Competitive strategies among elite female gymnasts: An exploration of the relative influence of psychological skills training and natural learning experiences

Calmels, Claire; d’Arripe-Longueville, Fabienne; Fournier, Jean; Soulard, Amélie

doi:10.1080/1612197x.2003.9671724

Cited by 41 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Therefore, any mental technique employed by these athletes has been learned intuitively through the experience of playing rugby (or other sports) or learned informally as taught or modeled by significant others within their sporting context. The current results support previous studies that have found mental techniques developed through natural learning experiences may be categorized into personal, team, and environmental strategies (Calmels, D'Arripe-Longueville, Fournier, & Soulard, 2003;Holt, Tink, Mandigo, & Fox, 2008). It seems prudent for sport psychology consultants, who are working with young athletes within a formal mental skills training program, to probe for and then build on such mental techniques already in the athlete's repertoire.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…For example, too few studies appear to consider broader life skills when implementing performance based interventions with youth athletes (Visek et al, 2009). The range of techniques employed by the youth athletes found in this and others studies (e.g., Calmels et al, 2003) also suggests that MST program designers should consider the inclusion of less commonly used mental techniques (e.g., the compartmentalization of negative as well as positive game performances).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mental Qualities and Employed Mental Techniques of Young Elite Team Sport Athletes

Holland

Woodcock

Cumming

et al. 2010

Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology

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Research on the psychological characteristics of elite performers has primarily focused on Olympic and World champions; however, the mental attributes of young developing and talented athletes have received less attention. Addressing this, the current study had two aims: (a) to examine the perceptions held by youth athletes regarding the mental qualities they need to facilitate their development and (b) to investigate the mental techniques used by these athletes. Forty-three male youth rugby players participated in a series of focus groups. Inductive content analysis revealed 11 categories of psychological qualities, including enjoyment, responsibility, adaptability, squad spirit, self-aware learner, determination, confidence, optimal performance state, game sense, attentional focus, and mental toughness. Techniques employed included personal performance strategies, reflection on action, taking advantage of a supportive climate, and team-based strategies. Findings are discussed in relation to their implications for mental skills training program development and evaluation in the case of youth elite team sport athletes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Qualities and Employed Mental Techniques of Young Elite Team Sport Athletes

Holland

Woodcock

Cumming

et al. 2010

Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology

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“…These items are designed to reflect different functions of imagery; however, when researchers change the question asked of athletes, the items may also be used to examine the content of imagery. Results from these types of studies have shown that some of the images on the SIQ were used by athletes for functions for which they were not intended (e.g., Callow & Waters, 2005;Calmels, D'Arripe-Longueville, Fournier, & Soulard, 2003;Evans, Jones, & Mullen, 2004;Fish, Hall, & Cumming, 2004;Nordin & Cumming, 2005;Short et al, 2002;Short, Monsma, & Short, 2004;Short, Zostautas, & RossStewart, 2008). For example, Short et al (2004) examined the individual items on the SIQ and found that all of them were perceived by athletes to serve multiple functions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

The Frequency and Perceived Effectiveness of Images Used to Build, Maintain, and Regain Confidence

