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CHAPTER THREE PSYCHOLOGICAL SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE MENTAL TOUGHNESS
You have to use your mind; it’s the most important part of your equipment.” Kevin Andrews – extreme skiing champion.
Introduction
It has been recognized by Bull, Shambrook, James and Brooks (2003:173) that mental toughness as a concept needs greater individual research. This chapter will explore the various definitions of mental toughness and it will clarify if mental toughness is a state of mind, personality trait, or set of psychological characteristics. In this chapter I will focus on the major psychological skills and psychological techniques that a cricket player needs as part of his psychological armour in order to strengthen his mental toughness. The first section of this chapter will focus on the psychological skills. In the second section of the chapter the focus will shift to the psychological techniques that will be employed to help the cricketer to reach his full peak mental toughness performance. At this stage it is important to stress that psychological skills and psychological techniques work together as a unit and not as separate entities.
Tebbe (2007:19) is of the opinion that coaches, sport psychologists and athletes often use the terms psychological skills and psychological techniques as synonyms, when these two terms have actual different meanings. He believes that psychological techniques refer to psychological practices that lead to the development of psychological skills. Examples of psychological techniques are: goal setting, imagery, relaxation, meditation, self-talk and hypnosis. Psychological skills refer to learned characteristics of a cricketer that makes it possible for the cricketer to build on his mental toughness. The more the cricketer’s mental toughness strengthens the more his chances to succeed in his cricket game will increase. Examples of psychological skills are: intrinsic motivation, self-belief, self-confidence, commitment and mindfulness.
Mental toughness defined
Shread (2010:61) makes a comparison between mental toughness and talent, he says that “Mental toughness is a bit like talent or charisma: instinctively recognizable, but endlessly tricky to put down in a definition.”
Gould, Dieffenbach, and Moffett (2002:186) identify perseverance, resilience, and persistence as some of the main characteristics of mental toughness. Cashmore (2002:241) also states his concern of an adequate definition for the term “mental toughness”, he states that: “The term mental toughness is intuitively appealing and used equally generously by players, coaches, and sport media, but an adequate definition has been elusive”.
Several definitions have been stated to address this lack of conceptual clarity, including:
An ability to cope with stress and pressure.
To rebound from failures.
To show resilience.
Jones, Hanton, and Connaughton (2002:193) state in their research that there have been various references to the concept of mental toughness. Mental toughness has suffered from a general lack of conceptual clarity. The construct has been criticized as being rather nebulous. Carr (2010:24) defines mental toughness as the ability of the athlete to continue to perform at peak performance levels no matter what. Mental toughness is the cricketer’s ability to take charge of himself and consistently do whatever he can physically, mentally and emotionally to achieve the level of performance he is capable of performing. Moran (2004:145) maintains that mental toughness can be seen as a crucial prerequisite for achieving success in any sport. Determination and resilience are two of the most important attributes of mental toughness. The mastering of mental toughness is for the cricketer of the utmost importance in order for him to take his cricket performance to a high level. Ward (2010:3) reminds cricketers that they also need to be physically fit if they want to tap into their mental toughness abilities. The cricketer determines the realities in his sport performance by the way he thinks about disappointments and opportunities. Carr (2010:24) makes it clear that cricketers can control their thoughts. Cricketers will be able to control their mental toughness as well as their performance, if they control their thoughts. As part of his pioneering Sport Psychology work, Coleman Griffith (1926) examined the personality profiles of top athletes.
The Athletic Motivation Inventory (AMI; Tutko, Lyon & Ogilvie, 1969), more than 40 years later, reveals a striking commonality (Table 3.1) with Griffith’s inter-war characteristics. Particularly is the AMI’s ninth character – mental toughness.
Mental toughness redefined in a secondary school cricket context.
Mental toughness is a psychological by-product that the secondary school cricketer gains through the progressive development of psychological skills. Mental toughness enhancement occurs gradually. Figure 3.2 illustrates the progressive cycle of mental toughness enhancement of secondary school cricketers. Effective utilization of psychological techniques evolves the psychological skills of the cricketer. This evolvement of the cricketer’s psychological skills improves his enjoyment and commitment to the game of cricket. Gaining mental toughness is the by-product of this evolvement of psychological skills improvement. A mentally tough state of mind results in cricket achievements. These achievements fuel the mental toughness evolvement cycle. Mental toughness can be described as a state of mind and as psychological characteristics in action. The secondary school cricketer’s willpower, resilience and perseverance in pursuit of a cricket goal form part of this compilation.
