Consultation sheet

Discuss About The Exploring Sport And Exercise Psychology.

Shaun Murphy is an Indian athlete of the age of 25 years. Murphy plays baseball and has been playing the sport professionally for four years now. Murphy has an upcoming world championship in London and will be playing full time. The tournament is scheduled for the first of March, and therefore Murphy has 8weeks to train fully.

He trains every day but says that he needs more training to be ready for the championships. Murphy does not have any personal responsibilities and is fully available for the training. The only personal demand given by Murphy was that the training programme is carried out every morning from 5 as he is an early riser. After consulting with Murphy, we came up with the following results:

Name of client: Shaun Murphy

Sport: Baseball

Explain any past experience you have of psychological skills training

I have done psychological training before as it was recommended to me by my coach. My coach says I do not have a lot of concentration and therefore I did this so that I could concentrate more when I was playing. I have done mental rehearsal programmes as well as a lot of self-talk. Other than that I mostly do physical training.

However I can say that the time I did mental rehearsal my performance in the field really improved. My concentration was better as compared to other seasons when I played and therefore I was able to perform better.

Explain your involvement in sport and any important competitions or events coming up.

I have played in two world championships and this year will be my third one. We won both of the previous world championships but in the second one I had a minor arm injury but it has already healed through physical therapy.

I also play in local championship games all over the country and currently I have a three year contract with the Blues.

After undergoing the consultation with Murphy, I was able to identify the following strengths and weaknesses based on the Athlete Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI).

 Murphy works well with a coach as he likes having insight from another person. His coach also helps him focus by ensuring that he is on time and that he is doing his training every day (Christensen and Smith 2016). In other words, his coach is his guidance as he prepares everything from the timetable to the training sessions and gym sessions.

Coping with adversity

Murphy works well with instructions, and that is why he requires a coach as he is able to follow suit what he is told. He listens to correction from his coach and acts on it as soon as possible. He is also very appreciative of his coach and the guidance that he provides.

Murphy easily learns from his mistakes and does not let them put him down. During a game when he fails, he does a lot of self-talk to motivate himself and the coach also chips in to help him. The coach also plays a massive role in Murphy staying positive by assuring him that everything is going to be alright.

Murphy has learned to stay positive during competitions when they are not winning, and also he is able to remain calm in stressful situations (Keilani et al. 2016). After a bad game, he is able to learn from it and puts in more effort in training so that in the next competition, his team will win.

Murphy is very confident in playing baseball and is highly motivated as well. He never misses any training session and he says he’s coach can attest to that. Even on days when he is sick he still wants to train.  When he is not good at something, he works twice as hard to ensure that he perfects it. For example, when his coach is teaching him a new skill, he ensures that he has learned it. His confidence also shows in his games, and he says he always tries to remain positive during games (Ericsson et al. 2018).

Murphy has short-term goals that he wants to accomplish. For instance, his short-term goal as of now is to win the upcoming World Championships that are happening in London. He is also mentally prepared for it as he has made a schedule with the help of his coach, of the training sessions.

His mental preparation also involves him coming up with a game plan of how he is going to perform during the competition. He has thoroughly analyzed the teams that he is going to compete with during the championships (Gano-Overway, Steele, Boyce and Whaley 2017).  With this, he has been able to come up with strategies that he can use to increase his performance and beat his competitors. He is therefore mentally prepared for the game.

Murphy works well under pressure. This is why he prefers having a coach. He says that a coach can train him to work under pressure and that is why he has gained the skills to be able to focus. In pressured situations, his outcome is better as he works twice as hard.

Confidence and achievement motivation

Murphy highly relies on his coach, and he is unable to perform or train without him. He does not have any leadership skills, and this makes him highly dependent on guidance from another person (Lane 2015). Without anyone guiding him, he becomes lost, and he does not know what to do or when to do it. In situations that he does not have guidance, he performs very poorly.

He works well in situations where he is receiving criticism from another person as this helps him in making decisions on what he is supposed to do.

Murphy does not have any long-term goals. He is only able to set short-term goals in regards to what he is going to do, for example, the world championships that will be taking place. Murphy does not set goals for his future career in baseball. He is aware that he will not be playing forever, but he has no idea of what he will do after the World Cup Championships (Lox,Ginis and Petruzzello 2017). 

In his own words, he plans according to what is on the table and dos not mind the future. In this instance, he is not mentally prepared for mishaps that might happen on the way. For example, when he had an arm injury, it took a toll on him, and he was devastated for weeks as his only source of income was playing baseball.

Concentration

Murphy has a short concentration span, and this affects his performance as well. He gets distracted easily when training and even when playing. He says that he does not work well in large crowds as he gets distracted by the audience (Rist, and Pearce 2016.  He works well in an environment that does not contain a lot of distractions, and that is why he trains at home where he has his own training court.

Freedom from worry

Murphy relies a lot on people’s opinions and therefore is constantly worried about what people think about him. This has helped him in motivating him to work harder, but it also affects him at times. He relies too heavily on people’s opinions, and this affects his performance. When he does not receive any criticism, he tends to worry a lot about it. This is because he wants people to rate how he performs so that he can know how to improve.

Murphy is confident but at times can be overconfident and this affects his performance. He believes that he is a great baseball player based in the games that he has won and therefore has high confidence in himself. At times he tends to believe in himself too much that it goes to his head and affects his performance (Smith and McGannon 2017.

Goal setting and mental preparation

Techniques used to improve these weaknesses

The psychological techniques that will be used to improve the above weaknesses are as follows. They are based on the psychological methods:

Motivation

In this area, Murphy will be trained on goal setting in particular long-term goals and how important they are to the continuation of his career. The training involves writing down the goals so that he can be able to process them as only verbalizing will not help. By setting goals, Murphy will be motivated as he will have a set of goals to look forward to achieving and achievement will boost his confidence.

