Performance Enhancement

Performance enhancement in sports involves psychological training and mental skills development to improve both performance and well-being. Psychological training focuses on improving the psychological aspects necessary for performance. Mental training aims to develop mental skills that contribute to success and personal well-being. Skills training, from a psychological perspective, focuses on improving technical and tactical skills. The action situation in sports involves the interaction of the person, task, and environment. The four levels of action organization in sports involve (1) automatic movements, (2) adjusting movements based on sensory input, (3) mentally representing actions, and (4) controlling thoughts and actions through goal-setting and strategies. These levels help athletes improve their performance by developing reflexes, spatial-temporal awareness, mental imagery, and self-regulation skills.

Authors of this review:

Nikita Goncharenko

Date of Publication:

06/08/2023

Academic Reference:

Performance enhancement (by Sidonio Serpa, 2017)

Tags:sports psychology

Key Ideas

Action situation is a constellation of 3 elements: Person, Task, and Environment.

Basic action concepts (BAC)- representation of complex movements that link functional & sensory features.

4 Levels of Action Organisation: (1) Sensorimotor control (Automatisation training): (1.1) function: regulation; (1.2) sub-function: automatization; (1.3) means: basic reflects. (2) Sensorimotor representation (Sensorimotor training): (2.1) function: representation; (2.2) sub-function: spatial-temporal adjustment; (2.3) means: perceptual effect representations. (3) Mental representation (Cognitive Skill Training, e.g. Imagery): (3.1) function: representation; (3.2) sub-function: effect-orientated adjustment; (3.3) means: basic action concepts. (4) Mental control (Self-regulation training, e.g. Goal-setting): (4.1) function: regulation; (4.2) sub-function: volitional initiation control strategies; (4.3) means: symbols, strategies.

The structural Dimensional Analysis-Motoric (SDA-M) method defines the order of Basic Action Concepts (BACs) in action: athletes define how to do what and in which order (impulses). The correctness of this is built through practices. Then each BAC is learnt separately.

Perceptional-cognitive hypothesis: mental training impacts, internally activates, and stabilizes the representation system. Important: athlete's mental technique representation.

Citations

"Psychological training- a systematic (regular, planned, and controlled) psychological strategy for the enhancement of the psychological prerequisites of performance."

"Mental training - development of sports participants’ mental skills in order to achieve performance success and personal well-being."

"Skills training - from the perspective of psychological training, it aims at improving technical and/or tactical skills."

External References

Vealey, R. (2007). Mental skills training in sport. In Tenenbaum G. and Eklund R. (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley and sons. p. 287-309.