Lesson video

Hello there.

Great to have you with me.

It's Mr. Broome here with a lesson called Stress Management Techniques from the Sports Psychology Mental Preparation for Performance Unit.

Now, look, we all get stressed at times, don't we? And so having a few techniques up our sleeve to help us manage our stress, to lower our anxiety, and perhaps give ourselves a confidence boost is really useful.

And so not only is this gonna be a great lesson for you to learn what you need to know for GCSE PE, but definitely something you can apply to your life itself when we find ourselves in those stressful situations.

Should we have a look? Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, you should be able to identify and use a range of stress management techniques.

Here are today's key words.

They are mental rehearsal, visualisation, deep breathing, and positive self-talk.

And as always, feel free to pause the video here if you want a closer look at their definitions.

We're going to move on to have a look at the structure of today's lesson.

And there are two parts today, it's quite a short lesson.

Using mental rehearsal to improve performance is the name of our first part.

So let's crack on with that, shall we? Okay, Jacob's question to you is, if we're going to talk about mental rehearsal, "What do you think the term mental rehearsal means?" Have you ever come across that phrase before? There it is on the screen, mental rehearsal.

And we're gonna break it down into the two words that make up mental rehearsal.

First of all, mental.

So, mental is related to anything that happens in the mind toward thinking, cognition, or psychological processes, okay? And rehearsal, this is a phrase you might have heard of somebody's rehearsing for a stage play or something like that.

So, rehearsal is practise or repetition of a performance to prepare for an actual event.

So, the people in the theatre rehearse the play ready for the actual event, when the audience comes into watch, don't they? Here's a basketball player and they're about to take a free throw, they're preparing for a free throw.

And just in case, you're not familiar with a free throw, what happens is it's essentially the equivalent of a penalty in football, for example, whereby somebody's been fouled when they were shooting and the referee is awarded some free shots at the basket.

No defenders can get in the way, okay? And before they take this free throw shot, they imagine themselves scoring.

And this is an example of mental rehearsal.

And then, they take the shot after they've imagined themselves scoring.

So something like that, okay? Now Izzy wonders, "What's the point of doing that?" Why doesn't he just get on and take the shot? What do you think? How might it be of a benefit to him if he imagines that he's going to score before he takes the shot? Okay, here's our basketball shooter again.

Oh great, so some of the benefits of doing this mental rehearsal technique is that he will increase his confidence, because he's imagined success.

It will remind him perhaps of the correct technique 'cause he is watched it in his mind and perhaps remembered some of the key technical points.

It will help him to focus and concentrate and reduce stress or anxiety.

In the case of this basketball player, there's clearly a large crowd in the background.

We can see them, can't we? And so, it could be quite easy to lose focus.

So by taking yourself into your own mind and imagining yourself scoring, it probably blocks out all that noise and distraction from the crowd.

Here's another very similar example, isn't it? What we have is a javelin thrower, imagining themselves throwing and and seeing themselves doing the technique.

So, this technique in which the performer pictures themselves performing the skill perfectly as we can see in the picture example.

Or imagines positive outcomes before attempting the skill.

So in this case, that could be imagining throwing the javelin with the perfect angle of release and the javelin flying further than it ever has done before.

And this can be used at any level of performance, okay, by any level of performer.

A lot of people think, "Oh, this is something that only elite athletes use," but absolutely not.

Anybody can use this even a beginner could use this idea of picturing themselves performing the skill to help them be able to actually perform it, when it comes to the term.

Quick check for understanding.

Mental rehearsal is only for professional athletes.

Is that true or false? Okay, that's false, isn't it? I mean, we've just discussed that on the previous slide.

Why is that? Look, anybody can benefit from mental rehearsal techniques, can't they? They can help all of us to improve our performance, whether we're a beginner or an elite.

Here's an interesting sport, BMX racing part of the Olympics.

The riders in a BMX race will visualise themselves completing the track before the race.

They might sit down, close their eyes, and just picture the entire track from start line to finish line.

This allows them to familiarise themselves with the bends and the jumps before doing them for real and help them feel more confident.

If they've successfully navigated the track in their minds, then chances are they'll successfully navigate it when it comes to doing it for real and now have the confidence from having pictured it.

And lots of sports people will use mental rehearsal techniques.

Here's a great example.

When rugby players who kick for goal, they are renowned for their mental rehearsal routines.

