1) Narrowing of attention. Because of this narrowing of attention, a nervous or fearful athlete is less likely to attend to important external cues.

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1 Chapter 9: Question 6: For each of the following emotions, identify a general cause, and illustrate each with an example form your own experience Happiness, Anxiety, Anger, and Relief Happiness: caused by the presentation of reinforcers Example: Receiving an A+ on my test Anxiety: caused when we encounter dangerous events that may cause us to experience pain Example: I have fallen badly on ice so whenever I am walking on ice, I feel anxious Anger: caused by withdrawal or withholding of reinforcers Example: Double-faulting on my tennis serve Relief: caused with the withdrawal of aversive or punishing events Example: After crossing the patch of ice I was anxious and scared of falling on, I feel relief being inside my house where there is no ice Question 7: Describe four effects of excessive nervousness and tension, and briefly explain why each effect might interfere with athletic performance at competitions. 1) Narrowing of attention. Because of this narrowing of attention, a nervous or fearful athlete is less likely to attend to important external cues. 2) It consumes energy in the process of all those physiological changes. 3) It causes the adrenal gland to secrete adrenalin, which will cause the athlete to rush a skilled routine, so that timing is thrown off 4) It adds additional stimuli to the competitive environment that were not likely present in the practice environment, which interferes with stimulus generalization of a skill from practice to competition. Question 8: Briefly describe two strategies for minimizing the causes of excessive nervousness and tension. Illustrate each with an example from sports that is not in this chapter. Two strategies for minimizing the causes of excessive nervousness and tension are to minimize the causes of the emotions or to change the body s reaction to their emotions. 1) The first method includes recognizing and changing negative thoughts, structuring an environment to tune-out the stimuli causing these emotions, and prompting relaxing thoughts. For example, a nervous equestrian rider may be worried about the last, highest jump that he and his horse have had trouble with in the last few practices. To deal with his nervousness and tension, he recognizes his negative thoughts, and instead focuses on the few times that he and his horse have made the jump perfectly, and the technique their used to do so. 2) The latter method includes controlled breathing, maintaining a sense of humour, using progressive muscle relaxation techniques, and visualizing a relaxing scene. For example, a nervous tennis player is about to play last years regional champion who has the reputation of a powerful serve. To

2 deal with his nervousness and tensions, the player takes several deep breaths (using the deep-centre breathing techniques), and starts joking with his coach. These techniques will take his mind the focus of his opponent, and allow him to relieve the tension he is feeling. Question 10: List five guidelines that athletes should be encouraged to practice in order to eliminate negative thoughts that cause them to be tense just before performing. 1) Use cognitive reappraisal to view a situation as an opportunity for a realistic challenge 2) Focus on what you can control, don t think about what you can t control 3) Think about what you want to do, not what you don t want to do 4) Just before performing, mentally review past instances of successful performance 5) Focus on the process of competing, not the possible outcomes Question 14: Describe several strategies that might be used to minimize the likelihood of the occurrence of choking in sports 1) Recognize and change negative thinking. Change the way you view that event with cognitive reappraisal 2) Structure the environment to tune out and prompt relaxing thoughts. Doing different activities or repeating something non-related to the game to take their mind off of it. 3) Controlled breathing: centering. Practice deep center breathing, which emphasizes thought control, a particular way of breathing and muscle relaxation 4) Maintain a sense of humor. Helps to experience less tension and feel loose. 5) Progressive muscle relaxation. It involves alternatively tensing and relaxing various muscle groups while attending closely to the sensations that are felt when the muscles are tensed versus when they are relaxed. Question 16: Which of the four steps of successful anger management programs were used with Seth? In the example of Seth, he used all four of the specific methods in order to teaching compete with the anger he exudes in sports. He used the second method, deep-center breathing, when he felt provoked to elicit feelings of anger. This strategy helped him take a second to think about the situation, and realize that anger is not the solution to the problem; rather, calming himself down is. He used the first method, awareness techniques, to identify his problems that led up to his anger. He also used coping skills in his motivational program as practice before using them in competition (a type of simulation). After these methods were executed, Seth learned to play tennis normally, without expressing anger. Question 17: List four different types of self-talk that might be taught to athletes to displace their anger. Illustrate each with an example. The following are four different types of substitute behaviour taught to athletes to displace their anger.

