Training Programme 6 - COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING/ATTRIBUTION

Week Number = 7
Date = 1st May 2014
Aim of the Week = To reduce the cognitive anxiety levels that are quite high in you and develop more self-confidence. 

Cognitive Restructuring Technique

Hello X. The 6 week training programme is coming to an end. You did a great job so far and I'm hoping that during the final training programme you'll do the same. In the last week we will look at the cognitive restructuring technique which will hopefully reduce your cognitive anxiety levels and may develop a bit more self-confidence. 

Introduction of the Technique

Cognitive restructuring technique is used to counter negative thoughts and perceptions about training or competition and gain a more positive attentional focus to enhance performance. 

Types of Cognitive Restructuring

Attribution theory relates to the reasons we give for our, or the team, performance. This theory classifies the reasons we give for the performance into 4 distinct categories:

1. Ability - Performance/Skills
2. Task Difficulty - How hard the task is/conditions/who plays
3. Effort - Prepared well/100% into the game/mental + physical/pre-game + during the game
4. Luck - Chance

There is a model which shows the 4 categories under 2 key dimensions:

Success is often attributed to an internal factor such as for example "I played well", "I felt really focused today" or "I put in 100% effort"- This also promotes us. 

Failures tend to be attributed to external factors so that we can protect ourselves and examples of that can be "The ball took a bobble", "The ref had a shocking game" or "It was the strikers fault; he couldn't hit the barn door". 

Exercises for You

I want you to perform two simple exercises. The first exercise you'll do will require a bit of brainstorming from you. I want you to write down, in a table provided, all the negative or irrelevant thoughts that you believe you use in particular football situations. In addition, I want you also to write down in the same table the positive or relevant thoughts. After you have done that I want you to rephrase all the negative statements in a positive way. 

The second exercise I want you to do will require a bit of time. During the next week, after every training session or match you have I want you to sit down and write any feelings that you've experienced during that time. I want you to write everything that you were thinking about when you were going into tackle or miss kicked the ball. Then I want you to decide which of these thoughts are negative and which are positive. For example if you went for a tackle and you thought that you may get hurt whilst doing it, that would count as a negative thought. When you decide which thoughts are negative I want you start the process called thought stopping. Every time you have any negative thoughts during training or competition I want you to, in your head, shout STOP and quickly think of a positive thought to replace that. For example, if you thought that when you go into a tackle you may get hurt, I want you to shout stop and quickly change this thought to something like "I am going to win the ball". This will hopefully make you less worry and you anxiety levels will drop down.

Try both of them exercises this week and get back to me when you've done them. Good luck X!

Athlete's Feedback

After few days I went to meet X to chat about the exercises I gave him to do and also how he found this cognitive restructuring technique. This is what he told me:

"This technique was quite confusing at start. There was much information that seemed quite hard to understand at first. However, after I've read this post a couple of times I understood what to do and what this technique is about. 

In terms of the exercises I must say that they were quite useful and quite good. The first exercise you've asked me to do I had to think a bit about it but I found all the statements and thoughts that usually come into my head. In the positive columns I said that during training I often think to myself that I want to do my best to be picked for the team for the upcoming match. In the pre-competition column  I wrote down that I often think that I am 100% ready for this game. In the during competition column I said that I think about trying hard and don't give up. 
With the negative statements I had some problems because there were quite a few of them. In training I often worry that if I don't put 100% effort and I won't put a good performance my coach may not pick me for the team. You've told me to replace them thoughts so I did. I said to myself that whatever happens I just want to go out and train hard. In the pre-competition section I have often thoughts that I may make a mistake that will cost my team conceding a goal or even loosing a game. I've replaced this thought with thinking that I just want to go out there and do my best and not worry about mistakes because everyone does them. Finally, in the last section I often have thoughts that I won't be able to clear the ball out when heading it. I replaced that with a thought that if I relax I can do anything. 

The second exercise was quite good as well. During the first 2 training sessions this week I wrote down after each session any thoughts that occurred to me. Few of them were negative so during the third training session whenever a negative thought occurred in my head I shouted stop, like you said, and quickly replaced it with a positive thought. For example, I thought that I won't be able to tackle one of our strikers, so I shouted stop and thought that I can do it and I will do it, and guess what..I did! 

Overall, I would like to thank you for those training programmes. I certainly learned a lot from them and they helped me with my self confidence, anxiety or worrying. I feel stronger now and hopefully this exercises I did will stay with me and I will be able to use them in the future whenever I need them. Thank you!" 

