Week Six
To conclude our six weeks I had a meeting with Natalie to discuss her progress and how she felt about the strategies I chose and if she would stick to this plan. The session I did lasted around 20 minutes and was done in the sport hall. We then spoke about each strategy individually and how she felt about each of them, she said that listening to music whilst she was performing helped increase her motivation as it was keeping her pumped and happy, it also helped with her concentration and after the first week of being on the treadmill for 20 minutes she said she enjoyed it and it was a lot easier when she was listening to music as she was actually enjoying it and enjoyed singing a long to the songs she had chosen. She said that the main downside to listening to music was that she got easily distracted from the task at hand and half the time stopped giving it her full intensity and she felt it decrease as she was singing to a song and paying more attention to that. I believe that if we were to do this again I would play the music quietly so that maybe this wouldn't be her main focus, and because she had it so loud it was all she could hear and thinking about, so turning the music down would focus her attention on the task at hand.
We then looked at goal setting and she said that this helped her improve her sporting performance because every time she trained or performed she was aiming for something, she felt rewarded once she had completed a goal so this therefore increased her motivation, she also felt as though all of the goal were sport specific so she could've easily relate them back into her sport and could do them in her own time, this also meant that she easily understood every goal and she wasn't having to ask for help on what she was doing because she didn't understand it. She said one of the down sides to goal setting when I first set goals they were really good because they weren't complicated, but then when I did goal setting again I chose the same goal but made them more advanced and she found this boring and fatigue which luckily didn't decrease her motivation as she wanted to complete the goals.
Thursday, 19 May 2016
Week Five
Week Five
On week 5 we looked at listening to music and how it was affecting her performance as well as decided on a 15 song playlist so that this was suited to what she wanted to listen to whilst she was performing.
The 15 songs I decided to choose were;
1. Ed Sheeran- I See Fire, 76 bpm
2. Drake- One Dance, 104 bpm
3. Ben Howard- Only Love, 80 bpm
4. Jake Bugg- Gimme The Love, 117 bpm
5. Ed Sheeran- Thinking Out Loud, 79 bpm
6. Sam Smith- Like I Can, 100 bpm
7. Chris Brown- Paradise, 130 bpm
8. Ben Howard- I Forget Where We Were, 118 bpm
9. Adele- When We Were Young, 111 bpm
10. Beyoncé- Drunk In Love, 140 bpm
11. Coldplay- Adventure Of A Lifetime, 112 bpm
12. London Grammar- Wasting My Young Years, 127 bpm
13. The Kooks- Naïve, 102 bpm
14. Arctic Monkeys- Are You Mine, 97 bpm
15. James Bay- Let It Go, 147 bpm
As this is Natalies desired playlist it means that she will enjoy listening to it hopefully keeping her focused and motivated when she is training, keeping the flow going for 20 minutes. This session was a one on one talking basis and lasted around 20 minutes. It took place in the netball hall so she was in a environment she was use to. During this session I told Natalie to write down her favourite songs in her own time before she came to the session and when she came we chose 15 songs out of the list she had made and we decided which ones would keep her pumped and suit what activity she was doing. Looking at the bpm of each song made us get on understanding into how she was going to feel whilst listening to this music and performing physical activity, most of the song she chose were quite slow meaning she wouldn't be as pumped as she should be, but since she was comfortable and liked the songs I let her choose them as these are the songs she had chosen.
On week 5 we looked at listening to music and how it was affecting her performance as well as decided on a 15 song playlist so that this was suited to what she wanted to listen to whilst she was performing.
