“Building on our Success” will be the title for the next seminar to be organised by the Maltese Olympic Committee which will take place on Saturday 29 September at the Excelsior Grand Hotel Malta.

Seminars are organised regularly by the MOC following Malta’s representation at international games under the auspices of the MOC. The purpose of such seminars is to provide an opportunity to evaluate the outcome of athletes’ performances and to understand and plan the future of Maltese sport.

This year’s seminar is appropriately titled following the recent success at the GSSE Monaco Games and will evaluate the achievements and shortcomings at these games.

This seminar will be opened by MOC President Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco and addressed by Secretary General Mr Joseph Cassar.

In addition, Mr Pippo Psaila, MOC Sports Director will focus on the technical programme for the MOC for years 2008-2012, highlighting strategic objectives and the operational plan for this period.

Games falling under the auspices of the MOC include the Games of the Small States of Europe Cyprus 2009 and Liechtenstein 2011, the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012, the Mediterranean Games Pescara 2010, the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010, and youth games, EYOF Games 2009 in Finland and the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

Guest speakers will include Adele Muscat, sports psychologist, who will focus on “Sports Psychology in today’s top-level sport”; Dr Olga Fedotkina, focusing on “Testing, monitor and screening of athletes – why, when and how”; and Chris Farrugia, who will cover the topic “Genetic Testing for Sport Performance”.

Sport psychology in today’s top-level sport

Adele Muscat

Sports Psychologist MOC

Most of us remember when our mental state interfered with a good performance. It might have been excessive anxiety in a school exam or meeting a person you wanted to impress. For an athlete, this might occur in an important competition.

At times I ask athletes what causes their performances to vary so much – is it differences in their physical condition or in their mental condition? Most will attribute the differences in performance to the variations in their mental condition after eliminating health problems and factors outside their control.

Despite recognising this is so, most athletes spend much less time, if any, on perfecting their mental skills than on their physical training. Why? Most athletes and coaches would give the following reasons:

• Physical training takes enough time already; I can’t add more to my training day.

• It’s easy to see when I’m improving with a physical skill, but harder to measure when I’m improving on my mental skills.

• I don’t know how to practise my mental skills.

Mental training covers a variety of skills. The most obvious is the mental state in competition – being able to get into what athletes call “the zone”. This is the feeling that you are at the peak of your ability, where performance is at its best. Getting into the zone is often seen as a chance happening but skill in controlling both relaxation and arousal – factors important in playing in the zone – is more subject to training than we often realise.

Mental training is not restricted to how you perform in competition, but includes several other areas such as learning to gain the maximum from practice sessions.

Mental training helps you learn techniques more effectively and develop strength more rapidly. Learning to focus appropriately, to block out the irrelevant is important both in training and competition. Imagery, learning to practise physical skills mentally helps develop confidence and also the physical skill itself. Mental training also involves dealing effectively with pain and healing. Considerable evidence suggests that an appropriate mental attitude can speed recovery and minimise the frustration of injuries and other performance setbacks.

A sport psychologist is trained to develop these mental skills in athletes. Coaches too are and have long been adept at developing these skills in their team members but increasingly, sport psychologists are included as members of the training teams.

As a sport psychologist, it is important not to assume the role of the coach. When I work with an athlete, I am not teaching the physical techniques of a sport. I am concerned only with developing the appropriate mental attitudes and skills to enable the athlete to practise and to perform at his/her best. I feel it is important to work closely with that athlete’s coach so the coach understands and has an appropriate input for any work I do with the athlete. The two must be complementary in order to be optimally effective.

One of the issues I focus on with athletes is that until they have consistent control of their thoughts and imagination (self-talk and imagery), they will not have consistent control of their behaviour. Sport psychology is all about gaining consistent control of behaviour in the demanding environment of sport.

This demanding environment, especially in top-level competition such as the Commonwealths and the Olympics, creates the need for athletes to increase awareness and control of their thought processes because their athletic performance resulting from these thoughts is measured so precisely.

Big events such as the Commonwealths seem to have their own rules. Increased pressure, media attention and performance consequences are combined with different schedules, logistical challenges and nerves.

Athletes and coaches who are normally in control, suddenly don’t remain so. The coaches and officials really need to make the effort to remain calm at such big events as their behaviour will have a big influence on the athletes’ emotions and consequently their performance.

Younger team members, especially those who are attending such an event for the first time, initially tend to get quite distracted so they need to prepare themselves beforehand for the environment they will find themselves in.

Athletes attending a big event need to set limits for themselves. One needs to consider the pre-event and post-event periods as two completely different situations that require different sets of behaviour.

By setting specific post-event dates for socialising, attending other events, sightseeing, etc, the athlete can then declare the pre-event time period off-limits to distractions.

At such a big event, you cannot afford to worry about failure. You need to go for it even more than at other events. Athletes who go into events trying to defend themselves against mistakes make the biggest mistake of all. They change what they normally do and take themselves out of their preferred performance state.

The same is true of coaches and officials. It is easy to get worried about the errors you want to prevent and you start to become defensive, negative and doubtful. Athletes pick up on that. It can be contagious. You need to focus on your strengths, on what you need to do to perform well and how to stay positive and confident.

It is normal to feel worried and have doubts so don’t worry about worrying!

Reduce your stress by keeping a sense of humour, talk to people who will understand what you’re going through, trust your plans, plan well and stay flexible.

Think of the things you can control rather than those you can’t. And enjoy it!

Reference: Andersen Mark B (Ed.) (2000) Doing Sport Psychology Human Kinetics, Australia