3 1) General coping self-talk is often used. For example, a football receiver who just missed a catch for a touchdown may displace their anger by saying things to himself such as, Its ok- I ll catch the next one, or, If I m angry I won t be able to concentrate- instead I should stay calm and focused. 2) Some athletes use specific cue words to elicit relaxed feelings. For example, nervous skiers may repeat, B-R-E-A-T-H-E to themselves as they stand at the starting line, waiting for their turn to go down the slope. 3) A third technique used is using self-talk to focus on specific sports skills. For example, a gymnast, nervous before her vault performance, may recite the steps of her performance and important skills that she must focus before she begins. 4) Some athletes also use self-talk for acting rationally or assertively. For example, an opponent in water-polo makes a rude remark to a player. Instead of tackling the opponent and receiving a penalty, the player will say to himself, He just wants me to get angry and lose control- I will stay in control and in the game, or, Every time he taunts me, I ll play better and show him up. Chapter 10: Question 4: Briefly describe two preliminary considerations to teaching new skills. 1) Giving athletes a clear idea of the skills to be mastered beginning with the athlete s skill level, and gradually increase the difficulty 2) Providing feedback to the athletes to strengthen those skills through every step of teaching, providing the athlete with a form of feedback to positively reinforce the newly learned behavior Question 7: Briefly list four guidelines for instructing young athletes about skills to be mastered. 1) The first guideline for mastering skills is to combine models with instructions. The coach should show the athlete how to perform a skill, as a demonstration of executing the skill. 2) The second guideline is describing the consequences of correct and incorrect performances. This entails the coach pointing out to the athlete the natural reinforcers of performing certain drills, so the athlete knows why he is performing certain drills continuously. 3) The third guideline is asking questions to test an athlete s understanding. It is often a false assumption of coaches to assume that their athlete understands what he or she is saying, so asking test questions about different skills will ensure a strong understanding. 4) The last guideline is asking athletes to role-play skills. This is when an athlete walks through a skill for the coach, to make sure they understand all of the motions expected of them. Question 11: Briefly list seven guidelines for using deliberately programmed reinforcers to teach new skills to young adults The first guideline for using deliberately programmed reinforcers, is to make sure reinforcers are reinforcers from the athlete s point of view. The second guideline is frequently reinforcing the athletes desirable behaviour. The third is using contingent and non-contingent reinforcement. The fourth is using prescriptive

4 praise. The fifth is reinforcing correct approximations of behaviour. The sixth is reinforcing desirable performance when it occurs to correct cues in the environment. The final guideline is weaning the individual from the initial schedule of reinforcers after behaviour has been well developed. Question 14: Describe an example of prescriptive praise that coach hill used while shaping the serve of novice tennis players In the example at the beginning of the chapter, Coach Hill implements prescriptive praise by saying, Good! That was much better. You transferred your weight from your back foot to your front foot at just the right time. This is prescriptive praise, because she is specifically praising the quick footwork of the tennis player, rather than saying, excellent job, which is not as specific. Question 15: Define shaping and describe a sport example that is not in this chapter. Shaping is the reinforcement of successive approximations of, or increasingly close attempts at correct execution, one approximation at a time until the desired response occurs. For example, a soccer player learns how to contact the ball with his foot. Then he learns how to kick, and he slowly moves further and further away from the goal while practicing. Then a goalie is place in the goal to block his shots, and the goalie slowly becomes more aggressive at blocking the shots. This will help the player evolve to become good at scoring goals. Question 16: Define stimulus control and describe a sport example from this chapter Stimulus control refers to the degree of correlation between a stimulus and a behaviour. Good stimulus control refers to a strong positive correlation between a particular stimulus and the occurrence of a particular behaviour. For example, after enough practice, the slope of a green comes to exert control over where the golfer aims when putting. Question 17: State three reasons why a coach should continue to dispense deliberately programmed reinforcers to young athletes, even after their athletics skills appear to have come under the control of natural reinforcers. 1) The first reason that coaches should use deliberately programmed reinforcers, is that they can sustain effort and performance during many practices and drills, which often get repetitive. 2) A second reason, is competitive sports often elicit punishers which weigh down the athlete, so it is important to use deliberately programmed reinforcers for positive feedback for the athlete. 3) The final reason is there is always more for the athlete to learn, as no athlete is perfect, or has learned everything perfectly. Reinforcers ultimately help with even the slightest improvements to make that athlete as good as he or she can be. Chapter 11: Question 1: Describe how the three components were implemented to improve Amy s movement during restarts during soccer scrimmages

