Motivation, case study interventions

Just a quick reminder... in my last post, I outlined the current theories of motivation and related to a case study. (Found below)

Key points

Andy 15 year old tennis player,

wins= enjoyment, i played well and max effort in training

loss= upset, i played bad and loss of effort in training sometimes doesn’t turn up.

Level of opponent no issue, response the same.

In this post i aim to outline current interventions that can be used to enhance Andy's motivation.

The interventions that i will be explaining in this post are:

1) Fortir et al. 2007 study, into enhancing one's motivation.

2) Goal setting

3) Use of REBT

Fortir et al. (2007):

He identified 6 steps to enhancing one's motivation and conducted a sporting study to test his theory. The 6 steps he outlined were...

Interview

Goal setting discussion

Support

Problem solving advice

How to enjoy the goal setting stage

Relapse session, how to maintain goals in the future.

Let put these steps into action, relating to Andy's case, so firstly we'd interview Andy to attempt to understand his methodology and reasoning in terms of motivation, the interview would include semi-structured questions in order to attempt to build up a rapport with Andy. The next step is goal setting which will be talked about in greater detail later on, but for now outline the importance of goal setting to Andy and identify the important characteristics when creating goals. Next provide verbal support to Andy, if he is being to unrealistic in setting his goals, let him know as this can have a huge impact on his motivation in future competitions, provding support is closely linked to problem solving advice as coaches often provide solutions to overcome these problems in verbal conversations with clients. How to enjoy these goals is a very important one to consider, and from experience of watching other coaches can be hard to do, its especially important for a coach to reassure Andy that he can achieve his goals in future and provide coping strategies for Andy, should he encounter problems. Relapse plays a big part in any coaches role, not only in motivation but in any aspect of life, so its vitally important that should Andy return to his original state regarding motivation, he has the skills and know how to alleviate the threat before it becomes a problem (e.g. take himself away from the situation for a while, consult the coach again or even something as simple a speking to a family member).

Goal setting

As mentioned earlier, goal setting can have a massive impact on Andy's motivation. Most athletes without supervision create unrealistic or unmeasurable goals which ultimately decrease one's motivation because they either don't achieve their goal or don't know whether that goal has been achieved or not. SMART goals are not only the most common type of goals used but also in my opinion the most effective, the make goal setting simple and easy to do. A SMART goal stands for:

Specific- related to Andy's sport (Tennis)?

Measurable- can the outcome be measured?

Attainable- can they be achieved?

Realistic- are the goals within reach or not?

Time- time frame?

Taking all these characteristics into account, will give athletes including Andy a better chance of achieving these goals and improving his motivation.

REBT

Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy is a relativley new theory in sport psychology, first developed by Ellis (1995), this procedure attempts to combat or alleviate irrational beliefs which are stemed from maladaptive thinking which is relevant to this case study, if you recall Andy's reaction is heavily reliant on the outcome and result if he wins he exerts maximal effort whereas if he losses he hardly trains or even turns up for sessions, i believe this to be the 'must' type of irrational belief. In Andy's case "I must suceed, gain approval or else i'm worthless", this type of irratioanl belief leads to increased levels of anxiety and depression which is exactly how Andy is feeling heading into his next competition and is most likely the reason why he has missed so many training sessions. REBT attempts to change these 'musts' into 'i'd prefer'. The ABCDE method is a common method used in REBT. (A) stands for activating events (stessors or stimuli's), teaching particpants how to identify these events and consquences (C), (B) is beliefs and within REBT irrational beliefs and explaining the particpants that these are the real enemies. (D) is dispute, how to dispute these beliefs so that they can form new more rational methods of dealing with the problems (E).

Research into REBT is, as mentioned very recent. Personally i have had the pleasure to be involved in a current piece of research conducted by Martin Turner which i am sure will be published in the near future. Martin has been heavily invovled in a lot of research in the field of irrational beliefs in the last 5 years, as well as most of the sport and exercise psychology staff at Staffordshire University. One notable study was conducted by Turner et al. 2014, used the ABCDE model and introduced it to professional football academy players and asked the players to complete a series of task aimed at helping them to undcerstand key aspects and how to apply it, Turner et al. found that this method reduced the number of self reported irrational beliefs, but only for a short term period. So we can apply the results of this current study to Andy's case, if Andy understands the impact that irrational beleifs can have on, not only his motivational but his performance and future potential it might kick start his passion and belief once more.

These are the 3 main interventions in my opinion that can be used in relation to Andy's case. Of course there are other interventions such as the use of imagery etc. but that's for another day.

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Keep a look out for new things to come....

Thanks