Sports Psychology With

ALISON ARNOLD PH.D. www.headgames.ws

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do. " ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Simple Fear vs. Complex Fear

Past Fall

Past Injury

Observed Fall

First Time

Understandable

Floating

Mastered skill

Recurring

Positional (i.e.

backwards)

Not logical

This is for your

Hardcore,

Pull your

Hair out,

I’m gonna

Kill ‘em,

Lil’Angels.

The pathways along which information travels through the neurons (nerve cells) of the brain can be compared with the paths through a forest. As people keep taking the same route through a forest, they wear out a path

in it. And the more people who take this path, the more deeply it is worn and the easier it becomes to

follow. The same goes for our memories: the more we review them in our mind, the more deeply they are

etched in our neural pathways.

CREATING THE VISION and DESIRE

How do you feel? What do you think? How do you Act? Heart Statement

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. " ~ Ambrose Redmoon

EMOTIONAL PUSH UPS: CREATING THE IDEAL MENTAL STATE

Teaching your athletes to breathe and create the state they need. 3 words, which are symbols for feelings. 10 times a day. In the gym. Out of the

gym. Random times.

DESIRE STORY How will your gym be

different when you do this? Why do you want it? HEART Statement

MC-it. Create mental choreography to keep the mind busy and tight.

• Rhythmic-1 Syllable • Corrections • Counting • Singing

Mental choreography should be done with confidence, consistency, and command.

The body always follows the mind. Speak to yourself with confidence, consistency,

and command.

Confidence Ladder

Build a program that leads to responsibility, empowerment,

and natural consequences.

Write out every step.

Do MC (Mental Choreography) every time

1-2 stops, back up a rung. Too much waiting counts as a balk.

Complete all numbers on the rung or double

Remove attention when moving down, be on fire when moving up. If you can’t spot, back it down again.

• Intensity not anger • Keep them moving • Natural consequences • Withdraw attention when backing down/increase when coming up

Arm sets, walk-throughs, the first progression.

Setting them up for success,

repetition, and perhaps boredom.

Identifying and disconnecting from “The Beast”

1. Writing negative thoughts/drawing beast 2. Speaking negative thoughts when they occur 3. Disconnection Drills: Visualizing, walk-throughs, or actual skills with

beast voice internal and external

Comebacks to the ‘voice’

Intensity, humor, boredom. “Tight mind Dogfight”

Flip It Drills

Changing the mind from negative to positive using SBT GO!

(STOP, BREATHE, Tight Mind Thoughts including heart statement, GO!)

Pattern disruptors/state changers

Brainwashers 3x fast, humor, singular

correction, singing, externalize beast, out loud.

Parents 1. Over-involved 2. Pressure 3. Achievement Focused 4. Instability

Fear of Failure

1. Perfectionist 2. Pleaser 3. Poor communicator

Find the underlying message

1. Not the right level 2. Not the right sport 3. Not the right situation

Too fast, too soon, too young

1. Progressions 2. Drills 3. Shapes

Desire 1. Does the child still want to do

gymnastics? 2. Does he or she want to do that

level? 3. Who wants it more.

• It’s not the Olympics, she’s just level 8. • Is the problem in your gym? Look at your culture. • Remember why you coach • Get off of task and on to purpose

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds

confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about

it. Go out and get busy." ~ Dale Carnegie

I am the decisive element.

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the

decisive element. It is my personal approach that

creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the

weather. I possess tremendous power to make life

miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an

instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt

or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides

whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated and a

person is humanized or dehumanized. If we treat

people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat

people as they ought to be, we help them to become

what they are capable of becoming."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832

FEAR-TAME THE BEAST

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PARENTS, COACHES,AND

ATHLETES.

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