Mental toughness redefined in a secondary school cricket context can be summarised as the capacity of the cricketer to maintain self-belief, clear thinking, resilience and determination when the cricketer is under pressure to deliver optimal performance in his cricket activities. Mental toughness can be seen as a psychological by-product of the secondary school cricketer’s ability to apply psychological skills effective in his game of cricket and in his game of life. The strength of the cricketer’s mental toughness will be determined by the quality of the implementation process of the psychological techniques. The successful utilisation of psychological techniques improves his psychological skills. Mastering of his psychological skills will strengthen his mental toughness.
In order to justify the above definition an investigation needs to be done to explore the role that psychological skills and psychological techniques play in the development of the mental toughness of the secondary school cricketer. This investigation will start by exploring the psychological skills that determine the mental toughness of a cricketer, the second part of this investigation focuses on the psychological techniques.
Psychological skills that determine the mental toughness of a cricket player
Carr (2010: 24) views mental toughness as a combination of self-confidence, self-esteem, self-belief, concentration, motivation, emotional control and commitment. These vital personality characteristics can be seen as psychological skills that the cricketer needs to master in order to fulfil his optimal mental toughness state of mind.
Figure 3.3 summarise the psychological skills that determine the mental toughness strength of the secondary school cricket player.
Self-belief
“I don’t think it’s bragging to say I believe I’m something special.” – Mohammed Ali.
Jones (2010:87) explains that self-belief is one of the key skills underpinning mental toughness in cricket players. Self-belief can be developed by cricket players to levels that deliver extraordinary performance. The cricket player who has a strong self-belief rarely takes criticism personally and views any negative feedback he receives as a means of helping him further his cricket ambitions. The self-belief of the cricket player is embedded in the foundations of who the cricket player is, having been formed through patterns of thought, emotions and behaviour over many years. These self-beliefs of the cricketer are so ingrained and subconscious that they are not immediately apparent to the conscious mind of the cricketer. The cricketer’s self-beliefs are formed through patterns of thought, emotions and behaviour that he experienced in his every day life on and off the cricket field (Burwell, 2010:170).
The cricket player cannot expect to experience regular cricket success if he has a negative self-belief in his abilities as a cricketer. A lack of self-belief usually has its roots in a fear of some sort and in cricket it’s often of the unknown, this fear is manifested in self-doubt. The cricketer’s self-belief in himself is the starting point for successful cricket participation. Self-belief is the fundamental building block that needs to be in place before the cricketer can start his journey to peak mental toughness performance (McNaughton, 2011:4).
Self-confidence
“You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you will lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.” Joe Paterno (Penn State football Coach).
Self-confidence is constructed through a complex process of self-persuasion. The cricketer chooses and interprets internal and environmental sources of information that affect his beliefs about his cricket abilities (Weinberg & Gould: 2010:137). Sellars (2004:104) argue that the cricketer’s self-confidence is linked with his successful achievements. The more the cricket player is able to achieve success, the greater will be his self-confidence. The coach’s role as a psycho – educator in helping the cricket player to develop positive self-confidence is emphasised by Sellars (2004:104): “The coach needs to develop a training climate in which the cricketer can experience regular success.” Changes in self-confidence can make the difference between a top performance and a mediocre one, even when other factors remain constant. Self-confidence is usually used to refer to a positive attitude.
The cricketer’s self-confidence may be influenced by personal or internal factors. Example: The current batting form of the cricket player can influence his self-confidence. External factors may also influence the cricketer’s self-confidence. Example: The attitude of team members towards the cricketer (Sellars, 2004: 104). Self-confidence in cricket is uniquely multidimensional based on the competitive demands on cricket players. Cricket players need to believe in their abilities to execute physical skills. Cricketers also need to be able to make correct decisions, execute mental skills such as focusing attention, managing nervousness and bounce back from mistakes and overcome obstacles and setbacks (Hays et al, 2007:76). The integration of psychological training is a powerful achievement approach to enhancing self-confidence in cricket players. Studies (Weinberg & Gould 2010:121) have reported that top cricketers and coaches perceive self-confidence to be a crucial psychological requisite for success in cricket. Research (Hays et al, 2007:76) indicated performance self-confidence, self-regulatory self-confidence, physical self-confidence and outcome self-confidence as the various important types of self-confidence for cricket players.