The 15 songs I decided to choose were;
1. Ed Sheeran- I See Fire, 76 bpm
2. Drake- One Dance, 104 bpm
3. Ben Howard- Only Love, 80 bpm
4. Jake Bugg- Gimme The Love, 117 bpm
5. Ed Sheeran- Thinking Out Loud, 79 bpm
6. Sam Smith- Like I Can, 100 bpm
7. Chris Brown- Paradise, 130 bpm
8. Ben Howard- I Forget Where We Were, 118 bpm
9. Adele- When We Were Young, 111 bpm
10. Beyoncé- Drunk In Love, 140 bpm
11. Coldplay- Adventure Of A Lifetime, 112 bpm
12. London Grammar- Wasting My Young Years, 127 bpm
13. The Kooks- Naïve, 102 bpm
14. Arctic Monkeys- Are You Mine, 97 bpm
15. James Bay- Let It Go, 147 bpm
As this is Natalies desired playlist it means that she will enjoy listening to it hopefully keeping her focused and motivated when she is training, keeping the flow going for 20 minutes. This session was a one on one talking basis and lasted around 20 minutes. It took place in the netball hall so she was in a environment she was use to. During this session I told Natalie to write down her favourite songs in her own time before she came to the session and when she came we chose 15 songs out of the list she had made and we decided which ones would keep her pumped and suit what activity she was doing. Looking at the bpm of each song made us get on understanding into how she was going to feel whilst listening to this music and performing physical activity, most of the song she chose were quite slow meaning she wouldn't be as pumped as she should be, but since she was comfortable and liked the songs I let her choose them as these are the songs she had chosen.
Week Three
Week Three
When it came to listening to music I chose to do a session that lasted around 2 hours with a 15 minute break in-between, the session I did took place in the gym as I was helping and encouraging Nat when it came to her developing her fitness. To help with her performance and motivation I got Natalie to listen to her favorite music which she said was something calm like Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard, etc. Listening to music whilst training or performing would influence her dissociation, arousal regulation, synchronization, acquisition of motor skills and attainment of flow. In turn music was able to calm her down and made her feel more relaxed even though she doesn't enjoy fitness she managed to do it and last long enough with only a 15 minute break. At first I got her working on the treadmill for around 20 minutes and it was a relaxed environment as I let her decide what she wanted to do and how long she wanted to do it for so that she was able to choose herself and this would boost her confidence and encourage her to continue. The specific benefits that will be a result of this are her fitness will increase, there for increasing her performance as she is able to last longer, as this is also individual training it also means that she will then be able to keep up with the other team players.
We did have a meeting so that we were able to discuss Natalie's music taste and make a 15 song playlist which she could listen to whilst she was training, as well as this we looked at the beats per minutes and looked at how this could increase the intensity of her performance, as most of the songs were quite slow and had a low beat per minute this meant that it wasn't very intense and this calmed and relaxed her, however one of her songs had a faster bpm and I saw this increase the intensity of her performance as she started running fast and lip singing to it.
When it came to listening to music I chose to do a session that lasted around 2 hours with a 15 minute break in-between, the session I did took place in the gym as I was helping and encouraging Nat when it came to her developing her fitness. To help with her performance and motivation I got Natalie to listen to her favorite music which she said was something calm like Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard, etc. Listening to music whilst training or performing would influence her dissociation, arousal regulation, synchronization, acquisition of motor skills and attainment of flow. In turn music was able to calm her down and made her feel more relaxed even though she doesn't enjoy fitness she managed to do it and last long enough with only a 15 minute break. At first I got her working on the treadmill for around 20 minutes and it was a relaxed environment as I let her decide what she wanted to do and how long she wanted to do it for so that she was able to choose herself and this would boost her confidence and encourage her to continue. The specific benefits that will be a result of this are her fitness will increase, there for increasing her performance as she is able to last longer, as this is also individual training it also means that she will then be able to keep up with the other team players.
We did have a meeting so that we were able to discuss Natalie's music taste and make a 15 song playlist which she could listen to whilst she was training, as well as this we looked at the beats per minutes and looked at how this could increase the intensity of her performance, as most of the songs were quite slow and had a low beat per minute this meant that it wasn't very intense and this calmed and relaxed her, however one of her songs had a faster bpm and I saw this increase the intensity of her performance as she started running fast and lip singing to it.
Week Four
Week Four
Todays session lasted about half an hour as I discussed for advance and specific goals with Natalie in order to improve her performance. I also asked her some questions along the way. The questions I asked were;
1. How are you feeling about your training so far? Would you feel it is benefitting you?
I feel as though the training is well planned out and I have something to do everyday so I'm not getting bored or relapsing, as well as this as I'm working on a different component of the body in each of my goals it feels as though it benefitting my whole body and I do feel different, I feel as though my core is a lot stronger and my overall fitness is improving. I can see that it is benefitting me as were only 4 weeks in out of 6 and I already feel the improvements and in training I am able to keep up with my other team mates, and that is something I struggled to do before.
