2
BTEC National
(Performance and Excellence)
Workbook 6.2
Name: / Target Grade: / P / M / D
Unit 6
Psychology for Sports Performance
In order to pass this unit, the evidence that the learner presents for assessment needs to demonstrate that they can meet all of the learning outcomes for the unit. The criteria for a pass grade describe the level of achievement required to pass this unit.
To achieve a PASS grade your responses must show that you are able to: / To achieve a MERIT grade your responses must show that you are able to: / To achieve a DISTINCTION grade responses must show that you are able to:P1) Define the key characteristics of personality and describe the main reasons that THREE contrasting athletes compete in their chosen sport.
P2) Identify the personality characteristics and motivation of TWO contrasting sports performers. / M2) Compare and contrast the personality characteristics of TWO sports performers. / D2) Critically analyse the link between personality and motivation of TWO contrasting athletes.
P3) Describe the importance of teamwork for successful performance in TWO contrasting sporting activities. / M3) Compare the value and impact of teamwork for successful performance in TWO contrasting sporting activities. / D3) Critically evaluate the value and impact of teamwork for successful performance in TWO contrasting sporting activities, offering recommendations for future activities.
P4) Describe the influence and effects of stress and anxiety on sports performance. / M4) Compare the effects of stress and anxiety on sports performance. / D4) Critically analyse the effects of stress and anxiety on sports performance, providing recommendations for changes as appropriate.
P5) Identify TWO coping strategies that are used to enhance performance. / M5) Explain the selected coping strategies and the ways that they can enhance performance. / D5) Critically evaluate the effects of the selected coping strategies and the ways that they can be used to enhance performance.
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6.2 Psychology for Sports Performance
Workbook 6.2 OutlineWorkbook 6.2 The first part of this assignment is defining and applying Team Cohesion terminology. The second part is showing how each component impacts on team performance. If you are brave the third part looks are similarities and successful and unsuccessful teams.
L1 / Defining teamwork and the components of a team.
L2 / Understanding and assessing group cohesion.
L3 / Understanding and assessing group cohesion.
L4 / Checking your understanding of Team Cohesion.
L5 / Applying the team cohesion formula.
L6 / Case Study: The 3rd Round of the FA Cup
L7 / Applied teamwork, Clive Woodward and the England Rugby Team
L8 / A review of Clive Woodward and the England Rugby Team
L9 / An introduction to leadership.
L10 / Leader dynamics and leader styles
Signposted Resources / Web sites
The England Patient.
6.2 Improving Teamwork in Football.
Clive Woodward documentary and autobiography.
Sacred Hoops – The story of how Phil Jackson created the infamous Chicago Bulls team that won FIVE NBA Champions. / www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0988.htm
Student Comment Tip
‘I found it much easier to report of games I had played in, I had a real feel for what happened in the game. Much of it had to do with how I played in the game.’
‘The work on the distinction task was difficult but really helped in year 2 with the Principles of Coaching.’
MERIT Grade / DISTINCTION Grade
ü Selects games very carefully before applying the teamwork worksheets. / ü Watch the videos of two teams in action to gather excellent and specific examples.
ü Read the Sir Clive’s book or research the man.
Psychology for Sports Performance
Chapter 6.2
Learning Outcome 2: Investigate the importance of teamwork in sporting situations'The most important factor was the spirit of the team. They just don't give in, they don't know how to give in. A manager can talk all day about tactics and preparation, but if the players can't bring the inner beast out of them then he's wasting his time. Well, they've got that beast inside them. And they found it when it mattered.' Alex Ferguson
Task 1: / P3q Define the terms of ‘teamwork’ and provide an example from a range of contrasting sport situations through a powerpoint or slide presentation.
§ Suggest TWO reasons why a player might social loaf.
§ Suggest TWO reasons why a player may experience Individual Motivation Loss.