Different types of self-confidence (Hays et al, 2007:76)
Outcome self-confidence – the cricket player develops and maintains beliefs about his ability to consistently reach a level of peak performance;
Performance self-confidence – The cricketer reach a point where he performs successfully in relation to certain standards that he sets for himself;
Self-regulating self-confidence – The cricketer can master his thoughts and emotions effectively, he can also demonstrate an attitude of resilience;
Physical self-confidence – The cricketer executes physical cricket skills successfully, he achieves fitness on training levels, and learn new skills needed to be more successful in cricket.
Optimal self-confidence
Weinberg and Gould (2010:323) use the term “optimal self-confidence” to describe the ideal state of self-confidence that the cricket player can experience. Optimal self-confidence means that the cricket player is so convinced that he can achieve his goals that he will strive with a focused mind to achieve his goals. Self-confidence will not overcome incompetence. Cricket performance improves as the level of self-confidence increases up to an optimal point, where upon further increases in self-confidence produce corresponding decrements in performance. They make it clear that each individual cricketer has an optimal level of self-confidence, and performance problems can arise with either too little or too much confidence. Weinberg and Gould (2010:322) illustrate the relation between confidence and performance using an inverted U, with the highest point skewed to the right. According to this illustration can a cricketer expects peak performances when he is neither over confident nor under confident. A well balanced state of confidence will lead to the ideal confidence-performance relationship.
Concentration
“I just took it ball by ball, trying to give every delivery 100% concentration.” Michael Atherton – International cricket player. Sir Ian Botham explains how he uses concentration effectively: “I switch off the moment the ball is dead, then I relax completely and have a chat and a joke, but as soon as the bowler reaches his mark. I switch back on to the game. I think anybody who can concentrate totally all the time is inhuman. I certainly can’t.” Sir Ian Botham – International cricket legend.
Weinberg and Gould (2010:362) maintain that physical fitness is a vitally important prerequisite for obtaining optimum concentration levels. The cricketer’s concentration span depends on his fitness levels, especially in cricket. The average match takes so long that players can easily fatigue if they are not in top physical form; placing a huge strain on concentration.
Moran (2004:169) claims that effective concentration requires intentional and psychological effort from the cricket player. The cricketer’s focus needs to be fixed on the most important information. The cricketer needs to ignore unimportant information. Moran uses the spot light metaphor to illustrate focused concentration: The cricketer uses concentration as a spotlight that he shines on internal or external information. The cricketer can divide his concentration between two or more actions, but he cannot divide his concentration between different thoughts. He loses his concentration when he focuses on information that he cannot control.
Concentration is the ability of the cricketer to maintain focus on relevant environmental cues. When the environment changes rapidly, the cricketer’s attention focus needs to change rapidly.
When he thinks about the past or future he raises irrelevant cues that will often lead to performance errors (Weinberg & Gould, 2010:364). Concentration is about focusing all the attention of the cricket player on those things which are relevant to whatever he is busy doing.
Optimum Concentration in cricket is not achieved by trying harder to concentrate – in fact peak performances are often accompanied by a state of relaxed or effortless concentration. In this relaxed, but focus state is the cricketer likely to experience high levels of mental toughness (Weinberg & Gould, 2010:364).
The dimensions of concentration
Although every sport has unique cues, there are some common denominators and it is helpful to analyse the attention demands of cricket by considering Nideffer’s model (in Maynard and Crisfield, 2007:18):
The width of attention – A very broad focus of attention may be desirable in certain cricket situations, such as when a batsman is analysing the opposition’s fielding placements. A narrower focus is preferred when the batsman hit the ball, because it forces his concentration on a limited number of important cues.
The direction of attention – An external focus is frequently needed to concentrate on the position or movement of other fielders and the ball. An internal focus is preferred when there is a need to analyse what is happening in the match, plan strategy or rehearse a specific batting shot. The ability of the cricket player to gain the right attention focus and to switch from one type of attention to another type is crucial if he wants to achieve mental toughness. This concentration skill, in creating and maintaining a particular focus and indeed of switching effortlessly between the different dimensions of the cricket match, varies from one cricketer to another
The cricketer’s concentration during a cricket match can be described as a shifting of attention process. This process is illustrated in Figure 3.9 (Cox, 2007:138).