2. Do you feel like your goals are working and are you sticking to them?
Yes I do feel as though my goals are working and I am definitely sticking to them as I want to achieve the very best I can, I have to make sure I'm not slacking as this wouldn't allow me to reach my goal, I'm always making sure what my next goal is after I've finished one and planning my time so that I have plenty of time to complete that goal, this then keeps my organized and on top of everything, so I am planning ahead.
3. Do you feel as though the strategies I have introduced are working and are you enjoying them?
Yes I do feel as though the strategies are working as these are specific to me and my needs, also I really enjoy listening to music so doing this whilst I'm training makes me perform better as it enhances my mood therefore increasing my motivation and making me feel better about the task at hand, although I don't really enjoy fitness or core listening to music has given me something to look forward to and setting goals has given me something to aim for and achieve therefore gaining a rewards, motivating me to achieve the next goal.
I then decided to look at the same 3 goals I did in week 2 but decided to add to them and make them more intense;
1. More intense core sessions, I would get Natalie doing more sets and repetitions than before, she would move on to doing 10 sets of 6 reps on Tuesday and Thursday, the exercises I would have her doing are sit ups, crunches, squats and lunges. This should be done on half of a netball court whilst I am watching so I can make sure that she is doing them correctly to prevent injury.
2. I would then have her in the gym again on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for around 25 minutes at maximal intensity so I know that she is then pushing herself.
3. Complete 35 over head passes, 35 chest passes, 35 bounce passes, 30 left hand bounce passes, 30 right hand bounce passes, 30 left hand shoulder passes, 30 right hand shoulder passes. This is to be completed twice on Saturday and Sunday on the netball court and should last around 30 minutes every time, as you should be doing this at full intensity.
Todays session lasted about half an hour as I discussed for advance and specific goals with Natalie in order to improve her performance. I also asked her some questions along the way. The questions I asked were;
1. How are you feeling about your training so far? Would you feel it is benefitting you?
I feel as though the training is well planned out and I have something to do everyday so I'm not getting bored or relapsing, as well as this as I'm working on a different component of the body in each of my goals it feels as though it benefitting my whole body and I do feel different, I feel as though my core is a lot stronger and my overall fitness is improving. I can see that it is benefitting me as were only 4 weeks in out of 6 and I already feel the improvements and in training I am able to keep up with my other team mates, and that is something I struggled to do before.
2. Do you feel like your goals are working and are you sticking to them?
Yes I do feel as though my goals are working and I am definitely sticking to them as I want to achieve the very best I can, I have to make sure I'm not slacking as this wouldn't allow me to reach my goal, I'm always making sure what my next goal is after I've finished one and planning my time so that I have plenty of time to complete that goal, this then keeps my organized and on top of everything, so I am planning ahead.
3. Do you feel as though the strategies I have introduced are working and are you enjoying them?
Yes I do feel as though the strategies are working as these are specific to me and my needs, also I really enjoy listening to music so doing this whilst I'm training makes me perform better as it enhances my mood therefore increasing my motivation and making me feel better about the task at hand, although I don't really enjoy fitness or core listening to music has given me something to look forward to and setting goals has given me something to aim for and achieve therefore gaining a rewards, motivating me to achieve the next goal.
I then decided to look at the same 3 goals I did in week 2 but decided to add to them and make them more intense;
1. More intense core sessions, I would get Natalie doing more sets and repetitions than before, she would move on to doing 10 sets of 6 reps on Tuesday and Thursday, the exercises I would have her doing are sit ups, crunches, squats and lunges. This should be done on half of a netball court whilst I am watching so I can make sure that she is doing them correctly to prevent injury.
2. I would then have her in the gym again on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for around 25 minutes at maximal intensity so I know that she is then pushing herself.
3. Complete 35 over head passes, 35 chest passes, 35 bounce passes, 30 left hand bounce passes, 30 right hand bounce passes, 30 left hand shoulder passes, 30 right hand shoulder passes. This is to be completed twice on Saturday and Sunday on the netball court and should last around 30 minutes every time, as you should be doing this at full intensity.
Thursday, 12 May 2016
Questions
Questions
- Why do you play the sport?
- How many times a week do you train?
- Where do you want to do with this sport?
