The Mental Skill of Self-Awareness to Benefit Us and Athlete Memory Part 2: Action and Practices
A piece of paper with the word mindfulness written on it, in front of a window.
In the first part of this series, the foundation was laid, discussing what self-awareness is and some other factors to consider. Now it is time to see self-awareness in action. This post does get a little long. Just a heads up!
Self-Awareness in Action
While understanding the basics and foundations of self-awareness is vital, the translation of understanding into application demonstrates the actual usefulness of self-awareness as it relates to memory. Beilock et al. (2003) contend that if experts bring awareness to their performance processes and combine it with their superior knowledge and understanding of their sport, the consequences should be better skill problem identification, solution solving, altered performance process, and memory encoding for later use. If what Beilock et al. (2003) stated is authentic, athletes must begin by understanding the basics of memory, self-awareness, their connection, and the importance of bringing awareness to performance for better results. This may include psychoeducation about self-awareness, drawing on some information discussed in the previous post, in addition to engaging an experiential using mindfulness to embody and understand how self-awareness works. Give one the example experientials a try:
Experiential 1:
Engage in an activity mindfully and then do another activity while distracted. Then try to recall the details of each activity and see what you notice. Were you able to recall the details equally well in each situation?
Experiential 2:
Another experiential to consider is using the power of retrieval cues specific to a chosen sport and a specific skill. The power of this experiential lies in how retrieval cues are unique to representations, which can allow several representations of alike information to be separated within an athlete’s memory, thereby diminishing proactive and retroactive interference (Delaney, 2018). Experiencing an example can help drive home the point of the value of self-awareness when it comes to remembering.
What are retrieval cues?
They are a stimuli that can be of service in helping people recall from long-term memory that can be internal or external. They can be physical states or feelings (internal) or sounds, smells, or sights (external), key terms or visual images, or verbal prompts. They can be crafted by one’s self, explicitly provided, or even happen incidentally.To help them be as effective as possible ensure association with specifically what one needs to remember, not be ambiguous, be utilized appropriately, have a good amount of overlap with information that has already been encoded, and not connected to many memories.
Self-Awareness and Attention Together Again
In the previous post, there was a brief discussion of a connection between self-awareness and attention, which connects to athletic performance and can be enhanced via mindfulness. Gardner and Moore (2007) argued that, due to the orientation towards performance in sports, there is a need for long periods of attention on goal-related cues while simultaneously removing attention from other, more disruptive stimuli. They continued by suggesting that when athletes displayed concentrated mindfulness, they could appreciate and believe the external stimuli, body sensations, emotional reactions, and cognitions while not becoming attached or distracted for the purpose of refocusing their attention on the mental processes and behaviors that enhance performance (Gardner & Moore, 2007). Ultimately, Gardner and Moore (2007) introduced the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach grounded in helping athletes develop an awareness of thoughts, emotions, and body sensations; acceptance; and dedication to goal-relevant attention focus. Additionally, research supports the power of mindfulness to enhance athletic performance, improve mental health, reduce injury risk, and help guide the injury recovery process (Anderson et al., 2021). Therefore, mindfulness has the potential to help memory and also equip an athlete with additional support. When a program, intervention, or action can serve more than one purpose, it helps the athlete become even more effective because they already have a skill that can be transferred.
Body as a Source of Building Self-Awareness
Focusing on the somatic approach is powerful for an athlete because of the role of their body in sport. Additionally, Behncke (2004) argued that beginning by focusing on the body and its sensations offers the athlete the opportunity to access a more objective self instead of a subjective one via thoughts and emotions. Classic examples of somatic practices in sports include biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation. Within progressive muscle relaxation, for example, one can begin to understand where they hold tightness in their bodies, which can then be translated onto the field to notice anxiety or fear that may arise. To reach that place, one must first become aware of the tension. Through somatic practices, an athlete becomes more aware of their body, understanding their sensations, movements, and body-mind connection. Similarly, when an athlete learns more about sensations and movements, they can begin to track their performance and skill execution because they have already spent time exploring the body-mind connection and are familiar with the process. Cognitive and somatic techniques connect because suitable psychosomatic states must be in place before cognitive techniques require specific conditions to engage (Behncke, 2004). Once body awareness is established, cognitive techniques can be introduced and potentially be more effective now having a base.
