Developing a Mental Skills Training Programme for an Elite Athlete

Third Year Summative Assignment One - Student – Z0906870

Developing a Mental Skills Training Programme for an

Elite Athlete

Why do elite champions prosper in competition over other

elite athletes who possess similar levels of skill and

technical ability? Conversely, why do talented elite athletes

fail to perform at the highest level and less talented

athletes become champions (Gucciardi et al., 2008). History is

full of anecdotal evidence from prominent athletes who cite

“although sport is played with the body, it is won in the

mind” (Moran, 2004: 4).

Despite this contention and evidence to support the

importance of sport psychology, mental skills training (MST)

until recently, experienced a fairly low media profile. MST is

still not without critics, but there is growing recognition

that sporting prowess does not guarantee success and that

mental toughness is an important attribute at elite level

(Gucciardi et al., 2008). Today employing a sports psychologist

is a feature in virtually all elite sport; it is however,

especially evident in mentally demanding individual sports,

such as golf (Moran, 2004).

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The personal research interest for selecting a PGA Golf

professional to study began with an acknowledgement that at

elite level there are minimal differences between competitors

in technical ability and physical fitness (Jones, Hanton &

Connaughton, 2002). If this is the case, then the argument

for MST standing out as the key differentiator between elite

performers is strengthened (Gould, Jackson & Finch, 1993).

This study has four parts:

1. Selection of Psychological Framework

2. Profile of Athlete and Needs Analysis.

3. Proposed Mental Skills Training Programme.

4. Conclusion

Part One: Selection of Psychological Skills Training

Framework

MST has solid empirical support documenting its ability

to enhance elite performance using psychological

interventions. Weinberg & Williams (2009) confirmed that from

45 studies, 85% found positive performance effects. Cox (2007)

remarked however that the studies involved long periods of pre

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and post intervention, and all included an Education Phase,

Acquisition Phase and Practice Phase (Weinberg & Gould, 2007).

It is important therefore to execute MST within a

Psychological Skills Training Programme (PSTP) that is

systematic, proactive and flexible for elite performers.

Boutcher & Rotella (1987) designed a PSTP specifically for

closed – skill performance enhancement based on golf research.

Four phases were included:

1. Sport analysis

2. Individual assessment

3. Conceptualization / Motivation

4. Mental skill development

This PSTP offers golfers excellent practical exercises for MST

e.g. psychological scorecard (See Appendix Eight). It was

decided however, although appealing because it was golf

specific, it would not be employed in this study because it

was conceptually grounded in the left / right brain dichotomy

of cognitive functioning and the researchers admit “the

veracity of the hemispheric specificity notion was still being

debated” (Boutcher & Rotella’s 1987: 132). Toga & Thompson

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(2003) confirm that there is still little contemporary and

consistent support for correlating structural differences and

functional differences in the brain.

By virtue of being conceptually contemporary and a

comprehensive staged based model, the PSTP by Weinberg &

Williams (2001, cited in Weinberg & Williams, 2010) would be

employed. It draws its origins from mainstream psychologies

including behaviour modification, cognitive therapy, rational

emotive therapy, goal setting, attentional control and

systematic desensitization (Weinberg and Gould, 2007). It

would be superfluous to provide definitions for these

disciplines; instead reference will be made when

recommendations draw from these disciplines.

Part Two: Athlete Profile and Psychological

Needs Assessment

The Psychological Skills Training Programme for an

Elite Golfer

Phase One - Who is the Client?

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The PGA Golf Professional, who will be referred to as John,

is 23 yrs old, and is currently Senior Pro at a Five Star Golf

Resort, and as such plays off scratch. John’s golfing résumé

includes numerous appearances at British / English Amateur

Opens and who now competes at Pro – Am tournaments.

Although not applicable to this study, Phase One has a wider

importance in terms of a sports psychologist undertaking

PSTPs’ within organisations that include the opinions of

athletes, coaches and other stakeholders. It is vital that

initial meetings make explicit rules of engagement,

demarcation lines of responsibility and codes of

confidentiality to avoid any confusion or negativity (Cox,

2007).

Phase Two – Initial Meeting with Athlete

Initial meetings between sport psychologist and athlete

are pivotal; they establish rapport, credibility and set the

tone for future relationships (Ravizza, 1988). Petitpas, Giges

& Danish (1999) report, the effectiveness of MST interventions

is closely tied to the quality of the athlete / consultant

relationship.

