Sport Psychology:

looking to find a quick fix to theirproblems. Often, they do not real-ize that in order to perform at theirbest each game or event, they needto work as hard on their psycholog-ical skills as they do on the physi-cal, and tactical skills. Therefore,once an athlete or performer learnswhich psychological interventionsfit best for her or him, the last stepa sport psychology consultant willgenerally apply to help achieveconsistent peak performance isaccountability and maintenance.By meeting with a sport psychol-ogy consultant on several follow-upsessions, allows the athlete or per-former the time to focus on and dis-cuss how the psychological

Center for Sport Psychology andPerformance Excellence

P.O. Box 311280Denton, TX 76203

Please Contact us athttp://www.sportpsych.unt.edu

or by phone at(940) 369-SPORT

if you have questions.

Sport psychologists have long beeninterested in athletic performances.Through research and, ultimately,applied interventions, sport psy-chologists have helped athletes andcoaches reach peak level perfor-mances, whether at the Olympics,in the professional leagues or thecollege arena, or at the recre-ational/youth sport level. As moreand more athletes attribute (in part)their success to being mentallytough, performers in other domains,such as the arts, business, medicineand law, have taken notice andbegun to incorporate mental train-ing into their performance routines.

With the advent of technology andbetter (and earlier) training, peopleare becoming more technicallyskilled and competitive in their per-formance domains. Reaching ahigh level of success has becomemore challenging and now is lessassured. Performers are realizingthat, to be the best, they have tohave more than knowledge of theirdomain or certain technical skills.They have to be sharp… able toperform at a consistently high level.They have to have a well-devel-oped routine to prepare for perfor-mances. They have to be able to letgo of distracters and focus on thetask at hand. They have to be ableto work effectively with their

“teammates” to the point that theindividual is subsumed in the great-ness of the group. In other words,they have to develop a strong “men-tal” side of their performances.

So, can performers who have neverbeen athletes themselves or com-peted in a sporting environmentimprove by working with a sportpsychologist?

The answer is often yes.

For example, many musicians sufferfrom performance anxiety, andtherefore have a difficult time play-ing to the best of their abilities. Thissituation is similar to that of a base-ball player who experiences anxietybefore big games and can’t hit aswell as he normally would, or abusinessperson who gets so worriedbefore presentations that she doesnot effectively communicate all thatshe knows to her audience. In allthree situations, the individual is try-ing to perform when over aroused(anxious). When such over arousaloccurs, performers tend to play“tight”, be unfocused, experience anumber of somatic symptoms (e.g.,sweaty palms, shortness in breath,nausea), and have minds filled withnegative self-talk (e.g., “I can’t dothis”, “I am going to mess this up”,etc.). In the end, their performances

suffer. For the musician, it may behitting the wrong notes or being offwith her fellow musicians. For thebaseball player, it may be swingingat poor pitches or being tentative atbat. And for the businessperson, itmay be communicating in a monot-one voice or forgetting key pointsduring the talk. Fortunately, most ofthe skills and strategies that arecentral to the work that sport psy-chologists do with athletes, coachesand sport teams apply equally wellto these other performancedomains. Thus, how a sport psy-chologist might work with the base-ball player would be similar to howhe/she would help the musician orbusinessperson.

So how can Sport Psychologistshelp?

Sport psychologists help performersin three primary ways - by teachingthem new mental skills and strate-gies, by helping them cope moreeffectively with personal issues intheir lives, such as relationship con-cerns or depression, and by helpingthem learn to work more effectivelywith “teammates” throughimproved communication, cohesionand leadership. Although a per-former initially might seek out theservices of a sport psychologist

Volume 7, Issue 2 CENTER FOR SPORT PSYCHOLOGY NEWSLETTER Spring 2005

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interventions have been working.In addition, it gives the athlete orperformer the opportunity to dis-cuss possible setbacks, future goals,and gives the sport psychology con-sultant information about whetherthe athlete or performer is using thepsychological interventions andstrategies properly.

