Basic Mental Skills:
Learning Facilitator Guide
Basic Mental Skills: Learning Facilitator Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction
Purpose of Document
NCCP Core Competencies
Learning Outcomes
Overall Context
How to Use this Guide
Symbols
Workbook Overview
Introduce the Module
Recognizing Gaps in Mental Skills
Improving Attentional Control
Improving Emotional Control
Setting Goals
Planning For Mental Preparation
Self-assessment
Action Card
Great Ideas
The Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information
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The programs of this organization are funded in part by Sport Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Version 1.4, 2013 © Coaching Association of Canada
Basic Mental Skills: Learning Facilitator Guide
Introduction
Purpose of Document
This Learning Facilitator Guide is your personal plan for how to facilitate the Basic Mental Skills workshop. It provides suggestions for all of the Coach Workbook activities, it includes all the Coach Workbook activities, and it has especially wide margins where you can write your own notes and comments on the workshop. Reviewing these notes and comments after the workshop and before your next one will help you improve even more as a Learning Facilitator. We therefore recommend that you save this Guide and consult it regularly to ensure continuous improvement in your facilitation skills and in the workshops you deliver.
Links to Coach Workbook and Reference Material. This Guide includes all the activities from the Coach Workbook, and it refers often to Reference Material. Coaches receive the Coach Workbook and the Reference Material when they register for the Basic Mental Skills workshop.
NCCP Core Competencies
As coaches progress through this module, they will work on developing five core competencies that will help them become a more effective coach and have a more meaningful impact on athletes’ experience. The competencies are problem-solving, valuing, critical thinking, leadership, and interaction. Here are just some of the ways these competencies come into play in the Basic Mental Skills workshop:
Problem-solving
Develop ways of dealing with situations where anxiety before competition, distractions, and poor focus may affect performance
Valuing
Respect individual differences and intervene with athletes in a respectful manner
Critical Thinking
Learn to recognize behaviours before and during competition that suggest athletes may need to improve their mental skills
Compare current knowledge, skills, and attitudes with the information provided in the Reference Material
Reflect on how to talk with athletes to determine what is negatively affecting their performance
Leading
Help athletes become more autonomous about preparing for performance
Educate athletes about the importance of developing and implementing strategies for performance
Interacting
Brainstorm with other coaches to develop strategies and plans for improving performance
Learning Outcomes
After finishing this module, coaches will be able to take a critical look at their ability to help their athletes with mental skills. They will also leave with several assessment tools that will enable them to keep working on their own to improve their effectiveness in this area. In particular, coaches will be able to:
Help athletes be mentally prepared for competition
Integrate mental-preparation strategies into practices
Overall Context
This module is one of many offered in the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP). For more information on the NCCP and the workshops it offers, visit
How to Use this Guide
This Learning Facilitator Guide contains both tips for you on how to teach each activity in the Coach Workbook AND all the activities from the Coach Workbook. If you use this Guide, you won’t have to flip back and forth between documents when preparing for the workshop.
Tips on how to teach an activity appear before or after the material from the Coach Workbook. The material from the Coach Workbook is under the heading From the Workbook, and this material is all shaded. The spaces in the Coach Workbook where coaches answered questions have been omitted from this Guide.
Always remember that workshops are NOT designed to cover all the information in the Reference Material. The workshops focus much more on learning by doing than on learning by reading. So while some workshop activities may involve reading Reference Material selections, most do not. In fact, some Reference Material must NOT be presented during a workshop!
Symbols
You will find the following symbols in this Guide:
Version 1.4, 2013 © Coaching Association of CanadaPage 1
Basic Mental Skills: Learning Facilitator Guide
Workbook Overview
This overview is a high-level summary of the workshop you can use when delivering the workshop.Use the My Notes column to write down key pointers for delivering individual activities.
Time / Activity / Description/Key Messages
5 minutes / Introduce the Module
Recognizing Gaps In Mental Skills
20 minutes / Introduce the Activity
15 minutes / Types of Mental Skills
Improving Attentional Control
10 minutes / Attentional Control Scenario
10 minutes / Focus and Your Sport
30 minutes / Ways of Improving Focus
Improving Emotional Control
10 minutes / Emotional Control Scenario
10 minutes / Causes of Anxiety
30 minutes / Methods for Managing Anxiety
Setting Goals
10 minutes / What Coaches Do Now
20 minutes / Goal Setting
Planning For Mental Preparation
10 minutes / Planning within a Season
20 minutes / Planning for Mental Preparation
5 minutes / Final Words
Introduce the Module
Use your own words to deliver the following messages.
