Sports, Fitness Coaching

The goal in any sports endeavour is obviously to do as well as possible. Of course, there may be other sub-goals such as fun, travel, socialising, but the common denominator is maximizing performance.

Anything detracting from this goal or tending to block one's attainment of it is known as a constraining factor.

The dedicated sports person must in the interest of successful competition, do all that is justified to remove these obstacles from the path of success.

Potential Constraining Factors in Sport That Are Related to Psychological States

Personality . Attitude . Discipline . Social Influences . Anxiety . Fear of pain . Fear of failure . Fear of success . Group affiliation . Aggresssivity . Overarousal . Underarousal . Emotional state . Depression . Self-esteem . Self-concept . Perception . Intrinsic motivation . Extrinisic motivation . Level of aspiration . Cultural factors.

Needless to say, many of the constraining factors listed above are interrelated in that they weigh upon the individual to some extent, with the results being a mixture of positive, negative and neutral factors in performance.

All that a sports person does, including lifestyle, training methods, eating habits, sleeping habits, familial relations, choice of training partners, pre-competition regimes, backstage behaviour and virtually all avenues of one's life, come to bear eventually on performance.

How to Sustain Your Motivation

The most effective means of ensuring continued motivation in sports is to set short term goals. Your short-term goals should ultimately lead to your long term goal, but be prepared to cope with the occasional setbacks along the way. Here are some tips:

• Know yourself. Learn about the major motivating forces in your life, and adjust them to compliment each other rather than to act negatively or continually compete with one another.
• Establish a schedule for training/practice and avoid interrupting influences.
• Feel the exhilaration of the joy of effort, and the enjoyment of all out training fatigue (signals of goal attainment).
• Make your training a challenge in itself. Allow the fascinating complexity of the art and science of your sport to totally captivate your interest. This will help you to avoid boredom and also to get the most out of your training, which will make for faster goal attainment.
• Be aware that achieving success is important, but also understand that for continued success, you should also learn to enjoy success.
• Remember that success is what you say it is, not what someone else says it is. You can foster a sense of competence and effectiveness by realizing that none are dependent on winning or loosing.
• Always remain receptive to assistance and self-assured of your own worth and you will find it easier to avoid failure. If you can avoid failure, you have by definition succeded.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further enquiries.

"Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them".

"A skillful coach rarely provides or prescribes solutions".

"It may be harder to give up instructing than it is to learn to coach".

"A coach also recognises that internal obstacles are more daunting than the external ones".