Whether you are an elite performer ornovice amateur, finding your Go Zoneconsistently can be frustrating.However, with the use of proper psy-chological interventions, you might befeeling the flow more often than not.

Peak Performance : How Do Athletes andPerformers Find Their “Go Zone”

ple utilize interventions thatmay actually make him/hermore anxious. Sport psy-

chology consultants can help ath-letes and performers use effectivepsychological interventions prop-erly. The interventions that manysport psychology consultants teachathletes and performers to use toachieve consistent peak perfor-mance include: goal-setting,imagery, positive self-talk, under-standing what is controllable andwhat is not, where and what tofocus on, performance cues, and theuse of pre-performance routines.

Many athletes and performers enterinto sport psychology consultations

PS54502 8/05

Sport Psychology:

It’s Not Just for Athletes Anymore.

By Justin S. Anderson, Psy.D. & Trent A. Petrie, Ph.D.

emotional arousal often inhibits aperformance. Therefore, whenattempting to get athletes or per-formers in the Go Zone we tend tostart by explaining the followinggraph.

As the graph depicts, highest levelof performance, occurs in the mid-dle ranges of the arousal levels orwhat we call the “Green Go Zone”.Athletes or performers in this levelof arousal report feeling calm, con-fident, in the moment, ready,focused, and energized. The bluezone represents a non-optimal,lower emotional arousal state wherethe athlete or performer reportsfeeling tired, bored, off, cold,unmotivated, flat, and not up forthe game/event. Conversely, thered zone represents a non-optimalelevated emotional arousal levelwhere the athlete or performer feelstense, high anxiety, fear, high anger,over emotional and/or out of con-trol. Most athletes or performersdo not spend much time thinkingabout their emotional arousal lev-els. Consequently, many are virtu-ally unaware of the arousal levelthey primarily reside in or how toget into a more optimal zone. Forinstance, some football playersthink that being extremely angry,intense, or out of control is the way

to prepare for a game, where inreality, in order to make their reads,adjust to different formations, andbe able to focus on a play, a lowerlevel of emotional arousal mightactually help them play better.

Perhaps the best way to learn howto get in the “Go” Zone is to learnfrom past events where the athleteor performer had performed in that“flow” state. In many instances,we ask athletes or performers to useimagery to bring them back to atime when they performed at anoptimal level. From that image, weask them to list the things theywere thinking, doing and feelingbefore and during that event. Fromthat description, we help them pullout several key points to focus onand then use multiple psychologicalinterventions to help recreate theiroptimal emotional arousal level.

After an athlete or performer learnsto accurately identify their individ-ualized Go Zone, we then helpthem learn how to move from thenon-optimal zone (blue or red) backinto the green Go Zone. Many ath-letes, who are in a non-optimalzone, are unaware or unsure ofwhich strategies to employ to helpthem get back into the Go Zone.For example, a musician may gettoo excited or anxious before a per-formance and not know how tocalm down. Many of the thingshe/she attempts to do to calm downdon’t work, like how she talks toher self, or what she is focusing onbefore a performance. Many peo-

You’ve experienced it. That timeyou were playing your sport andeverything seemed to come easy. It was if time had slowed down,your body was fluid, and you wereconfidently reacting to what thegame was giving you. It felt likeyou could do no wrong. You hadcomplete control of your game.Some theorists call this feeling“Flow” others call it “being in ‘theZone”. Whatever you call it, youmost likely realize that it doesn’tcome as often as you would like,and if you are like most people, youare not quite sure why it comeswhen it does. This article will giveyou an inside peak at how manysport psychology consultants workwith athletes and performers to helpthem get in their Go Zone moreconsistently.