Ross-Stewart

Short

2009

Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

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This exploratory study investigated the content of the images athletes use to build, maintain, and regain their confidence. It also investigated their perceptions of the effectiveness of images for these confidence sub-functions. Participants were 142 college student athletes (60% female) from the central north area of the United States or Canada. Participants completed a modified version of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Stevens, & Paivio, 2005). Data were analyzed using a repeated measures design at the subscale level, and using descriptive statistics at the item level. For imagery use, there was a significant main effect for imagery subscales, confidence sub-functions, and a significant interaction between the imagery subscales and confidence sub-functions (p < .05). For imagery effectiveness, there were significant main effects for both imagery subscales and confidence sub-functions. At the individual item level, analyses revealed that athletes used different images depending on whether they were building, maintaining, or regaining confidence, and that the images that were the most used were not always perceived to be the most effective. In general, the results provide sport psychology researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of the imagery-confidence relationship. The item level results are particularly meaningful for sport psychology practitioners because they indicate which images athletes used and perceived to be the most effective for building, maintaining, and regaining confidence.Imagery is considered to be one of the most popular performance enhancement techniques or psychological skills because of its versatility in affecting several different outcomes. According to Paivio (1985), imagery has both cognitive and motivational functions when influencing behavior, and can operate on both specific and general levels. Using this framework as their basis, Hall, Mack, Paivio, and Hausenblas (1998;Hall, Stevens, & Paivio, 2005) developed the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ) to measure how often athletes use these functions of imagery. Based on exploratory factor analysis results, they operationalized five functions of imagery: cognitive specific (CS: imaging specific perceptual motor skills), cognitive general (CG: imaging strategies), motivation specific (MS: imaging goal oriented responses), motivation general-arousal (MG-A: imaging arousal), and motivation general-mastery (MG-M: imaging mastering challenging situations). Paivio's (1985) framework and the corresponding SIQ subscales were used as the centerpieces of the applied model of imagery use proposed by Martin, Moritz, and Hall (1999). In this model, these five imagery functions (or imagery types as called by Martin et al.) were linked with specific psychological and behavioral outcomes (i.e., the result of imagery; Murphy, Nordin, & Cumming, 2006).

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“…motor imagery (Calmels et al, 2003). Likewise, recent studies, for example, those of Andrew et al (2007) and Demuth et al (2007) have shown that mental skills like motivation, stress reaction, fear control, self-confidence, relaxation and mental effectiveness are the most characterizing mental traits of the elite athletes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mental coaching can be thus defined as a set of techniques which the athlete learns then applies in an autonomous way in order to develop his psychological abilities and to optimize his performance (Baert & Dufour, 2007;Calmels et al, 2003) and it includes a set of techniques which the athlete needs to sharpen the sporting gesture and copy with the stress and their generating influences. Similarly, a regular practice of the physical activity supports a reduction of the depressive symptoms and the reinforcement of the psychological wellbeing (Guillot et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Mental Imagery and Cardiac Coherence on Mental Skills of Tunisian Karate Players at School Age

Hamrouni¹,

Alem²,

Baert³

et al. 2015

APE

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The aim of our research consisted in checking the influence of the mental coaching using the mental imagery and relaxation based on cardiac coherence, on the improvement of the cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions of the Tunisian karate Elite at school age. Our study was about to check if the Tunisian karate Elite at school age who had undergone a mental coaching has a better mental profile than their counterparts of other sporting disciplines and karate players with usual training method. Our sample consisted on an experimental group (N = 24 athletes) and control group (N = 22 athletes), all aged from 16 to 19 years. The experimental group followed for 10 months a psychological and mental coaching. The control group continued to train normally for the same period of time. To assess the mental skills of the participants, we used the OMSAT-3 (Guelmami et al., 2014). Our study showed that a 10 month mental coaching was needed to improve 4 mental skills, i.e. "goal setting" "relaxation", "imagery" and "mental practices". Our findings sustained the importance of a three-dimensional mental coaching in relation to one basic skill (goal setting), a psychosomatic skill (relaxation) and two cognitive skills (imagery and mental practice).

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Competitive strategies among elite female gymnasts: An exploration of the relative influence of psychological skills training and natural learning experiences

Cited by 41 publications

References 43 publications

Mental Qualities and Employed Mental Techniques of Young Elite Team Sport Athletes

Mental Qualities and Employed Mental Techniques of Young Elite Team Sport Athletes

The Frequency and Perceived Effectiveness of Images Used to Build, Maintain, and Regain Confidence

The Effects of Mental Imagery and Cardiac Coherence on Mental Skills of Tunisian Karate Players at School Age

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