Training Programme 5 - PROGRESSIVE MUSCULAR RELAXATION

Week Number = 6
Date = 24th April 2014
Aim of the Week = The aim is to reduce the anxiety by introducing the progressive muscular relaxation into your training programme. 

Progressive Muscular Relaxation Technique

Hello X. In the fifth week of our training programme we will look at the technique to reduce your anxiety levels before the match. I will introduce to you the progressive muscular relaxation technique that you could practice before every football game. So far we were mostly concentrating on improving your self confidence but this week we will look at reducing the anxiety as that's one thing that you also find difficult to cope with before the football games. 

Introduction of the Technique 

Progressive muscle relaxation is the technique used for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension. 

Progressive Muscular Relaxation & Exercise for You

This technique is not as easy as it seems as you've got to relax all the different muscle groups at different times. I will introduce to you the typical progressive muscular relaxation technique. 

Firstly you need to lie down and relax your entire body. If you hear any kind of noises don't try to block them out but focus on your breathing (inhale then exhale slowly). Close your eyes, take it easy and relax. 

Then, tense the muscles of your right lower leg and foot by pointing your toe. Hold the tension for 5-6 seconds and then relax. You should be able to feel the tension in the foot and the calf and then totally relax. When you relaxed you should feel the warmth in the muscles. Repeat this procedure again on the right leg, and then twice on the left. 

After tensing and relaxing the lower leg, and foot, tense for 5 seconds and relax the thigh and buttocks region, twice for each leg. Tense the buttocks and thighs by pushing down with your buttocks. 

Tense and relax the forearm and hand by making a fist. Do this twice for each arm. Then, tense and relax the bicep of each arm twice by bending at the elbow and pretending you are doing a chin up. 

Tense the back muscles by arching the back up for 5 seconds and relax. Tense and relax the back twice. 

Tense the stomach and chest muscles by breathing in and relax by breathing out. Do this twice. Tense the neck and shoulders by pulling your shoulders together and then release them and relax. 

Tense the face and forehead by gritting your teeth and pulling your eyebrows together and then relax. Do this twice as well. Mentally scan your body for any tension and release it. Focus on the relaxed feelings in your muscles, and the calming thoughts of your mind set. 

Finally, after you've done this exercise, slowly flex, stretch, inhale and open your eyes before sit up.

This is a typical progressive muscular relaxation exercise which may seem quite confusing and hard to do, but in fact when you do it you'll see that it's not that hard. What I want you to do this week is to try and perform this exercise. Give yourself as many chances as you want to do it correctly as I know that there is a lot of things to do. If you want you may get someone to read you the instructions whilst you seated down and relaxed and ready to do this exercise. Good luck!

Athlete's Feedback

"Hi coach. When I first looked at this post I was quite unsure whether you are being serious or not when you said that you want me to do this exercise. There is a lot of little bits to do during this exercise and I thought that I will not manage to do it. However, after a series of attempts I finally managed to do this exercise correctly and I must admit that after I've done I felt really good. Normally I am feeling stressed before, during and after the match or training. With this exercise I managed to relax and concentrate more on the training. Even though it took me some time to get this exercise done properly I am feeling happy about it and I may look at it whenever I'm feeling stressed. 

Thank you coach"

Training Programme 4 - ROUTINES

Week Number = 5
Date = 17th April 2014
Aim of the Session = In this session the aim is to introduce the technique of routines so that you could enhance your confidence even more. 

Routines Technique 

Hello X. This week we will look at the technique of using routines in order to enhance and develop your confidence even more. By this time we have already done quite a lot of stuff on developing your self confidence but I think that if I introduce to you this technique as well you will have more options and therefore your self confidence would hopefully be high during every situation in football. 

Introduction of the Technique

Routines are a set of actions that you follow in order to improve your performance, enhance motivation, or, in this case, develop our self confidence. 

Routines

Routines are often developed consciously, but also you may come across a routine that has been developed unconsciously. Routines mostly occur with performance. For example, in your game preparations you may find some routines that you always do that help you with the performance. The routines that we want to concentrate will be to do with your self confidence. I think that in order to do that we could put together all the techniques that I introduced to you before. Goal-setting, self-talk and imagery could made a routine and therefore I think it'll be easier to get all them into one. 

