Kyle Broussard

3/10/18
Final Handbook Paper

1. How does someone in your future profession plan to measure imagery ability?
How would imagery training enhance their performance? Create and explain an
imagery strategy that someone in your future profession would use to implement
this on your team or in your profession. Use at least 2 citations from the book,
and one citation from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal article. 300+ words
2. Handout: The handout should provide information in a one-page format. Team
policy/ procedure is provided with 1-5 sentences, 2-3 pictures are used, and 5-10
sentences are used for education.

Imagery
Imagery is an important thing for athletes. Most athletes create plays in their
head that could happen during a game. Depending on how they imagine the play
happening can have a positive or negative affect on what really happens. If players
imagine themselves failing at certain plays over and over than they will most likely fail. If
they imagine something positive happening that gives them a better chance to be
successful. When someone imagine events vividly that has a similar effect on the
muscles as if the player was physically practicing the movement. (Weinburg & Gould,
Pg. 304, PP. 3). When a player is working with imagery they are imagining how they
should be doing something. For a baseball they can use imagery to get their timing
down against pitchers. They can work on when they need to load, and imagine where
their hands should be at giving points. Baseball hitters also can use imagery to work on
recognizing different pitch types. Trying to pick the spin of the ball up out of the pitcher’s
hand. That can be extremely useful, especially while a hitter is on deck preparing for his
at bat. Imagery can also be used to help concentration, which is important for athletes.
Imagery can help you react how you want to in certain situations, and can also help you
from having wandering thoughts. It also helps you after situation in which you lose
concentration, it allows you to regain that focus and continue. (Weinburg & Gould, Pg.
307, PP. 3). A method I would use to assess the imagery skills of players would be the
Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised that Wright, McCormick, Birks, Loporto, and
Holmes (2015) used in their study. The questionnaire requires the participants to give
answers to eight items. They read a description of a generic movement, before they
perform it physically. They do the same thing, but they are asked to imagine performing
it visually or kinesthetically. They answer by putting the ease they could perform it on a
7-point scale. When implanting an imagery training program, I would make sure that we
practice using it in many different settings. That way when the players are used to trying
to use the technique in uncomfortable places, and not just on their couch. When we use
imagery we want make sure we are going imagine realistic things that we can actually
accomplish. We should maintain our focus on positive situations. We would practice
imagery about 5-10 minutes a day focusing on areas we need to improve. Then we
would gradually work on pressure situations. (430)
Team Policy-We want to use imagery to help us focus on what we want to accomplish
during certain situations. We also want to use it to help from having wandering thoughts,
and to help regain our concentration.

Plan- We want to practice using imagery at least 5-10 minutes a day. We want to make
sure to switch up where we are using imagery, so we can be prepared to use it in any
situation. When using imagery, we want to make sure we are imagining realistic
situations that are obtainable. Like sitting tacking the spin of a curveball and hitting it up
the middle. Not imagining hitting 6 homeruns in one game. That way we are setting
ourselves up for game like situations.
 1. How does someone in your future profession plan to measure your student
athlete’s concentration in a game and practice? How is someone in your future
profession going to discover the specific ways to give individualized training for
concentration improvement? Explain how educating those in your future
profession about self-talk may enhance an athlete’s performance? Create and
explain a concentration strategy that someone in your future profession would
use to implement this your team or in your profession. Use at least 2 citations
from the book, and one citation from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal article.
300+ words
2. Handout: The handout should provide information in a one-page format. Team
policy/ procedure is provided with 1-5 sentences, 2-3 pictures are used, and 5-10
sentences are used for education.

Concentration

Concentration plays a big part in how well someone will be successful.

Concentration is something that has to be practiced the same as physical skills. And
when a player is not locked in then they are most likely going to struggle because of it.
Most of the time you can tell when someone is not concentrating very well, because
they make bone headed plays. Especially in baseball you can tell when someone is not
thinking clearly when hitting, because they start to swing at bad pitches. On defense as
well they start making routine plays look very difficult just because their mental part of
the game is not where it needs to be. Weinburg & Gould, (Pg. 379, PP 2&3) mention two
attentional focuses that baseball players have. They are narrow and external attentional
focus. Narrow is when the player is getting ready to swing at a pitch, or throw a pitch.
External is when the hitter it focused on the ball. When you are hitting you have to have
good concentration and not have focus anywhere else. You have less than .5 seconds
of time to hit a ball, and in that short amount of time you have to recognize the pitch, if it
is going to be a ball or strike, and if you are going to swing. You also have to put
yourself in a good hitting position to do so. A good way for players to stay concentrated
is by using positive self-talk. Self-talk can have a positive effect on enhancing many
qualities such as confidence, concentration, motivation, and mental preparation
(Weinburg & Gould, Pg. 388, PP. 4). think teaching players how to use positive self-talk
would benefit them especially when it comes to their concentration. Players can choose
cue words that will help them stay focused and remember what they are trying to do. If a
hitter needs to hit a fly ball to try and score a run, then he will want to swing at a high
pitch. His cue word could be “Up” reminding him to see the ball up and to not swing at
low pitches. If a defense of player has trouble focusing he can use a cue word to on
something that he struggles with like working through the ball. His word can be
“through” to help him stay locked in and to remember to work through the ground balls.
(400)
Team Policy- You have to have the ability to concentrate during every play. In between
pitches you can lose focus, but you have to regain it for the next pitch.