- Do you compete or train in any other sports?
- What level do you play at? (elite/recreational)
- What would you say your main strengths and areas for improvements are?
- How do you feel before you compete in a match?
- How did you first get involved?
- Throughout your career how did you deal with setbacks and disappointments? And what did you do to stay motivated?
- What did your parents or friends or friends think about you involvement/ how do they support you?
- How did your coaches influence your mental development as an athlete? How did they help you develop?
- What has been the hardest thing achieving the athletic success that you've achieved today?
- Do you have a part time job?
- Can you see yourself participating in the sport in the next 5 years?
- What music do you enjoy listening to?
S.W.O.T
Strengths and Weaknesses
The strengths of Natalie Bells athletic performance include that she said her strength is her height as well as this I can see that she is highly motivated as she said she would love to continue in the sport later on in her life. She managed to stay motivated by thinking about playing as her team and liking her team and who she plays with. As well as this a strength of Natalie's is that she said she doesn't get nervous before a match and instead feels calm and relaxed as it is a team sport. As she has also been involved in the sport since she was in primary school, this means that she is experienced and knows a lot about the sport and has also seen herself improve.
Her main weaknesses and areas for improvement also include her motivation, even though she would enjoy to continue playing netball later on in her she didn't manage to stay in the Loughborough College Netball Academy Team as she was very demotivated by her coach and said she didn't really do much to keep her motivated, so this let me see that Natalie is motivated by the people around her and she needs encouragement from her teams mates and the coach. She said herself that an area of improvement would be maintaining her fitness levels, even though she doesn't like doing fitness but maybe with a bit of motivation she wouldn't mind it and would stick to it. Struggles to compete against new crowds of people or a new team that she hasn't played against before as she doesn't know what they're going to play like.
Opportunities
Opportunities for Natalie include that when she goes to university she will be able to join a more serious netball team there, possibly with a better and more motivational netball coach and a team who she gets on with which could help with her motivational levels. As well as this as Natalie wants to maintain her fitness levels and to gain more fitness but its quite expensive to join a gym and she prefers going with someone else so that they can encourage her to keep going, when she goes university she can also join a gym which is much cheaper and she can go with her other netball friends as they will most likely be living on the same university campus as her.
Other opportunities which Natalie can do are join a team with a better coach or get more involved in the sport and maybe try out so that she can reach a higher level, even though she said she'd prefer to stay recreational because it is less competitive, however I feel as though if she had the enough motivation and encouragement this could change meaning that she will then want to maybe compete at a higher level and there are lots of opportunities for her to do so.
Threats
The threats could be that her motivation might decrease if she was to join another team as she enjoys who she plays with but the coach doesn't help with her development or motivation. As well as this Natalie has a part time job as a waitress and sales assistance so this takes up a lot of her time, meaning that she wont be able to train or compete as much as she wants to and her job will take up a lot of her time and as well as this when she goes into full time education she will struggle to deal with work load as well as playing netball. If she isn't able to handle all this or she struggles with her self management in turn this means she wont play and that her fitness levels will decrease and this is the last thing she wants as she said she would love to keep and improve her fitness levels. Also performing for a different team might affect Natalie's attitude towards netball, if she joins a teams and they are better than she is or worse than the team she played for before this may affect how she feels about playing and therefore she wont want to train or compete. When she ages so does everyone else, so everyone else because more experience and even better at the sport so if she was to a join a team where they played much better than she did then she'd either be on the bench the whole game or feel really under pressure to perform well as well as demotivated.
PST
This is psychological skills training, and as said by Gill, 2000 it is an '...individually designed combination of methods selected to attain psychological skill needs'. The reasons as to why we need to train are psychological skills is included I research conducted by Calmels et al in 2003, they were able to show how athletes went from being unsuccessful to successful by having great concentration, confidence, task orientated thoughts, low anxiety, positive thoughts as well as images and also more determination and commitment. There are different phases within PST, they include;
First Phase, this is the educational phase, this means that the psychological skills we need, need to be leant and practiced, and you need to be able to see clear improvements so that you know that you are actually developing these skills. This is done in the first and sixth week of training.
Second Phase, this is the acquisition phase, this is when you focus on the strategies and other techniques that will help you learn the psychological skills and helps you meet your individual needs, providing information to the team and making sure that everything you say is specific when you are developing their program.