Exercises for You

This exercise will require a little bit of thinking from you but I am sure that you'll do it just fine. 

I want you to describe the things that you usually do before, during or after a competitive football game that help with your confidence. You can say about the things you always used to do, but you can also include the things that you have learned recently, meaning that you can write about the goal setting, self-talk or imagery techniques if you still use before competitive football games. I want you to do them under the following headings:

What?
When?
Why?
Benefits? 

Please think careful and remember, I only want you to write about the routines you do in order to build your self confidence, not improve your skills. 

Good luck X!

Athlete's Feedback

Recently I went and talked to X about the task I gave him to complete about the routine technique. We talked for a bit, and he gave me a feedback on how he completed that exercise. 

"Coach, I am very happy with all the techniques so far in this training programme. I find all of them very useful and it's very good that whilst doing the routine technique I can connect it with the goal-setting, self-talk and imagery techniques that I have done before during that programme. 

To be completely honest with you I had to think hard about any self confidence routines that I did before starting this training programme with you and I must say that I couldn't think of any. I can see now that my lack of confidence didn't came from nothing. I never did anything to boost my confidence and I feel quite bad about it. I am 18 years old and have been playing football since I was probably 9 so if I never practiced anything to build my confidence during this time must be bad. However, now I've been introduced some of the techniques that I find very useful and over the past few weeks I have developed some routines that help me with my self confidence. 

Firstly I still have that long term goal that I am working towards, which was to score at least one goal during the season and to concede the lowest number of goals in the league. At the moment I still haven't scored a goal but the number of goals we've conceded is pretty low and I am happy about it. This long-term goal gives me a confidence and motivation because I really want to achieve it. 

A routine that I found I am doing before every game is that I am using the self-talk technique to motivate myself and give myself high confidence for the game. I talk to myself in my head saying that I can play good and if I make any mistakes I think to myself about how to resolve that problem and how to perform better. This is a routine that I follow all the time during the competitive situation and I am really grateful for you for introducing the self-talk to me. 

I want to continue and build more routines but at this moment of time I don't have any others as it's still only a few weeks into the training programme but hopefully at the end of the season I will have some routines that will keep my self confidence high.

Thank you coach." 

Training Programme 3 - IMAGERY

Week Number = 4
Date = 10th April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce the imagery technique in order to work on your self-confidence. 

Imagery Technique 

Good morning X. I want to continue today with another training programme. This time I will introduce to you the imagery technique which hopefully will be another step in improving your self-confidence. In the previous weeks we have done the goal setting and self-talk techniques and you worked on them very well, therefore I am hoping that this week you will have no problems with the imagery technique. 

Introduction of the Technique

Imagery is when you start to imagine a set of different situations that you are in, for example playing in a football game, in your mind. 

Types of Imagery

There are five categories of imagery that help with achieving what you want to achieve. 

You will find motivational-specific which basically means that you may see yourself winning a match or picking up trophy and it's good if you want to improve on your motivation and effort, but we don't need to concentrate on that as your motivation and effort is high. 

Other imagery types are the motivational general arousal (it reflects on feelings of relaxation, stress, anxiety or arousal), the cognitive specific (seeing yourself performing certain skills, it helps when you want to improve performance) and the cognitive general (images of strategy and game plans). 

The type of imagery that you want to concentrate on is the motivational general mastery. This is based on seeing yourself coping in difficult circumstances and mastering challenging situations. This imagery type is important when you want to develop your self confidence, and that's why it's needed for you. 

Exercises for You

During this week I want you to practice this very easy exercise every day so that we can see if the imagery technique is useful for building your self confidence. 

What I want you to do X is very simple. You will need to make yourself comfortable in a chair. I want you to take in a long slow breath that you will hold for three seconds, then relax and breath out slowly. I want you to repeat it twice and close your eyes. 

After you've done that think of a situation where your confidence is very low. For example, the last few moments before start of the game. I want you to think of everything that is there before the match starts;the venue at which you play, the pitch at which you play, your manager on the sideline, your teammates around you, the opposite team, the referee, in simple words; everything that is there around you. I want you to picture that. 

I want you to run the image through your mind until your concentration wavers. Then count from one to three and open your eyes. 

After you have done it several days I want to go out and, if possible, play a game of football. I want to see whether this imagery technique would help you in feeling more confident when you play competitive football. 

After you've done that please send me a feedback as I won't have time to see you personally this week. Good luck X! 

