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The ambition of an athlete is to perform his/her up best when he/she competes. This is often facilitated by a co partnership between the athlete and the coach. Nowadays, sport events have become more competitive and more professional. Athletic requirements have therefore become more complex. These complexities create numerous parameters (physiological and psychological) that coaches are difficult to identify. Additional help came from sport psychologists. Using a performance profile (Butler, 1989, 1991; Butler & Hardy, 1992) sport psychologists achieved an understanding of the way an athlete perceives his/her abilities. Moreover, inform and facilitate the coaches to understand the athletes perspectives. Performance profiling targets the improvement of the athletic performance, which arrives from the harmonic and healthy relationship between the athletes and the supporting practitioners.
A harmonic and seminal relationship between the athlete and the supporting practitioners (in this case coach and sport psychologist) is the key point of athletic success. However, the final result at the end of any sporting event is always based on the athletes performances. Most of the times athletes are required to perform their best under extreme psychological and environmental conditions. The role of the coaches is to assist their athletes in order to have a proper reaction throughout the different athletic situations. Based on this, coachs planning and organization of any training session targets the improvement of the athlete. This athletic improvement can be achieved by correction of the athletes weaknesses. Coaches through their training sessions apply suitable techniques in order to reduce the athletes weaknesses. Nevertheless, sometimes the athletes may perceive their needs and weaknesses to be different to those identified by the coaches. For example, a coach who perceives an athletes elastic strength (power, speed, jumping and hit) as relatively high is likely to adjust the training sessions around improving other aspects of the performance. However, the athlete may perceive his/her elastic strength as relatively low and may resent this new form of training. In this case, the athletes have a comparatively passive role to play in the decision-making process in terms of which are the needs and weaknesses, and how it will be able to be minimized. According to Butler (1996) most of the athletes who possess a passive role on the planning and organization of the training program become frustrated and this may lead to a reduced commitment to the proposed program.
The purpose of performance profiling is to bring athletes and practitioners more close together. It is mainly designed with the needs of the athletes and coaches in mind. Performance profiling allows the coaches to understand the athletes self-perception, but also enables the athletes to find out how the coaches perceive them. Additionally, performance profiling increases the athletes self-awareness, self-confidence; maximize motivation, and help the athlete to identify strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, through performance profiling, athletes manage to locate their goal setting. This is often the most essential element for performance enhancement and as Locke (1969), cited by Doyle et al (1997) suggested; goal setting is a conscious intention to accomplish something. Furthermore, this facilitates the coaches in identifying the athletes goal-settings. This is essential, since Weinberg & Weigand (1993) cited by Doyle et al (1997) found that athletes might reject goals assigned to them in favour of those, which they set for themselves. Butler and Hardy (1992), cited by Jones (1993) identified the two basic actions derived from performance profiling. Firstly, the athletes ability to identify and distinguish the fundamental qualities of an elite performance, and secondly the athletes self-assessment concerning their present status followed by presentation of their scores in a visual profile. In 1993 Butler et al and Jones summarized and highlighted the five ways, which performance profiling can be used in order to enhance athletic performance. They conclude to the following:
1)To monitor changes, and assess whether the training is achieving the desired effect.
2)To highlight areas of perceived weaknesses, so training can be tailored to the athletes needs, a process which commits the athlete to training.
3)To detect mis-match between the athlete and the coach or psychologists rating of performance.
4)To assess the athletes view of what might realistically be expected through obtaining an evaluation of a top performance along the various qualities.
5)To help in the de-briefing process where the athlete (and coach/psychologist) rates his performance on each quality.
The major purpose of performance profiling is to give to the sport psychologist the ability to exam and manipulate the athletes psychological skills and additionally to bring athletes and supporting practitioners mentally closer together in order to obtain performance enhancement.
In many sports, sport psychologists use performance profiling, in order to enhance athletic performances. Football is one of them. It is observable that through continuous hard and creational teamwork between footballers and managers, football clubs have achieved outstanding results in national and international leagues. For example, Manchester Uniteds success is entirely based on the relationship between the players and the manager Alex Ferguson. It seems that there is a harmonic relationship between the players and the coach. A harmonic relationship that can be achieved through the understanding of the teams needs and weaknesses from both, players and coach. During the past years and until the present time, Sport psychologists have applied performance profiles not only on members from elite football clubs but also on members from smaller county league teams. In this case performance profiling was applied on a player and his manager, both involved in a semi-professional county league.