Third Phase, this is the practice phase, and this is when you learn the psychological skills so that you are progressing from practices and stimulations moving onto real competitions. In this phase you need to make sure that you are focusing on improving your understand of the skills by overlearning , integrating, psychological skills and also stimulating the different skills which you want to apply to the competitions that you are going to be competing in.
The strengths of Natalie Bells athletic performance include that she said her strength is her height as well as this I can see that she is highly motivated as she said she would love to continue in the sport later on in her life. She managed to stay motivated by thinking about playing as her team and liking her team and who she plays with. As well as this a strength of Natalie's is that she said she doesn't get nervous before a match and instead feels calm and relaxed as it is a team sport. As she has also been involved in the sport since she was in primary school, this means that she is experienced and knows a lot about the sport and has also seen herself improve.
Her main weaknesses and areas for improvement also include her motivation, even though she would enjoy to continue playing netball later on in her she didn't manage to stay in the Loughborough College Netball Academy Team as she was very demotivated by her coach and said she didn't really do much to keep her motivated, so this let me see that Natalie is motivated by the people around her and she needs encouragement from her teams mates and the coach. She said herself that an area of improvement would be maintaining her fitness levels, even though she doesn't like doing fitness but maybe with a bit of motivation she wouldn't mind it and would stick to it. Struggles to compete against new crowds of people or a new team that she hasn't played against before as she doesn't know what they're going to play like.
Opportunities
Opportunities for Natalie include that when she goes to university she will be able to join a more serious netball team there, possibly with a better and more motivational netball coach and a team who she gets on with which could help with her motivational levels. As well as this as Natalie wants to maintain her fitness levels and to gain more fitness but its quite expensive to join a gym and she prefers going with someone else so that they can encourage her to keep going, when she goes university she can also join a gym which is much cheaper and she can go with her other netball friends as they will most likely be living on the same university campus as her.
Other opportunities which Natalie can do are join a team with a better coach or get more involved in the sport and maybe try out so that she can reach a higher level, even though she said she'd prefer to stay recreational because it is less competitive, however I feel as though if she had the enough motivation and encouragement this could change meaning that she will then want to maybe compete at a higher level and there are lots of opportunities for her to do so.
Threats
The threats could be that her motivation might decrease if she was to join another team as she enjoys who she plays with but the coach doesn't help with her development or motivation. As well as this Natalie has a part time job as a waitress and sales assistance so this takes up a lot of her time, meaning that she wont be able to train or compete as much as she wants to and her job will take up a lot of her time and as well as this when she goes into full time education she will struggle to deal with work load as well as playing netball. If she isn't able to handle all this or she struggles with her self management in turn this means she wont play and that her fitness levels will decrease and this is the last thing she wants as she said she would love to keep and improve her fitness levels. Also performing for a different team might affect Natalie's attitude towards netball, if she joins a teams and they are better than she is or worse than the team she played for before this may affect how she feels about playing and therefore she wont want to train or compete. When she ages so does everyone else, so everyone else because more experience and even better at the sport so if she was to a join a team where they played much better than she did then she'd either be on the bench the whole game or feel really under pressure to perform well as well as demotivated.
PST
This is psychological skills training, and as said by Gill, 2000 it is an '...individually designed combination of methods selected to attain psychological skill needs'. The reasons as to why we need to train are psychological skills is included I research conducted by Calmels et al in 2003, they were able to show how athletes went from being unsuccessful to successful by having great concentration, confidence, task orientated thoughts, low anxiety, positive thoughts as well as images and also more determination and commitment. There are different phases within PST, they include;
First Phase, this is the educational phase, this means that the psychological skills we need, need to be leant and practiced, and you need to be able to see clear improvements so that you know that you are actually developing these skills. This is done in the first and sixth week of training.
Second Phase, this is the acquisition phase, this is when you focus on the strategies and other techniques that will help you learn the psychological skills and helps you meet your individual needs, providing information to the team and making sure that everything you say is specific when you are developing their program.
Third Phase, this is the practice phase, and this is when you learn the psychological skills so that you are progressing from practices and stimulations moving onto real competitions. In this phase you need to make sure that you are focusing on improving your understand of the skills by overlearning , integrating, psychological skills and also stimulating the different skills which you want to apply to the competitions that you are going to be competing in.
