Biofeedback for Mental Skills Training
“The key for me is to forget about results and concentrate on execution.” Orel Hershiser, Los Angeles Dodgers.
How do athletes arrive at this place of letting go of the many distractions and pressures of performance? Many athletes are familiar with playing well in practice but not up to their potential during a game. In practice an athlete is focusing on the task. There isn’t the pressure of an outcome of winning or losing. Their mental focus complements their physical training. When an athlete leaves the practice arena and faces a team or challenging opponent or a game that matters, the athlete often becomes distracted with internal dialogue that sounds like:
*Don’t mess up this game.
*I’m ranked higher, I should win.
*I have to beat this opponent.
*Don’t let the team down.
*If I don’t play well the coach will bench me.
*There are scouts in the stands today. I have to perform well.
*I hope I don’t embarrass myself in front of all these people.
These types of distractions trigger a fight, flight, freeze primal response in the body. Athletes are typically unaware of the extent to which thoughts influence physiology and the impact it has on performance. Biofeedback is an easy training tool that provides real time data to athletes regarding how the body is responding to the mental dialogue and physiological response to the environment.
A simple Psychophysiological Stress Test (PST), helps the athlete recognize the link between thoughts and the perceived stress of competition and reaction time, the ability to think clearly under pressure, and emotional management. A Psychophysiological Stress Test is an assessment that provides information to the athlete regarding their ability to manage and recover from two cognitive stressor tasks and an emotional stressor task. During the test the athlete is “hooked up” to equipment with electrodes and sensors. This gentle, non-intrusive method presents biological information to the athlete, who can later learn skills to control their internal reactivity to stressors. The following psychophysiological responses are recorded and measured during the PST,Skin temperature (peripheral blood flow); EMG (Electromyography); which measures muscle tension and relaxation, skin conductance (measures sweat gland activity); breathing rate, pulse rate and heart rate variability.
Biofeedback is frequently thought of as learning to relax. A better description of biofeedback is gaining the skills to balance the autonomic nervous system. Once an athlete has an individualized blueprint of the stress cues that negatively influence their performance, an individualized biofeedback training program can be designed that will enable the athlete to more effectively address and manage these issues. For additional information regarding biofeedback, finding a practitioner or taking a Psychophysiological Stress Test contact the Biofeedback Society of California (BSC).