the harbinger.
ART BY KATIE KNIGHT
BRAINS BEFORE BRAWN E ast
ir at coach re the a es use p p e r p sychological tactics to mentally
s hlete
WRITTEN BY LAUREN BROWN For senior Mitchell Tyler, maintaining mental toughness every Friday night for a football game was just as important as being physically ready to play. If he made a mistake during the game, he would be mentally strong enough to move on to the next play and not dwell on it. He trusted the words of his coach, Dustin Delaney: “Play until you can’t move.” Delaney promised to personally carry exhausted players off of the field if they were playing at 110%. East athletes, like Tyler, practice psychological preparedness often taught by their coaches. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the way in which Delaney and other East coaches choose to motivate their athletes is known as applied sports psychology. “A sign of a good coach is how motivation tactics are going to be used,” Delaney said. “Some motivational things and sports psychology things work and some things don’t but you have to constantly adjust as a coach.” Tyler feels that Delaney’s balance of being personable while still being aggressive in his motivational tactics translated into the confidence the players played with. “Delaney is really confident and he instilled that [confidence] in all of us,” Tyler said. “We weren’t always the best team on the field, but we always trusted Delaney’s game plan.”
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photo courtesy of mctcampus
winter olympics preview
Shawnee Mission East l 7500 Mission Road, PV KS, 66208 l February 3,, 2014 l Issue 10 l www.smeharbinger.net