Sports Mentality & The
McGuire Programme.
By Rich Whincup.
Introduction.
‘The sport of speaking’
There is a great deal of potential
to unlock within sports
psychology.
Do we have to be an athlete to
succeed in the McGuire
Programme?
Or do we have to just think like
one?
Can we use it to help our
recoveries and the recovery of
others?
Object of this session is to
explore the dynamics of Sports
Psychology and see how we can
use it in our coaching.
Think like an Athlete.
Competition –
Playing to win
Training mentality
Practice, practice,
practice
Sweat + Sacrifice
= Success
‘Winning is why
we are here.’
Aspects of Sport Psychology.
Motivation
Leadership
Visualisation
Positive Reenforcement and Self
Talk.
Self Confidence and
Self Efficacy
Stress Management
Competition
Personality Type
Aggression
Musical Inspiration
Motivation.
As a stammerer, to
gain eloquent speech
is one of the biggest
motivations.
Sport and success
demands the bar of
competition to be
constantly raised.
How do we motivate
ourselves to keep
improving?
Goal Setting.
Goal Setting.
Goal Setting is one of
the most effective ways
of motivating.
Training goals.
Competition goals.
Short and Long Term
goals.
Goal Complexity.
Leadership.
In sport, leadership is
everything to a team or
group.
Good leaders are
strong, firm, but
compassionate
communicators, they
lead by example, and
will guide and support
whenever is necessary.
When in lines, the
coach must be a leader
by example, disciplined
and supportive.
Lead by example.
Visualisation.
Visualisation is widely used
by amateur and elite level
performers alike.
It is already used by many
of us when practicing
kinaesthetics.
When in a stressful situation,
we can try and visualise
ourselves in support group,
or on a course.
Visualisation will help us to
concentrate on our speech,
rather than the stresses that
we put ourselves under in
these situations.
Positive Re-enforcement and
Self Talk.
Positive thinking is
very effective in sport.
It can be allied with
the phrases ‘will to
win’ and ‘playing to
win’.
All negatives have a
positive, somewhere,
if you look hard
enough for it.
Sometimes people
have great difficulty in
finding a positive
thought.
All it takes is a helping
hand from a coach.
Self Confidence and Self
Efficacy.
How much can we say about sport
and confidence?
At the highest level, confidence
can make or break an athlete’s
performance in competition.
Self Efficacy – Situational self
confidence.
Our responsibility as coaches, is
to inspire and motivate our
students and work towards
increased levels of confidence and
efficacy in all situations, this will
help us to strengthen our own
recovery as well.
Stress Management.
Too much stress is
undoubtedly a bad thing,
and can have a detrimental
effect on performance.
A little stress keeps us on
our toes, reminds us all to
costal breathe and not get
ahead of ourselves.
It’s all about bringing
stress down to a
manageable level.
Always keep it simple,
close your eyes and costal
breathe, visualising your
diaphragm moving
smoothly.
Competition.
What does an athlete
train for?
What do we drill,
exaggerate and follow
directions for?
To compete with the
opposition and to beat
the opposition.
Our opposition is the
Stammer itself, and
how it may affect us
in various situations.
Personality Type.
Everyone is different.
As is their stammer, and the way
that it has effected their lives.
All sports people are different,
the most elite athletes are those
who make sacrifices, they are
dedicated, they know what they
want and they will stop at
nothing to have the best chance
of getting it.
We must all be committed, work
hard and follow directions, but
we also have a considerable
obligation to our students, to
help, support and inspire them.
Aggression.
I believe that this is one area
of sports psychology that has
no place in our recovery.
Aggression may have been a
feeling that some of us may
have experienced as out-ofcontrol-stammerers.
Do we to hang on to those
feelings now that life has
improved?
Can we remember those
feelings and use them to push
ourselves forward?
Aggression will lead to
excessive levels of ill-feeling,
therefore leading to stress,
and too much stress, is what
we as recovering stammerers
need to avoid.
Musical Inspiration.
I believe that everyone should
have a feel good song, when
you hear it, it makes you
smile.
Why not have McGuire Songs?
Songs that inspire you, and
help to get you into the right
frame of mind when your
hexagon may be imbalanced.
‘Proud’, by Heather Small is a
particularly powerful song, it
was used by Team GB in the
2000 and 2004 Olympic
Games, and by the 2012 bid
committee.
Use of songs on Saturday
night.
Quotes & Statements.
Sweat + Sacrifice =
Success.
“The difference between a
successful person and
others is not a lack of
strength, not a lack of
knowledge, but rather a
lack of will.”
“The price of success is
hard work, dedication to
the job at hand, and the
determination that
whether we win or lose,
we have applied the best
of ourselves to the task at
hand.”
From the film, ‘The
Untouchables’. “Never stop
fighting, until the fight has
been won”.
“Today you must do more than is required
of you. Never think that you have done
enough or that your job is finished.
There’s always something that can be
done — something that can help to
ensure victory. You can’t let others be
responsible for getting you started. You
must be a self-starter. You must possess
that spark of individual initiative that
sets the leader apart from the led. Selfmotivation is the key to being one step
ahead of everyone else and standing
head and shoulders above the crowd.
Once you get going don’t stop. Always be
on the lookout for the chance to do
something better. Never stop trying. Fill
yourself with the warrior spirit — and
send that warrior into action.”
Group Work.
Split yourselves up into Groups of 4/5.
I will give you a topic to discuss.
Structure a presentation using the paper and
pens provided around your topic, in terms of
what it means to you as a group.
Come up with at least one sporting example or
analogy, 1 way in which we can use it within our
own recoveries as older graduates and 2 ways
that we can coach and use it within our roles as
Primary, Phone list or Line Coaches for newer
graduates.
Appoint 1 or more members of your group to
present your findings back to everyone at the end
of the session in a 3-5 minute presentation.
NB – Don’t sniff the pens for too long!