week 6- Attribution Retraining

Hi Performer M,

Hope you are well today we are going through your attribution retraining, as it is the final week this will wrap everything up to increase your performance.

The attribution theory highlights the reasons we give for the performers performance to 4 sub categories.
These 4 categories are: Ability, Task difficulty, Effort and Luck.

Ability is whether you as the performer is whether you are good enough against the competitors or whether they are not good enough.
The task difficulty means were the opponents who they played against were too good or the expectation was too high.
Effort is dependent on the performers and if they knew the expectation which was not accomplished.  This could be because the team and yourself was not prepared to play from training.
Luck is also crucial in the game because this can change the game for example winning the toss in football, and swapping sides and this causes you in the second half to have the wind with you.

Ability and task difficulty is seen as stable, because the ability which you possess does not change. Also task difficulty is stable because this is how the other team are going to compete.  On the other hand effort and luck is perceived as unstable because this is something which you cannot control.

This is the Weiner's attribution model which is being explained above. 

Through conversations which we've had about the teams performance, you are very critical about your teammates but never yourself.  When the team loses a game you are very quick to point out the mistakes from others, and feel as though you played the game of your life.
However when the team go on with success in games which you win, you will make statements such as "I was in form today."  This is known as self-serving bias.

What we want to do is understand who is to blame when the team is successful and also unsuccessful.   To begin with what you need to understand is how performances can affect two key factors. The first is expectancy and future motivation, this is in regards to the stability dimension and whether it can change.   Therefore if something is stable it should be expected for the next game which you play, however if it is unstable this suggests its unpredictable and can change.

The second factor is known as emotion and self-confidence, as it can decrease motivation and self belief.  This is dependant on whether it is due to internal factors or external factors. An example of this would be internal success which gathers pride that brings confidence, an internal failure would make the performer have guilt.

On the other hand external success would bring about the desire of being please but underwhelmed and external failure would make you feel cheated. However, internalising performance can be positive as you personally can control this factor.  Whereas externalising performance means that the reason is uncontrollable and this may lead to a negative attitude and loss of control.

Now after understanding what attribution theory is what we want you to improve is having a better understanding on who is to blame.  This does not mean I want you to point the finger to yourself however to become more realistic when criticising why you lost a game.  The reason for why I am doing this is because it will only come to benefit you, this way you are not playing music into your own ears.  You are being honest and this will allow you to realise, okay this wasn't the best game I've played so now I have to try harder at training because my speed was lacking.

This will also give you additional motivation, because you will also be able to conclude if you and the team were just not good enough with ability.  You may also look at factors which you couldn't control, this isn't your fault or the teams and this will custom you to take losses on the chin knowing how to bounce back from them.

Therefore what I want you to do is set certain goals for yourself during the game, once you have finished the game go back to the goals check list.  When you do so tick which goals you completed successfully and don't tick the ones which you didn't.  Then look at the four factors and mark next to the goal which factor led to you not being able to achieve the goal.  Once you have got your opinion marked, you should then ask a team mate for their opinion.  Then you will be able to understand what needs working on and whether your efforts were the problem, or was it something which you could not control.

This will help you not only have a better critical self analysis of yourself and the games, but also help aide you into understanding what needs improving in your performances.  Therefore it is important that you follow this weeks blog and I hope the other 5 blogs are still being used.

I hope these blogs have assisted you with your performances, and all the very best with your sports and college. Next time you see me in college a thank you and a box of chocolates will do.

Thanks for Your Time
Final sign off
Mohammed Yahyah Patel

http://www.simplypsychology.org/attribution-theory.html

Week 5- Improving awareness

Week number-5

Date- 25/04/14 

Aim of the week- Improving awareness

Hi Performer M hope you are well. 

Today we are going to focus on improving your awareness, this is because from the performance profile this was one of the lower scores.  

In football awareness is very important because this allows you to stay close to your opponent when marking. There are several opportunities where the performer has to be aware of the environment because you can help your team.  For example if the center back has two players close to him if you become aware of that the center back can be aided.  Also staying aware can create opportunities when attacking because you will be better with decision making.

Awareness is having the knowledge or perception of the situation or fact within the environment which you are present in.  The greater awareness you have the better ability you have to analyse and interpret situations which allows you to execute optimal movements for maximal performance. The earlier you can become aware of something the earlier you can change your action and deal with the actual scenario which has changed. 

There are three different components of awareness which must be recognized. The three components need to be addressed in order to improve awareness altogether. The three components are; recognition, reaction and correction. 

Recognition is where you are able to quickly analyse the situation at that present time, such as your position on the field of play.   This then helps you to understand what movements you will need to perform in order to be successful.   If you were not able to realize the current situation in the game then no matter how much ability you have it is of no point.

Reaction leads on from recognition because this is where you make the decision to perform whatever skill. Your reaction time will be greater than of an elite athletes because you are still having to think and apply the though movement choice.  You still do not have to think about the movement as other performers because you have been competing in this sport since your childhood years. 

The final part is correction and this is the ability from you to perform the actual skill which will change game situations positively for your team.  You are able to correct yourself when making the wrong decision and continue without jeopardizing your teammates.

Therefore to improve your awareness I have developed a task which should commence from your next training session.  The role which I want you to adapt to is taking part in a drill whilst other drills are going on in the same area.  This will improve your awareness because you may be doing a dribbling drill inside the square but within the same square a passing and tackling drill is going on.  What this will make you work on is being aware of your surroundings, because I am sure you do not want to get hit by the ball or dribble in the way of someone tackling.

Gradually training sessions where this even happens for 20 minutes it will increase your awareness, this is because your mind is adapting to the environment.  This is also important for when you compete because your opponents, are not always playing in zones.  Therefore, with the task I have set you will also be aware of your opponents during the game and this will increase your decision making.

The long term task which would be best for you to do in friendlies and training is to play in different positions. The reason for why this is being suggested is because the purpose is to foster better awareness.  Therefore, it is better for you to be given a whole range of experiences all over the pitch.  Once you have a better understanding on the demands of different positions, allows you to make the most of your team mates.

Also once you go back to your position it will also become innate for you to have a rough idea of where your team mates are standing. The reason for this is because you have been in that position yourself and therefore without having to pay much attention your awareness is vast.  This is important for you as a right back because if there is a counter attack for the opposition you need to be aware of what is going on.  For example how many players are attacking, which player is the biggest threat and most importantly who else is defending with you.

All the best with this weeks training program and contact me if there are any questions.

Thanks Mohammed Yahyah Patel
 
Sign off

http://www.2athletes.com/Skills/Awareness/awareness-training-for-sports.html