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The aims for the meeting with John were two fold: establish

rapport by detailing the nature of the study and secondly to

discover John’s knowledge of sports psychology. Semi

structured interviews are recommended (Orlick, 2000) and the

question schedule (See Appendix One) would be divided between

the initial interview and the second meeting in Phase Four.

The rationale for this division was that the second set of

questions was designed to dovetail into the structured

psychological tests.

Initial meetings are generally seen to commence the

Education Phase for athlete and psychologist (Weinberg &

Gould, 2007) and so with signed consent, (See Appendix Two)

conversations were audio recorded to prevent omission of

information (Branley, 2004). The interview conducted in a

quiet part of the golf club began with an outline of the

study. It was made explicit that it was an academic study and

that the researcher was not qualified to deliver any MST

interventions. Pocwardowski, Sherman and Henschen (1998)

stressed the importance of clarifying expectations of a

consultancy as it allows for a clear understanding from the

start of a working relationship.

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Ravizza (2001) emphasises the important part of the

Education Phase is increasing athlete’s awareness of MST in

enhancing performance. John demonstrated a basic understanding

of how MST was being used in professional golf and cited Karl

Morris and Bob Rotella as familiar individuals he knew from

golfing magazines. John indicated that he had sporadically

experimented with mental practice and self talk throughout his

career but without tutelage. Crucial was the admission by

John, of rarely using MST in his current practice schedules or

competitions. Equally crucial however was the recognition by

John of the need for a re – education programme of MST

followed by a resurrection of MST back into his game.

To consolidate this point John was asked to identify in

percentage terms what proportion of elite golf is about the

mental game, he volunteered 90%. The next consideration was

the percentage of practice devoted to physical and mental

aspects of his game. John’s 80/20 split in favour of physical

practice confirmed Weinberg & William’s (2010) supposition of

the universal disparity between recognising the MST’s

importance and failing to include it into practice schedules.

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Phase Three - Sports Analysis and Education of Sport

Psychologist

Athletes find it easier to relate to a sport psychologist

who understands the nuances of the sport in which they compete

(Kontos & Feltz, 2008). Lack of knowledge by consultants is

cited as one of a series of concerns that have hampered the

advancement of MST interventions (Holliday et al., 2008). The

author of this study is an adequately skilled golfer (+15

Handicap) to be able to converse with John and understand

factors that influence golf outside of the psychological

realm: biomechanics, physiological conditioning, equipment and

strategy (Boutcher & Rotella 1987: 129). There are limitations

however as acknowledged by Boutcher & Rotella (1987: 129) “a

golfer who has a flaw in his swing may attribute this to a

concentration whereas the problem is biomechanical,

collaboration with experts such as swing coaches must be

incorporated into interventions”.

Moran (2004) summarises psychological demands of golf in

three areas: firstly players must be mentally prepared to play

for 4 hours plus. Secondly golf is an individual sport and

players take ultimate responsibility for their performance and

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finally the stop – start nature of golf means “players spend

more time thinking about playing golf than actually hitting

the ball” Moran (2004: 13).

Giacobbi & Foore (2004: 171) found moderately skilled

golfers experienced a range of discrete and intense emotional

responses during competitions. The general stress dimensions

were labelled: evaluation by others - performance challenges -

psycho-emotional concerns - competitive stress. Findings are

consistent with previous research with non-elite golfers

(Cohn, 1990; Beauchamp et al., 1996; Thomas and Fogarty, 1997;

Kirschenbaum et al., 1998). Research outside of golf also

support these findings, performance related stress aside from

organisational and external factors can originate from social

evaluation, self presentation issues and performance related

issues (Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993).

Phase Four – Development Needs Assessment Plan

This phase determines the psychological strengths and

limitations of an athlete, related specifically to sport, as

well as any perceived psychological areas of concern

identified by the athlete (Hill, 2001). Assessment helps

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reveal those psychological skills that are deficient or appear

to have the most adverse effect on performance (Weinberg and

Williams, 2010).

There exists a whole battery of interviews, observations

and psychological tests which can be administered in this

phase however Vealey (2007: 293) argues “the mental training

process begins with a consideration of the sport

psychologist’s philosophy about the nature of mental skills

and mental training”. Different MST approaches include:

Educational versus Clinical, Program Centred versus Athlete

Centred and Performance Enhancement versus Personal

Development.