Imagery

Murphy will be trained in mental rehearsal where he is supposed to visualize working under stressful conditions and performing well. The training will involve him visualizing not working with a coach and still being able to train every day. This is because he terms working by himself as a stressful condition and does not perform well (Park, Fairweather and Donaldson 2015). With this, we hope that Murphy will be able to train on his own when the coach is not available. This way he will also not mind other people’s opinions because he will be capable of making his own judgments.

Mental rehearsal will also be used to solve his concentration problem. He will be taught how to visualize different scenarios with distractions and how he will perform (Swann, Moran and Piggott 2015). The mental rehearsal will also be put in practice by putting Murphy in environments with a lot of distractions so that he can be able to focus more on his performance.

Murphy already has confidence problem is that he is overconfident at times. Therefore it is essential that he is trained to be confident enough. Consequently, it will not affect his performance or get over his head. One significant aspect that will be used in this is through self-talk. He will be taught how to encourage himself in tough situations and how to stay positive instead of being overconfident.

The self-talk will also help him in not being worried about people’s opinions too much. This is because he will be able to criticize himself and give himself a pep talk before a game or even after a disappointing game.

In this area, Murphy will be trained how to breathe in and out in situations that are stressful or when he seems to be getting distracted. The breathing controls will help him in being able to concentrate more and thus perform well (Van Raalte and Brewer 2014. 

Peaking under pressure

He will also be trained in mind and muscle techniques as well. Therefore when he puts his mind to focus his muscles are able to relax, and he is able to perform better as well.

SIX-WEEK PLAN

By teaching him mind and muscle techniques, Murphy will be able to gain the skills that he needs to concentrate when playing. This way he will be able to perform better.

By training him in mental rehearsals, Murphy will able to be his own leader and therefore will not rely on his couch for everything (Schweizer and Furley 2016.

By training him on mental imagery, Murphy will be able to be fully mentally prepared for any situation. This will enable him to perform well in the competitions.

By training him on meditation, Murphy will be able to relax and therefore worry less and be stress-free before the games. This will help him in performing as he will be able to concentrate on the game since he will be relaxed (Sparkes 2015.

By training him on breathing control, Murphy will be able to relax more and concentrate as well. Also, it will help him in stressful situations as he will be able to breathe through it.

The primary objective of this weekly program is for Murphy to develop psychological skills that will help him in becoming a better player during the World Championships (Vidic, St. Martin and Oxhandler 2017).

The weekly content of the plan

The following is the weekly content plan which includes the resources that will be used and the techniques.

Week one

In week one, Murphy will be working on mental imagery and rehearsal. He will be doing exercises that involve visualization in stressful environments and him performing well in those scenarios. After the visualization, Murphy will be going to a sports center to put into practice the visualization. As he trains, he will be placed in situations where people are walking, talking or making noise to see whether he can concentrate.

Week two

In week two Murphy will be trained on confidence building. He will perform self-talk exercises by writing down his thoughts, and they will be critiqued to see their effectiveness. He will perform exercises such as giving speeches or talking in front of people so that he can build his confidence (Pelka et al. 2017). We will use the training arena as a place where he will approach strangers and talk to them to also build his confidence.

Concentration

Week three

In this week we will work on motivation. Murphy will perform an exercise of determining his short term and long term goals and writing them down. He will look at his future career with the help of his coach, to help him lay down the goals.

Week four

In this week Murphy will learn on breathing exercises. He will be taught to close his eyes and imagine a beautiful place then breathe in and out slowly (Taha et al. 2018). He will repeat this every single day until he can be able to do it and relax

Week five

Murphy will learn on mind and muscle techniques that help him to relax. He will be taught how to relax his mind and focus it. He will be taken to the arena to put this into practice.

Week six

Murphy will be taught meditation to help him relax for the championships. He will be taught meditation techniques such as the child pose that will help him be relaxed and mentally prepared for the game (Lindahl et al. 2015).  

Strengths

The meditation really helped as Murphy was able to relax before the games. He meditated every morning, and he was able to not worry about the game. He was, therefore, more relaxed when playing.

The mental rehearsals worked in helping Murphy to concentrate. The exercises that we conducted in the arena where he had to play with many distractions really helped him, and he was able to focus during the championships.

The creation of the long-term goals helped him in identifying where he needs to be in the future and what he needs to do as well (Gill, Williams and Reifsteck 2017). This motivated him in playing harder during the championships as it was a stepping stone towards achieving his goals.

Lastly, the breathing exercises also helped as Murphy was able to be more relaxed by breathing calmly. The breathing exercises also helped him in stressful situations by helping him calm down

Areas that need improvement

The mental rehearsal could be done more as Murphy still relies on his coach. He needs to have more exercises where he visualizes training without a coach and still performs well and also puts the visualization in practice. This way he will be able to work on his own (Biernacki et al. 2018).

The self-talk exercises need to be done more as Murphy was able to do it but at some point needed the help of his couch (Englert 2016).  He needs to be able to rely on himself by believing that he can do it. In future, Murphy needs to have self-talks where he encourages himself to be the best.

Freedom from worry

The confidence building exercises were effective but did not help in curbing the overconfidence. Murphy was too overconfident during the exercises that he at times did double the workload as he believed he could do it by himself. In the next psychological training programme, he needs to be taught on how to limit his confidence so that it does not go to his head.

Conclusion

The six-week psychological training program was successful for Shawn Murphy and helped him in building his confidence as well as focusing more when he was playing. The programme was able to equip him with the necessary skills that he needed to perform well at the World Championships in London.

References

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