THE NEWSLETTER
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This is our first issue of the KSU Counseling Service Sport Psychology Newsletter. It is written as an information resource, connecting point, and description of services offered by the Sport Psychology concentration for doctoral interns This newsletter is written for coaches, athletes, trainers, advisors and any person interested in the improvement of mental and psychological aspects of performance. In future editions we will feature topics such as goal setting programs, the debate over positive coaching techniques, and team building preseason strategies. Please feel free to link this page and send to a friend or download as written copy and share with others you know. Your comments and reactions are also invited.

KSU Counseling Services - Sport Psychology Center
KSU Counseling Service is one of five University psychological practice centers in the United States that offer a formal concentration for Sport Psychology Interns. The others include: George Washington University, Penn State University, Virginia Tech University, and Washington State University. The Sport Psychology program includes a range of services to athletes, sport teams, and coaches in several aspects of mental performance skills. During the past year we have provided team consultations, topical workshops, credit classes, individual counseling, and assessment of performance skills. Our program offers one of the most complete Biofeedback/Performance Training Centers anywhere. Biofeedback is the use of computerized physiological measures to learn arousal control and focus of attention strategies.
  Concepts in Sport Psychology
CRUNCH TIME: CLUTCH OR CHOKE?
The Problem: Athletes frequently encounter competitive situations in which they under perform in skills in which they previously have demonstrated competence. For example, a basketball player is capable of shooting foul shots at an 85% rate in practice and has an average of 75% or better in games. However, he/she suddenly gets into game situations in which he/she shoots no better than 50% and is described as “tight”. Similarly, a baseball player may be known as a good hitter with an over .300 batting average suddenly goes into a “slump” in which he cannot make solid contact with the ball. A golfer says she is confident of being able to make shots, yet at address her swing seems to “lock up” at the crucial moment, creating an errant shot.
 

All of these performance activities are attributed to a mental reaction, a thought process, which interferes with the natural capability that the athlete can achieve. Coaches will often describe this as freezing up, clutching, feeling the pressure, being tight, losing confidence, etc. Opposing coaches will actually try to produce the phenomenon by calling time out before crucial free throws by the other team or before the place kicker tries to kick a game winning field goal. In many ways coaches are more adept at creating the pressure in a player than reducing the pressure or relieving the mental triggers.

There are coaches that will simulate competitive environments during practice situations (heightening the noise level in practice, using taunts, etc.) to prepare the athletes for pressure situations, but few know what to do once a case of “the nerves” has arrived. Sometimes the attempt at a solution may even confound the problem. Tactics such as requiring more practice attempts or pulling the participant out of competition may reinforce the thinking that the athlete “has a problem” and confound the mental message that is provoking the undesired response. Similarly, other coaches may try to downplay any response to the athlete hoping to diminish the attention that provokes more anxiety. Again, paradoxically, avoidance is also a form of attention.

(Continued...)

Former psychology intern, Bob Harmison, with U.S. Snowboard team member,
 Kelly Clark, during training the day before her gold medal winning run at the
2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City