So, this helps 'em to concentrate a little bit like our example with the basketball player earlier.

It helps 'em to get in the zone.

I wonder if you ever heard that phrase, in the zone.

Essentially, it means that you are at the perfect level of mental arousal and psychological arousal.

And it will also be used to block out distractions, such as the crowd, okay? Not many in that picture, but imagine that skill being performed in front of 70,000 people inside a stadium and be quite a lot of distraction there.

And mental rehearsal will help them to block out the crowd.

Here's a great example from the world of rugby.

This is the England kicker, Owen Farrell.

So, he's described in the media how he imagines a line going from the ball to a point somewhere past the post, such as a seat or a person in the crowd.

So, he picks out something in that crowd up there or maybe it's an empty seat.

And he imagines by drawing a line the path that the ball is going to take.

Then, he concentrates on just kicking the ball down the line that he imagined.

He doesn't even think about the post that he's trying to kick through.

And many rugby players who kick for goal have similar mental rehearsal techniques.

I always remember one of my favourite examples being a guy called Johnny Wilkinson, who used to play for England and he won the World Cup with England back in the early 2000s.

And he had a mental rehearsal routine, whereby he would imagine an old lady in the crowd with an ice cream in her hand.

And she was in the perfect place a little bit like Owen Farrell, She was in the perfect place for him to kick the ball to score the points.

And he would imagine that he's gonna kick the ball and knock the ice cream out of her hand.

And that was his technique and it was very successful, and he did very, very well with it.

Rather unusual, but very effective.

Just got a question for you related to the picture on the left.

Imagine putting the ball to win a game in front of all those people.

How would you feel? So again, we've got a situation here with a crowd, haven't we, performing a skill in front of a crowd? What do you think about John's question? How would you feel? Chances are you might say that was quite a stressful situation.

And sport does create lots of stressful situations for performers.

So again, our mental rehearsal technique of imagining you performing the skill perfectly before doing it can help to reduce stress and anxiety.

Another check for understanding.

Which of these is not a benefit of mental rehearsal.

Is it a, increase confidence, b, lowering concentration levels, c, reduced stress or d, familiarisation with the skill? Remember, it's which is not a benefit.

Well done if you notice that b is not a benefit of mental rehearsal, okay, lowering concentration levels.

In fact, it does the opposite, doesn't it? The rest increase confidence, reduce stress, familiarisation with the skill are all benefits of mental rehearsal.

And on that note, Alex says, "Let's recap all of the benefits of mental rehearsal we've discussed so far," because there's quite a long list.

Let's have a look.

So, mental rehearsal techniques can help us increase confidence, familiarisation with the skill, reduced stress and anxiety, blocking out distractions, such as the crowd, getting in the zone, and increased concentration and focus.

A rather long list there.

And it's gonna be really useful to remember the list of benefits as we approach the task for this part of the lesson.

And that is I would like you to develop these statements to identify different benefits of mental rehearsal on performance.

And first of all, I'm going to model an answer for you.

Okay, so what do I mean? So, we're gonna get a beginning of a sentence, okay? And I then want you to develop that statement to identify how mental rehearsal would benefit the performance and remember to state how it will affect the performance.

So, here's my example.

A dancer replays their routine in their mind before going on stage.

That's the beginning of the statement.

Now, you've got to finish the statement.

And I said to give them confidence and reduce anxiety before going in front of the crowd and performing the routine perfectly, okay.

So there's the effect of mental rehearsal and also how it's going to impact the performance.

You'll then perform the routine perfectly.

Your task is to complete these.

Number one, a football player imagines herself taking a penalty, dot, dot, dot.

How would you finish that statement? Two, before putting the ball, a golfer mentally rehearses their put.

Number three, a long jumper takes time to imagine themselves leaping into the sand.

Number four, before a race, a Formula 1 driver, dot, dot, dot, again.

How are you going to finish that statement? Pause the video here, complete all four statements.

Remember to identify the benefit of mental rehearsal and how it's going to improve the performance.

Write your answers out.

I'll be back in a moment with some suggested answers.

All right, so things you might have said, let's take them one by one.

A football player visualises herself taking a penalty to increase their confidence in their ability to score and place their shot where they want to, okay? So, the increase in the confidence was the application of what will happen, because of mental rehearsal.

And then, the impact on performance was that they will score the shot and place it where they want to.