Plan- Through using positive self-talk we will improve our concentration. Using positive
self-talk helps eliminate negative thoughts that impact our concentration. Which allows
us to focus on the now, and what we need to do. Implementing cue words to help us
remember things we need to do as well will help. Such as words like “Fast” when we are
looking for a fastball to hit, and want to lay off the off-speed.
 1. What factors make someone burnout, and can someone in your future profession
prevent it? Explain the theory of burnout that most relates to someone in your
future profession. Create and explain a strategy that you would use to implement
on a team or in your profession. Use at least 2 citations from the book, and one
citation from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal article. 300+ words
2. Handout: The handout should provide information in a one-page format. Team
policy/ procedure is provided with 1-5 sentences, 2-3 pictures are used, and 5-10
sentences are used for education.

Burnout

Burnout is something that I think every player goes through at some point
throughout their career. Some players are able to fight through it can find the love and
passion for their sport again. While others just move on from the game. Weinburg &
Gould, (Pg. 505, PP. 1) mentions that there were multiple seasons and off-seasons for
separate sports. Now it seems as if one seasons runs into the next not giving the
athletes any rest in between the seasons. And even in the off-seasons the athletes are
working hard to prepare for the upcoming seasons. I believe that this could be a reason
that so many college athletes experience burnout. When you get to college you usually
only can play one sport. In baseball we have a fall ball period that last a certain amount
of time where the players are working on baseball skills. They are also lifting weights
during this time, and continue to lift weights after fall ball is over. Then we jump into
spring season that takes the whole semester up, and after that we encourage some
guys to play summer ball. That is a lot of baseball and working out and hardly any time
for someone to rest. You can start to see when guys start to experience burnout.
Weinburg & Gould, (Pg. 518, PP. 2) players start to experience emotional and physical
exhaustion, depersonalization, and low sense of personal accomplishment. Players
start to lose that motivation to go to practice and compete, and they just do not feel like
they are accomplishing anything. Kroshus and DeFreese (2017) found that to help
prevent athlete burnout than prevention strategies should be aimed at both the team
and individual levels. For a coach I think a good way to help prevent burnout is to
remember to try and help the players have fun. The high and higher an athlete
competes at there is going to be more stress on him, and the coach should help monitor
that. It is also important to have great communication between coaches and players, to
know when a player may start to experience and symptoms of burnout. Players and
coaches should also learn to take relaxing breaks away from the game whenever they
can, stay positive through difficult situations, and be supportive. Having short term goals
can also help players stay motivated. As a coach you can also let players be involved in
making decisions for workouts and practice plans. That keeps the players involved and
allows them to work on what they deem to be fun and enjoy. I would just do my best to
invest time into the players to making sure they are enjoying the games and practice,
and if they are struggling I would ask them what are some things that need to be
changed to make it more enjoyable.
Team Policy- Burnout is something serious, and something that needs to be
communicated when someone starts to experience it. We want to ensure that players
continue to have fun while competing at a high level.

Plan- Our plan for burnout is to most importantly keep the players having fun. We would
allow the players to help with workout and practice plans occasionally. That way we are
working things that they enjoy doing, so we are keeping them interested. We would
want to make sure we have a good support system. While also having short term goals
to keep us motivated each day.
 1. How is group cohesion going to enhance your athlete’s performance? Create and
explain a strategy that someone in your future profession would use to implement
this on a team or in your profession. Use at least 2 citations from the book, and
one citation from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal article. 300+ words
2. Handout: The handout should provide information in a one-page format. Team
policy/ procedure is provided with 1-5 sentences, 2-3 pictures are used, and 5-10
sentences are used for education.

Group Cohesion

Group cohesion can have an effect on how successful a team can be in my eyes.
It is possible to have a very talented team that does not get along and be successful,
but in most cases if a team does not have good cohesion then they are going to
struggle. Sports are about being a family and playing for the person next to you, and not
getting caught up in selfish acts. However, your team may have the greatest cohesion
ever, but that does not guarantee you will be extremely successful. It just means you will
have a better chance. Weinburg & Gould, (Pg. 182, PP. 1) says found through 30
reviews that 83% found a positive effect between cohesion and performance. Later on
in the paragraph it is mentioned however that there are studies that came back with a
negative correlation. I still believe good team cohesion gives you a good chance just
because I have experienced both good and bad team cohesion. The teams that had
good cohesion were way more fun to be a part of, and we experience greater team
success. In order to have good team cohesion it is important for everyone on the team
to understand their role on the team. The coach can be important in this part in making
sure the players know their role, and that whatever their role is that they are made to
feel important to the team through that role. Weinburg & Gould, (Pg. 191, PP. 7) says
the coach should make sure to stress the importance of each role on the team, because
the more players that feel unimportant to the team the more separated the team
becomes. Senecal, Loughead, and Bloom (2008) wanted to see how season long team
building intervention would affect team cohesion. They allowed the girls on the team to
be a part of choosing the goals for the team through the season by choosing individuals
one then coming together as a team to vote on the most important. They found that
through this intervention the athletes who participated had a higher perception of team
cohesion, and saw their performance improve. (359)
Team Policy- Players that love each other play hard for one another.

Plan- We would like to get the guys to spend time together off the field. You can be teammates
on the field, but it is hard to build a bigger and stronger bond unless you spend time together
off the field as well. Through community service and other fun activities we hope to improve
cohesion. Also we would like to get the whole team involved in choosing long and short term
goals for the team throughout the season.
References

Wright, D. J., McCormick, S. A., Birks, S., Loporto, M., & Holmes, P. S. (2015). Action Observation and
Imagery Training Improve the Ease with Which Athletes Can Generate Imagery. Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology, 27(2), 156-170.

Kroshus, E., & DeFreese, J. D. (2017). Athlete Burnout Prevention Strategies Used by U.S. Collegiate
Soccer Coaches. Sport Psychologist, 31(4), 332-343

Senécal, J., Loughead, T. M., & Bloom, G. A. (2008). A Season-Long Team-Building Intervention:
Examining the Effect of Team Goal Setting on Cohesion. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology,
30(2), 186-199.