The performer has answered a couple of questionnaires and from this I am going to be able to get a better picture of the participant. There is additional information about the performer below, however he is not going to be named due to feeling embarrassed. I also like to maintain my professional conduct and I therefore respect the performers choice.
The sport in which performer M competes in is football, he performs at this sport but only at a low level. The performer competes for St Mary's College 2nd Team. The performer does not only play to take part as they are competing in a league table and are only picked to compete for the team.
The performer has to train two times on a weekly basis and this allows them to perform at a consistent level on match days. The performer also competes during the midweek however if the game has been postponed the performer will then have to go and train with the team. This strenuous training programme includes a 1hour 20 minute tactical training on a Monday two days prior to match day. The training programme on a Monday is of high intensity and includes going over tactics and performances. The final day of training is on
Monday where the performers for 1hour 30 minute train their cardiovascular endurance. This training session is totally intense and performers have to rest for long period of time after the session.
The performer has a high psychological demand because they are competing in order to win. The league table below shows how highly competitive the competition is. Therefore the performer has to be highly motivated and also composed to compete in the sport.
The performer's position within the team is right back and the performer has to control their emotional state as they compete. This will be because the performer has to play hard and work hard however has to stay calm in all situations in order for him not to be dismissed from the field of play. The performer will therefore need a slight level of anxiety and arousal because this will place him well on the inverted U graph.
The performer has to be highly motivated because they are the workforce which denies the opposition from scoring. The performer therefore cannot be an energy sapper as this can cause the team to open up as other performers within the team will have to assist the right back.
Furthermore if the performer is highly motivated they will be focused with helping the attackers by pushing forward. However, if the performer is not motivated then they will struggle with the task which has been prescribed to them because they will not be bothered.
The performer also has to be highly cohesive with the rest of the defence because the offside rule will the be applicable. When the performer is not cohesive with the defence, it will be harder for the back four to communicate and keep a straight line. Therefore the performer has to be capable of communicating with the rest of the team giving commands and also listening to tasks.
Reviewing the questionnaires (All scores from the questionnaires are attached at the bottom of the blog)
The ACSI Questionnaire
The performer scored very well in the ACSI questionnaire which assess the performers sport, and the scores can range to a maximum of 84. Performer M has scored significantly high in this questionnaire receiving a score of 74/84, I will now break down the 7 subheadings of the questionnaire to receive a better understanding.
The result from the questionnaire shows that performer M can cope with adversity comfortably. This is where the performer keeps his calm and head up even when he has made a mistake. For performer M as a defender this is very important because not being able to stay positive can lead to a deterioration for the full teams performance. The reason for this is because he is part of the backbone of the team due to opponents beating performer M the opposition will have greater chances of scoring.
However due to performer M being able to maintain his composure whatever the environment, even after making a mistake he would still be an asset to the team. This is very important because in football everybody makes a mistake, but the way the performer reacts is what establishes how good of a player they are.
Performer M is also very open to relevant feedback in terms of his performance, this is extremely important due to players otherwise being disillusioned into believing they always play well. The high score for performer M's coachability also indicates that any instructions given he will accept them. This will then allow him to have an increase in performance because coaches can usually see mistakes better than the players themselves.
The performer has to be highly concentrated for his sport because becoming easily distracted can allow golden opportunities for opponents to score. An example of this would be performer M losing concentration and not staying in line with the defence keeping the strikers onside creating a opportunity.
Performer M on the other hand has scored maximum points this will benefit the performer because he will be very good with his selective attention. Due to the performer having high concentration levels he will be able to maintain a good performance because his surroundings will not affect his own performance.
The performer is also highly motivated to try his best in every single training session and match he will perform in. The evidence for this is because he scored highly under 'confidence and achievement motivation', this shows that Performer M is very task centred and winning matches is a very high priority within his performance. Due to the performer not lacking motivation he will be very keen to improve his skills and this is very vital in order for him to get into the first 11 next year as the squad availability is extremely hard.
The two subheadings which I am going to link together are; peaking under pressure and also freedom from worry. The reason for merging the two subheadings and analysing them together is because they both interlink, being comfortable and not worrying about what others think is vital when having to peak under pressure.
This is because Performer M also has competition to keep his position therefore each game he is having to peak under pressure. However, the performer may not play to the best of his ability if he is worried about what the coach will think if he makes a mistake.
The performer has scored highly in these two subheadings and this is very important for any performer in any sport. Due to the performer not worrying about what others will think if he performers poorly will then control him from peaking under pressure. This is very important due the fact that the performers having scored highly will increase his creativity allowing him to feel comfortable on the ball. From the scores the pressure causes performer M play better because from my analysis circumstantially I believe he enjoys playing under pressure and is able to 'handle the heat in the kitchen'.
Performer M however has scored low in being capable of setting goals and being mentally prepared. This shows that the performer does not have any specific goals or plans before the game. Due to the performer not setting specific performance goals is an indication for the reason for why he is not anxious before competing.
Moreover the performer should still create specific goals because it will be apart of his motivation to accomplish performing well. Also being mentally prepared for the competitive situation can also help and assist playing well on the actual pitch, because you are psyching yourself up.
The Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-28)
The sport motivation scale indicates that Performer M is more intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically. He therefore competes in his sport because he enjoys taking part rather than performing in order to win trophies and to receive praise.