Number two, before putting the ball in golf, a golfer mentally rehearses their put, which reduces stress and allows them to play their shot calmly and accurately.

Number three, a long jumper takes time to imagine themselves leaping into the sand, which gets them in the zone and allows 'em to time their takeoff well and put maximum effort into their jump.

Number four, the final one, before a race, a formula one driver visualises the racetrack to ensure they are focused and allows 'em to drive the track along a perfect racing line.

Now of course, yours won't have looked like mine word for word, but just check through your answers and make sure that you included some sort of benefit of mental rehearsal and how it would then impact the performance.

Well done if your four answers manage to achieve that.

And that brings us onto the second part of today's lesson, which is called identifying other stress management techniques, because mental rehearsal is not the only technique.

So here, we have an athlete preparing for a race and look what they're saying, "I am strong and fast and I will win this race today." But they're not actually talking to anybody else around them.

In fact, they're saying that to themselves.

It could be that they're saying it silently in their heads to themselves.

And athletes may take the opportunity in those moments just before performing to use something called positive self-talk.

Just like this guy in the picture, what would be the benefit of positively talking to yourself? Well, it increases confidence.

You know, you are bigging yourself up and you're telling yourself how good you are and how good you can be.

And that can also help to reduce stress and anxiety.

So, this idea of positive self-talk is something that can boost confidence in many situations.

Let's think of a couple.

So, somebody on a climbing wall saying to themselves, "I'm going to figure out the best way up here," okay.

Telling themselves, "I've got this.

I'm gonna be able to do this, no problem.

I'm going to figure it out." How about somebody who's doing some fitness training and they say to themselves, "It's hard work, but if I keep being consistent, this is going to be worth it." Again, it's a positive message that they're giving to themselves, not anybody else but their self-talk, okay? They're talking to themselves.

Let's have a check for understanding and see if you can identify which of our three characters here is using positive self-talk.

Lucas says, "Don't mess this up." Sam says, "Try not to fumble the ball." And Jun says, "I practise perfectly for this moment." Which of those is using positive self-talk? Well done if you notice that Jun is the character here who is using positive self-talk.

Lucas, "Don't mess this up." That's quite a negative statement, isn't it? As is Sam, their statement says, "Try not to fumble the ball." Again, just thinking rather negatively, isn't it about try not to make mistakes.

Whereas John is a lot more positive.

He's telling himself that he's practised perfectly for this moment, giving him that boost in confidence that he's ready to go and perform well.

Okay, here we have a different stress management technique.

We're gonna try this as Laura suggests, and I'll explain the diagram on the left in a moment.

So, the way you do this is you breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, breathe out then for four seconds, again, hold for four seconds.

And then, you've completed one cycle.

And then, you can repeat that cycle.

And the diagram on the left is rather like a box, isn't it? Some people call this box breathing, okay.

If we start in the top left hand corner and we work our way across for each arrow, I want you to spend four seconds doing the instruction.

So let's do it together, shall we? I'll begin now.

So, breathe in for four seconds.

(breathes heavily) Hold.

Breathe out four seconds.

(breathes heavily) Hold for four seconds.

And you've completed a cycle, okay.

Pause the video if you want to go through a few more cycles of that deep breathing technique.

Hopefully, you feel quite relaxed after that.

And Laura's back to tell us that, "This is called deep breathing," and I've probably already said that a few times already.

How did it make you feel? I just want to note here that that idea of following the box is just one idea about how you can do deep breathing.

It's there's many ways of doing it.

You could just breathe deeply, all right? Just making sure that you take longer, deeper breaths than normal.

So, benefits of deep breathing.

It can help to reduce anxiety, to settle any nerves that you have, and lower your heart rate.

Imagine in a sporting situation, you are taking an important shot, an important, you're about to perform an important skill, or you are just at the beginning of a race or something like that.

You're feeling rather anxious, and stressed, and nervous.

Your heart is pounding.

And so, you just take a few seconds to maybe close your eyes, (breathes heavily) deep breathe, and it's gonna help to settle some of those nerves.

Aisha's got another technique for us here.

So, we've got lots of stress management techniques, haven't we? Here's another technique.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere calm and relaxing.

And I've chosen a lovely looking beach there that I want to picture myself lying in, okay.

Maybe pause a video here and try it for yourself.

Close your eyes and imagine somewhere calm and relaxing.

How did that make you feel going through that technique? Now, this technique's called visualisation or imagery.