5 The three components that were implemented to improve Amy s movement were public posting, goal setting and oral feedback. First, the coach set a goal of 90% correct performance for Amy of movement during re-starts in practice scrimmages and games. Second, Amy was informed that the 30-minute practice scrimmages and games against other teams would be videotaped, Amy s performance would be scored from the video tape, and the results of each day s practice or game would be posted on a daily performance chart that would be located on a picnic table beside the playing field around which water breaks and on-field meetings would be held. Third, prior to each practice session or game, Brandilea met with Amy and reviewed the data on the chart. Brandilea praised Amy when the goal was met, and encouraged her to try to meet the goal when it was not met. Question 3: Describe the steps that Jennifer followed to decrease her errors due to her lack of focus. Describe what she did before practices, during practices, and after practices. Before stepping onto the ice at a practice, she briefly reviewed her selfmonitoring sheet as a prompt to reach her goal of landing jumps on the first attempt. Then, after warming up her jumps and before her first attempt at the double axel, she reviewed her key words for the double axel and mentally rehearsed the correct form. She then fully concentrated on her attempts at the double axel. This strategy was also applied to other moves and jumps in practice. Finally, during and after practice, she self-monitored her results. Question 4: At Coach Keedwell s swimming practices when relays were noncontingent, what two behavior-consequence occurrences likely maintained improper turns by the swimmers? They were likely maintained by a) they touched the wall and came up for air, which resulted in them having a rest and being less tired, and letting them breathe b) they came up for air and looked around, allowing them to wave to a friend possibly. Both of these reinforcers, one of them being a natural reinforce were not present when the proper behavior is done, making this wrong behavior more desirable to occur during the laps swum. Question 5: At Coach Keedwell s swimming practices when relays were noncontingent, what two behavior-consequence occurrences likely maintained unscheduled touchdowns in the middle of sets by the swimmers? They were likely maintained by a) coming up for air and therefore being able to catch their breath b) looking around and seeing friends and waving Both of these reinforcers, one of them being a natural reinforce were not present when the proper behavior is done, making this wrong behavior more desirable to occur during the laps swum. Question 10: Define key words and describe an example from this chapter. A key word is a word that serves as a discriminative stimulus to prompt a particular body position for a motor skill. For example: the swimmer who had a habit of reaching too far across in front of the body on hand entry as opposed to

6 his hand entering the water in front of his shoulder, says the key words shoulder entry Question 13: What may be a limitation of the freeze technique? Discuss with reference to an example. The limitation of the freeze technique is if the athlete s momentum makes it impossible to freeze, or when freezing and listening are simply not possible. An example of stopping the momentum is with downhill skiing that is used in the textbook. It is impossible to slow down quickly when skiing, so it proves to be a limitation for the freeze technique Chapter 12: Question 1: In two or three sentences, and with some examples, distinguish between skills deficiencies vs. the types of problem behaviors addressed in this chapter. Skill deficiencies are the difficulties performing various athletic skills, like not following through when throwing a baseball or making a low percentage of free throws in basketball. Problem behaviors however, include a variety of disruptive, nonathletic activities that interfere with athletic performance and/or create averseness for others like destroying equipment or failing to put it away in its proper place, annoying and disruptive temper tantrums. Question 3: What was the probable cause of non-productive behaviors of swimmers at practices, described at the start of this chapter? The main probable causes of non-productive behaviors of the swimmers at practice: The behavior they were supposed to be doing was not receiving immediate reinforcers as opposed to receiving attention immediately when talking about his date. If nothing positive happens when athletes perform well, and if they receive attention or other natural reinforcers for showing problem behaviors, then problem behaviors will occur. This is the main cause in this example, but there are others to be mentioned for other cases of problem behaviors. - Could stem from a lack of understanding by young athletes as to what is expected of them at practice - Athletes may show problem behaviors because they don t have the skills to earn rewards for skilled athletic performance. Question 5: For a sport, with which you are familiar, list at least five desirable behaviors and five undesirable behaviors for young athletes at a typical practice For a sport such as basketball, five desirable behaviours for an athlete would be showing up to practice on time, getting along with teammates well, using practice time efficiently by working on challenging skills, being respectful of the coach, and remaining focused by avoiding side conversations with other teammates that do not have to do with basketball. Five undesirable behaviours would be missing practices frequently due to carelessness, talking back to the coach, creating conflict with other teammates, swearing and displaying a negative attitude when

