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Visuo-Motor Behavior Rehearsal _______________________________________________________________________________________

M. L. Sunni developed visuo-motor behavior rehearsal (VMBR) in 1972 as an adaptation of Wo1pe’s desensitization procedures for humans. Suinn used the process of desensitization with his patients to overcome various phobias. For example, a patient fearing heights would be desensitized to this phobia through a series of systematic approximations to the fearful stimuli. Although Suinn used VMBR to treat people with depressions, he was especially interested in applying the techniques to athletes. His particular method of training consisted of relaxing the athlete’s body by means of a modified version of Jacobson’s progressive relaxation techniques. He had the athlete practicing imagery related to the demands of the athlete’s sport, or to practice a specific skill in a lifelike stressful environment.

Basically, VMBR combines relaxation and imagery into one procedure. It also requires the athlete to mentally practice a specific skill under simulated game conditions. Theoretically, this would be better than actual practice, since the practice environment rarely resembles a game situation. Coaches and teachers typically go to great lengths to minimize distractions to their athletes during practice sessions. VMBR teaches the athlete to use relaxation and imagery techniques to create lifelike situations.

Theoretically, going through these stressful experiences mentally should make it easier to deal with the stress of actual competition. Suinn recommends the use of internal kinesthetic imagery for VMBR training, but suggests that in addition, the athlete should use external imagery to identify performance errors.

In testing the VMBR program, Suinn experimented with alpine skiers, Olympic Nordic and biathlon athletes, and a long-distance kicker in American football. While the results of these anecdotal reports were impressive in terms of perceived results, they were admittedly lacking in scientific controls.

Because of the need for statistical evidence for the theory, Kolonay conducted a scientific investigation of VMBR. The results of this study provided evidence in favor of VMBR. In this landmark study, Kolonay used four groups of male college basketball players. Each group was assigned to a different treatment condition: a VMBR group, a relaxation-only group, an imagery-only group, and a control group. Before and after the six-week training period, each player’s free-throw shooting percentage was recorded. Improvement in free throw shooting was essentially used as the dependent variable.

Kolonay’s results showed a significant improvement in free-throw shooting percentage of the VMBR group.

The Kolonay study represented the first scientific investigation to study visual motor behavioral rehearsal as a technique to improve athletic performance. However, the study had weaknesses that tended to throw some doubt on the conclusions. Recognizing the limitations of the Kolonay research, several other investigators studied VMBR. The majority of these studies were in accord indicating that VMBR training is extremely effective in reducing an athlete’s trait and state anxiety levels. This is certainly important in terms of stress management. The potential for VMBR training to improve athletic performance is also very good, but its effectiveness depends on the type of task, skill level of the performer, and the athlete’s ability to relax and use imagery.

As you might expect, highly skilled athletes are more effective in using VMBR training and mental practice to enhance performance than are the unskilled. It doesn’t take B.F. Skinner to figure out that Suinn’s VMBR is no more than a modification of Wolpe’s desensitization procedures.

Stress Training

Inoculation/Management

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Robert Meichenbaum developed Stress Inoculation Training in 1977. The key element associated with Stress Inoculation Training is the progressive exposure of the athlete to situations of

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greater and greater stress. Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) involves four phases.

In phase I, the trainer talks with the athlete about the athlete’s stress responses. During this phase, the athlete learns to identify and express feelings and fears. The athlete is also educated in lay terms about stress and the effect it can have upon athletic performance and psychological well being.

In phase 2, the athlete learns how to relax and use self-regulation skills. This is done in small groups, using a problem-solving approach, with members of the group helping each other find solutions. Stressful experiences are described in detail, and potential hazards identified.

In phase 3, the athlete learns specific coping self-statements designed to be used in stressful situations. For example, in preparation for a boxing match, the athlete may learn to say, “I’m okay, just relax. Take a deep breathe and let it out slow. Slow things down, I’m in control here, and I’m in top condition.”

In the important final phase, the trainer guides the athlete through a series of progressively more threatening situations. As the athlete learns to cope and confront a relatively mild situation, he or she is immediately exposed to a situation of greater stress. In each situation, the athlete practices relaxation and coping statements. The threatening situations are presented through imagery, films, role playing, and real-life situations. For example, if the fear of competition is stressful, the athlete is allowed to experience competition in small gradations. The first grade may be a friendly game of “horse” in basketball. As soon as the athlete is able to cope with a low level of stress, the situation is changed and a more stressful situation is presented. In this way, the athlete becomes inoculated to progressively increasing levels of stress. Eventually, the athlete’s fear of competition is minimized to the degree that he or she can cope with it.

If you think this method sounds similar to what Wolpe advocated in his desensitization procedures, you are right. It is interesting how they kind-of-sort-of borrowed all this stuff from Wolpe.

Cognitive-Affective Stress Management Training _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In 1980, R. E. Smith developed the Cognitive-Affective Stress Management Training program. The key element of Stress Management Training is that, through imagery, the athlete experiences feelings identical to those experienced during competition. Actually, Smith’s Cognitive-Affective Stress Management Training (SMT) program is quite similar to Suinn’s anxiety management training program, the precursor to VMBR. CognitiveAffective Stress Management Training is also quite similar to the first three phases of Stress Inoculation Training (SIT). The fundamental difference between SMT and SIT is in the final phase. Basically, the SMT program involves three phases. In phase I, the athlete learns to conceptualize the stress experience. This phase is educational in nature, as the athlete learns to understand the stress response and what causes it. This typically entails a discussion between the trainer and the athlete.

