A PSYCHOLOGICAL
APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE
COACHING IN SPORTS
Prof. D. K. Dureha
BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY
Department of Physical Education
Faculty of Arts
INTRODUCTION
In modern competitive sports Psychological preparation
of a team is as much important as teaching the different
skills of a game on scientific lines .The teams are
prepared not only to play the games, but also to win the
games, and for winning the games it is not only the
proficiency in the skills which bring victory but more
important is the spirit and attitude of the players with
which they play and perform their best in the competition.
The mental attitude of an individual player or a team can
help either to overcome many obstacles for victory or
can lead to unexpected defeat. Most of the foreign
coaches agree that the physical characteristics, skills
and training of the players are extremely important; but
they also indicate that good mental preparation for
competition is a necessary component for success. But
some of my Indian Coach don't agree with this. Reason
don't know.
In western countries much stress had been
given on the mental preparation of their
national teams as well as on the
psychological condition of their players and
sportsman. But on the other side little
attention has been paid to the psychological
preparation of the players and teams in our
country. Because Coaches do not share their
experience with experts neither even the
Psychologist don't want to go on the sport's
field and interact with players nor eager to
know about the game.
Singer (1972) given a pyramid on which the
skill proficiency stands the Coaches must
understand that game proficiency depends
upon various factor given in this pyramid.
Before the coach starts giving training to the
players according to their different needs,
abilities and capacities, he must understand
the pyramid on which the skill proficiency of a
game stands, beside the personality of the
coach and his ability to influence the attitudes
of the team members.
Game (Skill) Proficiency
Coach's Guidance
Influence of culture family, peer group
Interest, Motivation
State of Training
Prior game experiences Learned skills
Childhood experiences
Hereditary factors, e.g. physical characteristics, innate abilities
Foundation blocks in building game excellence
Courtesy: Singer, R.N. Coaching, Athletics and psychology,
1972, P. 359
Coach had the job of helping the athlete
to develop his talent and skills to their
full potential. This includes developing
not only the athlete's innate physical
attributes, but also his attitudinal,
motivational and psychological traits.
Physical talent and mental attitudes are
both a part of performance, and if the
coach develops one and not the other,
he is not meeting his full coaching
responsibilities.
There are two significantly different
situations in sports
• Training Situations:- Training is
preparation for competition.
• Competitive Situations:- Competition
is test of the effectiveness of previous
training.
The essential difference is the psychological stress
present in the competitive situation. Sports training
involves preparation in a complex combination of
physical, technical, tactical and psychological
factors. Training is characterized a pre-dominance
of physical loads (physio-psychic), whereas
competition is characterized by a pre-dominance of
psychic stress (psycho-physical). These differences
between training and competition are of great
importance in every game. Hence the players need
to have adequate psychic stress during training that
will help to develop his resistance to psychic stress
during competition. They need to provide task in
training that bring training closer to competition
[e.g. Less Education to players in Sports
Hostel/Colleges - less I.Q. effects performance].
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION AND
PROFORMANCE
• Most of the coaches feel that psychological preparation of
the players is not very essential but we wish to expect the
best result from players. In my opinion psychological
preparation does affect and boost up their performance
during competition, because it has been observed that
many big athletes, in spite of their best skills, fumble or are
unable to show their best during competition due to some
psychic factors, i.e. anxiety, fear, tension or any other
emotional problem specially if they are not prepared
mentally to resist these psychological obstacles. Hence
there is a relationship between psychological preparation
and the performance of the athletes. The purpose of the
psychological preparation is to contribute to maximum
performance, (eg.:- 1. Balrishan Singh (ex Indian Hockey
Coach)approach towards Indian team.2. Dr Akhil
Mehrotra(ex SAI Hockey Coach) approach towards hockey
players.)
PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION
There are three main areas of
psychological preparation which should
be emphasized during the training
period.
• Knowledge about the game/sports
dealing with (Intellectual)
• Psychological
• Social
Areas Different Fulfilling the Need Inter relationship
Aspects for process
Knowledge -Tactical/system of
1.Knowledge about game play
about the -Technical skills
game & -Physical
sports development of
(Intellectual) players
Optimum Terminal
-Winning - Giving
Performance Objective
peak performance
-Activation
2.Psycho- Motivation
-Inter-action
physiological -Emotion
-Affiliation
-Aspiration
-Cohesion
-Between
-Co-operation
3. Social the
individual, - Group production
coach and
the team
PLANNING FOR
PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION
The psychological preparation of a team
includes both the immediate and the long
term, general and specific, psychological
training of the players. The planning, for
psychological preparation may start over a
period of one year or more, keeping in view
the objectives to be attained by the entire
team, This preparation is not achieved
spontaneously and at a specific time. That
kind of preparation corresponds to a rather
long process depending on the individuals.