For John it was decided an educational approach was the most

appropriate approach for two reasons:

Initial interview revealed John required a general re-

education of MST benefits and any specific requirements

would be revealed from interviews, performance profiling and

test administrations.

Ultimate goal of educational approach is self – regulation,

resulting in John using MST with out needing constant

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direction (Weinberg & Gould 2007; Kirschenbaum et al., 1998;

Boutcher & Rotella, 1987).

During needs assessment it is recommended that volume,

nature, type of tests within PSTP should be an active

collaborative process to avoid athlete passivity and assist

long term adherence. Athletes do not usually respond well to

long extensive psychological testing unless they obtain highly

specific and useful feedback from it (Hardy & Parfitt, 1994;

Orlick & Partington, 1988, cited in Hardy, Jones and Gould,

2007).

1. Interview – Second set of questions (See Appendix One), were

designed to ascertain John’s thoughts on his psychological

strengths and weaknesses. John was confident at scoring well

throughout a round of golf but was aware he was perhaps not

as confident as he could be at crucial times e.g. when

putting for important holes to win “big tournaments” where

spectators were around the greens. He lacked self belief or

what he termed “self doubt at crucial points in important

tournaments”, John described how he would become anxious if

he was close to the top of the leader board and had

attracted an audience of observers. He described how his

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heart rate would increase, he would sweat a little more and

his muscles would become tense. It was decided at this point

in the conversation that it was an ideal opportunity for

John to undertake a selected psychological inventory.

The reason for administering the tests at this point was a

little opportunistic on the part of the researcher. John was

recalling vividly the images and memories of those crucial

points in previous competitions and it therefore seemed

appropriate to administer the tests while he was recalling

these emotions. Even though post competition accuracy

diminishes, it is still possible for an athlete to identify

a range of optimal and dysfunctional emotions related to

previous successful and unsuccessful performances (Hanin,

2000 cited in Horn, 2008).

2. Performance Profiling (PP) – “is a natural application of

Kelly’s (1955) Personal Construct Theory (PCT) to sport

psychology” (Butler & Hardy 1992: 254) The fundamental

premise of PCT is that individuals strive to make sense of

their own world and construct personal theories. Butler &

Hardy (1992) argue that PP resists the notion of the athlete

being a passive observer in the consultative process by

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having to accept what a sport psychologist advises. Athlete

inclusion results in longer adherence to MST (Weinberg &

Williams, 2010). PP allowed John to personally construct and

rate specific attributes which he believed to be important

in golf and rate which area of his current performance

needed attention compared to his best ever performance.

John’s PP is provided (See Appendix Three) and a

graphical representation of John’s PP results (See Appendix

Four) confirms both John’s interview assertion of

psychological skills as the most important collection of

golf attributes and secondly they reveal a correlation

between Psychological Skills (Self Belief) and Technical

Golf Skills (Putting). Butler & Hardy (1992: 262) suggest

that “visual displays gives clear and digestible information

to both athlete and coach of how an athlete personally

perceives there current performance”. Furthermore they

suggest PP can lead to enhanced athlete awareness, form a

basis for goal setting which can help resolve long term

motivation and adherence problems. For sports psychologists

and coaches PP can direct the future design of training in

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physical, technical and psychological areas (Butler & Hardy,

1992).

3. Observation – Due to the timing of the assessment (winter -

snow) it was not possible to observe John in any “big”

competitive situations where any signposts or behavioural

manifestations of John’s Self Belief – “Self Doubt” could be

observed. This was a limitation of the study because

attending competitions has been proposed as a very good

strategy for enhancing client – practitioner relationship

(Ravizza, 1988) as well as providing an opportunity for a

consultant to move away from reliance on self – report

information (Taylor, 1995).

4. Psychological Inventories – are used to assess the

psychological skills of an athlete from which effective

interventions can be designed (Hemmings & Holder, 2009).

Research has revealed that between “63% and 75% of sport

psychologists use paper and pencil inventories to assess

psychological skills related to sport” (O’Connor, 2004:

464). An advantage of undertaking inventories in addition to

interviews is that it helps to identify consistencies and

inconsistencies between oral and written statements (Vealey,

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2007). Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) (See Appendix

Five) was nominated to be employed for its notional

application relevance to John’s a lack of self – belief

during competition environments compared to practice

sessions.

