Mental Factors affecting Performance Although your body performs the actual skill, your brain plays an important, active part before, during and after the performance of the skill. There are some mental characteristics that can affect the way you perform skills – these can be positive or negative

In general How high is your level of motivation to take part in your activity? Are you determined? What motivates you to do so. Do you cope well with success? How about a lack of success? Does your activity need a certain degree of aggression? Are you comfortable with this? Are you confident? In all situations?

Pre-skill Before performing a skill, you take in as much information as possible about your situation. You use your senses of sight, hearing and touch – although you could say that sight is by far the most important! This information is interpreted, or “processed” by your brain; the speed of a ball, the position of a team-mate, the amount of wind from the right etc. Your brain then makes a decision as to the best possible course of action; ie what action, or combination of actions, is most likely to bring about a successful outcome. These decisions can be made in less than a second. The more experienced you are, the faster you become at making these decisions, and the more likely you are to make the correct decisions.

Decision making! Any sporting decision you make will depend on a number of factors. For example, if you receive the ball in rugby what you do may depend on; The amount of space in front of you – if there is a lot, you may decide to run with the ball. Where you are on the pitch – if you are near your own try line, you may decide to kick the ball as far as possible to relieve the danger. Where your team-mates are – if you have a team-mate in space with no defenders in front of him/her, you may decide to pass it to them. The size of the player in front of you – if they are smaller than you you may decide to run into them and drive them back!

Performing the skill Your brain sends messages via the nerves to the muscles you need to use. These muscles move your limbs and body in the appropriate way to perform your skill

Post skill You need “feedback” – this is information you receive about your performance. This can come from a coach telling you how you performed. It can also come from within your own body, as you match the outcome of the skill to how the action felt. This feedback allows you to alter your performance if it was not successful. Feedback can also reinforce a correct or successful performance

Performance Goals As a performer in any activity, it is beneficial to establish “Performance Goals.” These give you a focus for your work and targets for you to reach. These targets can be; Short term – over the course of a week or two. Medium term – over the course of a month or two. Long term – over the course of a year or a season. Could you describe each of these for your own activity? These targets should reflect your current level of performance and should be realistic but challenging!

Performance Goals – examples. Right back in football. Short term – to make at least 80% of tackles in Saturday’s game. Medium term - to improve my percentage of successful tackles between now and the Christmas break. Long term – to establish myself as first choice right back and win a district trial. It is important that your goals, or rather your achievement of them, are measurable – ie that you know whether or not you have achieved them.

Concentration As a performer in any activity, you must be able to concentrate; In a team game you must be able to concentrate on your own roles and responsibilities, as well as take in what is going on around you. In an activity such as gymnastics you must be able to concentrate on your own routine and your own skills. This can also be referred to as “focus.”

Psychological arousal As a performer in any activity, it is beneficial to be able to lift yourself mentally before a performance – we call this “psychological arousal”, although you may have heard it referred to as getting “psyched up!” This can help you focus concentrate, work hard and cope with pain or discomfort. If you get too “psyched up, however, it can lead to you making mistakes, losing your temper or becoming tense and nervous – these could affect your performance ngatively; for example, in tennis if your level of psychological arousal is too high you may become tense and hit the ball too hard, making it land out of court.

Managing anxiety It is important that you keep your feelings and emotions under control. Before a game nerves can make you worry to the point that you become ill or unable to function well. During a performance nerves can make you lose concentration as you worry more about what people think of you and your performance than what you are actually doing. What can you do to help? You can listen to music – before a performance! You may want to sit by yourself – you may want to talk to team-mates or you coach. You might be able to ignore or shut-out the spectators. You might want to reduce the importance of the performance – eg, treat a cup-final as “just another game.”

Overview outcome Decision making Performance Feedback Display

Summary Make sure you understand the following terms. Make sure you can give a definition, and explanation and an example; Information processing Concentration Psychological arousal Managing anxiety Decision making Feedback Goal setting.