Psychological aspects
On Regulating the Coach's Mental State
English summary of Tyazhelaya Atletika. Ezhegodnik 1983 (Moscow: Fizkultura i Sport, 1983), pp. 47–48: the text is paraphrased, not translated.
Problem
- Strain: during a 3–10-day competition the coach makes rapid decisions, counts attempts and manages his lifters' state while watching the rivals.
- Few manage it: interviews show that few coaches regulate their own rest. Many report exhaustion, irritability, lower working capacity, headaches, heart pain, insomnia, conflicts and weight loss.
- Measured changes: the coaches' heart rate, galvanic skin resistance and salivary amylase shifted significantly by the end of the day, most of all on competition days.
Remedy: autogenic training (AT)
AT was chosen as the easiest self-regulation method to use alone. A psychologist teaches it at training camps in three stages:
- Preparation: profile the coach, record his psychophysiological measures in training and at competitions, and build self-monitoring.
- Learning:
- Start by convincing the coach that the method works.
- Drills contrast tension and relaxation with the breath: "muscles tense" on the inhale, "relaxed" on the exhale.
- Then the calming variant: heaviness, warmth and relaxation, followed by re-activation. Sleep is not the aim, except in the anti-insomnia variant.
- Supervised homework: relaxing before sleep, on waking, in breaks and amid noise or bright light.
- Teaching is systematic and suited to age and personality. Progress is checked through talks and self-reports backed by psychological, physiological and biochemical data.
- Conclusion: analyse the self-reports, assess AT during competitions, and hold a final talk.
Competition routine
- Settle, in a comfortable posture, and regulate breathing.
- Heaviness, warmth and relaxation through the arms, legs, pelvis, trunk, neck and face.
- Regulate breathing and heart activity.
- General heaviness, warmth, calm and rest.
Outcome
Coaches who used this routine at meets normalised their mental state. Their working capacity, well-being and sleep improved; tension, fatigue and irritability fell. The authors conclude it makes coaches more effective.