Brief Online Training Enhances Competitive Performance: Findings of the BBC Lab UK Psychological Skills Intervention Study

Abstract

In conjunction with BBC Lab UK, the present study developed 12 brief psychological skill interventions for online delivery. A protocol was designed that captured data via self-report measures, used video recordings to deliver interventions, involved a competitive concentration task against an individually matched computer opponent, and provided feedback on the effects of the interventions. Three psychological skills were used; imagery, self-talk, and if-then planning, with each skill directed to one of four different foci: outcome goal, process goal, instruction, or arousal-control. This resulted in 12 different intervention participant groups (randomly assigned) with a 13th group acting as a control. Participants (n = 44,742) completed a competitive task four times—practice, baseline, following an intervention, and again after repeating the intervention. Results revealed performance improved following practice with incremental effects for imagery-outcome, imagery-process, and self-talk-outcome and self-talk-process over the control group, with the same interventions increasing the intensity of effort invested, arousal and pleasant emotion. Arousal-control interventions associated with pleasant emotions, low arousal, and low effort invested in performance. Instructional interventions were not effective. Results offer support for the utility of online interventions in teaching psychological skills and suggest brief interventions that focus on increasing motivation, increased arousal, effort invested, and pleasant emotions were the most effective.

Effects of Reflection to Improve Goal-Directed Self-Talk on Endurance Performance

“…The absence of performance feedback during the task meant that participants could not develop schema on how they could use feedback from performance to gauge how much effort to use. Self-talk can raise emotional arousal which can lead to improved performance via increased effort [ 4 ]. Further, research has indicated that it is possible to learn self-talk to raise arousal using brief interventions [ 4 ].…”

“…Psychological qualities such as improved confidence can be developed via skills training [ 3 ]. Skills found to be effective in improving endurance performance include cognitively based approaches such as the use of imagery, self-talk, and goal setting [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. In the present study, we focus specifically on self-talk, which can be defined as an act of syntactically recognizable communication [ 7 ], articulated either out loud or as a voice inside the head [ 8 ], addressed to the self, with interpretative elements associated to its content [ 9 ].…”

Body Weight and Mood State Modifications in Mixed Martial Arts: An Exploratory Pilot

“…Increasing the usual amount of exercise and adjusting diet in long-term appear to be the most appropriate procedures when performed throughout the competitive season (26). b) When considering the psychological aspects related to weight reduction, athletes consider acute weight loss as a mentally important part of the pre-competitive preparation (23,24). c) The individuals who are the most influential in teaching athletes strategies for weight loss are typically the coach, training partners or former athletes, educational programs should focus on providing them with full explanations of how to properly advise MMA fighters about weight management procedures (14).…”

The effects of facial expression and relaxation cues on movement economy, physiological, and perceptual responses during running

“…Consequently, whether relaxation cues can be effective as part of the brief contact interventions accessible to the majority of athletes (e.g., online, at pre-race events; Lane et al, 2016;Meijen, Day, & Hays, 2016) remains to be seen. Furthermore, which cues are most effective to induce relaxation is unknown.…”