And benefits of visualisation.

Again, it reduces stress and anxiety, a bit like deep breathing.

It can help to block out other distractions with your eyes closed and you've taken yourself somewhere else in your mind.

It can block out other things that are going on around you.

And that can help to lower arousal levels, okay? If you are getting to the point where you're at high arousal and you're worried that your performance might suffer as a result, you could try visualisation to help lower your arousal levels a little bit more.

Check for understanding Another true or false question.

The techniques of visualisation and deep breathing can both be used to lower arousal levels.

Do you think that's true or false? It's true, isn't it? And why is that? Because high arousal levels can be caused by stress and anxiety in high pressure situations.

And so by using both these techniques, visualisation and deep breathing, we can lower anxiety, lower arousal levels, perhaps to a more optimal level.

Well done if you said true.

Okay, so here's a golfer taking a tee shot.

And the question says, "How might this golfer mentally prepare before hitting that tee?" Think about all the things that we've talked about in today's lesson already.

Well, here's one.

They could use mental rehearsal to increase their focus and block out distractions, okay? They could watch themselves in their mind taking that tee shot perfectly, seeing the ball fly off to exactly the point on the fairway that they hope it will land.

How else? Well, they could use positive self-talk.

They could talk to themselves before they step up, remind themselves just how great they are and how well they're going to do today.

And that will help to give their confidence a boost.

Another way.

They might just practise some deep breathing.

If they're feeling particularly anxious, they might go to the side for a few seconds, take deep breaths, help them lower their anxiety before they step up to take their shot.

And finally, they could use visualisation or imagery, okay? They could take themselves to that happy, calm place while they wait for their turn to take their tee shot to help them calm their nerves and relax.

Okay, so we've covered a lot of stress management techniques in this lesson, haven't we? And they can all be applied in this case to the golfer.

Here's your practise task for the second part of today's lesson.

Here we see a volleyball player, and here's the context.

This volleyball player is about to serve for the match in a very important game.

And as you can imagine, she's feeling anxious.

Here's the task.

Number one, I'd like you to fill the speech bubble with something she might say using positive self-talk to increase her confidence, okay.

She needs a confidence boost here.

What might she say to herself in the moments just before she takes that serve? Number two, I'd like you to describe how she might use visualisation in these moments and why that might help her.

And number three, I'd like you to describe how she might use deep breathing and why that could help her performance.

So pause the video here, complete the three parts of the task, and come back to me in a moment for some suggested answers.

Okay, then right answers, things you might have said.

Well, the first task was to complete the speech bubble.

And the way I completed the speech bubble was to have her saying, "You've done this perfectly a thousand times before, and will do it again now." So, make sure when you check your answer that it's something positive and it's something that's gonna boost her confidence.

Number two is about visualisation.

And visualisation could be used to lower her anxiety and arousal levels by picturing herself in a calm, relaxing place.

So just before she takes that serve, she could have a few moments where she goes to her happy place with her eyes closed.

And this could bring her to optimal arousal and into the best place mentally to perform this skill.

The third task was on deep breathing.

Deep breathing is a technique she could also use to lower her anxiety levels.

By taking several long deep breaths before she serves, she can steady her nerves and feel ready to perform.

So, we've used there, haven't we, three of our stress management techniques.

First of all, to boost her confidence with positive self-talk, and secondly, to use visualisation and deep breathing to lower those anxiety levels.

And fingers crossed, that means that she takes a serve that's successful and that her team wins.

Let's have a look at the summary for today's lesson.

So, there are several techniques we can use to help mentally prepare for performance and manage the stress that we feel in certain situations.

Mental rehearsal means imagining yourself performing the skill correctly or with a desired outcome.

This raises confidence, blocks out the crowd, and gives you reminders of how to perform the skill effectively.

Other techniques, positive self-talk is another method of increasing confidence, while visualisation and deep breathing can be used by a performer to help relax, calm nerves, and lower anxiety levels.

Okay, so that brings this lesson to a close.

I hope these were interesting techniques.

And the great thing about these techniques is that you could go and apply them today to something that you are doing, maybe not even related to sport.

You could practise these techniques perhaps before you do some sort of performance or before an exam, or anytime you're feeling stressed or anxious, or you feel like you need a confidence boost.

And so hopefully not only is this great lesson for you in terms of learning what you need to know for your GCSE, but something you can apply to life itself.

Give it a try.