Coping Strategies Used By Elite Athletes
Athletes face various challenges arising from external and internal expectations. As a result, the athletes’ perception of situations can develop along two lines: facilitative and debilitative (Birrer & Morgan, 2010). Facilitative situations are recognized and harnessed as opportunities while debilitating moments can result in loss of control. As such, the outcome of the debilitating moments will depend on the personal coping skills of the athlete. The main coping skills include Imagery, self-talk, cognitive restricting and rationalization (Birrer & Morgan, 2010). The skills are achieved through the exercise of psychological abilities and constant exercise or exposure to related circumstances. Imagery, relaxation techniques, and imagery are key to developing resilience and can be employed to enhance focusing during sporting activity. The main objective of these skills is to increase athlete confidence through self-persuasion (Glynn, Gilbert & Lewis, 2013).
Self-talk
The exercise of self-talk can be exercised both privately and publicly. Self-talk can be understood as the messages athletes direct at themselves concerning their ability to perform and the actual performance in the field (Newton, 2009). Therefore, the skill lies in the domain of the athlete, just like the other, to exercise and can have positive or negative impacts on the other skills. Public self-talk involves the use of public notes displayed openly for athletes to read as they undergo their routine practices. More importantly, positive self-talk should be encouraged among athletes. A study has indicated that 88% of athletes engage in positive self-talk and a lesser percentage, 20%, engage in the negative self-talk (Spooner, 2013). This makes self-talk a major skill employed by athletes during practice and in actual events. The process of self-talk has an impact on cognitive restricting paths (Newton, 2009). For instance, an athlete thinking that the task is impossible and he will eventually fail can have positive self-talk by restating that the task is challenging, but he can perform. By so doing, the athlete places his potential at the optimum level by self-regulating.
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References
Birrer, D., & Morgan, G. (2010). Psychological skills training as a way to enhance an athlete's performance in high‐intensity sports. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20 : 78-87.
Glynn, B. A., Gilbert, J. N., & Lewis, D. K. (2013). Psychological skills training and self-efficacy: The UNIFORM approach with college-age swim exercises. Athletic Insight, 5 (1): 93.
Newton, M. (2009). The encyclopedia of positive psychology/edited by Shane J.
Spooner, E. (2013). Catch the Magic: Athletics the Mental Game . Publish America.