Athlete's Feedback

"Hello coach, thank you for spending your time and giving me another training programme this week. I must admit that I have never practiced the imagery technique before and I really wanted to try it because it looked very interesting to me. 

Firstly, I must say that this was probably the easiest exercise so far and I could do that pretty much all the time. It helped me relax and whilst I was thinking about the situation in which my confidence is low I imagined myself as a very confident player. I managed to get a game during this week so I practiced that imagery technique straight before the game and a few days earlier for everyday. I must say that at the start of the game I felt quite confident. I was still having the pictures in my head of me being confident and it worked. Before the kick-off I wasn't scared that I may fail but instead I wanted to go out there a play a good game of football. After some time my confidence started to drop off a bit because not everything went in the right direction but I like that technique and I think that if I practice it more over the next few weeks I may get used to it and my confidence may build up automatically. 

Thank you coach"

Training Programme 2 - SELF-TALK

Week Number = 3
Date = 3rd April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce and develop your self-talk technique in order to enhance your confidence.

Self-Talk Technique 

Hello X, to start off with I must say that I was very pleased with how you have done the task set for you in training programme 1. This week we will move on and concentrate on the self-talk technique so that hopefully you will build your confidence by using this technique. Your self confidence is quite low therefore I think that this technique will allow us to make it improve.

Introduction of the Technique

Self-talk basically means that you are talking to yourself, either loudly or silently, in order to motivate yourself before the competition. 

Types of Self-Talk

There are 3 types of self-talk technique that will probably come across during your football.

The first is the Inner Critic. This is the inner voice that will judge you as inadequate. You will probably come across that if you make a mistake in a game and you start blaming yourself or thinking that you are not good enough.

After that you may come across the Inner Defender. This is the inner voice that will judge, criticize and blame others around you. It will be a way of not filling guilty about your mistakes but is it really good?

Finally, the most important is the Inner Guide. This inner voice is the most important and you should mostly concentrate on that as it will make you seek the best out of any problems, meaning that if things aren't going well for you you will start motivating yourself by thinking that you can perform better, rather than blaming yourself and others on the pitch.

Exercises for you

Positive self-talk will affirm to you that you possess the skills, abilities, positive attitudes and beliefs that are the building blocks of success. 

For next week I want you to do the following. I want you to make your own list of 4 positive self-talk statements and read them to yourself every night before you go to bed and every morning as you wake up. Through repeated use, they will become embedded in your subconscious and have a profound influence on your sporting performance.

Good luck! 

Athletes Feedback

After some time I have met with X and we discussed the task that I have set him to do. I wanted to find out how he did he do, whether it was easy or not, and what does he think of it. In order to find that I asked X to give me a feedback. 

"Hello coach, I have done the task that you have set me and now I would like to share with you how it went. 

Firstly I wanted to say that I quite like the self-talk technique and it could be useful for me in the future. The 4 self-talk statements were well picked by me and I have also followed your instructions of reading them to myself every night and every morning. I have chosen the following statements:

No one will get past me in defence
I will not give up, even if things aren't going well
I will always give 100% effort
I will feel more confident on the ball

I was reading them to myself and I must admit that I went training yesterday and I still had them in my head. I haven't yet got a chance of playing a competitive football this week but I think that during the game I will still think about that and I will say it to myself quite often. 

Overall, I am happy with the self-talk technique and I'm looking forward for next week."

Training Programme 1 - GOAL SETTING

Week Number = 2
Date = 27th March 2014
Aim of the Week = To develop your goal setting skills in order to reduce your anxiety and boost your confidence.

Goal Setting Technique

Hi X, this is Hubert. I wanted to inform you about the 1^st week training session of our 6 weeks programme. In the 1^st week we will work on goal setting as I have looked at the results from the questionnaires that you have answered and I found out that on one of them you have only scored 1 on the Goal Setting and Mental Preparation, therefore we will work on that to start off with as I really think you need to improve on that. 

Introduction of the Technique

Goal Setting basically means that you set yourself an aim or goal, that you want to achieve. 

Uses of Goal Setting

Goal setting is used because it will give the wants and desires of a specific outcome and also it will give you the steps you need to move towards this outcome. Goal setting should give your daily actions a meaning to work within and gives you the directions that you may follow, especially whilst playing football. Goal setting will be very useful to you and it could really help you with reducing your high level of anxiety that you get when playing football and also it hopefully will boost your confidence that you seem to be lacking whilst performing.