Firstly, Sport psychologist in order to obtain a performance profile must possess some background information about the player that he/she is going to assess (appendix 1). Secondly, sport psychologist must identify the major purpose of the performance profiling. In this case study, performance profiling was used for four major purposes: (i) to identify mis-matches between coach and athlete, (ii) to maximize the footballers self confidence, (iii) to minimize the footballers excessive tension prior the game, and (iv) help the sport psychologist in identifying the appropriate psychological intervention. At the time that sport psychologist possess the appropriate information that required in order to obtain a performance profile; he/she is ready to carry out the athletes and coachs performance profiling (appendixes 2,3). The profile represents psychological, technical, and physical qualities. In this case an additional figure (figure3, appendix 4) will be helpful in order to identify the possible mis-matches between the participants (footballer and coach).
Starting with the psychological qualities, a slightly mis-matching between the participants scoring can be observed. Their score was differing on the following qualities: good attitude, confidence, cope with pressure, regain focus and motivation. However they had the same opinion about: nerves control, focus, dealing with pain and goals setting. In addition, a slight mis-matching was again viewed on the technical qualities. Athlete and coach disagreed on: organization, tracking back, tackling, and heading. Although, they scored the same on: passing, shooting, and anticipation. Conversely to the previous aspects, the participants had nearly the same opinion about the physiological qualities. Their score was the same on: energetic, speed and strength. Their only disagreement was viewed on fitness level. Despite the athlete/coach matches and mis-matches on the different psychological, technical, and physiological qualities, the role of the sports psychologist is to conduct a deeper analysis on the participants results. The mainly attention of the sport psychologist must be concentrated to the following parameters:
1)Generally, low scoring from both participants. Athletes mean score 6.4 and coach mean score 6.7 (10 max)
2)Athlete and coach had the same opinion on the half number (10/20) of the qualities.
3)Within the mis-match scores, minimum declination of 1 unit. Except the tracking back quality which was 2 units.
4)Greater attention from both participants on technical (mean score of 7) and physiological (mean score of 7.3) qualities rather on psychological qualities (mean score of 5.8).
Moreover, based on the occasion, a sport psychologist must pay further attention on specific psychological parameters. In this case, confidence enhancement and prior to the game tension reduction is the main objective of the sport psychologist.
Several studies have showed positive relationship between self-confidence and sports performance. Mahoney and Avener (1977) sited by Hardy et al (1997) found that high level of confidence leads to successful performance and vice versa. Furthermore, additional studies from Doyle et al (1980), Gould et al (1981) and Jones et al (1994) sited by Hardy et al (1997) supported that there is a positive relationship between confidence and athletic performance. Additionally, Banduras theory of efficacy (1977 and 1982) suggests that self-efficacy is fundamental to enhance performance. High level of self-efficacy produces elevation of athletic performance and low emotional arousal. However, low emotional arousal is not suitable for performance enhancement. According to several psychological theories, when cognitive anxiety is low, physiological arousal will have a symmetric effect on performance. More specific, increase in cognitive anxiety from very low levels to moderate levels will result in optimal performance. Conversely, if arousal continues to increases above the moderate level then performance levels will gradually decrease (invert-U hypothesis) or will be dramatic and catastrophic (catastrophe theory). According on Jones & Hardy (1989) cited by Hardy (1996), the higher level of performance can only be regained after a significant reduction of physiological arousal.
In the specific case, sport psychologist initially must be focused on the low level of footballers confidence and on the excessive tension that the player experiences prior to the game. Sports psychologist must consider several methods in order to obtain confidence enhancement and tension minimization. The psychological intervention will be based on the athletes mental imagery, self-talking and applied relaxation techniques.
Imagery has been identified as a vital source of confidence. Mental imagery brings the athlete to picture himself re-living only successful performances or to picture himself accomplishing a forth-coming event. Footballer must use mental imagery not only before the games but also prior to every training session. Daily practice on self-imagery will help the athlete to exert a level of control over his own positive images. Jones (1993) research on ten female racket sport players, suggests that self-imagery techniques can be used in order to increase the athletes self-confidence.
An additional method that must be used when targeting confidence enhancement, is the self-talking technique. Sport psychologists advice to the footballer is to use self-talking in order to remain positive in high-pressure situations. Self-talking technique will help the athlete to maintain self-control when self-confidence is overpowered by self-doubts. According on Bunker et al (1992) cited by Hardy et al (1996) positive self-talking is the key to success. Several researches have shown that positive self-talking is an important predictor of sports success. Mahoney and Avener (1977) cited by hardy et al (1996) found that, gymnasts who employed positive self-talking performed better than those who employed negative self-talking. A more recently research from Hardy (2001) on nineteen high school athletes, suggests that more self talking was viewed as being positive, the more it was viewed as being motivational.
