Part 3: Assessing Mental Skills Needs

• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • Harder to accurately identify needs 
  • Trying to reach peak performance 
  • What skills does person need & what methods plug into those skills 
  • So assessment is crucial 
  • 1st 2 (foundation & performance skills) easily overlooked

  
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • Assessments → 
  • PST Methods → 
  • PST Skills → 
  • IPS → 
  • Training Plan
  • Physical, Technical & Tactical Skills
  • Peak Performance

  
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Sport
  • Physical intensity, duration (demands)
  • Team vs individual
  • Basic physical/technical skills
  • The Team (or Squad)
  • Team dynamics, cohesion
  • Coach, manager/admin,…
  • Leaders/captains
  • Coactive or interactive,
  •  The Individual
  • Assess psych skill needs
  • Observation, interviews/discussion
  • Some ethical issues (athletes permission?)
  • Peak Performance Profile (pp. 7-10)
  • Psych instruments (eg. SCAT)… no!
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Sport
  • Physical intensity, duration (demands)
  • Team vs individual
  • Basic physical/technical skills
  • The Team (or Squad)
  • Team dynamics, cohesion
  • Coach, manager/admin,…
  • Leaders/captains
  • Coactive or interactive,
  •  The Individual
  • Assess psych skill needs
  • Observation, interviews/discussion
  • Some ethical issues (athletes permission?)
  • Peak Performance Profile (pp. 7-10)
  • Psych instruments (eg. SCAT)… no!
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Sport
  • Physical intensity, duration (demands)
  • Team vs individual
  • Very different depending on type of sport 
  • Lots of team sports have positional roles w/ different demands 
  • Basic physical/technical skills
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Sport
  • Physical demands of sport may influence mental/psych demands 
  • Different physical demands & different mental demands bw/ sports (eg marathon vs sprint)
  • The sport is crucial 
  • Ones have knowledge of can have downside 
  • See sport through your eyes (& experience) not person working with
  • Different mental demands for different individuals 
  • Sometimes easier on ones that don’t - don’t overlook stuff
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Team (or Squad)
  • Team dynamics, cohesion
  • Coach, manager/admin,…
  • Leaders/captains
  • Coactive or interactive, ...
  • What kind of team is it:
  • Group dynamic 
  • If train together (but individual sport), hockey (team) vs rowing (different to hockey team)
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • If overlook the SPORT & the TEAM, harder to help individual
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Individual
  • Assess psych skill needs
  • Observation, interviews/discussion
  • Some ethical issues (athletes permission?)
  • Peak Performance Profile (pp. 7-10)
  • Psych instruments (eg. SCAT)… no!
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Individual
  • Assess psych skill needs: Psych instruments (eg. SCAT)… no!
  • Different questionnaire measures (to measure different personality traits, or anxiety etc)
  • Most are really good tools, but are designed for research purposes
  • Not to be used in this case
  • Learn more & in more depth
  •  By talking to athlete
  • Depends on job trying to accomplish what tools you use 
  • Could scare athletes - trying to psychoanalyse me, to see if I have mental health issues
• Assessing Mental Skill Needs

  • The Individual
  • Everyone is an individual 
  • Although may have same role/position, demands may be different for different people 
• Peak Performance Profile 

  • Explain each section (what tactical means etc)
  • Make a list of skills that contribute to your sport (w/ out ranking them 1st)
  • Not all skills equally useful
  • Got to pick top 3 skills then score themselves 
  • Once explain 
  • Athletes often brutally honest around them self on rating 
  • Rate self lower than coach does 
  • Get picture on what they are good at & areas for improvement 
  • How good you are at skills (ranking self) - WHY?

  
• Peak Performance Profile 

  • 2 good things of this:
  • Athlete self assessment (eye opener)
  • Educates MSTrainer on skills associated with sport