The attention system
Moran (cited in Murphy, 2005:114) shows that the attention system is a bridge between perception, cognition and action (Figure 3.10). This system has three major components: selective processing (focused concentration), cognitive co- ordination of skills and regulation of awareness.
The building blocks of effective concentration
The five building blocks of effective concentration fulfil a vital role in any psychological technique that the secondary school cricket player wishes to use. The interaction between these components is illustrated in Figure 3.11.
Commitment
The cricket player’s commitment is defined by Scanlan and Carpenter (2010:5) as a psychological state representing the desire to continue cricket participation. They propose that cricket commitment is determined by cricket enjoyment, involvement alternatives, personal investments, social constraints, and involvement opportunities. Clark (2005:158) suggests that a possible way in which interest and enjoyment in cricket could be maintained and enhanced is through the delivery of psychological skills. The enjoyment of cricket is the key predictor of commitment and a primary reason for initiating and maintaining involvement in cricket. Considering the impact enjoyment has on cricket commitment, it may be worthwhile intervening at youth cricket level to enhance enjoyment for cricket players and thereby increase cricket participation.
Schmidt and Steins’ (cited in Shaw, Garely and Corban, 2005:409) Sport Commitment Model of burnout suggests that there are three primary determinants that influence cricket players’ commitment:
The determinants of cricket commitment are:
Satisfaction based on rewards and costs associated with cricket;
Attractiveness of alternative options;
Resources cricketers have invested in cricket.
Schmidt and Stein (in Shaw et al, 2005:409) explain that burnout is likely to occur in cricket players who display an entrapment profile, where they are participating in cricket because they have to rather than want to. Entrapment occurs when the cricketer experiences high costs and low rewards, but remains in cricket because he feels that he invested a lot in terms of resources and perceive a lack of attractive alternatives.
Motivation
“To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” Tony Dorsett (NFL Football legend)
Schempp (2003:44) describes motivation as a key factor in both learning and performing sport skills. Motivation is a cricketer’s drive to accomplish and achieve a goal. Motivation helps explain what cricketers do and why. In learning motor skills, motivation influences cricketers’ selection of skills to be learned and the commitment they make to master those skills. Smith and Biddle (2008:361) propose three important general motivational profiles that differentiate people with regard to their motivation in any given context: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. Intrinsic motivation is the most desirable type of motivation for the cricket player because it is self-determined, which means that it is under the control of the cricket player. Amotivation can be described as the lack of motivation of the cricketer to engage in a given achievement context, as the cricketer has neither intrinsic nor extrinsic reasons to be engaged in cricket participation. Maughan (2009:275) claims that intrinsic motivation refers to playing cricket “for its own sake”, for the satisfaction inherent in participating in cricket. While both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation may exert a salient influence, it is believed by Maughan that the enduring positive impact of intrinsic motivation on cricket performance holds the greatest benefit for cricket players.
Smith and Biddle (2008:316) believe that motivation is more likely to be self-determined when three fundamental needs are met: autonomy, competence, and social relatedness:
Autonomy is the feeling that the cricketer has that he is the originator and the regulator of his own actions.
Competence refers to knowledge that the cricketer has that gives him the feeling that he has the necessary skills and abilities to realize desired outcomes in a given achievement context.
Social relatedness refer to the positive feelings that the cricketer can attain and maintain with other cricketers in a particular achievement setting.
Mull, Bayles and Jamieson (2005:77) philosophise that perhaps the most important factor in motivating cricketers is the delivery style and personality of the cricket coach.
When the coach believes in the benefits of participation in cricket it is conveyed to the participants. Psycho-educators, coaches and sport psychologists must understand the importance of motivation as it relates to all aspects of cricket performance. Taylor and Wilson (2005:17) state that motivation is likely to be the psychological skill over which the cricket player has more personal control than any other psychological skill.
Two dimensions of motivation
Schempp (2003:44) identifies two dimensions of motivation that he claims to be particularly important for coaches trying to stimulate learning: level of aspiration and goal setting. Emerson (in Schempp, 2003:45) emphasises that “nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” A cricketer’s desire to learn is a major determiner of his potential to master a psychological technique. Aspiration is measured by a cricketer’s expectation for his performance. Emerson explains that participation motivation must be conceptualised as an ongoing process with different motivating factors kicking in at different points during the course of a cricket player’s cricket career. Participation motivation is a highly complex phenomenon comprising individual, social and situational factors.
