Evaluation of the Psychological Skills Training Programme.

Well it has been an eventful, fun and enthralling psychological skills training programme which has gone on for eight long weeks and it is safe to say Athlete Z loved every bit of it and gained valuable skills to help him compete with his football psychologically. I would like to say a massive thanks to the athlete for giving up some of his valuable time every week for me by taking part weekly in training programmes. It has been a time consuming exercise but there is no doubt with the responses we attained each week from the Athlete he gained ample different skills and techniques to help him with his football. These skills are highly likely to help the athlete perform up to his high standards as it will enable him to keep control of his nervous and his mind so he can remain in a position where he can perform well and not let anything get to him.

Re Assessment

Within this section I will be rewinding back to the first ever week of the psychological skills programme where athlete z had completed questionnaires and performance profile wheels. Athlete z will be re taking these tests and then I shall compare the results to the first time he completed these tests.

 

 

 

During this 8 week programme we have seen mega changes psychologically for athlete z whilst he has been completing series of different tests to help him with his psychological aspects. Firstly beginning with the belief of the athlete, here at the beginning his belief was scoring at 6 out of 10, however after the programme when we reassessed you could see clearly above that he scored 7. This shows improvement in his belief as he has been working towards improving his nerves and that has helped him to believe in himself further. Secondly moving on to the focus of the athlete he has scored 8 out of 10 at the beginning and now he scores himself 9. This is another improvement as he has been goal setting in recent weeks which has helped him to focus on his goals even more which shows already this programme is helping him to up his goals all round. The mental toughness has also been notched up a level from 4 to 5 now. From meditation techniques and imagery this has helped the athlete to come on leaps and bounce and his mental toughness and the belief within him has really helped him with his mental toughness and to cope with the number of games that are there to be played during the season. The concentration levels haven’t shifted as they are still at a 9 which shows that it’s a stable section for the player and so nothing has decreased which is the most important aspect. The confidence has increased to 5 which is very healthy for the player as his belief has shot up which means he will be highly confident in his abilities to take people on and create goals as well as score them himself which is important.  The self-control has really shot up from 6 to 8 which shows the programme has helped the player to work on his self-control as he has been working on mental skills programmes quite a lot and it has affected him positively to score a great 8 out of 10 now. The awareness has also improved considerably from a mere 5 to a huge 8 out of 10 after this programme. The player’s awareness has really been improved through the techniques used during the skills programme and that has impacted him positively. In addition the motivation has increased from 8 scored before to 9 now as athlete z is hungrier to achieve success and is motivated even more to get the job done efficiently and play at the top level. This all comes from the self-belief of the player from where he has previously scored 7 and now he has scored 9 out of 10 which shows great belief in his abilities as he has used mental imagery techniques and music to boost his belief in his capabilities which will fuel his motivation to succeed and perform at a higher level.

Monitoring Feedback

Looking back at the athletes feedback each week on how he had found the weekly techniques he was assigned too, overall it has been a great success as the athlete always came away learning something new and making sure that he can apply this to his everyday life as a footballer from the new season. The techniques impacted the player in a highly positive way which has enabled the player to perform up to some quality standards and outshining other players on the pitch at times. The skills programme has been a massive success as it has helped athlete z to perform emphatically. Each week the athlete stated that he had learnt a lot and benefited and that shows within his performances as he has that mental edge over the other players as his motivation and belief is sky high at the moment enabling him to put in some outstanding performances.

What does the athlete want to achieve in the future?

Athlete said has stated that as an aspiring footballer to play at the highest level he wants to develop in all aspects of his game physically to technically and also mentally. He is keeping his feet on the ground and isn’t dreaming about the extraordinary fairy tales of becoming the best player in the world over the next year. Athlete Z wants to just have a fit and healthy season and progress a step forward maybe to a team one step higher in the non-league grid. Athlete z sees this all as a learning experience where he just wants to learn from the older players in the team and inherit the knowledge some of the players have had that has helped them to play pro football. There are no massive plans for athlete z, he just wants to keep doing what he is doing and stay humble and hopefully get the opportunity if he keeps playing well.

Evaluation of the programme

As mentioned it has been a successful programme with the feedback we have got from athlete z. he really did gain a lot in terms of controlling his nerves before matches and believing in himself that littler extra which has motivated and spurred him on to work harder and that has shown through some great performances as the programme went on. Athlete z said he had gained strengths in all departments of his psychological wheel as he believes this program has helped him to come on leaps and bounce and perform well consistently. Each week was introduced to the athlete with great structure and care and with healthy information so that the athlete knew exactly what he has to do during the week. The information was useful and that led to the player participating in the programme correctly which helped him to take out huge amounts of benefits and strive towards success. Athlete Z enjoyed the music week as this helped spur him on and motivate him as well as inject him with the confidence beforehand so during games he can believe in himself and take opposition on. In addition there were a few negatives with the whole programme as we were very limited to time as we only could manage 8 weeks, a few months would be perfect to see a bigger picture of the outcome which would benefit both parties as athlete z could improve even more and me the assessor can help athlete z improve more. Therefore I believe that was the only weaknesses within the programme as there was nowhere near enough time to have a much broader programme and work on other aspects and possibly bring in other weekly techniques to help with the cause. After speaking to athlete z he had said that he enjoyed every week of the program and didn’t struggle massively with anything as the information was given to great detail which helped him complete and get through each week which was vital. Everything can be improved no matter what it is, and therefore I believe this program could improve massively however six-eight weeks was nowhere near long enough to improve all the skills of the athlete, each skill would need around couple of weeks to improve on depending on the player. These are the only things that need the work in terms of improving this program as I strongly feel that it has been a successful program, the only downside was the fact that the time was not on our hands or we could have developed the skills and programs further. I will like to make changes to the programme in order to make it more effective so I would like to increase the programme to possibly the whole season next year. We will possibly start to begin with the pre-season to develop basic techniques and gradually move on steadily develop as we go on.  In addition we will be looking to improve some of the by enhancing the difficulty levels of the exercise techniques which will mean that the player will need to put in further time and effort which should possibly help him enhance his performance twice as more than it already is.

New Action Plan