As discussed in class today, the in-class exercises and extra-class homework are actual steps in the completion of your first assignment on the topic of Sport Psychology. Details of the actual assignment will be given out at the end of Wednesday’s class so as not to obscure your thinking and distract you from the preparatory work. In addition, in order to have a fruitful analysis you need to be “blind” to some of the details until the after the preparatory work is completed.
- In the first step of the assignment, completed during class today, you were interviewed on your Best-Ever and Worst-Ever performances in a sports competition – with a specific focus on the mental aspects of these performances (how you felt, what you were thinking, what you were focusing on, etc.). Your partner kept notes on your story, and gave you the notes at the end of the class.
- The first part of your homework for Wednesday, is to write a one to one and a half page, rich and detailed description of your Best-Ever performance (this is where your partner’s notes may be helpful). This should be double-spaced. After completing this, write a one-page description of your Worst Ever (we are more interested in the Best-Ever but need to be able to refer to your Worst as well).
- After writing the description, go through your paper and highlight (using the Formatting Toolbar in Word) key terms and descriptors related to the mental aspects of your performances (e.g., I was relaxed, I was concentrating on the ball, etc.).
- Bring both a print copy and and electronic version (e-mail or thumb drive) of your document to class – you will need it for the next step of the assignment.
- After completing step 4 above, download and read the Introduction section of Russel’s (2002) paper on Flow and College athletes. It provides an overview of Mr. C’s model of Flow: flowcollegerusselred.
- Read pp. 115 – 125 and 129 – 133 in the text (Chapter 4, 2nd edition). Make sure you complete the exercises on p. 119 and 128, as they support the concepts behind your assignment (you will not have to report on your results, but I will check that you have completed them).
- Familiarize yourself with the Flow dimensions described below. We we will start off Wednesday’s class by attempting to place the key terms that you have highlighted into one of Mr. C’s categories (dimensions).
Dimensions of Flow
Flow, “Peak Performance, the “Ideal Performance State”, and the “Zone” are all synonyms for similar concepts. Here is a Hollywood example of the Zone:
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