UCI Sport Psychology Discussion

1. POST: For your post you are going to Develop a goal setting plan for ONE of the following student athletes (case studies are below – choose just ONE to work with). You will need to use the listed OUTCOME GOAL (label the case by name and rewrite the outcome goal) THEN break down that outcome goal into THREE SEPARATE AND DETAILED/SPECIFIC AND MEASURABLE PERFORMANCE GOALS (remember the SMART goal model) and then under each of these three performance goals, write at least THREE SPECIFIC AND DETAILED TASKS (so you will have one outcome goal, three process goals and nine total task/process goals. Please make sure that your TASK/PROCESS goals are detailed and clear (if the goal is to improve performance then what very detailed and specific steps will need to be taken – be sure to include the who/what/when/where details. Use an outline or bulleted style format for this post to make it easy to read and grade, but make sure that you are specific and detailed – don’t just say “run five miles a week” – say when, where, what pace (long slow distance or fartlek training or different workouts mon/wed/fri or….?, with who, etc). Like I said – please be detailed. Without details then task goals are just good ideas with no real plan as to HOW to accomplish that task. THIS step is the one that most students lose points on, so please, please be detailed and specific here!

REPLIES (TO THREE POSTS) will again practice giving effective and helpful positive feedback. You will evaluate the goal setting program that the student developed (is it good? Useful? Too vague or general? To unrealistic? Etc). Pretend that you are a sport psychologist working with an athlete and you are helping them to develop a goal setting plan. Give positive and helpful feedback as to how this student athlete could make their goal setting plan more effective. Provide examples or rewrite a few of the goals if needed to show how it could be more helpful. If you read the goal setting plan and can’t figure out the specifics of what they are doing then say so (meaning that if you were given this goal setting plan would YOU know what to do? Is it specific and detailed enough that you could easily follow it “as is” even if you never spoke to the person who wrote it?). If the plan is amazingly good, then say that and provide positive constructive feedback. Again, the TA’s will be using your feedback to assign grades and if they disagree strongly with what you said, then YOU might lose points for your replies, so don’t just blindly say “this is great” – really read and look at the post and provide feedback. NOTE: I would VERY STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT ALL STUDENTS IN THE CLASS RUN THEIR GOAL SETTING WORK BY ANOTHER COUPLE OF STUDENTS BEFORE POSTING – that way when we get to this “reply” part, you will already have received feedback and made your plan better!.

Here are the Student athlete case studies to use for discussion board #2 (choose just ONE of these athletes to focus your discussion board POST on – please do not make up your own athletes or change too many details about these athletes. When you write your POST – just refer to the athlete by name and case # and rewrite the OUTCOME goal. Then continue from there.

1. Joe is a rising sophomore in high school and is training with the varsity soccer team over the summer as he is good enough to play varsity in his sophomore year. Joe is not currently listed as a starting player and he desperately wants to be in the starting lineup. Joe’s coach says that Joe is extremely good and he could easily be in the starting lineup but the coach says that Joe’s grades are not good enough and the high school sports rules require that he have a 3.0 gpa or above in order to be a starting athlete. As a freshman, Joe got A’s and B’s in all of his classes except for his math and Spanish classes, which he failed and is making up over the summer. Joe knows that he mainly failed these classes because he did not study very hard and he spent way too much time playing video games when he was not at practice. Joe notes that he does tend o have difficulty with motivation and time management in both sports and school. Joe’s coach encourages him to set up a goal setting plan to help him get back on track academically. Joe’s goals are to improve his academic performance in these two classes (and overall) and to move to a starting position on his team before the end of the season. The OUTCOME goal to work with is: complete my summer make up courses in math and Spanish with a grade of C+ or above while also attending nd participating actively in all soccer practices for my team.

1. Lyn is a swimmer on her college team and she has always been a great athlete and a great student who gets along with her teammates and her coaches. Lyn trains hard and approaches all areas of her life with a serious attitude that is goal directed. Lyn’s coach has approached her to discuss her future goals as he feels that she would be an excellent candidate for swimming in the next Olympics. He says that if she can win at the next qualifying event she should be able to be considered for the Olympic team. Her coach says that she needs to shave three seconds off of her personal best in her main event, which is the 200 meter freestyle (she needs a QQT of under 2.00). Lyn decides to go for it and sets an OUTCOME goal of winning her event in the qualifying meet in Long Beach in two months with a time of 1:57.25.

1. Tran is a college junior who has been participating in martial arts for the past four years and he is now ready to begin the process of testing for his black belt. Tran is very busy and has not always put enough time into his martial arts training as he should as he often chooses socializing over training and sometimes only makes one class a week instead of the requested three classes per week that his Sensei wants him to attend. He also does not do enough general conditioning (running and weight workouts) and he feels that he may not have the endurance needed for his three hour grueling black belt test. Tran does not have any issues with his academics and feels as though he can easily juggle training and studying while keeping his gpa at a 4.0 (he plans to apply to medical schools next year) but he really needs to find a way to organize his time so that he can fit in several more hours of physical conditioning and martial arts training each week, as the black belt test in his discipline is extremely challenging and if he is not in his best shape ever then he won’t pass. Tran’s Sensei works with Tran and they set an OUTCOME goal that involves Tran taking and passing his black belt test in four months (which is when the next testing date at his dojo is).