The sports psychologists second target is to minimize the excessive tension that the player experiences prior to the games. The use of relaxation technique emerged as an important strategy for stress minimization. The main objective of relaxation technique (appendix 5) is to reduce the time that the footballer needs in order to relax. Through daily practice the time can be reduced up to 20-30 seconds. This enables the footballer to use the technique not only before, but also during, performance. Through daily practicing on the relaxation technique, athlete will start to possess the ability to recognize the early signals of anxiety and to learn how to cope with the anxiety. In high-pressure situations quick relaxation can be particular useful in allowing the athletes to regain composure and attention control (Jones 1993). Hemmings et al (1995) examined the effectiveness of applied relaxation on seventeen semiprofessional soccer players. Based on their findings, there was a decrease (30.94%) of somatic anxiety on the players who perceived relaxation treatment. For the player who did not perceive any relaxation treatment, there was only 5.08% reduction on somatic anxiety.
Improvement of Footballers performance is expected after the psychological intervention. Following the psychological intervention, footballer must experiences confidence enhancement and tension reduction. However, sport psychologist, in order to identify any confidence enhancement and tension reduction, must repeat the performance profiling after a period of time (about 2-3 months). Nevertheless, additional help for the athletes faster progression through psychological intervention is needed. That help arrives from the athletes coach. Sport psychologist must advice the coach. The sports psychologists advices to the coach must include specific suitable guidelines for further minimization of the athletes weaknesses.
Firstly, the coach must use verbal persuasion techniques to encourage his athlete to be more confident. The coach must use encouraging exhortations (e.g. come on, keep going you can do it) and a rewarding statement (well done). Before every game, it will be essential for the player to have a quick look on a reminder sheet (Butler, 1997). This reminder sheet (appendix 6) will include the athletes strength points and will force the athlete on more positive thinking. Moreover, coach must modify the training session according on the players needs. This will involve working on strengths and certain techniques that the player is good at performing (passing, tackling, shouting) or to set new tasks to learn and perform. Furthermore, the coach could set multiples but simple goals to the player. For example, simple task as: try stay onsite, or, do not easily give the ball to the opponents (passing focus), or, at the end of the game 80% shots on target. Coach, using simple goal setting will drive the players attention on specific targets, resulting the enhancement of the athletes motivation. Additional to the relaxation technique, the coach can use the breathing control method. Before each game, it will be helpful for the team to perform few minutes of breathing control. Through breathing control technique, coach can sustain stress reduction on his team and specifically on the particular footballer. During this time coachs sophistication and training techniques have come near to the athletes needs. Nevertheless, the athletes performance enhancement will be mostly affected by the sports psychologists intervention.
To sum up, performance profiling is an ideal method for a future performance enhancement. It provides the sport psychologists a better understanding of the athlete and coachs needs and weaknesses. Additionally, facilitates the athletes self-awareness and enhance the coachs understanding of the athletes perspectives. In this case, performance profiling was focused on the footballers confidence enhancement and prior to the game tension reduction. Psychological intervention included: mental imagery, self-talking, applied relaxation techniques, reminder sheets and breathing control techniques. The major objective of the particular psychological intervention was focused on the footballers performance enhancement. However, a future repetition of the performance profiling is needed in order to locate confidence maximization and prior to the game tension minimization, therefore performance enhancement.
Appendix 1
Basic background information on the player
1)The player has been playing well for the County League (semiprofessional) side.
2)The player preferred the central midfield position.
3)The player had reported recently that he was becoming concern about his lack of confidence.
4)Athlete feels lack of confidence.
5)The coach reported that the player had established (throughout his career) a reputation for being a high scoring midfield.
6)Player was also experiences excessive tension prior to the game, because of his continuous doubts regarding his goal scoring ability
7)Player is keen to resolve the problem and is more than happy to discuss his feeling with someone outside his immediate circle.
REFERENCES
Butler, R.J. et al., 1992. The performance profiling. Journal of applied sport psychology, 5, 48-63.
Butler, R.J., 1997. Sports psychology in performance. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Doyle, J. and Parfitt, G, 1997. Performance profiling and construct validity. Sport psychologist, 11(4), 411-425.
Hardy, J. et al., 2001. Exploring self-talk and effective states in sport. Journal of sports science, 19, 469-475.
Hardy, L. and Parfitt, G, 1994. Development of a model for the provision of psychological support to a national squad. The sport psychologist, 8, 126-142
Hardy, L. et al., 1996. Understanding psychological preparation for sport. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Hemmings, B. et al, 1995. The effects of a somatic intervention strategy on competitive state anxiety and performance in semiprofessional soccer players. Sport psychologist, 9(1), 51-64.
Jones, G, 1993. The role of performance profiling in cognitive behavioral interventions in sport. The sport psychologist, 7, 160-172.
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