Week Two
Week Two
For week two I decided to do goal setting, I used goal setting so that I was able to set Natalie some challenges, I need to make sure that at least everyday there is a daily goal. There are different types of goals such as process goals, these are the type of goals which focus on technique and practice and is something Natalie will have to do in order to be successful, most of the time this involves breaking down the skills and practicing them in different parts. Performance goals, this is when they are only focusing on how they are going to win, they judge and compare their performance with others. Outcome goals, this is what happens as an end result, such as winning the competition or reaching a different level above recreational, however if you focus too much on this and your performance doesn't turn out as good as you think it will, it then leads to a decline in performance. As well as this I saw that there were different lengths of goals, there's short term and these are the goals which are set daily and weekly, the are used to assess progress. There's then the intermediate goals and these are what short term goals lead up to they are set over a period of months and lead up to a long term goal, this are set in a year.
I decided to set three goals this time as I wanted to make sure they were specific and that she was sticking to them and as this was her first week of training I also needed to make sure that these goals were specific but also basic so that she was sticking to them and also so that she wasn't working too hard and that he motivation wasn't decreasing. The three goals I set were mostly process goals as well as short term goal as I got her working on different parts of her body on different days of a week which all are needed in netball and would improve her performance. The goals included,
1. Complete 20 minutes on the treadmill on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, writing or talking about how you feel afterwards.
2. Fitness, complete 5 sets of 3 reps on Tuesday and Thursday of sit ups, crunches, squats and lunges on the netball court, making sure you are recording what you are doing and you are doing them affectively.
3. Complete 25 over head passes, 25 chest passes, 25 bounce passes, 25 left hand bounce passes, 25 right hand bounce passes, 25 left hand shoulder passes, 25 right hand shoulder passes. This is to be completed twice on Saturday and Sunday on the netball court and should last around 20 minutes every time, as you should be doing this at full intensity.
The reason as to why I set the first goal was because it was focusing on her fitness and this sis something she said she wished to improve on and doing 20 minutes I feel as though this was a long enough period of time to improve her fitness but also not push her too far as it was her first proper week of training and she had to do this 3 times during the week. The second goal I chose to do was down to the fact that it was exercising a different part of her body, this was looking at her core fitness, I did this because it is important for every netball player to be able to improve her core fitness and I needed to involve this within my goals, as this in turn would help improve her fitness as I am working on her abdominals and leg muscles so she will be able to last longer and apply more pressure. Then my third goal was so that she was able to work on her arm muscles and it was related to her sport netball, it was a simple but fun task for her to do and it was straight forward and wasn't time consuming at all.
For goal setting the session lasted around 10-20 minutes and it wasn't mainly just me talking to Natalie about these goal and getting her to decide what she would prefer to work on and do in order to improve her performance and overall fitness.
Week One
Week One
I decided to do 6 different session all either in the gym or on the netball court, these 6 sessions lasted around 2 hours with a 15 minute break in-between, as well as water breaks as often as she needed them, this in turn all helped Natalie when it came to developing her fitness. The testing I am doing will take part in both the gym and on the netball court, so that I am able to target her fitness as well as make it sports related and bring her team in so she can start performing with her team and getting use to that, hopefully managing to put her in a game environment. The strategies I will be using during this 6 week log are Music in sport and goal setting. The reason as to why I chose these two was because with music in sport this will be able to keep her motivated and relaxed, and as she hates fitness even though it is an important aspect within netball she need to stay fully motivated and music will help her with this. As well as music, goal setting can also be used to up her motivation and performance as I am setting sport specific goals that if she stuck to would increase her performance and when she completes a goal, if I give her rewards this will motivate her to stick to the goals, I just have to make sure that they are positive and I apply specific and positive feedback, always making sure that when I get her, her areas for improvement I finish it with a positive so that she still feels good about herself and her performance. The reason I didn't choose any of the other strategies such as self talk or breathing methods was because Natalie said that she didn't struggle with nerves or anxiety before a match so this was pointless as this mainly involved decreasing both these problems where as Natalie said she struggles with motivation and her last coach never really did that so I thought that music in sport and goal setting were the perfect strategies to increase her motivation.
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