The planning may be done intelligently only after a
period of intensive evaluation of the following aspects:
• Knowledge about the game.
• The psychological, physical and technical
states of the individual member of the
team.
• The level of aspiration and motivation of
individuals.
• The resources available in terms of time,
money and other facilities.
• The preparation should be based on the
terminal objectives.
The following general guidelines of psychological
preparation also presented in brief:-
1.Psychological preparation must start by giving important
information about the competition to the sportsman. This enables
the sportsman to be mentally prepared for the competition.
• Performance to be achieved.
• Importance of the competition.
• Time and date of competition.
• External conditions expected during competition e.g.,
ground, weather, light conditions, audience etc.
• Opponents, their performance level, strong and week
points etc.
• Referees, judges, umpires etc.
• Anxiety and psychic symptoms of pre-stan state.
• Training state and performance of the sportsman
himself.
• Other information regarding the living conditions, food,
relevant social and political factors.
2.The optimum state of readiness for
competition depends, to a great
extent, on the level of confidence
which is required. The sportsman
should be convinced that he has
the required level-of performance
capacity for achieving his aim. He
should not be over confident.
3.A competition plan based on
actual facts and the
performance capacity of the
sportsman. He should know
all the details of the
competition plan including
the exact manner of
implementing it in the
competition plan/situation.
4.New and unexpected situations
tend to give rise to anxiety and
psychic tension. Therefore, it is
extremely important to expose
the sportsman to conditions and
situations expected during
competition.
5.Each sportsman is affected differently
by different conditions and situations.
Some tend to excite the sportsman
whereas the others tend to pacify
him. During preparation for an
important competition the coach and
sportsman must try to find out
various things, exercises, objects,
persons, situations etc. which excite
or pacify the sportsman.
6.Sportsman should be taught to use
psycho-regulative procedures
e.g., autogenous training for
regulating their own psychic
state before and during the
competition.
The last one or two days before the
competition are vary crucial. By now the
physical and tetnno-tactical preparation of
the sportsman for the competition is ahoost
over. But psychological preparation must
continue as most of the sportsmen tend to
get into the pre-start state which according
to Puni (1980) can be of three types i.e.,
optimum readiness' start fever and start
apathy.
For this purpose the following
things may be done:-
1. Psycho-regulative procedures can be used but these should
have been already learnt and mastered by the sportsman
during training.
2. Certain physio-therapeutic measures like massage, sauna
bath, contrast bath etc., can also be used for increasing or
decreasing the state of activation. Heavy message, however,
should be avoided,
3. Sportsmen who are over activated should be advised to stay
with persons/sportsmen who are calm and composed.
Similarly, sportsmen who show start apathy can be activated by
associating them with those who show optimum level of
activation.
4. Training has a profound effect on the level of activation. The
level of activation can be brought down by suitable high training
load. But precaution should be taken to ensure optimum
recovery for the competition. Active rest 1-2 days before the
competition is better than complete rest.
5. Sportsman should not stay idle. He should be engaged in
some activities so that he does not keep thinking about the
competition.
6. The level of activation can be reduced or decreased by
stressing the importance of the competition, many sportsmen
unconsciously perceiving the competition to be a personal
threat to their ego and status. This fear should be removed
through discussions and talks.
7. The coach or the teacher should not himself get over
excited because this will excite the sportsman also.
8. A direct contact of the sportsman with the psychologist
should be avoided as it will lead the sportsman to the belief
that he is lacking in some respect, thereby lowering his
confidence.
9. Warm up before the competition has a high
psychic and physiological importance. The
procedure of warm up should have already
been worked out through trial and error in
the past weeks, depending upon the
psychic state and personality of the
sportsman he should warm up alone or in a
group, away from his opponents. After the
warm up there should be a rest pause of
about 5 minutes during which the
sportsman should try to prepare himself
mentally for the competition activity.
CONCLUSION
The importance of psychological preparation of a
team for competition cannot be denied and
should never be underestimated. Most of the
coaches do not agree about how to help the
players to develop their mental attitude. But each
coach seems to have his own techniques which
work for him. Nevertheless, the development of
an appropriate mental attitude, set or preparation
is an integral part of the sports competition. The
psychological aspects for performance involves
the preparation that the player undergoes to be
ready himself for giving the peak performance in
the sports competition.