§ Describe how the Ringlemann Effect may be applied in football management.
q Review TWO contrasting football performances (from personal experience or a televised game) and describe how teamwork contributed to EACH performance. Make sure you review TWO separate games.
q Complete Worksheet 6.2.1
Task 2: / M3q Review typically winning and typically losing teams. Compare and consider the impact of teamwork on performance.
§ Apply the productivity formula.
§ Complete Worksheet 6.2.2
§ In order to achieve M3 you must have read Steve McClaren’s article on winning and losing teams AND 6.2 Improving Teamwork in Football.
Task 3: / D3q Case Study: Critically evaluate the value and impact of teamwork for successful performance on England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup victory and ONE other team or you may use a movie team.
Coach Carter? / Varsity Blues? / Any Given Sunday?§ Offer recommendations for future activities that the coach or manager may employ to promote team cohesion in the TWO situations evaluated.
P3) Describe the importance of teamwork for successful performance in TWO contrasting sporting activities. / M3) Compare the value and impact of teamwork for successful performance in TWO contrasting sporting activities. / D3) Critically evaluate the value and impact of teamwork for successful performance in TWO contrasting sporting activities, offering recommendations for future activities.
Psychology for Sports Performance
Chapter 6.2
L1 / Defining teamwork and the components of a team.Q Can you identity a truly ‘great’ or outstanding team?
‘I have never been interested in simply sending out a collection of brilliant individuals. There is no substitute for talent but, on the field, talent without unity of purpose is hopelessly devalued currency.’ Alex Ferguson
Groups and Team Cohesion
Before we can discuss teamwork, we must first define a team or group.
Q How many people make a group? / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5A group is ‘a collective identity, a sense of shared purpose or objectives, structured patterns of interaction, structured modes of communication, personal and / or task interdependence and interpersonal attraction,’ (Carron, 1980).
Lets take a look at the definition.
Collective identity – Southampton FC, club badge, playing and training kit.
Shared purpose – Win the Championship for example.
Structured patterns of interaction – Team tactics and systems of play and set pieces for example.
Communication – Team meetings, contract negotiations and language for example.
Personal AND / OR Task interdependence – The manager picks the team. The players win or lose the game. The QB makes the play and the defensive line collectively protects him.
Interpersonal attraction – The degree to which the members of the team like one another.
Q Do team mates have to like one another?
Re-write the ‘group’ definition so that you understand it.
Gladiator
Q What on earth does group cohesion have to do with Maximus Decimus Meridius? ‘Are you not entertained?’
‘On this day we reach back to hallowed antiquity to bring you a recreation of a second Fall of Mighty Carthage. On the barren straits of Zama, there stood the invincible armies of the Barbarian Hannibal. Ferocious mercenaries and warriors from all brute nations bent on merciless destruction conquest. Your Emperor is pleased to give you the Barbarian Horde!’
Collective identity:
‘When the Emperor enters, raise your weapons, salute him and then speak together. Face the Emperor and don't turn your back on him. Go and die with honour.’
The collect identify of the group is that they are slaves.
Q How can you tell the ‘slave’ gladiators apart from the Roman gladiators? How can you distinguish the two groups apart?
Q How is the leader appointed? Group appointed? Emergent? Self Appointed?
Shared purpose:
‘Whatever comes out of these gates, we have got a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? If we stay together, we survive!’
Q The shared purpose of the slave gladiators is ______?
Structured patterns of interaction:
Q What group tactics do the slave gladiators employ to survive?
Q What happens to those gladiators who fail to stay together?
Q What group tactics do the slaves employ to up end the chariots?
Communication
Q What do theses terms mean? ‘Hold ... Diamond! Diamond!’ and ‘Single column!’
If you are unsure, who do they mean to the soldiers?
Personal interdependence AND / OR Task interdependence:
Q Does Maximus ever fulfil a solitary role?
Interpersonal attraction – The degree to which the members of the team like one another.
Q Is there any evidence that these slave gladiators show to indicate interpersonal attraction?
