Volleyball Psychology

Words: 903
Pages: 4

This term in HPE we have been studying the psychology of sport and relating this to the sport of volleyball. Various psychological methods were used to demonstrate the differing effects, and further depicting which methods have the most beneficial outcome towards our individual performance. Psychological techniques including goal setting, motivation, arousal, visualisation, team dynamics were used and each affected my performance in opposing ways. These techniques showed that the psychology of sport plays a powerful role in the optimisation of our performance.
Goal setting assists in the improvement of our performance by increasing our motivation levels in order to reach set goals. According to Edwin Locke, Goal setting is a technique that
…show more content…
The Inverted-U-hypothesis was established in 1908 by Yerkes and Dodson and it is a theory of arousal that considers that optimal performance occurs when the performer reaches an optimal level of arousal. (Chambers, 2011) This hypothesis suggested that a moderate level of arousal gives an individual the highest level of performance, where as if an individual is either under aroused or over aroused will lead to a decrease in the standard of performance, refer to figure one for a diagram. As arousal levels differ substantially between individuals, each individual responds differently to specific techniques to assist in optimising their performance. My arousal levels were generally low, therefore because volleyball is a fast-paced game, diminished my performance. According to Jimmy Tong, by listening to inspirational music, psyching up through self-talk and team talk and visualisation of powerful events all help to increase arousal levels. (Tong, 2015) The first technique trialled to see the effect throughout our lesson was having music playing in the background. At the start, slow music was played which has little effect on my arousal state. Following this and during our game-play, up-beat music was played which came as a distraction. Although it was a distraction, it made me focus more on the skills I was performing and increased my concentration, consequently improving my