Home Football Game Analysis

We are getting down to that crunch time of the semester where all of the class work becomes a little more important and the assignments start to become bigger and harder. The sport seasons are getting close to the end, so the sports teams are fighting for the number one spot and post season berths. During this time of the year there are a lot of situations that could call for the use of individual performance skills in athletics, school, personal, and social life. The performance situation that I picked to focus when writing this paper was the last home football game of the year against San Diego State University. This game had some extra pressures that went along with it. Not only was it possibly the last home game of the year, …show more content…
The football team changed up our preparation somewhat for the game. We shifted the focus slightly over from being physical to more of mental preparation. Since there was a shift to a more mental preparation, I thought it was appropriate to pick imagery as my individual performance skill. The Association of Applied Sport Psychology defines imagery as, “Visualization or mental rehearsal. Imagery means using all of your senses (e.g., see, feel, hear, taste, smell) to rehearse your sport in your mind.” (Cumming, 2016). There are many factors that go into making imagery work effectively and I will talk about some of those later. Those factors help work to the three main outcomes. The outcomes are, “Facilitating skill and strategy learning/performance, regulating arousal and completive anxiety, modifying cognitions related to confidence,” (Kin 3037, Fall …show more content…
There is a lot of information out there that backs up that imagery can help in several different ways. It can enhance one’s preparation for an event and is better than having no practice at all. Imagery is a mental training tool. When it is used right before a competition, it has shown an increase in performance. It can help an athlete control their thoughts and emotions before a competition. In class we talk about two different theories related to imagery. They are the functional equivalence theory and the mental readiness theory. The functional equivalence theory says that the same part of your brain is working when you are out doing the actual activities or when you are visualizing yourself doing them. The mental readiness theory talks about how using imagery helps you to optimize arousal, attention, and confidence. For the mental part, I needed to use the imagery to perform these football skills in my mind repetitively until they seemed not only correct but natural. After my short time practicing imagery I think that both theories have some truth to them because I saw improvement in those