7 frustrated, and finally, refusing to work on skills that are challenging, instead focusing on drills that are already mastered. Question 6: When formulating rules and consequences for rule violations for a group of young athletes, what questions should coaches ask concerning the nature of those rules and consequences? When coaches formulate rules and consequences for rule violations, they should ask the following questions: Are the rules reasonable? How well do particular rules contribute to the effectiveness of practices? How well do rules contribute to the instruction of individual athletes? Are there frequent positive consequences for following the rules? Are the negative consequences for rule violations fair to the individuals involved, and to the rest of the team? Question 12: Define fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement. How was a fixed ratio schedule applied by Coach Hume in the program with figure skaters? A fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement is when a reinforcement will occur after a fixed number of a certain response is limited. Coach Hume implemented this into her program, aiming to improve the quality of her students figure skating. She created a big checklist full of different jumps and spins, and elements in their program. The athletes had to practice the first 3 elements, then check them off, do the next 3, until all of them are done. They should run through the program twice, so everything is checked off twice. Then, they go back and work on what they rated as poor, until they finally improve. Question 14: What are two differences in the self-recording program with figure skaters used by Coach Hume versus the public posting program with tennis players applied by Galvin and Ward? What do you see as the relative advantages or disadvantages of the two approaches? When contrasting the self recording program with the public posting program, the self recording program focuses on an athlete s progress and self reflection, where the public posting program focuses on the negative habits that athletes may have, and presents them publicly in the locker room. The advantage of the self-recording program is that its focus on progress is positive and wants the athlete to be proud of their accomplishments by making them even better. The disadvantage of the self-recording program is that it would not be as effective for team sports, but rather individual sports such as tennis or figure skating, because much of the focus goes into one person rather than the whole team. For public posting, the advantage is that is has proven to be very effective for athletes, but the disadvantage is that publicly posting areas of improvement could potentially embarrass the athlete in front of their teammates. Question 16: Describe a plausible example of self-reinforcement that might be used by an athlete that is not in this chapter. A gymnast might use self reinforcement so that he or she does not get down on themselves if they make a mistake. If their uneven bar routine is not as good as they want it to be, it is more effective to remain positive and persistent, rather than negative, because results have shown that the athletes that qualify for the Olympics are those that are not self-critical. If a gymnast makes a mistake on the uneven bars, they should say to themselves, hey, it s okay. There is always next

8 time. I know I can do this; I just did it yesterday! rather than, Gosh you re so stupid! You can t do anything right anymore. Self reinforcement is overall an excellent technique for any athlete to use if they want to keep positive and remain consistent

