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MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

How Do You Explain Away Your Sporting Success.....and Failure?

How performers explain or attribute their sporting performance has a significant impact on their expectations and emotional reactions, which in turn influence future achievement.

In order to achieve sporting excellence it is imperative that athletes demonstrate and focus upon positive attributions; ones that are stable, such as their ability.

Attributing performance to these stable factors has a positive impact on performance and has been associated with expectations of future success. Focusing on these factors can be carried from one event to another; they are a constant and because of an athlete’s awareness of this then this should provide a similar outcome in future sporting events.

Alternatively, focusing on negative, unstable or external factors outside of an athlete’s control will have a detrimental impact on their sporting performance as all of these will mean that an athlete will not expect sporting success with any degree of frequency due to the variable nature of all of these factors. This will lead to the athlete feeling that their performance is out of their immediate control and as a result their motivation and confidence levels will be less. In the long term this will have a significant impact on the athlete’s enjoyment and success in their chosen sport.

Gavin Wilson
MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

What Is Motivation Exactly?

Sports psychologist Ian Lynagh, father of former Australian rugby league captain Michael Lynagh describes motivation as “The development and maintenance of a drive to succeed".

He goes onto explain that the most mature reason why people do sport is because of the challenge of wanting to establish control over a task. He then adds that it becomes more of an intrinsic striving, an internal challenge, than the desire for status or other extrinsic things such as prestige and rewards, getting a medal. He continues “Sport provides a process of learning to grow as a human being. Most sports are stupid or meaningless. But we identify a difficult challenge in sport so that we need to train and develop skills, which involves self-discipline and self-management and taking responsibility. It’s all about factors that help humans grow to become more than we are”.

For me this is an excellent definition of the term “motivation” and he goes onto explain it well. The fascinating thing that Lynagh gets at is that he sees motivation in sport as not specifically about sport or its external rewards, such as trophies and medals, but more about motivating oneself to improve as a person.

This links into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the five different levels that can be attained. I believe to be motivated in sport, you have to have that drive, that determination in other aspects of your life too – it needs to be intrinsic and you must focus on the task in hand, and not the final outcome. And vice versa.

An athlete’s values and beliefs also link into this and a need to take a personal responsibility and pride in their development and what they want to achieve, in sport and in their everyday life.
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To conclude, motivation in sport can be taught although a person’s general personality traits, beliefs, values and strive for personal intrinsic improvement heavily influence future sporting success.

If you, or your team, would like some help with the complex area of motivation please just get in touch with us and one of our Peak Performance Consultants can arrange a one on one session or group session.

Thank you,

Gavin Wilson
Senior Sports Performance Coach
MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

Go and Be a Super Hero!

Why does the incredible Superman stand the way he does? Why are all super heroes standing with such massive size and great confidence?

Remember the Super Heroes from the 70s and early 80s? When they stood together they looked like one huge force? Why? Why do they stand like that?

A colleague sent me an article on “power posing” the other day and I thought I would get it out to you guys. Is it a half-truth? Is it mental mumbo jumbo? I’ll ask you a question after you read the article and we’ll see what you think.

(The article is courtesy of Miller-McCune.com)

POWER POSES REALLY WORK

Researchers find that assuming a powerful body position helps you feel powerful, act more self-confident and raise testosterone.

How strong is the power of suggestion? For researchers in the field of embodied cognition as it relates to and influences the body — suggestion is a force to be reckoned with. Rooted in psychology, linguistics and neurobiology, embodied cognition has established links between movement and the mental state. A 2008 study published in Discover magazine, for example, found a tie between facial expressions and emotive perceptions. A recent report on a study from the Netherlands found that upward motions elevated mood.

New research published in the journal Psychological Science continues this discussion. A team led by Dana R. Carney, assistant professor at Columbia University, examined the psychological, physiological and behavioral effects of body positioning.

The researchers studied 42 participants (26 females and 16 males). Subjects were assigned poses that indicated either a high or low display of power and were told to hold positions for two simple one-minute intervals. Feelings of power were measured through self-report.

By collecting saliva samples from test subjects before and after body positioning, researchers measured levels of hormones linked to displays of power.

Cortisol, a stress hormone, often increases with feelings of powerlessness. Testosterone levels rise from cues that encourage or reflect dominance.

After they finished posing, participants were given some money and a chance to gamble to assess risk aversion. Handed $2, subjects were told they could roll a die to double their money or lose it all. Feelings of power were measured again through self-report.

The researchers found that high-power posers were more likely than low-power posers to focus on reward. Eighty-six percent of these participants modified their behavior by gambling, while 60 percent of low-power posers took the risk. High-power posers also reported feeling significantly more powerful than their low-power counterparts.

Hormone levels also indicated a difference between high- and low-power posers. High-power posers showed an increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol; lower-power posers saw a decrease and an increase, respectively.

These findings push the understanding of embodied cognition into the realm of physiology and motivation, as body movement is linked to mood and behavior. This also suggests that psychological constructs, like power or introversion, can have roots in a pattern of nonverbal physical cues. Rather than mind over matter, perhaps we should think mass over mind?

So do you believe it? I sure do, and so did Superman. So there must be some truth in it.

Here is my question… How many successful athletes stand with their arms held close and their bodies slouched downward?

Let me think about it. Uh, NONE! You never see positive, confident people slouching, looking down, hands wrapped around their mid-section, do you?

So what to do? Start standing with your head high, your chest out, hands on your hips and show the world your confidence.

Do you want to psych your competitors out? Well go and be a Super Hero.

PS. Cape and knickers worn over your trousers are optional!!!!!


Jessica De La Souza
MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com