It could be argued that intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation due to the fact that
Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT)
The SCAT test score indicates that the performer has a low level of anxiety, this is very factual and can be cross referenced back to the ACSI test. This is because the ACSI test also showed that he is very composed and does not mind competing in hard testing scenarios.
The low level of anxiety can be good however it can most definatley affect Performer M negatively. The reason for this is because not being anxious may reduce the amount of adrenaline before games causing the player to become casual.
Furthermore being anxious to a certain level can allow the performer to stay calm but also get his body more ready for competition. Therefore although some analysis may argue that his anxiety score is good, my opinion is that his low levels of anxiety may cause his performance to deteriorate.
Swot Analysis
For my SWOT analysis I am going to focus on primarily his psychological strenghts and weaknesses. The reason for this is because Performer M has requested for me to analyse him psychologically therefore analysing his ability may be additional information which he has already achieved.
Strengths
The performers consists of several psychological strengths, and this is what allows him to continue in his sport and perform to a standard where he gets chosen to compete.
The strengths have already been mentioned in the above paragraphs of the blog where I have enhanced the detail of each part of a questionnaire.
Although Performer M does not set any certain goals, his motivation levels proves that he competes to win. This is a really good trait to have because wanting to win and having the will to try hard helps the performer go the extra mile. The extra 10% which the performer may work can have the participant way ahead on selection because he strives to do well.
The performer due to his motivation levels, he can concentrate on competing and playing his position to the best of his ability. His high level of focus keeps him focused on a task which may have been set from the manager, since he does not work towards a personal goal.
The performer is also very confident and does not really stimulate opinions of others into his own mind. When mentioning opinions I am focusing on when performers may put him down, this is important because he has no sense of paranoia. Many performers fear what others may think about them and when they make a mistake they overload their mind into thinking performers are talking bad about them. Performer M does not focus on this and will therefore take on opportunities even when the chances of them being successful are low.
The final strength which I want to focus on is the performer being able to take on board any feedback. This is different to freedom from worry which was mentioned in the above paragraph. Performer M will take criticism to the chin and will then feel more motivated to work harder on that certain aspect.
Other performers are very half hearted and cannot handle being commented negatively. This could be for several reasons such as having too high self-esteem and an ego, which is not the case for Performer M as seen at the bottom through the questionnaire results.
Weaknesses
The performers weaknesses are very few however no one is perfect however he can work towards improving these weaknesses with the training programme which I am going to set up.
The first weakness is that he is too intrinsically motivated, although this is also a strength I have placed it into this category for a certain reason. Performer M cannot only compete to feel good, a reason for this is because he is endangering himself of quitting the sport altogether. Touch wood this would never occur however if he had a severe injury then performing may not feel good in the recovery stage. Does this mean that he would not compete in football again.
Furthermore being slightly extrinsically motivated can help his extrinsic motivation because he will then be capable of performing even better. Performer M may then walk onto the pitch with a reminder that he competes because he enjoys it but also because he wants praise, and trophies for his attribution to the team.
In addition to this the performers anxiety is incredibly low, this can be portrayed as a strength but again I perceive this to be a negative. The reason for this is because not being anxious psychologically means that before the game starts you are not pumped up or focused. Therefore Performer M is then more open to very high anxiety where he starts to overload himself with negative talk.
Moreover from the point above having a certain amount of anxiety will also assist the performer physically. This is because the anxiety can help create within the body adrenaline and this will allow him to exceed certain limits. Also physical anxiety can help the body focus on certain tasks and helps allow the brain to send certain messages to the muscles and organs. For example the heart will start to pump faster before competition and this will allow Performer M to peak earlier than other performer which straight away can affect opponents negatively believing he is better than them.
The final weakness is that Performer M does not mentally prepare before games, setting goals and targets to be achieved. The reason for why this subheading was important is because it allows the performer to be motivated.
Continuing from the above point when Performer M mentally prepares himself for competition, he will be able to execute skills to a finer level. This is because the performer is then able to mentally picture what he is going to do in the game and this can allow the performer to stay in his comfort zone at all times during the competition.
Opportunities
The opportunity which Performer M is available to is that he can follow my 6 week skill training programme, this can allow the performer to improve any weaknesses.
The performer also has the opportunity to fill in more questionnaires and take on additional strategies to improve the weaknesses which have been highlighted above.
Threats
The performer is in threat of becoming injured since the sport is contact and also the participant may not get selected for any further games.
The performer may also have other higher priorities and therefore Performer M may not have time to go over the blog which has been updated for him.
Sign Out
Mohammed Yahyah Patel
P6 Achieved Mohammed
ReplyDeleteWell done Mo, you have successfully created your first post and it’s of extremely high quality. You have completed an excellent assessment of the current psychological strengths and weaknesses of your selected athlete. Describing in detail the psychological demands their sport (football) makes upon them,the pressures of certain positions and related this to both training and in competition stress. You have then used a plethora of questionnaires ACSI, and assessment methods to measure their current psychological skills. The analysis of the profile and questionnaires they completed is highly detailed and extremely thorough with you making some excellent observations, which are nicely summarised in your SWOT analysis. Excellent Work!!!
My only criticism is that the descriptions of the athlete’s questionnaire results are very wordy but a photo’s do aid the presentation of the information ( making it more visual)