Mental preparation is about training the mind to work with the body, not against it.
The goals of this module are to introduce you to some basic mental training skills that you can use to develop the mental skills of the athletes you coach. This module will introduce the concepts of attentional control, emotional control, goal setting, and planning for mental preparation. It will give you an opportunity to identify focus and anxiety problems, think about the needs of your sport in the area of focus, try out some basic strategies to focus and manage anxiety, try out a goal-setting process, and integrate some ideas learned into your planning.
While applying some of the basic skills learned in this workshop, you can help your athletes. Each athlete is a unique individual who thinks and reacts differently; much of your success in the area of mental preparation will therefore come as a result of seeking to understand each athlete as an individual through observation and conversation, and providing opportunity and guidance for each athlete to learn to understand himself/herself and determine for himself/herself what works best for him/her.
The field of sport psychology is vast. The goals of this module are not to train you as a sport psychologist, but rather to give you a few insights and ideas you can try if you don’t have access to a trained professional that can work with the team/the athletes you coach.
Act carefully when intervening in the area of mental preparation. Your role as a coach and your training within the NCCP does NOT prepare nor does it qualify you to act as a psychologist.
Recognizing Gaps in Mental Skills
Introduce the Activity
Have coaches turn to page 3 of their Workbook. Explain that the purpose of the first activity is to determine what successful athletes are able to do with respect to mental performance. Stress the importance of using action statements (see the example provided), and focus on what successful athletes DO, as opposed to what unsuccessful ones DON’T do.
Ask coaches to complete Section 2.1.1, and then discuss their answers with one another (2.1.2).
- Examples may include being able to block out distractions, leave mistakes in the past, refocus, keep competition in perspective, and keep themselves calm.
Debrief
Gather a few ideas coaches came up with. Point out how many of the points they have come up with relate to areas of focus (often called attentional control in the sport psychology literature) and managing negative anxiety (often referred to as emotional control in the sport psychology literature).
This may be a good time to bring up another reason athletes may perform successfully or unsuccessfully. It is becoming more and more important to remember that athletes need help mentally as well as physically to return successfully to play after an injury. For example,following return to play guidelines can both help athletes physically and reduce some of their anxiety. Return to play guidelinesare provided on pages 44 and 45 of the Reference Material. Later in the module, we will deal with a scenario involving return to play.
From the Workbook…
2.1Mental Skills and Competition
Picture yourself coaching two athletes of comparable fitness and abilities. Both perform at the same level in practices; however, when it comes time for competition, one almost always performs to potential while the other frequently underperforms.
2.1.1In your opinion, what possible reasons might explain this situation? What might one athlete be doing well that the other can’t? Note your ideas in the space below.
To help you identify some possible reasons, think of successful athletes you’ve coached in the past, or relate to experiences you may have had as an athlete. Focus on behaviors you can observe.
Athletes who perform well in competition are able to…
From the Workbook…
2.1Mental Skills and Competition
2.1.2Compare your thoughts with other coaches. Are there ideas you’d like to add to your list above?
Types of Mental Skills
Spotting Focus and Negative Anxiety
Present theIntroduction section of theReference Material. Key points include:
Mental preparation is an important performance component in all sports
The IdealPerformanceState is different for each athlete.
It is not the role of coach to do everything for the athlete. Rather, the coach’s role is to provide the environment in which athletes can learn and take responsibility for their own preparation and performance. This awareness and skill building can start when athletes are children.
Have coaches complete Section 2.3.1 and discuss their answers with one another, check the Reference Material on Spotting Focus and Anxiety Problems, and then add to their notes for 2.3.1 and 2.3.2.
Debrief
Gather a few ideas coaches came up with, and remind coaches that:
Some of the signs apply both focus and anxiety;
All athletes show different signs in different ways;
Some signs can be easily misinterpreted (e.g., yawning).
From the Workbook…
2.2Types of Mental Skills
The Learning Facilitator has given you some general information about mental preparation. Sport psychologists deal with a variety of mental skills; in this workshop we will focus on three basic mental skills:
Managing focus, which is a type of attentional control
Managing negative anxiety, which is a type of emotional control
Goal setting
2.2.1Review your list of ideas in 2.1.1, and identify the behaviours that seem related to attentional control and to emotional control.
