Psychology Sports Profile, Week 1

Assessment Summary Week 1

I have selected a performer to do a psychological profile on. This week I met up with this performer, performer X. We discussed psychological barriers that were affecting their performance and things we can do it reduce these barriers.

Performer X is 17 years of age, so not only do they have the pressures of training and performing but they also have the pressures of college and completing all their work. Performer X is a dancer, they do a whole range of dancing, these include; Ballet, Modern Jazz, Cheerleading, Street, Funky Jazz. The main styles that this performer competes for are Cheerleading and Street. On Sunday 23^rd March this performer has their next competition, this competition being at Blackpool Tower and this is the biggest competition of the year as schools for all over the UK come to compete in this one competition. This performer trains at least three times a week and when coming up to a competition, such as the one on Sunday, starting from a month being the competition this performer can train up to six times a week and times can vary between 1 and 5 hours each session.

This puts enormous pressure on this performer because it means that they are training near enough every day for long periods of time and the performer can suffer from mental and physical tiredness and on top of training they will have their college work to complete also. 

In the upcoming competition especially there are many pressures, these include; pressure to not get knocked out in the first round and to make it through to the final, the pressure to do this is very high because each category is very large therefore making it a lot harder to get into the next round. This competition is also very demanding because if you do something slightly wrong or your foot slips slightly then you are penalised and the penalty is not getting through to the next round as you haven’t met the standard that the judges are looking for. 

Questionnaires

Performer X completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory questionnaire on their experiences when performing. Their final result was under have stating that they don’t have greater strengths.

As you can see performer X has put their scores for each individual subscale, each subscale is out of 12. For Coping With Adversity performer X got 6 indicating greater strengths on this subscale this means that the athlete remains positivie and enthusiastic when things aren't going too well, Performer X is able to remain calm and controlled.
Coachability – 7, indicating greater strengths on this subscale, this means that Performer X is able to take constructive critism without becoming upset about it.

Concentration – 8, indicating greater strengths on this subscale, this means that Performer X is able to remain focused on tasks in both training and in competition even when unexpected situations occur.

Confidence and Achievement Motivation – 8, indicating greater strengths on this subscale, this means that Performer X is confident and constantly gives 100% during training and in a game situation.

Goal Setting and Mental Preparation – 0, indicating lower strengths on this subscale, this means that Performer X doesn't set herself any goals to work towards and doesn't give herslef and game plan for when she is competing.

Peaking Under Pressure – 4, indicating lower strengths on this subscale, this means that Performer X feels more threatened under pressure instead of challenged when under pressure and starts to under perform.

Freedom from Worry – 8, indicating greater strengths on this subscale, this means that Performer X worries about her performance and worries what others will think if she performs poorly.

 

This is showing that Coping with Adversity, Coachability, Concentration, Confidence and Achievement Motivation and Freedom of Worry are all strengths because they are above half way. Whereas, Goal Setting and Mental Preparation and Peaking under Pressure are both weaknesses of performer X and things that need to be developed so that performance can be developed.

 

Performer X also completed the motivation questionnaire. This questionnaire suggests that performer X is intrinsically motivated, performer X likes to know and accomplish.

 

 

 

This picture is showing performer X got the highest scores on intrinsic motivation making them intrinsically motivated. Each picture is marked out of 7. Performer X is intrinsically motivated because they scored 6 for they get “pleasure to know more about the sport that I practice”. Performer X scored 5 for “pleasure of discovering new training techniques”, scoring 5 for “the pleasure I feel while learning training techniques that I have never tried before” and 4 for “the pleasure of discovering new performance strategies. Adding all these together, it comes out at a final score of 20 out of 28, this is a high score and resulting in performer X an intrinsic motivator. This means that performer X participates in dance because she finds it fun and enjoyable, she participates because it comes from within and they don’t need a trophy or title to feel good about them.      

Performer X carried out a third questionnaire, the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT), this questionnaire measures anxiety.

As you can see, performer X got a score of 14 out of 30, this indicates that they have a low level of general competitive anxiety meaning that they can perform and feel relaxed and this will lead to an improved performance because they are feeling less tense.

 Performer X also filled out another questionnaire, the Competitive State of Anxiety Inventory – 2 (CSAI-2), this questionnaire, just like the SCAT is testing for anxiety levels.

 

This questionnaire shows that performer X has a relatively high level of cognitive anxiety compared to somatic anxiety. Whereas, their self-confidence is actually quite low, so when in the training programme this would need to be addressed.   

Performance Profile

A performance profile was also carried and this was completed by performer X on their own with no help, this is what they believe their performance profile is.

 

As you can see, there are a range of scores. Performer X doesn’t have much believe in her performance as they only scored this a 4 out of 10, this test also shows they lack in confidence and self-control, we know this because performer X only scored themselves 6 out of 10. This shows that during this programme it is my job to help performer X raise their confidence and belief and this will be done in a variety of ways which will be explained at a later date. However, this test shows me that performer X believes they have high levels of focus, mental toughness, concentration, awareness, motivation, self-belief and strength, we know this because performer X has scored this 7 or more out of 10. This shows that performer X is aware of the skills etc. that is required for their chosen sport but they don’t have much confidence in themselves and this may be due to many reasons, e.g. they never get praise for something they do well in and they are constantly receive negative feedback off people.   

SWOT

STRENGTHS ·         A low general competitive score ·         A good/moderate somatic anxiety level ·         Motivation – a higher intrinsic than extrinsic – her motivation comes from within ·         Good self: ·         Awareness ·         Motivation ·         Concentration ·         Strength ·         Focus	WEAKNESSES ·         Cognitive anxiety is very high when it should be relatively low ·         A low self-confidence level ·         Doesn’t set any goals ·         A high cognitive level of anxiety ·         Athletic coping skills – a low score signifying weaker strength
OPPORTUNITIES ·         Help from dance teachers ·         Parents willing to take you places for training/competitions	THREATS ·         College work – performer X may have a lot of course work to do ·         Money – may cost too much ·         Travel – may not be able to get to destinations ·         Lack of training – may not be able to get the correct training to improve technique

Following all this information, a training programme will be made for performer X so that they can improve all weaknesses and help her improve her performance.