9 Application Exercise #3: Controlling Troublesome Emotions As described in Chapter 9, emotions have three important characteristics: a. the autonomic reaction that you feel inside during the experience of an emotion, which is influenced by respondent conditioning; b. the way that you learn to overtly express an emotion, which is influenced by operant conditioning; and c. the way that you become aware of and describe your emotions, which is also influenced by operant conditioning. The purpose of this application exercise is to give you some practice in analyzing the operant and respondent components of emotions, and designing a treatment program to change a troublesome emotion. You should proceed through the following steps: a. Select an athlete whom you know who frequently displays either excessive nervousness or excessive anger during athletic contests. Indicate the emotion selected and the sport played by that athlete on a form similar to the one shown at the end of this exercise. b. Based on discussion with or observations of that athlete, describe typical, specific, causes of that emotion on a form similar to the one shown at the end of this exercise (i.e., what causes the athlete to feel especially nervous? or especially angry?). Also, as illustrated on the form on the next page, indicate whether the causes of the emotion involve the withdrawal or presentation of reinforcers or punishers (i.e., see p. 125 of the course textbook). c. Then, on a form similar to the one shown on the next page, describe the typical operant displays of that emotion by that athlete, and the typical respondent components (the physiological reactions) of that emotion by that athlete. d. Finally, as indicated by the form on the following page, describe a plausible treatment strategy that might be used by that athlete to manage that emotion. Before describing your treatment strategy, you might want to listen to Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the audio lecture for this course. Part 1 presents the progressive muscle relaxation exercises described on pp. 132 and 133 of the text. Part 2 presents the deep centre breathing exercise to achieve relaxation described on p. 131 of the text. I have used the strategies described in Parts 1 and 2 of the lecture to help many young athletes cope with excessive nervousness. Part 3 of the lecture presents a positive self-talk exercise that I have used with young figure skaters to help them to feel confident and to displace negative thoughts and emotions just before performing at a competition. After listening to the lecture and reading Chapter 9, describe a plausible treatment strategy for the athlete in your application exercise. Your treatment strategy should be described in half a page to a page. Emotion selected: Anger Typical causes of that emotion for that athlete 1.When the receiver does not catch his pass Sport played by the athlete: Football Quarterback Do the causes involve presentation or withdrawal of reinforcers or punishers? Indicate which Withdrawal of reinforcer

10 2.When he is sacked 3. When he is injured and cannot play 4.When he loses a game Typical operant displays of that emotion by that athlete 1. Swearing at the receiver, shows aggression towards others 2. He falls onto the ground, loses control of the football Presentation of punisher Presentation of punisher Withdrawal of a reinforcer Typical respondent components of that emotion by that athlete Deflated feeling in stomach, change in glandular activities In pain, has trouble breathing, change in glandular activities 3. He feels generally grumpy, and hopeless because cannot heal his injuries any faster 4. He develops a bad mood towards others on his team, becomes antisocial Poor digestion, pain, slower breathing Poor digestion (due to depressed state), slower breathing A plausible treatment strategy For the football player, there are several treatment strategies that could be put in place in order to help him sort out his emotions in these various situations. Situation 1: In order to stop the swearing and aggression it would be helpful to implement some positive self-talk from the beginning of the game until the end. This way, he will go into the game with a positive attitude and when/if the receiver doesn t catch the ball, he will not be as disappointed and angry. He could say things to himself like, if I find the receiver at a great angle, I ll make a great pass and he ll be sure to catch it. Before throwing the football. Or, if the receiver does miss the ball, he can replace the swearing with, hey man, nice try, we ll get it right next time. Situation 2: Although it is hard to avoid getting tackled in football, since he is a great player, a good treatment strategy would be to make plays that surround him with big guys so they can handle the tackling while he finds where to throw the ball. This would allow for less tackling and less loss of control, which he does not like to happen. Also, when it does happen, he could keep a positive frame of mind and say okay, next time I ll position myself differently so I can keep hold of the ball and don t get winded.

11 Situation 3: A good treatment strategy when the player is injured and unable to play would be to still go to all the games and practices and sit on the bench as a support to the team and perhaps get an outside perspective of what the team needs to work on and suggest things to the coach. As he gets better it is also good treatment to start doing as much training as his body will allow and capable of doing so that he will stay in shape and keep up with the team and it will probably make him happy to remain active throughout his injury. Situation 4: When they lose a game it is hard for the player to stay positive. A possible treatment for this would be to have the team go out for pizza and drinks after every game regardless of the outcome because this would enhance the camaraderie of the team and not let the boys feel down for very long. It would also give them a chance to reflect on what they did wrong and what they could improve on in a casual setting in a positive environment.