| It seems that every fall, with the beginning of Football Season, I begin to get calls from concerned parents. I have been inundated lately by calls and contacts from the parents of young athletes who are concerned about the negative reinforcement that their children receive from their coaches. Although I can do little to change coaching style, I can offer some insight into the general effects of punishment, negative reinforcement, on performance.
Because punishment is such a prominent and widespread means of controlling behavior in our society we should not be surprised to find that many coaches use it. To eliminate or reduce mistakes many coaches simply punish the athletes who make mistakes. This negative reinforcement can come in many forms but often it is expressed as anger and screaming. When anger and screaming are the primary tools, fear of failure is usually the result.
Because fear interferes with the optimal functioning of the muscles and organs of the body, players who develop a strong fear of failure are much more prone to choke under pressure than those who do not develop strong fears.
Whether we get our fear of failure as the result of our coach's teaching style or some other source, choking is a phenomenon that seems to affect us all. It is something that most athletes, and others, experience at least once in their competitive careers. Almost all of us experience and talk about it but few of us have an operational definition for choking.
Choking can be operationally defined as the progressive deterioration of performance that the athlete seems unable to stop without outside assistance. In general, the more important the performance or competition the greater the potential for fear of failure and choking. We can reduce the likelihood of choking by:
- Avoiding coaches and coaching styles that use punishment as the primary source of reinforcement
- Learning to use Voluntary Relaxation
- Mentally rehearsing the performance and the emotional and physical conditions that will be present
- Learning how to recover when mistakes are made or circumstances turn against us
- Building confidence in our ability to perform well
- Redirecting attention from the "Outcome" of a performance to the "Process" of performing well
Choking can be operationally defined as a progressive deterioration of performance that the athlete seems unable to stop without outside assistance.
Choking is thought to occur when physical arousal continues to escalate beyond the optimal level. This condition of over arousal, or being "Psyched up", causes an involuntary narrowing of concentration. Typically the focus of the choking athlete's concentration moves from a broader, external focus to a more narrow, internal one.
When attempting to understand the phenomenon of choking it is useful to think of attentional focus as being made up of four basic types:
Broad-external - used to quickly evaluate a situation
Broad-internal - used to analyze and plan
Narrow-external - used to focus on one or two external cues
Narrow-internal - used to focus on one or two internal cues
An athlete in the process of choking usually has their attention move progressively from broad-external (the position of my teammates and the runners on base for example) or internal focus (what to do if a runner attempts to steal) towards a more narrow-internal focus (how bad I will feel if I let a runner score).
As the definition above implies, once choking has begun it is difficult for the athlete to stop the process without outside assistance. In fact, while we can learn effective techniques to slow, and in some cases stop, the process once it has begun and put in place strategies and techniques to reduce the tendency to choke, we can not eliminate choking. Here are three suggestions that can help you slow or stop the process:
- When you or the situation begin to get "tight", begin to take deep, belly breaths
- When you start thinking of Outcome, immediately direct your attention to Process
- When negative self-talk begins to occur use Thought-Stopping to re-establish positive self-talk
When a coach needs to intervene because the athlete can not stop the choking process the coach should:
1.Make eye contact and be sure to get the athlete's attention
2.Direct attention to neutral, non-performance related matters ("What did you eat for lunch?" for example)
3.Give simple instructions to attend to a specific process cue
4.Provide support and structure to facilitate the redirection of the athlete's attention (Don't yell, belittle, threaten or loose your temper)
Remember, we cannot eliminate choking altogether but we can reduce the probability that it will occur and slow or stop the process once it has begun.
|