TOPS – is a 64 – item inventory measuring the frequency

of athlete’s using psychological skills in competitive

and practice situations – mental imagery, self talk,

emotional control, automaticity, goal setting,

activation, negative thinking and relaxation (Krane and

Williams, 2010).

Self – report inventories are subject to athlete distortion

i.e. faking good or faking bad, it was deemed unnecessary

for this study to minimise this factor by administering the

Marlowe – Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC – SDS,

Reynolds, 1982, cited in Cox 2007).

Part Three: Proposed Mental Skills Programme

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Phase Five – Psychological Skills Package Selection

Following data collection athletes should have the

opportunity to react to consultant’s evaluations of their

psychological strengths and weaknesses and agree on how to

proceed. “Motivation and adherence problems will occur in the

PSTP if the athlete does not fully accept the decisions

reached in the needs assessment” (Weinberg & Gould, 2010:

373). It was agreed with John that the overall aim of the

intervention should be to develop his mental toughness when

putting under the pressurised conditions of competition.

Gucciardi et al., (2008: 262) describes mental toughness as “the

superior mental characteristics of those athletes who excel in

both practice and competitive situations while others fail”.

Mental toughness contains a myriad of characteristics

including self belief, positive attitude, thriving on

competition, enjoying pressure and quality preparation each of

which are seen as pre – requisite mental skills of elite

athletes, those who perform on the big stage and those who do

not (Gould, Jackson & Finch, 1993).

It was decided to prioritise two psychological skills for

John, Mental Imagery and Mental Practice. Each of which have

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proven results in educating athletes how to enhance

characteristics identified with mental toughness e.g. coping

with pressure and unshakeable belief (Jones, Hanton &

Connaughton, 2002). The basis for this decision was that John

was familiar with Mental Imagery and Practice which would

increase the likelihood of future self – regulation. Secondly

because John in the past had not adhered to MST, a Multimodal

MST intervention which would integrate several techniques was

not realistic. This was a limitation to the study because

there is a body of evidence that demonstrates the

“effectiveness of integrating techniques such as Relaxation,

Self Talk with Mental Imagery for golf putting” (Pates,

Oliver, & Maynard, 2001, cited in Vealey, 2007).

Mental Imagery – has been defined as a polysensory cognitive

intervention that uses “all the senses to re – create or

create an experience in the mind” (Vealey, 2007: 268).

Research indicates that when individuals engage in vivid

imagery, their brains interpret these images as identical to

the actual stimulus situation (Jeannerod, 1994 cited in

Vealey, 2007). For this reason, imagery can be used by the

brain to provide “powerful repetition, elaboration,

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intensification and preservation of important athletic

sequences and skills” (Cox, 2007). The evidence base for the

use of imagery by elite athletes is compelling, Orlick &

Partington (1988: 130) in their seminal paper on Canadian

Winter and Summer Olympians reported “statistically

significant links were found between Olympic performance

outcome and certain mental skills”, specifically 99% of their

sample (n=235) reported use of imagery.

Imagery is therefore considered to be “one of the most

popular performance enhancement techniques because of its

versatility in affecting several different outcomes” (Ross –

Stewart & Short, 2009: S34). When applied to John’s putting

problems, research has shown that imagery has both cognitive

and motivational functions that influence a performer to

build, maintain and regain confidence in a motor skill. Vealey

and Greenleaf (2006, cited in Vealey, 2007: 296) report that

“using imagery immediately before performance, can improve

performance on strength tasks, muscular endurance tasks, and

golf putting”.

Athletes must apply imagery in a continuous and

systematic manner for it to qualify as MST, dreaming or random

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imagery is not systematic and there is no evidence that these

forms of imagery enhance athletes’ performance (Weinberg and

Williams, 2010). During conversations with John he cited this

as a primary reason for why mental imagery has failed him in

the past. It was therefore decided to administer the Sport

Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ - Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas,

1998, cited in Murphy et al., 2008.) to evaluate the frequency to

which John used imagery (See Appendices, Seven, Nine and Ten).

