Chris shows signs of low self-confidence and has an overall unhappy attitude towards soccer. She has the potential for being a great athlete, yet gives up easily during practice and games. Her parents are worried that soccer will never do anything to help improve their daughter’s self-esteem.
As Chris’ coach, I need to find a way to enhance her experience as a talented soccer athlete. She must enjoy the sport to an extent, otherwise why would she continue to volunteer to play? It is my job to improve her attitude and self-esteem towards the sport itself as well as the team on and off the field.
Chris has low self-efficacy which means she tends to avoid challenges and gives up easily. According to Bandura, there are six key elements that play a role in affecting one’s self-efficacy, they are performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, emotional and physiological states, verbal persuasion, and imaginal experiences (Gill, & Williams, 2008). As a coach, I am able to influence some of these key elements in hopes of improving how Chris views her capabilities to successfully perform at soccer. One of the most influential determinants of self-efficacy is past performance (Williams, 2006). By videotaping a practice or a game, I would be able to sit down and have a one on one meeting with Chris and show her what she does well and what she is capable of. By doing so, she will feel more confident as she will be able to see that she has the potential to perform well at particular tasks.
Vicarious experience also can facilitate self-efficacy. By taking the team to watch another team play, Chris will be able to relate to an athlete playing in her position and will be able to see that a girl of the same athletic ability and age is able to do it, so she is capable of performing the task as well.
Verbal persuasion will be given throughout practice and games. Chris will be given feedback on things she is doing as well as motivational statements for encouragement. Hopefully, this will allow her to employ verbal persuasion of her own as a way of encouragement through positive self-talk to help increase her self-efficacy too. Her own encouragement would improve her performance knowing there is a tendency to act according to how we think (Williams, 2006).
At the conclusion of practice on the evenings before game days, I will do an imagery activity with the team. They will each independently mentally see themselves performing at their best and seeing each play run through their minds smoothly. If they can imagine themselves performing successfully it will increase their self-efficacy (Gill, & Williams, 2008).
Other than focusing on these determinants to help increase Chris’ self-efficacy, I would make Chris team captain. As captain, she will feel more involved having a leadership role on the team. This in turn may make her work harder, feeling an obligation towards the team performing successfully.
Chris continues to play soccer, yet doesn’t try hard even though she has the potential to be a great athlete. She gives up easily and seems unhappy while she is playing, especially during games. Having been part of the team for the past two years, Chris being labeled as team captain will allow her to have more dedication towards the team. She will work harder in order to impress the team as she now has a leadership role and is looked up to. She wants to gain respect from everyone, so she will prove to them, and herself, that she can be a great addition to the team. In conclusion, by showing Chris what she is capable of through past experiences, showing her another player of the same ability and age, verbally encouraging her during practice and game environments, performing imagery activities before game days, and making her team captain will increase her self-efficacy which will improve her performance as well as her self-esteem.
REFERENCES:
Gill, D.L., & Williams, L. (2008). Psychological dynamics of sport and exercise (pp. 91-94). United States of America: Human Kinetics.
Williams, J.M. (2006). Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (pp. ). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteA very interesting approach to a problem that persists in so many situations of adolescent sport activities. I believe your assessment of the problem is spot-on and the plan you have written to deal with Chris's problem seems to have great focus. I had never thought about actually videotaping a game/practice in order to show a player how they are doing. This to me is a great idea, as the Chris will be able to physically see how she does, rather than just hearing verbal feedback. Associating the verbal persuasion with this video seems to be a good way of increasing positive self talk. Imagery is another great idea. I can say from past experience as an athlete, that when our coach would have us do imagery practice, it would enhance psychological functioning of success. It is also very interesting that you believe making Chris a team-captain is a way to increase her self-efficacy. Would you have other reasons for making her captain or is this it? An argument could be made that all kids should be made "captain" in order to help their self-confidence. Is still see positive outcomes to the choice however!
Good job on the case study! I think Chris would benefit greatly!
Self-efficacy is a very important aspect of one's life and one's athletic endeavors. As coaches we need to understand our player’s efficacy levels and whether or not they have the right mindset to be successful.
ReplyDeleteYou talk about Bandura's six key elements that play a role in affecting self-efficacy and the ones that I feel most strongly affected me were vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and imaginary experiences. Whether watching basketball on TV or in person, I would always find myself watching certain players and comparing myself to them. Thinking to myself; I can do that or i wouldn't have made that mistake. These thoughts and experiences allowed my confidence in me to grow and thus helping me believe that I could compete at a high level.
Also, when talking about verbal persuasion, there is no question that positive energy and positive re-enforcement improves play and effort more than harsh criticism. Throughout my athletic career I have seen many different types of coaches and coaching techniques. Some used positive verbal persuasion after both positive and negative plays. This gave all the players the feeling of "Yes, we made a good play and can keep doing well." Or "Yes we made a mistake but we are good and can overcome it." In either scenario you end with positive feeling and emotions, which helps improve self-efficacy or restores it to its original high level.
Last but possibly the most important of all my experiences is imaginary experiences. During my high school baseball career we played West Delaware. They were always very good but they did something that we found very odd. During warm-ups they wouldn’t use a real baseball to take in-field/out-field. They instead opted to use an imaginary ball. We couldn't figure out why they would do that and thought it was stupid. But they won the game and afterwards our team had a discussion about it, and whether to try it or not. We chose not to initially but as they season progressed and we lost a few games our coached decided to try it. It was weird at first but once we got used to the idea, we really understood its affect. By using an imaginary ball, we never made mistakes. We always visualized a perfect throw and a perfect catch. This kept us from making mistakes and losing confidence or self-efficacy in our abilities.
In conclusion I think Chris has a lot of characteristics of most athletes in today’s sports world and as coaches we need to find the right ways to keep our player’s self-efficacy levels high and teach them the proper ways control their emotions.
Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteA very good analysis of the issues Chris faces as a soccer player. The idea of showing a game tape to Chris and highlighting the roles she takes on seems like a very positive approach the the situation. She may not be aware of her roles and accomplishments on the field, and that video may open her eyes. Since she seems to give up easily, show another teammate recovering from a mistake in practice or in a game may encourage Chris to do the same. I think the verbal persuasion can have a positive impact as well. If it is still early on in the season, perhaps using verbal persuasion with Chris before making her team captain will provide her with encouragement for herself. Then, make her team captain and she can use the same approach with her teammates, verbal persuasion to encourage her teammates on and off the field. Finally, the imagery can definitely have a positive impact not only on an individual basis, but for the entire team. I believe the activities you have planned for Chris will definitely increase her self-efficacy and help her to enjoy the game of soccer more. As a team captain, she can use some of the skills you have as a coach (such as verbal persuasion) to show her leadership to the rest of the team. Good luck to Chris!