‘Teamwork isn’t simple. In fact, it can be frustrating, decisive commodity. That’s why there’s so many bad teams out there, stuck in neutral or going down hill. Teamwork doesn’t thrive just because of the presence of talent or ambition. It doesn’t flourish because the team has tasted success.’ Pat Riley
Group Cohesion
Group cohesion then, is ‘the dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuits of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of member affective needs,’ (Carron, Brawley, Widmeyer, 1998).
More simply, cohesion is the motivational aspects of a group which attract individual members to the group and the resistance of those members to breaking up.
‘What is decisive in critical situations is the atmosphere in the squad. A good atmosphere is not something that can be built up in a short time. It takes work and patience.’ Sven Goran Eriksonn
Team Task:
Think of a team with strong cohesion?
Q What attracts players to that group or club? Or resistances to breaking up? (Interpersonal attraction? / Shared Purpose?)
Q What reasons are there to leave a football club? Who said it? What as the outcome?
‘The players have been asked questions and they are just not coming up with the answers. I am sick of having to say it and they are sick of listening to me…. When they sign the contracts, they think they have made it. They owe it to the manager, the staff and the fans.’
'Whilst it is a sad day for me to leave such a great club and manager I believe that the time has now come for me to move on.’
Assessing Teamwork or Cohesion
‘The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling players have for each other. Most people call it team spirit. When a team is inspired with that special feeling, you know you’ve got a winning team.’ Vince Lombardi
Undoubtedly the most successful teams play as a cohesive unit, but not all. ‘Mutual appreciation and trust does not require close friendship.’ However, the nature of football almost always requires players to interact for the team to be successful but there are rare occasions where dysfunctional teams experience success. There is objective evidence to support the need for cohesion in team games and it has been proven that:
Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity – Faulty Processes
Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity – Faulty Processes
Actual Productivity: refers to the output in the game situation.
Actual productivity CAN NEVER be higher than potential productivity.
At the professional level the score is the most important factor but it often does not tell the whole story. Statistics are frequently used to assess actual productivity.
Taunton's College 2 Totton College 0
Give TWO further actual productivity statistics.
1. / 2.Potential Productivity: refers to the output, which would be possible from the team if each player performed to their maximum potential on the day.
Consider Potential productivity to be FIXED at the start of the game.
‘We can say though, it is not enough to simply take the best players in the belief that they will produce the best team.’ Sven Goran Eriksonn.
Over the past few seasons Real Madrid has assembled a galaxy of stars, hence the nickname ‘Los Galacticos.’ Since the year 2000 they added Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham and Owen (if temporarily) to play alongside Raul, Carlos and Casillas. So, with all these superstars in their squad, if every player played to their potential where should they finish in La Liga?
1st / 2nd / 3rd / 6thAt the end of the 2003-4, Real Madrid lost their last five matches to end the season without a trophy for the first time in five years, Real Madrid severely under achieved. What position are Real Madrid currently in?
Faulty Process
‘One thing I needed to be particularly mindful of was the effects success was having on the player. Success tends to distort reality to make everybody, coaches as well as players, to forget their shortcomings and exaggerate their contributions. Soon they begin to lose sight of what made them successful in the first place.’ Phil Jackson.
Faulty Processes: these processes detract from team performance.
In ‘The Mental Health of the Team: Dealing with Success or Failure and Reviewing the Challenges Ahead,’ Steve McClaren identifies faulty processes for both winning and losing teams.
Task: Rank order those you consider to be the most dangerous to a winning team?
The Potential Winners: Their task is to maintain the composure, discipline, and ‘winning’ mentality that has served them so well to achieve this position. The great psychological dangers facing the leading clubs are:
§ Complacency: Players and Coaches believing their own publicity.
§ Mental Fatigue: Along with physical fatigue will diminish mental toughness.
§ Loss of Hunger: Players stop enjoying competing; do not want to go full distance.
§ Fear of Success: Players become passive and start to avoid responsibility.
§ Distractions: Everyone wants a piece of the likely champions.