SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

What do professional cyclists think when they approach a climb? This depends on how they perceive their climbing ability, the challenge of the upcoming climb, the importance of their performance on this climb and their current sense of fatigue. If they perceive that they have the skills to do well on the climb, based on the gradient and length of the climb and the relative abilities of others, then they will approach with confidence. If instead, they believe that they don’t have that great an ability, then they may have some anxiety, trepidation, and worry with thoughts along the lines of: “This is going to hurt.” “I’m not good at this.” “I’ll get dropped.” So, how would a good climber approach a climb?   A confident rider approaches feeling calmer, more ready for the challenge, perhaps even welcoming and relishing it. They see it as a good test or a good part of the course. They may be thinking along the lines of: “Yeah, here it comes. Bring it on. This is my terrain. ...

Italian football match-fixing inquiry story on the BBC today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18000848 ): 52 active players to answer questions on their behaviour. This got me wondering, some athletes make the decision to take performance enhancing drugs to perform better (by cheating), but how much money would it take for athletes (footballers and others) to perform worse? What would it take for us in their shoes to: to miss a or every shot on goal? to foul another player? to false start in a sprint race? to fail at each attempt at a triple jump? to not finish a hurdle race? to finish outside the top 10 in a sprint in a cycling road race? ... Would we never be tempted? Even by a few hundred thousand pounds? Would our price be high, average, or not so high? Would it be lower if we are more towards the end of our sporting careers, to earn a bit extra, or because it 'doesn't matter'? How would we justify the decision? Dr Victor Thompson www.sportsps...

Reviewing your performance is important. This can be comprehensive and complex – but that is likely to put most athletes off from doing it, as it becomes too cumbersome and a pain. Instead as yourself these brief questions now that the dust has settled after your event: What went well that you’d want to do again or learn from? There will be plenty, so make sure you extract this. What didn’t go so well, that you’d want to change? There will be some negatives or learning points. Look at these dispassionately. Okay, so how will you modify your training and events in the future to repeat the good and address the not-so-good? Review – learn – move on – improve Victor Dr Victor Thompson www.sportspsychologist.com

Sport offers so much to children psychologically: an opportunity to test themselves, to learn rules, to cooperate with others, to accept defeat, to celebrate success (hopefully), to cope with setbacks and much more. The Sports Parent who takes their child to practice, watches them play and then has to deal with whatever mood their child is in afterwards has a tough job to do. You face many dilemmas including: How much should you encourage your child to do the sport? When is your encouragement too much, at risk of being perceived as coercion or pushing them into it? How do you help your child cope with mistakes and bad performances? With other children, coaches, officials who show unfairness? Or cope with other parents who take a very different approach from you regarding how sport should be played by kids? What makes your job as the Sports Parent all the more difficult is the fact that you really care about your child. You don’t want them to be upset. You don’t want sport to hu...