Develop your psychological skills to achieve excellence in your sport
Overview
This standard is about the application of psychological skills and their importance to standing up to the rigours of training and competition. Commitment, motivation, confidence, concentration and controlling emotions are all vital to achieving excellence in your sport. To be successful, elite athletes need to develop and maintain high levels of mental toughness. You will be working with experienced and proficient coaching staff and/or other staff such as sports psychologists. However, you also have an important role to play in improving your psychological skills.
The main outcomes of this standard are:
- Select and agree a development programme to improve your psychological skills
- Implement a development programme to improve your psychological skills
- Apply and evaluate your use of psychological skills
This standard is for athletes who have the realistic potential to achieve excellence in their sport and are seeking to perform at the highest level.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
Select and agree a development programme to improve your psychological skills
- work with your coaching and/or other staff to:
1.1 agree the psychological demands for excellence in your role(s)
1.2 develop a profile of psychological skills relating to performance in your sport
1.3 select goals that meet your psychological performance priorities
1.4 plan and agree your development programme to achieve your psychological performance priorities
- agree with your coaching and/or other staff your main priorities for achieving psychological excellence in your role(s)
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Implement a development programme to improve your psychological skills
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3. participate in the planned psychological skills development programme
4. analyse your participation in the psychological skills development programme
5. contribute to ongoing assessments of your progress
6. provide feedback to your coaching and/or other staff on how well your psychological skills development programme is meeting your needs
7. make modifications to your development programme to help you achieve your psychological goals
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*Apply and evaluate your use of psychological skills *
8. discuss and agree with your coaching and/or other staff how you can practice the necessary psychological skills before, during and after competition
9. use your psychological skills to take part in pre-competition practices
10. provide feedback to your coaching and/or other staff on the effectiveness of pre-competition psychological skills practices and make suggestions for improvement
11. integrate your psychological skills with your technical, tactical and physical skills at all times, particularly in a competitive situation
12. work with your coaching and/or other staff to evaluate and improve your psychological performance
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
Select and agree a development programme to improve your psychological skills
sources of information about the psychological demands of your role in your sport and how to make use of these
the psychological demands of excellence in your role in your sport
effective ways of working with your coaching and/or other staff on improving your psychological skills
the types of assessments that may be used to develop a profile of your psychological skills relating to performance in your sport
the importance of providing your own views and opinions during the development of your psychological skills profile
the types of psychological priorities that athletes in your role have to concentrate on to achieve excellence
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Implement a development programme to improve your psychological skills
why you must set, understand and agree psychological goals to achieve excellence in your sport
the types of psychological goals that athletes at your level may need to set themselves
the main components of your psychological skills development programme at your level in your sport and how they can help with achieving your goals
the types of information you can provide to coaching and/or other staff to help them develop your psychological skills development programme appropriate to your needs
the importance of adhering to your psychological skills development programme and how to do so
how to contribute positively to all aspects of your psychological skills development programme
the importance of giving your coaching and/or other staff honest feedback on how well your psychological skills development programme is meeting your needs
what to include in your feedback during your psychological skills development programme
ways of modifying your psychological skills development programme to meet your needs
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Apply and evaluate your use of psychological skills
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how to maximise use of your psychological skills at all times, particularly in a competitive situation
the types of psychological pre-competitive practices that can help you to prepare for competition and how to use them
ways of helping your coaching and/or other staff to improve psychological pre-competition techniques
the importance of making thorough and objective evaluations of your competitive performance and the impact of psychological skills
evaluation methods that can be used for competitive performance and the psychological skills you are using
ways of contributing to evaluations of your psychological performance
how to use evaluations to make further improvements to your psychological skills
Scope/range
Scope Performance
Psychological demands
- motivation
- confidence
- concentration
- emotional control
- dealing with success or failure
- other appropriate demands