Coaches sought to participate in study utilizing strategies to help competitive athletes conquer anxiety

trevor.kenney — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 21:42:00 +0000

Anxiety and nervousness before competition is normal for most athletes, from minor sport to the professional game. But what can a coach do when that anxiety starts limiting their athletes’ ability to perform? ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s student Courtney Stevens has been researching strategies to mitigate these issues before they become problematic and is now inviting coaches to take part in a study to see how effective these approaches are in practice.

Courtney Stevens is a graduate of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia Okanagan and former competitive soccer player.

Stevens, a graduate of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia Okanagan and former competitive soccer player, says there is a lot of sport psychology information available, but it is spread throughout the internet, is often too academic for a general audience and does not instruct coaches on how to apply the principles studied.

“In the preliminary research we did, we found some coaches have access to sports psychology information in general, some find information on websites, tidbits here and there, but the majority don’t know where to go for it and even if they do find some information, they don’t know how to apply it to their athletes,” says Dr. Paige Pope, ULethbridge kinesiology professor and Stevens’s master’s thesis advisor.

“Courtney did a fantastic job of compiling this information, crafting summaries of why it’s important, and creating infographics, worksheets and activities that are easily digestible and ready to put into practice.”

What Stevens needs now are coaches willing to take her work and put it into play.

“We set 156 coaches as the goal, which is very ambitious, but we’re trying to acquire as much data as possible,” says Stevens, who came to ULethbridge to work specifically with Pope and the Sport Psychology for Coaches website she is now utilizing.

“We’re not asking too much of the coaches. They’ll be asked to do a 15- to 20-minute survey at three different times throughout the duration of the study and if they’re really keen, they can be involved in an interview about their experiences with the website and the resources.”

Stevens is looking for any coach over the age of 18 who is currently coaching an athlete or athletes at any competitive level. From the preliminary work they’ve done, she is confident coaches are looking for these resources to assist their athletes.

“The website had touched a bit on anxiety regulation and the resources I’ve developed go into much greater depth and focus on tackling anxiety with strategies to prevent it, as opposed to treating athletes who are already feeling these things,” she says. “This is about giving athletes skills to call upon when they recognize anxiety creeping in — so a facilitative approach before it becomes debilitating.”

Coaches can sign up for the study at any time by contacting Stevens at courtney.stevens@uleth.ca.

Sport psychology website created as free resource for all coaches looking to enhance athletic performance

trevor.kenney — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:02:14 +0000

For many minor-level coaches, access to reliable, evidence-based sport psychology resources is simply beyond their reach. In response to this, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge kinesiology professor and her colleagues have developed a new website, Sportpsychologyforcoaches.ca, devoted to putting the latest sport psychology research and advice in their hands – for free.

Dr. Paige Pope says that coaches at all levels of sport incorporate varying aspects of sport psychology into their practice naturally, but while professional coaches and those at higher levels often have access to sport psychologists or consultants, those at lower levels are left wanting.

“It’s a resource primarily designed for lower level coaches who are looking for this type of information and support,” says Pope, an Ontario-born-and-educated professor and former post-secondary rugby player. “We conducted a study with over 250 coaches and asked whether they used online resources to help them with sports psychology. They overwhelmingly said they didn’t trust what was available.”

Western ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Dr. Craig Hall, Pope’s PhD supervisor, Dr. Barbi Law (Nipissing ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, and one of Hall’s former students) and Dr. Melanie Gregg (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Winnipeg) came up with the idea of creating a sport psychology website that summarized recent research, communicated it in accessible language and was a free resource for coaches at all levels. The focus is simply to help coaches help their athletes.

“The end goal is to provide coaches with the information and tools they need to help their athletes improve the mental side of their game, such as setting goals or increasing their motivation and self-confidence,” says Pope.

Pope’s specific area of expertise deals with how perceptions of coaches’ interpersonal styles affect athlete motivation and well-being. The site breaks down a number of mental skills, including topics such as imagery, goal-setting, performance routines, anxiety regulation and coping with adversity.

“For each mental or psychological skill, we explain what it is, what the benefits are and then present tips on how to maximize the skill – and it’s all evidence-informed advice,” says Pope. “Coaches can then print out worksheets that offer a step-by-step guide to activities they can do with their athletes.”

The worksheets are those the website creators use in their consultant work.

“The idea is this will be a continuous process and we’ll keep adding to the worksheets, as well as to the actual mental skills we discuss on the website, ensuring the research remains current,” adds Pope.

The other unique aspect of the website is that coaches will have access to a practicing consultant and can post questions if the information presented on the website does not address a question or concern they may have.

Pope says the website only went live within the last month and she currently has two U of L undergraduate students helping with various aspects of the launch. She looks to incorporate their applied study final projects into the website.

The website creators see the website evolving with input from coaches who sign up and use the resources. Eventually they’d like to secure funding to make it a bilingual site and push it nationally.

“Our short-term goal is just to get the word out, get coaches signed up and then gather feedback on what they like and what they’d like to see changed or added,” says Pope. “In the long term, what we’d really love to do is partner with a national coaching certification program.”

UNews - sportpsychologyforcoaches.ca/

Coaches sought to participate in study utilizing strategies to help competitive athletes conquer anxiety

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