Types of Goal

Outcome – An outcome goal will focus on the outcome of an event, for example winning the football match or winning the league. Outcome goals are usually more long-term goals and they will usually run from few months to several years.

Process – A process goal will focus on the actions that you must produce to perform well, for example training few times a week so that you will enhance your performance in football. Process goals are normally more short-term goals and they are set over a brief period of time, usually from one day to a month.

Performance – Performance goals will give a way of analysing your own strengths and weaknesses when performing in football. With them you can also monitor your improvements in psychological skills, but also they may motivate you to trying your best.

Goal Setting Principles

When you want to set yourself a goal you need to remember about the SMART principle to make them workable. The SMART stands for:

Specific 

Measurable 

Achievable 

Realistic 

Time-constrained

Specific means that your goal must be specific to what you want to achieve. Saying that you want to get better at football will not be good enough; you should say I want to improve my passing, heading or tackling.

Measurable means that your goals will be stated in a way that is able to be measured so that you can state the figures. For example saying that you want to improve your successful slide tackles by 20% it will be measurable.

Achievable means that your goal must be possible to achieve.

Realistic means that you need to be realistic in your goal setting and look at what factors may stop you from achieving your goal.

Finally, Time-constrained means that you must give yourself a deadline on the goal so that you can review your success. It is best if you set yourself a date by which you wish to achieve your goal. 

The best way for you to set a goal is by answering three questions:

What do YOU want to achieve? (desired state)

Where are YOU now? (present state) 

What do YOU need to do to move from your present state to your desired state?

Exercises for You to Complete

Long term goals tell you where you want to go (final destination) and short term goals tell you how you are going to get there (journey). Both are extremely important for effective goal setting. I will give you two exercises that you will have to answer with the goals that you want to set yourself. Make sure that both goals that you choose, long-term and short-term, are SMART goals.

General Exercise

I want you to complete the following exercise so that we can see your long term goals:    

• What is your goal for this season? (e.g. winning the league or having the most clean sheets in the league)  
• What are the skills you need to achieve your goal? (e.g. good communication with your teammates or organised defence)
• What can you do between now and the end of the season to develop the skills needed to achieve your goal? (e.g. training)
• What will you do this week to develop these skills in order to achieve your long-term goal? (e.g. training)
• What can you do in the next training session to develop these skills? (e.g. practice defending set pieces)

Specific Task

The second exercise is a bit different as now I want you to complete it so that we can see your short term goals: 

• What is your goal for your next game? (e.g. scoring a goal or keeping a clean sheet) 
• What will you do in order to achieve this goal? (e.g. train harder in training)
• What skills will you need to achieve your goal? (e.g. organised in defence)

When you finished the exercises could you please evaluate it and give me a feedback of how it went. 

Athlete's Feedback

I have met my athlete and asked him about the tasks that I gave him to do. I wanted to find out whether he found them task easy to do and useful and also if they have helped him in boosting his confidence and reducing the anxiety. This is what athlete X has said about the goal setting tasks:

"Hello coach, I wanted to give you the feedback on how the goal setting tasks went for me. To start off with I wanted to say that the information which you gave were really useful and I have got now a better knowledge of goal setting. The tasks that you gave me to do where not that hard, but I must admit that at the beginning I had to think hard about what I want to achieve as I have never done goal setting before and it was a new experience for me. In the general exercise section I have answered the questions with the following answers: 
1. My goal for this season is to score at least one goal and also to try and concede the lowest number of goals in the league. 
2. The skills that I will need will be good and organised performances at the back, so that we can have a better chance of conceding little goals, and also the shooting skills with either my legs or header so that I can score at least one goal this season. 
3. Between now and the end of the season I can train very hard on every aspect of football, especially the defence and shooting, so that I will get a chance of achieving my goal for this season. 
4. This week I will concentrate mostly about defending during training sessions. Scoring one goal isn't that hard and I can score it at any point during any game, but having the less number of conceded goals in the league will be harder and therefore I will try my best to practice the defending more and also developing the cohesion with my partners in defence so that we can all play well and work hard to concede little goals. 
5. In my next training session I will practice the tackling and the offside line. This will hopefully help me in achieving my goal. 

The specific task was easier to answer as this is what may happen in the next game. The goal that I have set to myself is realistic and I really hope to achieve it. 