1. Shauna is a 23 year old community college student who is a highly competitive tennis player. Shauna plays both with her college team and she also play on the professional circuit and is highly ranked as a tennis player. Shauna wants to make a living as a professional player and plans to stop playing with her college team next year so that she has more time to play professionally. She also wants to move all of her college classes to an online mode so that she can train and play full time on the professional circuit. The difficulty that Shauna is having is that she has a tendency to lose focus and concentration during games and she gets overly frustrated and stressed out when playing against high level players. She also has a great deal of negative and self defeating thinking during both training and competing. This impacts her performance and also makes it difficult to attract good sponsors, as she is seen as emotionally unstable at times because she tends to get angry and do things like stomp off the court or yell at her coach. Shauna needs to work on her psychological skills more than her physical skills and wants help in creating a psychological skills training program. Shauna sets an OUTCOME goal of “ By three months from now, I will be able to play ten college or professional tournaments in a row without losing my temper of losing focus and concentration during my matches”.

1. Sam is a 20 year old college student who enjoys playing pick up basketball games and he enjoys cycling and hiking with friends. Sam played basketball in high school but when he started college he decided that he did not want to play on any college team but instead wanted to stay in shape and play for fun. Recently Sam has noticed that he has been getting kind of out of shape and he is not exercising or engaging in physical activity nearly enough. Sam actually noticed that he was unable to walk up four flights of stairs without getting winded the other day and this made him sad. Sam decides that it is time to get back into good physical condition and he sets an OUTCOME goal of “improve my overall fitness level as measured by getting my resting heart rate down to 60 bpm and being able to play a full hour of basketball without getting my heart rate above 180 and without needing to rest or take breaks”

1. Abby is a 25 year old former collegiate athlete. Abby is now working full time and she loves her job and her life. Abby decides that she wants to get back into sports and signs up with a friend for a 10K run that is scheduled for two months from now. Abby has not really been running much – she walks and goes to yoga and works out at the gym on the spin bike and rowing machine, but she knows that she will need to actually get out and run if she wants to finish this 10K race with her friend. She and her friend set an OUTCOME goal of “participating in and completing a 10K race with a time of 55 minutes or less on December 10, 2022”

1. Zeke is a 22 year old college golfer who has been having problems with “choking” during competitive golf matches (he has a case of the “yips”). He is fine during regular practice, but when the pressure is on (particularly when he is playing against highly competitive players and when there are spectators) he just chokes and can’t seem to find his shots or play well. Zeke sets an OUTCOME goal of “Improve my overall focus, concentration and performance and reduce my incidences of choking (the yips) to zero incidences within six weeks”.

NOTE – below are two MORE cases if you feel like you want a challenge. These LAST two cases are quite complicated and do not have an outcome goal stated – if you want to work with these more advanced cases, then you will ALSO need to identify a specific outcome goal and label the case for us more clearly so we know you were using one of these more interesting and fun cases.

1. Lara is a collegiate volleyball player who plays on a highly ranked team and she loves her team and her coach. Lara has been struggling with numerous injuries this past season and has had to miss many games and practices as a result of her physical injuries but now she is on the path to recovery. Lara is struggling to stay confident and positive in spite of her injuries and she is struggling to stay compliant with her rehabilitation program that her physical therapist is working with her on. Lara is a contender for the Olympic volleyball team and if she can stay healthy she will most likely be able to play at that level within the next six months. Lara knows that she should take it easy to return to full play slowly so that she does not re-inure herself, but she is very driven and motivated and wants to get back on the court as quickly as possible. Lara’s coach and physical therapist want to work with her to help her learn psychological skills that she can use to manage her frustration with her injuries and avoid getting depressed and they also want to help her learn to read her own body’s signals so that she eases back into play without causing herself more injury or pain. Lara sets and outcome goal of “

9. Sean is a college basketball player who has been struggling lately with motivation and focus. He has not been doing well at practices and does not feel motivated to practice or even to perform well at games. Sean feels tired all the time and feels that his life stress and his academic pressure are getting to him and leaving him too stressed out to be excited about basketball. Sean’s coach is worried about him as are his friends and parents and they wonder if he is depressed. Sean is also using far too many outside substances such as alcohol and drugs in some attempt to cope with his stress and also in an attempt to get a performing and motivational edge. This is severely impacting both his mood and his athletic performance. His coach tells him that he needs to clean this up and won’t be allowed to play if he is actively using substances. Sean sets an outcome goal of…