STUDY WEEK - PRESSURE TRAINING

                                     

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• The 3 properties of effective pressure manipulations x extending the reach of consequences, simulating psychological demands of competition and approximating, but not replicating, competition pressure
• Benefits performance by providing opportunities to learn and practice coping skills, can change the relationship players have with pressure and increase the quality of training
• To create pressure in training implement pressure manipulations that increase the sense of importance to perform well via consequences that have extended reach/demands that emphasise the psychological challenges of competition
• Extending reach of consequences is not relying intently of the intensity of consequences but instead pressure can be increased if consequences impact athletes beyond a brief moment in time or affects more people than the individual
• Monitoring reminds athletes that performance in a given drill could continue to impact coaches’ judgement of them over time, not just in that moment
• Leader boards enable comparison between athletes which can increase competitiveness and the use of social media makes performance visible to an even wider audience
• Ask athletes to put a training pledge on social media to commit them to the task
• If monitoring and visibility extended importance of performance beyond 1 moment in time, then consequences for teammates extended the importance beyond 1 individual where 1 athlete might be asked to perform but their performance could result in a forfeit for teammates and while the nature of the reward/punishment itself may not create pressure for the athlete, the idea of causing others to experience that consequence could increase the pressure
• Consequences with extended reach often kept attention on the athlete's performance and when a forfeit was at stake, an athlete had the chance to show teammates that they could be counted on
• Collaborate with athletes to agree on any consequences such as posting on social media before expecting athletes to participate in pressure training
• Simulating psychological demands of competition x the physical surroundings/flow of practice should be constructed to resemble competition settings
• Competitiveness is increased by creating competition between teammates, simulate specific types of opposition (aggressive/vocal player tactic) and simulate high pressure tactical situations
• Increasing competitiveness within training can magnify both the level of challenge and athletes motivation to win or perform their best
• Competing against teammates could also increase the perceived importance of a consequence and a small reward could even more desirable if teammates are competing for it, even if it’s just $1 as it becomes the most important $1 in the world if their mate has put it on the line
• Competitiveness/consequences seemed to interact to increase pressure and neither the chance to win money nor the presence of teammates may have increased pressure as much as competing with those teammates for that money
• Manipulate demands to add to uncertainty/unfairness/uncontrollable factors that the athletes cannot avoid/stop where performance can decline rapidly when in number disadvantage conditions in small sided games as it breeds desperation, sloppy passing/decision making, frustration and then irritability
• Can also accentuate uncontrollable factors was to manipulate the score of the match during training by having both teams having a different point total to score to win but without the opposition knowing and because 1 team might be so close to winning this uncertainty resembled the end of a match with a close score in which all of a sudden this perception of how important a single point is goes massively up
• Another uncontrollable situation is when athletes had to perform on demand without advanced notice or multiple chances and instead of getting multiple reps to get it right, you have 1 rep only which is competition demands to a tee
• None of these make the actual task any harder but they target situations to ensure similar psychological challenges that athletes face in competition
• If consequences seemed to increase the importance of the outcome of a drill then demands seemed to increase the importance of executing phys skills or applying mental skills to achieve that outcome
• Proper technique is more important when athletes only have 1 chance to complete the task and the ability to focus is heavily relied upon especially when facing more uncontrollable factors than in a normal practice
• Approximating, but not replicating, intensity of competition pressure where a true replication is not necessary and competition will always be slightly unique but you just want to see where the athlete goes under stress, what stress/pressure looks like for them and then building a framework to build and manage that response
• Perfectly replicating competition pressure is less critical than having athletes practice the thinking/behaviors that would help them cope with that pressure
• Approximation was also usually sufficient because building up to that performance under pressure was a process and you don't need to apply the highest pressure possible all at once
• Pressure training helps improve performance x learning and then practice coping skills, change the relationship with pressure and increase the quality of training
• Learning/practicing coping skills x helps to manage anxiety, attention and self talk under pressure but it takes time to develop the routines around them while you deliberately add/remove elements to see how you respond to them
• The closer you get to competition the more potentially negative thoughts arise and pressure training gives you opportunities to deal with it, enable you to understand it and then navigate those thoughts faster = not getting as big of a psychological response and not having to deal with an issue that used to be bigger
• Coaches will notice athletes focusing better/longer, being more coachable and actionable on coaching cues
• The desire to win can have you playing against the scoreboard instead of the opposition where you can then identify that you’re becoming overwhelmed, take a step back, take a deep breath and then process what’s right in front of you
• Change the relationship with pressure x training to alter behavioral change to pressure but also how athletes interpret pressure by reaching an understanding between not necessarily good/bad pressure, but that feeling you get when you think you’re under pressure but actually just not assuming that’s going to hurt your performance
• Athletes going from treating nerves as a bad thing to feeling that pressure is normal and that they can handle it by doing x/y/z rather going into their shell
• Coaches can change the task/environment/performer but these physical/tactical demands do not increase pressure unless combined with consequences where you need to target psychological demands by fostering competitiveness, adding uncontrollable factors or requiring athletes to perform on demand
• Pressure is an increased importance to perform well and psychological demands increased this importance of a task without changing the task itself such as performing a task with just a single rep attempt
• The emphasise on psychological demands distinguishes pressure training from the constraints-led approach which relies on manipulating environments/tasks, with pressure training seeking athletes to perform the same skills under pressure
• Some forfeits, such as sprints, may increase pressure but they are unrelated to the consequences of competition but athletes may feel realistic pressure to impress coaches or avoid letting teammates down when facing certain consequences with extended reach
• Structure psychological demands based on scenarios that athletes will likely face in competition where athletes can face/deal with the same negative thoughts that will pop up in games
• Training with mild anxiety can improve performance under higher levels of anxiety
• Athletes can practice how they want to think/behave under pressure and this can contribute to pressure training’s effectiveness as much as the amount of pressure, which should be gradual anyway as the athlete becomes comfortable
• Until athletes can perform under moderate pressure then there’s no need to worry about maximising it as it can interfere with developing coping skills as athletes go straight to from calm to high stress too quickly
• Pressure training increases the athletes self awareness of the need for coping skills by highlighting sources of pressure/unproductive tendencies under pressure
• Athletes can practice those coping skills under pressure in sport specific settings and then learn to apply them quickly when in competition
• Demands that increase difficulty often do not increase pressure and athletes can perform worse but not feel pressure if they do not have more reason than usual to maintain performance
• Don’t assume that consequences will create pressure just because it s unpleasant to athletes as a mild forfeit can be unpleasant but only temporary
• Consequences with extended reach amplify an impact that might already matter to the athletes (judgment from coaches etc)
• Pressure training seems to prepare athletes even if if that pressure only approximates the levels of pressure in competition
• The level of pressure should be increased as athletes develop their coping skills
• Coaches should continue to manipulate conditions to increase pressure but also recognise that lower levels of pressure can still be beneficial and are even desirable
• For a complex task, training under a mix of high and low anxiety can improve performance better than training under just high anxiety
• Introducing anxiety too early can disrupt the learning process
• Consequences usually involve athletes losing something rather then to win something, so try both approaches