1. My goal is to improve my percentage rate of successful slide tackles. At the moment, my overall percentage rate of slide tackles is only 40%. I hope that in the next game I can make more slide tackles so that my successful slide tackles percentage rate will increase by at least 5%. I know that the increase I have chosen is not too big, but this is because I know that you don't always get a chance of slide tackling someone during the game. 
2. In order to achieve this I will work really hard in training session practicing the slide tackles. 
3.  The skill that I will need to achieve that goal will be the timing of the slide tackle. 

I have answered them questions before my game. Now, after I have played my game, I can tell that the specific task was very useful and the goal which I have set myself I have achieved. My overall percentage rate of successful slide tackles have increased by 7% and therefore I am really happy with this. The goal that I have chosen was also a SMART goal therefore I hope that I have fulfilled your demands coach. The general exercise task I can't really do yet as the season is not over yet, but what I know now is that if I could achieve the specific task for short-term goal I can also achieve the long-term goal. 

I have found goal setting really useful as now before the game I have an goal that I am working towards and this motivates me more and also gives me more confidence! This means that one aspect of this training week has already been achieved as your aim for me was to boost my confidence. I still can't reduce my anxiety but I am hoping that if I continue with the goal setting technique I will achieve it at the end of the season. 
Thank you coach!"

Athlete X has fulfilled the tasks well and I am very happy with his attitude towards it as well. I am hoping that in the upcoming weeks he will manage to improve his performance by improving his psychological skills. 

Introduction to the Athlete

This is the introduction to the 6 weeks psychological training skills programme of my chosen athlete. I have chosen athlete X and on this blog I will write information of each week programme including the strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities of athlete X. To start off with I will introduce the personal profile of athlete X.

Personal Profile

Athlete X in action

Athlete X is quite a sporty person. He plays several sports, with his main one being football. Athlete X attends St Mary's College and that's where he gets the most opportunities to play his main sport. He regularly trains on Monday afternoon, and Friday afternoon, with the games being played at Wednesday afternoon. Athlete X  plays for St Mary's 2nd football team, although he had played one game for the 1st team in which he played as a goalkeeper. Football is a sport that athlete X has been playing for quite a long time, although always at an amateur, but competitive level. His main position on the pitch is centre back, although he sometimes used to play as a right-back or even a goalkeeper. Athlete X shows good understanding of the tactics, and can easily adapt to them wherever he is playing on the pitch. However, athlete X does not have the drive and mindset that an athlete needs to become a professional and play at a top level. Athlete X is highly motivated and never gives up, but what is stopping him from moving off the amateur level is the fact that he does not believe in his own abilities. In his mind he always worry a lot about his performance. He is not confident that he can go out the pitch and play good, even though in most of the games his performance is a top standard. This athlete to start believing in himself and feeling more confident on the pitch needs to have a psychological plan that does not take too much time and includes relaxation techniques, such as music, so that athlete X can improve his confidence and, what comes with it, his overall performance on the pitch.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths - 
Athlete X has got quite a lot of strengths in football, most of them comes from his physical ability when playing that sport. His main strength is the fact that he never gives up. Although athlete X has got to work on his self belief and confidence, one aspect of his mind is that he never gives up, even if he is having a very bad game. His will to succeed is pushing him forward and also the feeling of letting his team down is making him work harder on the pitch in order to put a good performance. Even though his technical skills in football aren't the best he always plays with his heart, and that makes him the type of player who will never give up whilst playing football. His physical strength is athlete X's another big strength. He is quite a powerful and strong lad who isn't afraid of going into tackles or fighting for the ball, (this could link with him never giving up). In many games he got a slight injuries because of him fighting for every play, especially when he plays as a defender. His strength and power is an advantage for him as he can easily fight with the opposition's strikers for the ball and, most of the time, he manages to win that ball.

Weaknesses - 
Athlete's X main weakness is in his mind. Like I have mentioned before, he does not believe in his ability and has not got the confidence on the ball. Athlete X is the kind of player that worries a lot about how he perform and what would happen if he fail, before the start of the match. This is very bad for him as it stops him from improving his performance and moving up to another level. He is not very confident on the ball. He can go into tackles, and win headers, but when he has the ball in his feet and has to pass it, he fails. Most of the time he rushes to pass the ball as quick as possible because he doesn't like it and therefore when he plays football he mostly concentrates on stopping the oppositions attack and does not want to get his team attacking play started; he leaves that to his partners in defence. The mind aspect is the most important thing that I will need to work on with athlete X, but other than this he also needs to improve on his tactical skills as maybe than it would be easier for him to feeling more confident on the ball.

