Summary: Improving Athlete Performance

The resources used when working with each individual athlete included the contents of the binder provided by Dr. Mack. This binder includes activities and exercises used to improve athletes performance. Another source that was helpful is past research conducted on tumbling mental blocks compiled by professionals. Each athlete that participated in this project varied in regards to skill level, age, and organization they were apart of. Each problem was approached differently depending on the situation as well as the skill level.

Athlete #1: Lacks confidence due to past injury.
Methods: Goal-setting, self-talk, concentration training, and mental imagery.
This athlete is a part of the UNI cheerleading squad and is a senior. During the previous
In order to work towards this goal, the use of self-talk, concentration, and mental imagery were implemented into our sessions.

Self-talk: Use the pink school bus example. The self-talk phrase she came up with was “I can do this” and “What can I do to feel more comfortable completing a skill?”

Mental Imagery: I encouraged the athlete to picture herself completing the skill and only completing it correctly in her mind. I also told her to not picture what can go wrong.

Concentration: Practice using cues such as “focus and relax” prior to tumbling to ease anxiety.

Athlete #2: Lacks confidence due to past
The athlete has only been involved with cheerleading for 2 years, and would be considered a beginner in tumbling. When it comes to practicing new skills, the athlete remains fearful even when being spotted. To improve this athlete’s confidence, we focused on using self-talk, mental imagery, and relaxation techniques.

Self-talk: Implemented a cue word into the athletes pre-tumbling ritual to distract her from nervous thoughts. When the athlete was about to perform her skill while being spotted, she said “go”. The use of self talk appeared to be successful when being used as a distraction.

Mental Imagery: Similar to the other cases, mental imagery is one of the most important performance aspects of tumbling. Imagining oneself completing the skill in the correct manner while disregarding what could go wrong can make or break a situation. I encouraged the athlete to picture herself multiple times throughout the day to picture things going right when being spotted.

Relaxation: The relaxation techniques used include both imagery and cue words. In this situation, the cue word “go” and having the athlete imagine herself successfully complete the task, were both successful in this