Occasional and sporadic MST will not achieve desired

performance enhancement, similar to physical practice, a

periodization strategy of mental practice is required to

produce “consistent and powerful interventions” (Holliday et al.,

2008: 200).

Mental Practice is a particular application of mental

imagery and is often used as a synonym to imagery. It is

defined as the “cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence

of overt physical movement” and meta – analysis has revealed

that it is important to identify imagery conditions under

which mental practice is most effective (Driskell et al., (1994:

481). Comprehensive reviews have concluded that mental

practice enhances performance in many sport skills including

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golf and is certainly “better than no practice at all”,

(Vealey & Greenleaf, 2010: 271). Mental practice occurs more

effectively across a period of time in an intermittent

learning style similar to a distributed physical practice

schedule (Vealey & Greenleaf, 2010). The importance of this

similarity will become more apparent in Phase 6 when

periodization strategies are discussed as part of effective

implementation strategies and adherence

For this study Mental Imagery and Mental Practice

theories have been combined to construct an example of an

Imagery Script for John (See Appendix Six). The script is

theoretically based on two models, Holmes & Collins’s (2001

cited in Weinberg and Gould, 2007) PETTLEP framework (See

Appendix Six ) and Martin et al., (1999, cited in Murphy et al.,

2008) Applied Model of Imagery Use (See Appendix Six ) and

takes an integrated applied approach to its use of the models.

Holmes & Collins’s (2001) PETTLEP framework is

theoretically grounded in Functional Equivalence Theory.

Functional equivalence theory proposes that imagery draws on

the same neural network that is used in actual perception and

motor control, and can also activate neural circuits used in

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memory and emotion ( Kosselyn, Ganis, & Thompson, 2001, cited

in Horn, 2008). Put simply if imagery is similar to perception

then the same parts of the brain should engage when we imagine

things as when we actually perceive them (Moran, 2004).

The second approach to understanding imagery use in sport

is the Applied Model of Imagery Use developed by Martin et al.,

(1999, cited in Murphy et al., 2008). It proposes that different

types of imagery will be used for different athletic goals and

cognitive and motivational outcomes. The model centres on

imagery content and includes five types of imagery identified

as key determinants for effective change, these are summarised

in (See Appendix Six).

Finally evidence suggests that John should audio record

his imagery script on an MP3 player to achieve the most

accurate motor representation of successful putting. Smith and

Holmes, (2004) in an imagery training programme designed to

improve golf putting, found performance was enhanced more by

mental practice while listening to audio tapes of imagery

scripts than by mental practice using scripts. “This indicates

that the form in which an imagery intervention is delivered

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can have a significant impact on its performance

effectiveness” (Smith & Holmes, 2004: 385).

Part Four: Conclusion

Phase Six – Implementation of PSTP and Phase Seven –

Evaluation (See Appendix Seven)

These phases are clearly the most critical of the PSTP

since all positive collaborations from the needs assessment

and design phases have the potential to be lost and self

regulation and adherence will fail if important implementation

questions have not been considered. Holliday et al.,(2008: 200)

suggest that during implementations phases, “consultants have

struggled with a series of concerns about the overall

effectiveness of MST programmes, particularly when trying to

develop stable, long term consulting relationships”. Holliday

et al., (2008) argue that the problems of athlete trust,

commitment, motivation to practice and MST adherence (Weinberg

and Williams, 2006) can be addressed by applying the same

principles of implementation and evaluation that have been

used in physical training programmes.

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Periodization is a programme that has been used to

maximise and evaluate the effects of physical training, long

term athlete development and peak performance for targeted

competitions, through “planned variation in key training

variables, particularly volume and intensity, over

predetermined training cycles” (Holliday et al., 2008: 200).

The researchers argue that periodization can work for mental

as well as physical training, particularly because the

proactive nature of MST is ideally suited to periodization.

“Too often, sport psychologists are asked to fix struggling

athletes with mental problems as they approach competitions”

(Holliday et al., 2008: 205), however such approaches fail to

address the long term developmental MST needs of the athlete.

Holliday et al., (2008) offer two validations for the use of

periodizations, firstly that it offers sports psychologists a

better understanding of athlete dose – response effects.

Secondly by using a common conceptual framework and technical

vocabulary it will bridge any gaps in trust with athletes and

lead to adherence and self regulation because MST is not in

isolation of physical practice.

Word Count –3823

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.

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