A lesson learned in time: Advice shared by experienced sport psychologists

Through experience, sport psychologists will learn countless valuable lessons. Some lessons, however, are likely to stand out vividly to a psychologist because they made a valuable difference to how they practise. The present project focuses on these outstanding lessons. In essence, sport psychologists who had been practising for between 11 and 28 years (mean ± SD = 19 ± 5) were asked to share their most valuable advice about any aspect of sport psychology client work with other sport psychologists. This publication presents participants' full responses

Running a Psyching Team: The introduction of mental support at endurance events in England

Purpose: To share and reflect on setting up and running a ‘Psyching Team’, where mental support is provided to endurance runners, in the United Kingdom. Background: Participating in long-distance running events can be mentally demanding, particularly for first time runners. Psyching teams provide brief psychological support to participants before, during, and after long-distance running events such as marathons. This is a concept that is developed and refined in America over the past 30 years, and in addition to potential benefits to runners, it also provides mental skills training and hands on experience to team members, and helps to demystify sport psychology to those who do not normally have access to this service. Methods: This presentation will focus on the development of a UK-based model of psyching teams. Strategies that have been used, such as mantras and anchoring where participants draw on their positive experiences, will be discussed. There will be a critical reflection of the potential benefits of a psyching team and an evaluation of the effectiveness of using brief, non-traditional interventions. In addition, areas of growth will be identified. Conclusions: Psyching teams are becoming part of more endurance events across America and Europe. Although there are difficulties with evaluating the effectiveness, anecdotal evidence such as self-reported feedback points to psyching teams adding value. When setting up a psyching team, organisers need to carefully consider their philosophy, identify funding sources, ensure that race directors are on board, understand clinical issues, and provide training opportunities for psyching team members

Walking on Thin Ice: Exploring Demands and Means of Coping During an Extreme Expedition

The present exploratory study was undertaken with two experienced explorers in order to examine daily events, perceived demands, coping strategies, and mood during a unique 636–675 km ‘‘double solo’’ crossing of Lake Baikal, a frozen lake in Siberia. A 59-year-old female explorer and a 49-year-old male explorer completed a daily survey and written diary during the expedition to collect situational data. Two semi-structured interviews were also completed, one within 24 hours and a second within four months of their return. These interviews sought to identify demands and coping efforts perceived as being most pertinent during their expedition. Guided by the work of Skinner et al. (2003), families of coping were organized around three human concerns (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) and two targets of coping (self or context). Findings illustrate two very different expedition experiences as evidenced by demands faced and coping strategies utilized, which influenced perceptions of workload and emotions experienced. Each explorer brought idiosyncrasies, which, when combined with different expedition experiences, bore influence on coping behaviors (focused on the self or context) and outcomes relative to the concerns of autonomy, relatedness, and competency. In discussing the findings, recommendations are offered for those preparing to undertake expeditions in extreme environments

Psychological correlates of challenge and threat states in a sport setting

In sport, athletes can broadly respond to a competitive situation in two ways, as a challenge or as a threat. Challenge and threat states are thought to have distinct cardiovascular patterns, which are indicative of underlying neuroendocrine changes in norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol. The challenge pattern is characterised by increases in cardiac responses (heart rate, cardiac output, ventricular contractility) and a decrease in total peripheral resistance (TPR; widening of the blood vessels). The threat pattern is characterised by increases in cardiac responses and no change or an increase in TPR (e.g. constriction of the blood vessels). In this study, the correlates of challenge and threat states in sport are examined, namely emotional responses, self-efficacy, and the use of psychological strategies in sport. Cardiovascular responses (heart rate, cardiac output, preejection period, and total peripheral resistance) of 64 collegiate athletes will be collected using impedance cardiography during a control condition (friend speech) and an experimental condition (important sport situation speech). Participants displaying a cardiovascular pattern characterising a challenge state are compared with participants displaying a cardiovascular pattern characterising a threat state. It is hypothesized that pleasant emotions and high levels of self-efficacy are associated with a challenge state and unpleasant emotions and low levels of self-efficacy with a threat state. Preliminary findings will be discussed in relation to future research directions in both sport and biopsychology and implications for applied practice

Psychology of Distance Running

Highlights • Distance running is unique from a psychological perspective • Thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are interlinked and play an important role in distance running performance • The role of psychological factors: confidence, motivation, and emotions are discussed in relation to the demands of distance running • To facilitate these psychological factors, the evidence surrounding the use of psychological strategies in distance running is outline

Cognitive and affective components of challenge and threat states

We explored the cognitive and affective components of the Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA) using a cross-sectional design. One hundred and seventy-seven collegiate athletes indicated how they typically approached an important competition on measures of self-efficacy, perceived control, achievement goals, emotional states and interpretation of emotional states. Participants also indicated to what extent they typically perceived the important competition as a challenge and/or a threat. The results suggest that a perception of challenge was not predicted by any of the cognitive components. A perception of threat was positively predicted by avoidance goals and negatively predicted by self-efficacy and approach goals. Both challenge and threat had a positive relationship with anxiety. Practical implications of this study are that an avoidance orientation appeared to be related to potentially negative constructs such as anxiety, threat and dejection. The findings may suggest that practitioners and researchers should focus on reducing an avoidance orientation, however the results should be treated with caution in applied settings, as this study did not examine how the combination of constructs exactly influences sport performance. The results provided partial support for the TCTSA with stronger support for proposed relationships with threat rather than challenge states

