Mental Training Research Paper

Mental Training Program Everyone has a favorite pastime/sport activity that they cannot get enough of. However, sometimes the pressure of performing in front of an audience or peers can get the best of you. For example, take my client Tommy Lipscomb. Tommy approached a few months ago about an issue he was having during his games in varsity basketball. He told me that he was having trouble concentrating while shooting his free throws because of the audience noise during his shots. This noise was causing poor Tommy to miss his free throws and consequently lose his self-confidence. Afterwards, his performance would then decline the rest of the game and he would then ride the bench. I have developed a mental training program that involves using imagery to work on Tommy’s concentration and ways to boost his …show more content…
Not only will he be working on staying confident constantly throughout the day/during practice, but I him to use imagery during his regular practice with his team. For example, if during practice, Tommy messes up a play I want him to use imagery to imagine himself staying confident and nailing the play on his next go around. On top of this, I will instruct Tommy to spend thirty minutes on three separate occasions to use his imagery skills to work on his free throws. As I said before, I want Tommy to imagine himself perfectly executing a free throw every single time before he lines up to take his shot. While also using self-talk throughout the session by saying things like, “You can do this Tommy” and “I believe I can nail this free throw.” Tommy and I will only be meeting this once at the beginning of the week, this is because he needs to learn these skills on his own as I will not be with him during game times. After the second week of the training program is over, we will then move onto phase three which is our focus on performance