Adding Cognitive Practices
Armed with a sense of well-developed attentional capacity built via mindfulness and somatic practices, the cognitive portion of what Beilock et al. (2003) described regarding athletes combining performance process and knowledge to reach a desired outcome like memory encoding becomes attainable. Asking an athlete to combine somatic information with procedural knowledge, for example, is a skill that expert athletes theoretically have. There still needs to be attention put directly on effectively combining somatic information and procedural knowledge so the learning becomes encoded in memory. For example, take cycling. Some cyclists tend to have lazy glute muscles when pedaling, which causes a loss of power. Once one becomes aware of their lack of glute activation, the new awareness can be put in the context of creating a more effective pedal stroke as an expert cyclist would understand how much power the glute muscles add. By having experienced what it feels like not to activate the glute muscles, the athlete's sense of awareness becomes the springboard for helping them build a more effective pedal stroke because they will know when they are or are not activating their glute muscles.
Additionally, thoughts and feelings need to be brought into the conversation. Athletes can become more aware of their self-talk, for example, and how the narrative impacts their performance, which is hopefully made easier to learn because they have practiced understanding somatic information. Discussion about thoughts and feelings could happen orally with a coach or a sport and performance professional, or an athlete can be asked to keep a written record to deepen self-awareness. Within these conversations, retrieval cues, introduced earlier in the post, are another example of beneficial cognitive skills that can be effectively introduced. These cues help athletes access episodic long-term memory instead of the classic work memory mechanisms (Delaney, 2018).
You made it! Hopefully, there was a lot of learning and suggestions that can be implemented.
take action today moment:
Try some of the suggestions in the post!
Learn More About EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT TRAINING:
Know Thyself: Enhancing Self-Awareness
Increasing Self-Awareness for Peak Performance - Madeline Barlow
References
Anderson, S. A., Haraldsdottir, K., & Watson, D. (2021). Mindfulness in athletes. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 20(12), 655-660. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000919
Awh, E., Vogel, E. K., & Oh, S. H. (2006). Interactions between attention and working memory. Neuroscience, 139(1), 201-208.
Behncke, L. (2004). Mental skills training for sports: A brief review. Athletic Insight, 61(1), 1-19.
Beilock, S. L., Wierenga, S. A., & Carr, T. H. (2003). Memory and expertise. In J. L. Starkes & K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance in sports (pp. 295-320). Human Kinetics.
Delaney, P. F. (2018). The role of long-term working memory and template theory in contemporary expertise research. Journal of Expertise, 1(3), 155-161.
Esmaeilinasab, M., & Adnani, S. (2021). Implicit or explicit body awareness: Which is more efficient for professional athletes? Application of embodied cognition in sport science. International Journal of Motor Control and Learning, 3(1), 41-46.
Furley, P. A., & Memmert, D. (2010). The role of working memory in sport. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3(2), 171-194. doi: 10.1080/1750984X.2010.526238
Gardner, F. L., & Moore, Z. E. (2007). The psychology of enhancing human performance: The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach. Springer.
Knudsen, E. I. (2007). Fundamental components of attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 30, 57-78.
Lewthwaite, R., & Wulf, G. (2017). Optimizing motivation and attention for motor performance and learning. Current Opinion in Psychology, 16, 38-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.04.005
Morin, A. (2011). Self‐awareness part 1: Definition, measures, effects, functions, and antecedents. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(10), 807-823. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00387.x
Thienot, E., Jackson, B., Dimmock, J., Grove, J. R., Bernier, M., & Fournier, J. F. (2014). Development and preliminary validation of the mindfulness inventory for sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 72-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.10.003
Vaughan, R. S., & Laborde, S. (2021). Attention, working-memory control, working-memory capacity, and sport performance: The moderating role of athletic expertise. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(2), 240-249. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1573-7000