Staying alive: The meaning of a cardiac rehabilitation exercise group

Exercise is considered to be a cornerstone intervention in cardiac rehabilitation, which is normally delivered through exercise groups run by clinical staff. Continued attendance at community exercise groups is therefore important in maintaining this lifestyle change (Clark, Mundy, Catto, & MacIntyre, 2010; Martin & Woods, 2012; Thow, Rafferty, & Kelly, 2008). The aim of this study was to explore what makes cardiac patients stay with an exercise group. Two focus groups were conducted with 25 cardiac rehabilitation exercise group participants (mean age = 61, SD = 10.42) from two exercise groups in England, the questions focused on what makes them return to the group and what they perceived to be benefits of the group exercise. Thematic analysis demonstrated that the structure of the exercise group was the main source why exercisers returned to the group, this included the six sub-themes social support, routine, progression, enjoyment, leadership skills, and health benefits. Confidence, survival, and getting back to normality were identified as perceived benefits of the exercise group. Participants felt that the exercise groups helped them getting back to normality and without the exercise groups they would not achieve the required exercise prescription. This study demonstrates the importance of exercise groups in the process of changing cardiac patients’ lifestyle and getting them back to normality. The group environment appears to contribute to longer term adherence to community organised cardiac rehabilitation exercise, and group leaders could be educated on how to facilitate social support, progression, and they could help to increase group participants’ confidence

Application of the Facial Feedback Hypothesis to Endurance Performance– Does Frowning Modulate Perception of Effort?

Objectives: People frown during strenuous exercise. Research on the facial feedback hypothesis raises the intriguing possibility that frowning may modulate (i.e., amplify/soften) perception of effort during endurance performance and therefore play a causal role in endurance performance. This study examined whether intentionally frowning throughout a cycling time-to-exhaustion test increased perception of effort and, consequently, reduced time to exhaustion. This study also examined the effects of frowning on affective states experienced during performance and after exhaustion. Design: A randomised, controlled, crossover experimental design was used to compare (within-subjects) the effects of frowning with control conditions. Methods: Ten recreational endurance athletes performed cycling time-to-exhaustion tests in three conditions. In a frowning condition, participants frowned throughout the time-to-exhaustion test. In a matched-workload control condition, participants pressed their thumb against the ergometer handlebar throughout the test. Electromyography biofeedback was used to deliver these interventions. There was also a no-intervention control condition. Perception of effort and exercise-related affect were measured throughout the time-to-exhaustion test, and positive and negative affective states were measured before and after the test. Results: Intentionally frowning did not affect perception of effort, affective states experienced while cycling or after exhaustion, or time to exhaustion. Conclusions: Frowning may not modulate perception of effort or affective responses during endurance exercise to exhaustion. Although additional research using different methods would allow firmer conclusions to be drawn, these findings suggest that interventions that target the expression of a frown would be unlikely to offer an efficacious method of improving endurance performance

A theory of challenge and threat states in athletes: A revised conceptualisation

The Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA) provides a psychophysiological framework for how athletes anticipate motivated performance situations. The purpose of this review is to discuss how research has addressed the 15 predictions made by the TCTSA, to evaluate the mechanisms underpinning the TCTSA in light of the research that has emerged in the last ten years, and to inform a revised TCTSA (TCTSA-R). There was support for many of the 15 predictions in the TCTSA, with two main areas for reflection identified; to understand the physiology of challenge and to re-evaluate the concept of resource appraisals. This re-evaluation informs the TCTSA-R which elucidates the physiological changes, predispositions, and cognitive appraisals that mark challenge and threat states. First, the relative strength of the sympathetic nervous system response is outlined as a determinant of challenge and threat patterns of reactivity and we suggest that oxytocin and neuropeptide Y are also key indicators of an adaptive approach to motivated performance situations and can facilitate a challenge state. Second, although predispositions were acknowledged within the TCTSA, how these may influence challenge and threat states was not specified. In the TCTSA-R it is proposed that one’s propensity to appraise stressors as a challenge that most strongly dictates acute cognitive appraisals. Third, in the TCTSA-R a more parsimonious integration of Lazarusian ideas of cognitive appraisal and challenge and threat is proposed. Given that an athlete can make both challenge and threat primary appraisals and can have both high or low resources compared to perceived demands, a 2x2 bifurcation theory of challenge and threat is proposed. This reflects polychotomy of four parts; high challenge, low challenge, low threat, and high threat. For example, in low threat, an athlete can evince a threat state but still perform well so long as they perceive high resources. Consequently, we propose suggestions for research concerning measurement tools and a reconsideration of resources to include social support. Finally, applied recommendations are made based on adjusting demands and enhancing resources