Signs of Trouble
From the Workbook…
2.3Signs of Trouble
Helping athletes perform well in competition is one of your key roles as a coach. Learning to recognize that an athlete is having trouble coping with the stress of competition is therefore extremely important.
2.3.1Together with another coach, identify signs and behaviours that might indicate an athlete is having trouble focusing or difficulty in managing anxiety. Use the space below to record your thoughts. Thinking about an athlete you’ve seen having difficulties may help you.
Signs that an athlete might be having trouble focusing
Signs that an athlete might be having trouble managing anxiety
From the Workbook…
2.3Signs of Trouble
2.3.2Check the section of the Reference Material entitled Spotting Focus and Anxiety Problems. Are there other behaviours or signs you could add to your previous lists that might help you recognize that an athlete needs to improve these mental skills?
Improving Attentional Control
Attentional Control Scenario
Ask for a volunteer to read the case study, or read it to the group. For some, closing their eyes while listening will help create a mental picture of the athlete in the case study.
Have coaches complete 3.1 individually, and then have them discuss what they would do if this scenario presented itself today. Stress the importance of answering in action statements, and ask coaches to try to write down what they would do in the order they would do it.
From the Workbook…
3.1Attentional Control Scenario
3.1.1Take a few minutes to read the scenario below.
Jan has been chosen for the travel team that you coach. Sometimes she nearly misses the beginning of the competition because she seems off in her own world. She’s constantly moving from one teammate to another, unable to keep her attention on the tasks at hand. She seems preoccupied by what everyone else is doing, and she forgets equipment and instructions. Her judgment seems poor, and she seems unable to find cues in her environment; she therefore can’t anticipate anything and is constantly reacting too late. She seems to get worse as the competition progresses, getting more and more distracted until she is barely able to execute even the most basic skills.
From the Workbook…
3.1Attentional Control Scenario
3.1.2Picture yourself as Jan’s coach. What would you do to help her, and how would you do it? Share your response with other coaches.
Focus and Your Sport
Sport Requirements for Focus
Ask coaches to complete 3.2. Explain that when athletes experience mental errors, it is often not that they are not focusing, but that they are focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time. Before you can figure out how to help the athletes you coach, you need to determine the needs for focus in your sport, as well as the common distracters that interfere with focus.
From the Workbook…
3.2Focus and Your Sport
3.2.1To train athletes how to focus for your sport, you must first think about what kind of focus your sport requires. The questions that follow will help you do this.
How often does competition in your sport require an athlete to shift his/her focus? If your sport has athletes in different positions or playing different roles, you may have to answer the question differently for each position.
From the Workbook…
3.2Focus and Your Sport
3.2.2Now that you know whether your sport requires athletes to shift their focus often, reflect on what athletes must be focused on at any given time during the competition to perform successfully.
Distractions and Your Sport
Once coaches have completed 3.1 and 3.2, review the Reference Material on Focus Shifts, Objects of Focus, and Examples of Distracters with them. Include the following key points:
Focus Shifts
- The difference between open and closed sports (see the Reference Material)
- Some team sports really only involve two or three athletes engaged at any one time, and so there are fewer focus shifts than in sports when more athletes are engaged
- Focus shifts represent a continuum and are an approximation that changes, depending on the circumstances
Objects of Focus
- The four quadrants
- Use an analogy to illustrate focus shifts between quadrants of Nideffer’s model (a quarterback analogy that can be used is provided on page 8 of the Reference Material)
- Recent evidence in the motor learning literature suggests that an external focus of attention is more effective for performance than an internal focus while executing a task/skill — don’t let the conversation dwell too long on this point)
- Present a couple of examples from sports in the room of how focus shifts in particular sports, depending on the time, the environment, and the position
Examples of Distracters
- Coaches will have no problem coming up with these on their own, but may forget that the coach is also a source of distraction for athletes, especially during execution
After reviewing the Reference Material, ask coaches to add to their answers in 3.1-3.3.
From the Workbook…
3.3Distractions and Your Sport
3.3.1As a next step, think of potential sources of distraction that athletes commonly encounter in your sport. List them below.
From the Workbook…
3.3Distractions and Your Sport
3.3.2Share some of your previous analyses (3.2.1, 3.2.2, and 3.3.1) with another coach. Then review the Focus Shifts, Objects of Focus, and Examples of Distracters sections of Reference Material. Are there other potential sources of distraction that could affect the athletes you coach? If so, add them to the list you generated in 3.3.1.
Ways of Improving Focus