Opportunities - 
In the 6 week psychological skills training programme I will provide athlete X with an opportunity to get his main weaknesses becoming his strengths. I will do everything possible to make athlete X worry less about his performance before the game and also feeling more confident on the ball. In order to do that I will provide athlete X with some training programme that he will have to follow of the 6 week period. Hopefully after that his performance will improve further and he will be able to get rid of the bad emotions that he has got in his head at the moment.

Threats - 
The main threat that could stop athlete X from improving could be the fact that athlete X is 18 years old and he has been playing football for over 10 years now. If he didn't manage to belief in himself and improving his technical skills on the ball, than I think it could be too late now as it could harder for him to learn something new when he has been playing like that for a very long time and got used to it by now. However, I will try everything possible and hopefully at the end of this 6 week training programme athlete X will be a completely different player.

When I first met athlete X I gave him some questionnaires to fill in. I wanted to see his mental aspects of the game and some of the results that I got have indicated to me that his mental aspect of playing football is very bad as it includes a very low self belief and confidence. The first questionnaire that I gave athlete X was to assess his sport psychological skills. There was no right or wrong answers and X had to answer 28 questions by choosing the score out of 3 where 0 was almost never and 3 being almost always. At the end I have recorded down the results and they are as follows:

* The higher scores indicate greater strengths - the scores are up to 12

Coping with adversity = 2 - This has assessed if the athlete remains positive and enthusiastic even when things are going badly, remains calm and controlled, and can quickly bounce back from mistakes and setbacks.
Coach-ability = 12 - This shows if an athlete is open to and learns from instructions that his coach gives him.
Concentration = 7 - This reflects to whether an athlete becomes easily distracted.
Confidence and achievement motivation = 7 - This measures if an athlete is confident and positively motivated, consistently gives 100% during training's and competitive games, and works hard to improve his skills.
Goal setting and mental preparation = 1 - Assesses whether an athlete sets and works toward specific performance goals.
Peaking under pressure = 6 - Measures if an athlete is challenged rather than threatened by pressure situations.
Freedom from worry = 7 - Assesses whether an athlete puts pressure on him by worrying about performing poorly and making mistakes.

After that I have asked athlete X to write down what motivates him. I have created a table which had intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors, and under the extrinsic whether they are tangible or intangible. For the intrinsic factors athlete X has put that improving his performance and the joy of playing football are motivating him. For the tangible X has put that winning trophies will motivate him and for the intangible he said that instructions from the manager and praise from the manager will motivate him more.

In the attribution analysis I have asked athlete X to think about any recent sporting events that have been successful or unsuccessful for him. For the successful event athlete X could only think of one, winning 11-2 against Bolton College. He said that in this game the team was organised, he has put 100% and had a good communication with his teammates. For the unsuccessful events he has said that loosing 5-3 to Oldham College was bad as he unperformed and was worried that the team may loose because of him.  Also, he said that going to a volleyball tournament with college and loosing all 3 games was an unsuccessful event as they had no enough training's and were lacking the knowledge of the rules.

In addition I have asked athlete X to fill in the SCAT Test (Sport Competition Anxiety Test). The athlete had to read each question and answer rarely, sometimes or often. His overall score was 19 which indicated that athlete X have an average level of anxiety.

Also, another questionnaire that athlete X had to fill in was about the competitive state anxiety. In this questionnaire athlete X had 3 different results. First one was for a cognitive or mental anxiety and the result should have been between 9 and 18, however athlete X got 21 in that which is quite worrying. The next score was for somatic or physical anxiety and the result should have been between 19 and 26, with athlete X getting the score of 19. The last score was about the self confidence and the result should have been high between 27 and 36 but athlete X only got 19 which again is worrying.

Finally, at the end I have asked athlete X to complete the performance profile wheel in which I have told him to think of some attributes that he shows whilst playing football and rate them between 2 and 10. The attributes and results that athlete X had are as follows:

Belief = 6
Focus = 7
Mental toughness = 6
Concentration = 6
Confidence = 5
Self control = 6
Awareness = 8
Motivation = 9
Effort = 10
Strength = 9

Now I know exactly all about athlete X when he is participating in his main sport, which is football. I can create a 6 week training programme that will improve his psychological aspect of playing football.