Emotions: Mind and/or Body
Have no fear, we are not going to talk about neuroscience today regarding emotions. Instead, we are going to investigate something about emotions. Do emotions begin in the mind or the body? Before you keep reading, take a guess about the answer. Most importantly, keep track of your train of thought about how you arrived at this answer.
Inviting Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is totally different from being self-centered or self-indulgent. These terms are often conflated and a detriment to self-compassion, and to us and our mental health. While the blog on this website has brought self-compassion before, this post really makes self-compassion the focus for inclusion in everyday life.
Mindfulness and the Mind-Body Connection
The body gets lost in the mix. So, what do you think happens? The body loses trust in you that it will be heard or listened to in times of challenge and in times of peace. So the lesson becomes about building that trust back.
Porges Polyvagal Theory: The Six States of the Autonomic Nervous System
Polyvagal Theory was introduced by Stephen Porges, PhD focuses on the role of the autonomic nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve, as it relates to the physiological/psychological states related to our daily behavior. There are three defining principles (Polyvagal Institute, n.d.):
Hierarchy of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) per Polyvagal Theory (PVT)
Neuroception
Co-regulation
Psychological Factors and Sport Injuries: What a Sport and Performance Professional Can Do? Part 2
In Part 1 of this post, there was a big information dump. This post picks up with an example. Hopefully, there has been enough time between the two posts to allow for different thought processes to occur to help with integrating the material. Let’s remind ourselves where we are headed. The example that we will discuss today is of a female-identifying athlete with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury to help demonstrate the nuance required of a sport and performance professional (SPP) to help an injured athlete.
Eating Disorders in Male Athletes
There has been a lot of focus on female-identifying athletes and eating disorders. While necessary and important, it is essential to not forget about male athletes. They are also susceptible to eating disorders.
Sexual Orientation Stigma in Sports
There are often topics in sport and sport psychology that are challenging to discuss given that, in many ways, sport is a microcosm of the larger culture. That said, many athletes remain silent about important issues and aspects of their lives, such as sexual orientation. So what can be done by sport and performance professionals (SPPs) to support athletes who continue to hide this aspect of their lives in order to continue to play?
Psychological Factors and Sport Injuries: What Can a Sport and Performance Professional Do? Part 1
When looking at the topic of injuries and injury prevention and rehabilitation, much must be attended to to provide the best care to an athlete. Sport injury risk is multifactorial, and any prevention program must account for this nature (Gledhill et al., 2018).
Designing a Rehabilitation Program: Things to Think About
There are many different factors associated with injury and the rehabilitation process. It is not a linear and straight forward journey. Many of us could agree that we wish it was! Referral, adherence, and modeling are essential concepts to consider in the process when building a rehabilitation training program. However, there are other considerations that need to be included to support adherence, for example.
Introducing Self-Compassion Within a Team
It is no secret that I believe in the power of self-compassion with it comes to sport and performance psychology. Many times the question that is asked is if self-compassion hampers the competitive edge. The answer is no. Self-compassion does not mean that you can't push yourself and acknowledge your mistakes. Rather, it means that you do not tear yourself down when you are pushing yourself. It is counterproductive to tear yourself down when you need to build self-efficacy and self-confidence.
Injury Prevention Using Stress Management, Goal Setting, and Self-Confidence
Stress management, goal setting, and self-confidence all have a role in helping to reduce injuries. Though it needs to be kept in mind that sport injury risk is multifactorial, and that any injury prevention program needs to account for this nature (Gledhill et al., 2018).
Imagery for Rehabilitation From a Severe Injury
Using imagery during rehabilitation for an athlete with a severe injury can be helpful if executed well, adequately utilized by the athlete, and as many variables that can be accounted for are taken into account.
Expertise and Deliberate Practice
Deliberate practice (DP) is a fairly popular topic when it comes to discussing expertise in sports and other professions. So what is DP?
Ericsson (2008) originally constructed the definition of DP to have the following components:
Individual active engagement
Training crafted by a coach, teacher, or similar
Dedicated to the improvement of a particular action
Integration of immediate feedback
Space for problem-solving and evaluation
Repetition of the action to cultivate the action
Definition of Expertise with Age
Expertise in sports is a complex process and, when talked about, can elicit many different thoughts, comments, and feelings. So what happens when we bring age into the picture? What happens to the definition of expertise? What happens when we consider physiological constraints, psychological processes, and the experience of aging?
Self-Modeling in Sports
What is self-modeling? I am sure that you could guess the answer to this question if you do not already know the answer. Self-modeling is a technique that encourages athlete development of new and current skills to improve performance by observing themselves in action. This type of technique is grounded in social cognitive theory, which aims to explain how people learn and develop different behaviors via interactions with other people and their environment, emphasizing interactions between personal factors, environmental influences, and behavior.
Who Likes to Practice? Does a Coach Influence Liking Practice?
Why do so many athletes hate to practice?
What a question to ask. Talk about a loaded question to ask. There could be many answers to this question, and it can bring up many different thoughts and feelings. This post aims to offer some thoughts, but at the end of the day it is up to each individual athlete to answer this question for themselves. With that said, let’s dive in and see what we can explore.
Expertise, Mental Practice and Nature or Nurture
Hebb (1949) wrote that expertise “is a product of 100% nature and 100% nurture.” Interesting statement to make and fun to think about. What about the nature versus nurture argument can we use to learn about sport expertise?
Athlete Identity
What is identity? That itself is a big question and one that requires a ton of unpacking. While we will not be diving into a question that big, we will be exploring the athlete identity. Athlete identity, or athletic identity, is the degree to which an individual identifies with their role as an athlete and how they are recognized by others and themselves within their role as an athlete. This self-concept arises from the information an individual internalizes and its influence on how they process the information about themselves.
Ironman Triathlon Mental Toughness: Any Type of Athlete Can Learn About Mental Toughness from This Post
If MT is a must, then we need to understand what MT is and how someone can begin to build MT. The definition of MT that this post will utilize is the following:
“MT can be defined as a state-like psychological resource that is purposeful, flexible, and efficient in nature for the enactment and maintenance of goal-directed pursuits.”
(Gucciardi, 2017, p. 18)
Reinvestment Theory
Reinvestment Theory (Masters, 1992; Masters et al., 1993; Masters, 2000) suggests that relatively automated motor processes may be disruptable if this processing is running by means of conscious access and task-relevant declarative knowledge is what is controlling the mechanics of the movements on-line. Understanding Reinvestment Theory may help athletes avoid reinvestment issues within the context of still tailoring based on the individual characteristics as well as other characteristics, such as developmental stage, learning style, or awareness of internal and external awareness.