Phase II of the SMT program involves the development of psychological skills for coping with stress. The athlete learns progressive relaxation techniques with particular emphasis on deep breathing to facilitate relaxation.

The final phase requires the athlete to practice stress coping skills in stressful situations.

As with SIT, stress is induced through imagery, films, electric shock, and real-life situations. Regardless of the type of situation, it is critical that the athlete actually experience the affect associated with stress, which distinguishes SIT from SMT. In SMT, the feelings experienced in the actual stress situation are induced. In this way, the athlete learns how to cope with the stress of actual competition, even if it is only being visualized.

Psychological Skills Education Program _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Psychological Skill Education Program (PSEP) was developed

by Boutcher and Rotella in 1987 for athletes who perform closed-skills such as weightlifting or a closed skill such as free-throw shooting in a sport that is

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primarily open-skill in nature such as basketball. Open-skill sports such as basketball and football are classified as such because they are open to the environment. An opponent cannot interfere with an athlete’s attempt in the sport of weightlifting, but an opponent can alter or interfere with a pass, dribble, or jump shot in basketball because they are open to the environment. The program was conceived as a four-phase program in which various intervention strategies are applied in the final phase.

In phase one, the sport analysis phase, the sport psychologist does a thorough analysis of the characteristics of the closed-skill that is involved. If the athlete is trying to improve his or her golf swing, the sport psychologist must become familiar with the important biomechanical elements of the golf swing as well as physiological and psychological requirements. The important point is that the sport psychologist should not prematurely attribute all problems to psychological causes.

In phase two, the individual assessment phase, the psychological strengths and weaknesses of the athlete must be determined from a psychological perspective. It is at this point that various psychological inventories should be administered and interpreted. Appropriate inventories might include the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. If after interpreting the selected inventories it is concluded that the athlete demonstrates abnormal clinical symptoms, he or she should be referred to the appropriate professional sources.

In phase three, the conceptualization/motivation phase, the sport psychologist discusses with the athlete the kind of commitment that is needed in order to change inappropriate behaviors. It is during this phase that the athlete must come to grips with his or her own desire to excel. Whether or not an athlete has the desire to develop effective psychological skills must be determined prior to entering into phase four.

In phase four, the development of mental skills phase, the athlete learns specific intervention techniques that can influence anxiety and performance. These mental skills include relaxation, imagery, and thoughtstopping. In learning various intervention strategies, the athlete is taken through three training stages. In the first stage, the athlete practices and learns a psychological skill such as imagery in a general environmental setting. In stage two, the athlete applies the psychological skill to a situation-specific visualized setting. Finally, in stage three, the athlete develops appropriately designed performance routines. These performance routines are similar to the ritualistic steps that many professional baseball players go through in the batters box. All good athlete’s have well-developed pre-performance routines they go through in preparation for skill execution. The rather precise routine that a professional golfer goes through each time he or she addresses a golf ball is another example. These performance routines are important to the athlete to help him or her direct attention to appropriate stimuli.

Of course, you would probably never use this method because it requires not only a skilled sports psychologist, but sophisticated testing and psychological evaluation.

Psyching-Up Strategies ____________________________________________________________________

Generally speaking, Psyching-up strategies are techniques designed to increase an athlete’s arousal and activation level. While over anxiety and over arousal may be a major stumbling block for the anxiety-prone athlete, too little activation can also be a problem. This is especially so for highly skilled athletes who must defeat a relatively weak team in order to play a better team in a tournament. Under-arousal causes the downfall of talented teams every year in all sports. Invariably, one or two highly seeded teams will be beaten by weaker teams simply because they were not ready for them.

Many of the cognitive strategies already discussed in this section can be used to heighten arousal as well as lower it.

For example, both imagery and self- hypnosis can be used to stimulate an athlete to greater levels of arousal and motivation simply by selecting or suggesting stimuli that promote the

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activation of the sympathetic nervous system. It is also interesting that when a group of athletes are asked to “get psyched,� they report using all kinds of different cognitive strategies not normally associated with activation. For example, in a study by Caudill, Weinberg, and Jackson conducted in 1983 using track athletes, 25 percent reported using relaxation/distraction procedures to psych-up. These are cognitive strategies normally reserved for reducing activation. Other psych-up strategies reported by these subjects were preparatory arousal (7 percent), imagery (16 percent), self-efficacy statements (25 percent), and attention focus procedures (16 percent).

It is important that athletes learn to prepare for competition using the strategy best for them. This may involve using one strategy to control anxiety and another to get psyched up. However, for a team rather than an individual, a different strategy may need to be used. For example, if a coach determines that his team is not taking an opponent seriously, he or she must do something to get the players prepared. The coach runs the risk of over activating a few anxiety-prone members of the squad, but this is usually better than running the risk of an uninspired effort from the whole team. And if the coach identifies the players with very high trait anxiety profiles, he or she can work with them individually.

Generally speaking an above-average level of arousal is essential for optimal performance in gross motor activities involving strength, endurance, and speed. We would expect psyching-up strategies to facilitate strength and muscular endurance activities. As you might expect, the research supports this conclusion. It would also follow that heightened arousal would help any athlete whose pre-competitive arousal level was below optimal. The key, regardless of the activity, is the inverted-U. If the athlete is either over-aroused or optimally aroused for a particular activity, psyching-up procedures are inappropriate. However, if the athlete is under-aroused, psyching-up procedures are called for.

Coaches can use a number of specific strategies to psych-up their athletes. If these strategies are properly planned and not overused, they can help get a team fired up for competition.