SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Psychological aspects of improving performance

Lisa Lampe

NO matter what level you compete at, there isn’t an orienteer who wouldn’t like to improve their performance. Studies consistently show that psychological factors can determine the outcome between athletes of similar physical and technical ability. So what can be done? Psychological factors can be addressed at a number of stages, including training, the pre-start, and the actual race. A good place to start is to analyse some recent performances. An often neglected exercise is to look at what went right – what did you do well? It’s useful to identify the things we did well for a number of reasons. First, it helps build confidence, an important psychological factor. By explicitly recognising the things we did well it brings to our attention that we are capable of doing these things, and with some focus can do them consistently. Next, think about aspects of your performance that did not go as well as you would have liked. Consider the physical, technical and mental aspects of orienteering. Looking at this list, decide whether the problem was some failure to implement skills you know you have, or whether you can identify some deficit. Examples of deficits might include a lack of fitness in climbing hills, poor route choice, challenges in mapreading in certain terrain (e.g. rock), distractibility or loss of focus towards the end of the course. Having identified problems, ask: was this a one-off, or does it appear to be part of a pattern? If the latter, then we can plan how to address these factors in training and performance.

The role of confidence

As the focus of this article is on psychological or mental factors, we will look at these in more detail. To perform well requires a number of mental skills and attributes. Confidence is one such factor. Confidence can be affected by personality style, previous experience (e.g. success or perceived failure), level of preparation and emotional factors. It can also be affected by factors that arise on the day, depending on how we think about them and let them affect us. For example, if an individual has slept poorly the night before the event they may believe that this will put them at a disadvantage, yet interestingly there is research that suggests that a single night of lost sleep is unlikely to impact performance. Confidence is enhanced by preparation, planning and an optimistic outlook. Personality style contributes to the level of optimism, and also to the degree of emotionality – whether a person is of a sensitive, reactive, emotional disposition (what is often referred to as ‘highly strung’), more phlegmatic, or somewhere in between. Being too sensitive can lead to over-reaction when problems arise (e.g. running late to the start, problems ‘getting into’ the map, having difficulty on a leg) which can quickly sap confidence. As confidence wanes we may react in a number of ways, again influenced by personality and temperament: some individuals may become over-cautious and slow right down, others may abandon careful route planning and become impulsive, trying to make up lost time. Still others may quickly revert to asking other competitors where they are, abandoning problem-solving approaches prematurely (e.g. when did I last know exactly where I was?). The good news is that habitual responses, whilst influenced by personality, are not set in stone. Gaining insight into unhelpful habitual response patterns allows the opportunity to train ourselves to respond differently. Steps in changing any habit include identifying the need to change, making the commitment to change, and determining the appropriate alternative response that, with repeated practice, will become the new habit. Trying to make such changes for the first time during an event where there is felt to be a high level of challenge or competition can be difficult. So using minor events to start practicing and testing out changes can be a better place to start. Aiming to use the new strategies consistently will speed their conversion to habit. Optimism is another aspect of confidence that can be increased. Deliberately focusing on the positives, rather than the negatives is one well-known strategy that actually works. Visualising successful management of challenging situations can also help to stay focused on the positives. Martin Seligman drew attention to the tendency of those with high levels of optimism and self esteem to take credit for successes, and to see them as being due to one’s own actions rather than chance. This relates back to the point above about actively identifying what we do well. All these strategies can be practiced so that they become more habitual. In future articles, other psychological aspects of improving performance will be addressed.

Lisa Lampe is a psychiatrist and academic with a special interest in anxiety and cognitive behaviour therapy. She works for the University of Sydney and is based at the CADE clinic.

Cartoon by John Walker, Red Roos, ACT