2.2
Having trials for Bristol rovers was a big achievement for them as this is what they had dreamt of. Also during time playing they have also received a few other achievements such as most improved and, also top goal scorer of the league they played in.
2.3
As a child the client wanted to become a footballer and played at a good standard.
The goals that the client had set out were to play at a good standard of football and win trophies with the clubs he/she was at. The main goal was too become a professional, but injury prevented this. The goal now set is to get back into playing football and reach a high standard.
3.1
The Clients Strengths
The clients confidence in the sport that they play seems to be at a good level. The level of confidence is not to high or to low. Looking at the case study on pages 9 and 10 the clients answers were mainly mediums. This shows us that the client is confident in their ability to perform skills within a team. Page 10 of the case study backs up this evidence as they have gave a percentage to how confident they are within themselves and also confidence performing skills. The client feels that they are in the middle at just confident without being under or over confident. This is the best place to be as being under or over confident could hinder performance.“Confidence is the belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sport” (vealey, p. 222). According to Weinberg and Goulds ‘Optimal self confidence model’ the more under or over confident you are the performance drops. The optimal level of performance is achieved whilst having just the right amount of confidence. Having the optimal confidence allows the client to make correct decisions within a game and also have the ability to believe that they are good enough to be playing at the level they are at. Making the correct decisions within a game could win or cost the team the game. This is why you see teams and individuals in sport losing to weaker oppositions. They may be over confident and make wrong decisions.
3.2
The client also has strengths in their motives to play the sport they play. Their Self mastery, fitness and self direction are three positive strengths that are shown in the case study on pages 12,13 and 14. To the 5 self mastery questions asked the client responded with positive answers thinking that overall it was important to have control of mind over body and to push yourself and learn new skills. This is an important skill within sport to be able to have mind over body control to keep focused and not lose attention if things are going wrong or you are faced with a pressure situation. “Gaining control of one’s emotions, especially in the face of extreme pressure or when things seem to be going against you is essential to all great champions” (Moore, 2009).
3.3
The clients motives towards fitness also are considered as one of their strengths. The impact for the future is that if they carry on to believe that keeping fit and healthy is important they will carry on to play at a high level as they will be able to keep up with everyone else and set boundaries for others to follow. The higher the fitness in sport gives you more room to be successful for example Wayne Rooney’s fitness is exceptional. He does his job and also gets back to help out the defense as well. In the final minutes of games you still see him full of energy and determination as you do at the start of a game.
The clients results also show that they have good self direction and awareness. This is important for the client to have self direction and know where they want to go and the better direction to follow in life. This could help the individual choose the right choices in and out of sport for example Steven Gerrard said in his biography “It could have been all over before it even started”. Gerard's motives for self direction were good and look where he is now, Liverpool captain and one of the worlds best. The client could have a similar impact in life with these motives.
3.4
The clients BET, OIT, NAR and RED attention also are one of their strengths. The sub headings of attention mean that the client has the ability to narrow their attention or widen their attention depending on the situation. (refer to case study for full name and meanings). Having the ability to do this narrowing and widening attention will impact the player positively as they can cancel out external factors whilst playing for example the crowd, but open it if they need to focus on more than one stimuli. This also can be reversed if the client needs to narrow their focus down for example taking a penalty kick. “The capability of humans to attend to one stimulus to the exclusion of others” (Cox, 2002, p.154). The effect on performance that attention has is huge as playing within a team you have to know where you should be at all times. Also keep top of the game and not focus on other stimuli that is not important. Losing attention could cost the team and also be the difference from the client being a good footballer.
3.5
The Clients anxiety results on page 24 of the case study also show that they are one of their strengths. It shows when the client is about to perform or whilst performing they keep calm and easy under the pressure. These scores can also relate to the confidence scores as the client is confident that they will not choke under pressure because of the confidence they have in their ability. This can help the client improve and grow as a sportsman as they know that they can because of the confidence and they are not scared to try new skills and plays. Someone with lower self confidence and anxiety would possibly choke whilst performing a new skill as they would not be as confident in their ability. This would not allow the player to grow as the confidence is not growing due to them failing unless they can change their mind set. “Do not view the mistake as bad or evil but as a building blocks to success” (Smoll And Smith, 1979, p. 97).
3.6
The client still sounds motivated to play from what they answered in the case study on page 16. Being motivated in the sport your in is a must to succeed or even play it. The answers the client gave gives off the impression that they still think they can succeed so this provides them with a goal to aim for to achieve. The impact this will have on their game is good as they still will want to go out and play football and enjoy it. This will help them achieve what they want to achieve. “The value of measuring achievement-motivation is not to predict performance, but to predict long term patterns of motivation” (Cox 1998, p. 107).
4.1
The Clients Weaknesses
A weakness that was found whilst analysing the data in the case study was social approval on page 12. The client seems to want approval from the players and coach. This could lead to putting to much pressure on themselves to play as good as they can without making mistakes because of the fear of not being approved within the team. With the pressure the client is putting themselves under could lead to mistakes as they may be to focused on the game and on approval. If mistakes occur the play may get angry with him/herself and lose focus completely. “When Athletes develop fear of failure or fear of mistakes, they play tentatively. They don’t want to take risks. They play a controlled game and perform badly” (Patrick Cohn, 2005, p. 106).
Another weakness found was recognition. This is very similar to social approval. The client wants to be approved by people and recognised. It would seem that there is a fear of this with the client. By wanting to be recognised and approved its just added pressure on them to do well and be liked as a favorite within a team because they are better than others.
4.2
The Last weakness discovered on the client is that they have a large ego. After answering the task on page 18 the results show that the ego is above average. After looking over the questions that were answered it looks as if the client feels they are special and above others. This can be backed up if you look at page 14. There is a question about feeling special and they think this is important. With having a big ego it means if the client makes a mistake they will punish themselves hard as they don’t think they should make mistakes like others. The client says in another question that they can do skills what no one else on the team can. The ego problem links in with the above weaknesses as they will be putting more pressure on themselves to do well and allow no room to learn from mistakes.
4.3
The area most in need of attention is approval of others. It would seem that the client can only play if he has the approval of his peers and coaches that he is really good. If they went into a team and he/she was made a sub or a rotational player at the beginning would they be able to handle that and still play at the ability they are capable of without feeling they do not have that approval and acceptance.
5.1
To summarise the report has gone over the client and what sport they play. Some achievements and goals the client had. The report also went through the strengths that the client had due to the answers what were provided by them in the ‘case study profile’. Confidence, Self mastery, fitness, self direction and motivation were some of their strengths. The report also went through the weaknesses that the client had and findings showed that the clients real main weakens was putting pressure on themselves to play well to be approved. It was also found that the client had a big ego which could lead to much self pressure to do well.
Reference List
Gill, 2000, p. 4, Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology 4th Edition, Human Kinetics, 2000.
Vealey, 2001, Essential readings in sport and exercise psychology, Human Kinetics, 2007.
, Training strategies for concentration. In: J.M. Williams, Editor, Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (3rd ed.), Mayfield, Mountain View, CA (1998), pp. 316–328.
Cox, 2002, Sport Psychology, McGraw-Hill Higher Education; 6 edition 2006.
Moore, 2009, Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, Vol. 3 Issue 4.
Smoll And Smith, 1979 p. 97, Foundations of sport and exercise psychology 4th Edition, Human Kinetics,2000.
Patrick Cohn, 2005, p. 106, Human Kinetics Europe Ltd; 1 edition, 2008.
Cox 1998, p. 107, Sport psychology, Routledge; 1 edition, 1999.
Stephen Gerrard Autobiography, 2006.
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