determination
● Achievement

Extrinsic:

● Trophy
● Social approval
 Motivation to achieve success:

Motivation ● Typically take on more difficult challenges

● Not worried about losing

Motivation to avoid failure:

● Prefer situations where success is more likely

(easier to avoid failure)
● Fear of shame involved in losing
● May perceive threat in ambitious goals
 ● Adding something to
Positive ● Increase a Behavior

Reinforcement
● Ex: A coach notices an athlete struggle
through a pull-up and gives the athlete social
praise to the whole team in order to increase
that athlete’s effort in future pull-up sets.
○ The coach added praise to increase pull-up
performance.
Negative
● Taking something away to
● Increase a Behavior

Reinforcement
● Ex: A coach notices an athletes cutting sets
of pull-ups short. She decides to take away
music until everyone finishes their sets of
pull-ups.
○ The coach took away music to increase the
behavior of doing pull-ups
Positive
● Adding something to
● Decrease behavior

Punishment
● Ex: A coach notices athletes are skipping
mobility drills. The coach decides to add 50
burpees to decrease the behaviour of
skipping mobility drills.
○ The coach added burpees to decrease the
behavior of skipping mobility drills.
Negative
● Taking something away to
● Decrease behavior

Punishment
● Ex: A coach notices his athletes are texting
during a workout. He decides to take away
the athlete’s favorite game crossbar from the
training session to decrease texting during
the workout.
○ The coach took away the crossbar game to
decrease the behavior of texting during the
workout.
Sympathetic vs.
Sympathetic:

Parasympathetic
● Fight or Flight
● Sprints

Activation ● High Intensity

Parasympathetic:

● Slow (like parachute)

● Diaphragmatic Breathing
● Going for a walk
Progressive Muscle Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

Relaxation ● May be performed pre-competition

● Self-regulated
● Controlled skeletal muscle tensing and
relaxing
○ 10-15 seconds max tension
○ Conscious complete relaxation
● Alternative:
○ Autogenic training
■ Exercises to produce warm/heavy
feeling
Imagery Imagery:

● Recreating an experience in the mind

● Mental rehearsal
● Shown to enhance sport skill
○ Improved familiarity and preparedness
Self-Efficacy Self-Efficacy:

● Belief that one can successfully perform a

desired behavior
● Better predictor of task execution than
arousal or anxiety
● Bandura’s theory state self-efficacy is derived
from:
○ Performance accomplishments
○ Vicarious experiences
○ Verbal persuasion
○ Imaginal experience
○ Physiological state
○ Emotional state
Process vs. Process Goals:

Outcome Goals ● Athlete has control

● Ex: Form, technique, training frequency

Outcome Goals:

● Not within direct control of the athlete

● May occupy attention and take away from
performance
● Ex: Focus on winning
Whole vs. Part Whole Practice:

Practice ● Teaching the skill as a whole movement

Part Practice:

● Better for complex tasks with low

interrelatedness
● Ex: Snatch
○ First pull, transition, second pull, catch
○ Segmentation
● Fractionalization:
○ Breaks the movement down into
subcomponents that occur simultaneously
○ Ex: Push-press
Types of Practice: Random Practice:

Non-blocked ● Multiple skills performed in random order

Variable Practice:

● Variations of the same skill within a session

● Prepares athletes for unfamiliar context of
sports

Observational Practice:

● Observation of a task or skill

● Enhances learning when combined with
physical practice
Types of Feedback
Intrinsic Feedback:

● Feedback received by the athlete’s senses

● Allow this before providing external feedback

Augmented Feedback:

● Provided by coach or technology

Knowledge of results:

● Giving the athlete information about

performance on a test or drill

Knowledge of performance:

● Information about the athlete’s movement

pattern
○ Ex: Body position, mechanics
 Conscious Coaching:

Book ● Written by a strength coach

Recommendation ● Actionable recommendations

for applying sports psychology