When working with athletes andperformers, the first, and perhapsmost important aspect of theirlearning how to consistently getinto the “zone” begins by helpingthem recognize what happens totheir bodies and mind when theyare functioning at that optimallevel. One component sport psy-chology consultants look at is anathlete’s emotional arousal levels.The term “emotional arousal level”includes several different areas thatthe athlete or performer relies onduring a performance, theseinclude: physical sensations, cogni-tions, emotions, and behaviors.Most athletes or performers needsome emotional arousal to feelready and energized for thegame/event, however; too much

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Sport PsychologySport Psychology Continued

because of relationship concerns, dur-ing their work together, they mightalso focus on setting goals or devel-oping a preperformance routine. Inother words, sport psychologists maywork simultaneously across theseareas with any performer - the inter-vention is tailored to the needs of theperformer.

To see how a sport psychologistmight work within these three areas,let’s consider the three performers(musician, baseball player, and busi-nessperson) who were experiencinganxiety to a level that was interferingwith their performances. The musi-cian’s anxiety was related to her needto perform “perfectly” at all times.When growing up, her parents hadincredibly high expectations for herand pushed her to excel no matterwhat. Although this pressure initiallysharpened her focus when playing,led her to master pieces that wereincredibly challenging, and broughther success early in her career, as anadult it became a burden that weighedon her. Over the years, the pressurebecame the anxiety that she experi-enced…she would worry about herperformances, have headaches in thedays leading up to big performances,be irritable with her supporters, shunthe more challenging work sheembraced when she started her career,and find little enjoyment in her play-ing. The sport psychologist withwhom she worked recognized theseinterpersonal and personal concernsand helped her to deal more effec-tively with them…developing chal-lenging but realistic goals for her

playing, helping her rediscover thejoy she had when playing, and deter-mining how she was going to interactwith her parents, who still played acentral role in her career as a musi-cian.

The baseball player’s anxietyemerged as his play became moreinconsistent. In some games, he was“on,” at bat and in the field. But onmore occasions, particularly duringimportant games, he was erratic at theplate and would make errors in thefield. He began to doubt his hitting,something about which he had beenconfident since he started playing. Healso felt very out of control in how heprepared himself for each game…fol-lowing different routines dependingon how he was feeling that day andhow he had played the last game.The sport psychologist with whom heworked recognized that his erraticperformances were likely due to theinconsistent way in which he pre-pared himself for each game. In theirwork, the sport psychologist andbaseball player developed a well-defined preperformance routine thathe could follow prior to each game.This routine gave control back to theplayer and helped him access thethoughts, emotions and physical sen-sations he associated with peak per-formances. The routine encompassedthe time a day or two before eachgame, the hours leading up to thegame and the minutes before he tookthe field or batted for the first time.In addition, the sport psychologisttaught him imagery skills that he usedto regain his confidence while batting.

The businessperson’s anxiety wasrelated to her new position as a pro-ject manager and her lack of leader-ship and communication skills. Shehad quickly risen through the man-agerial ranks in her career field, land-ing in her current position 6 monthsago. Prior to her current position, sheworked primarily alone or with twoor three other people. Her currentposition required her to supervise astaff of 15, all of whom were bright,skilled professionals. From the start,she had trouble communicating effec-tively with her staff, often alienatingthem with her comments and seeminglack of support. They began to viewher as a poor leader and lose confi-dence in her ability to manage theirproject team. As this unfolded, shebecame distracted and less confident.The sport psychologist with whomshe worked recognized that she wouldbenefit from learning about her lead-ership style and how effective leaderscommunicated, but also knew that hewould need to work with her and her“team” to reestablish the trust andconfidence that had been lost duringthe last six months. Thus, in additionto teaching her communication andleadership skills, he facilitated a full-day team-building, cohesion work-shop with her project group to helpthem come together as a unit andwork more effectively together.

These are just a few examples toillustrate how sport psychologists canwork with performers from alldomains. Therefore, whether it’sbaseball, business or some otherarena, sport psychology can help takeyour performance to the next level.

Peak Performance: How do Athletes andPerformers Find Their “Go Zone”Peak Performance: How do Athletes andPerformers Find Their “Go Zone” By Justin S. Anderson, Psy.D. &

Trent A. Petrie, Ph.D.