What are the common psychological training methods?

In recent decades, mindfulness training has gradually emerged abroad. This new sports psychological training method, which originated from eastern Buddhism and combined with western psychotherapy, has become a research hotspot and has been effectively verified in application.

Jackson, a famous American professional basketball coach, nicknamed "Jackson", led the team 1 1 times to win the NBA championship, and was regarded as one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. He has a strong interest in eastern philosophy, especially Zen. He not only practiced mindfulness meditation himself, but also asked his athletes and coaching staff to practice meditation. He thinks meditation training is an important part of his success.

Different from the traditional psychological skills training, mindfulness training advocates: in the face of adversity, accept the existence of adversity and coexist with it, instead of judging it and paying close attention to the current task. This kind of thinking with oriental ideological background can better serve the psychological consultation and training of China athletes.

Definition of mindfulness

Mindfulness refers to being able to clearly perceive the goals of the present, rather than simply recalling the past. At present, the definition given by Cabat-Zinn is generally accepted: "Mindfulness is to perceive in a specific way, that is, to consciously perceive and live in the present without judging". The definition of mindfulness usually includes the following concepts: keeping your attention in the present, being aware of what is happening at the moment, and adopting an attitude of acceptance without judgment.

The Origin and Development of Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness originates from eastern Buddhism and is generally accomplished through various formal meditation exercises (namely mindfulness meditation). About 30 years ago, Cabat-Zinn founded Mindfulness Decompression Therapy (MBSR) and formally applied mindfulness training to sports for the first time. They provide mindfulness meditation training for university athletes and Olympic rowers. Among them, the performance of college athletes exceeded the coach's expectation, and the athletes who won medals in the Olympic Games pointed out that mindfulness meditation helped them realize their greatest potential.

Subsequently, researchers such as Segal improved mindfulness decompression therapy and introduced mindfulness cognitive therapy (MBCT). After 2000, Gardner and Moore developed a psychological and behavioral intervention method based on mindfulness acceptance, that is, Mindfulness Acceptance Commitment Intervention Plan (MAC), on the basis of comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy based on acceptance and mindfulness cognitive therapy. Since the intervention plan of mindfulness acceptance commitment was first put forward, it has been proved by a series of case studies and public experiments, which has a positive effect on improving sports performance and personal physical and mental health. In addition, in the field of sports psychology, there is the Mindfulness Achievement Improvement Program (MSPE).

The mechanism of mindfulness

Mindfulness can affect athletes in the following aspects, including: (1) helping athletes to control their attention effectively, keeping their attention on the current sports competition task, and returning their attention to the current task when distracted; (2) Improving the body consciousness and helping athletes to know more about the reaction of the body to the possible pressure during the competition will help athletes to effectively deal with the possible infarction (that is, when athletes are under great pressure during the competition, their mentality changes and their coughing becomes disordered, which will further affect their performance and play abnormally); (3) In the face of adversity and frustration or emotional ups and downs, athletes can't judge and respond to these stimuli, so as to solve the negative effects brought by the previous inherent emotional response mode; (4) Athletes can perceive the current training and competition without self-centeredness, and objectively perceive the ever-changing things from the perspective of "no self", thus helping athletes get rid of the concept of winning or losing in the competition.

The difference between mindfulness training and traditional psychological skill training

Previously, in the field of sports psychology, traditional psychological skills training has been used to help athletes achieve the ideal competitive psychological state. The theoretical assumption of traditional psychological skill training is that the reduction of negative emotions and physical state and the improvement of positive cognition and self-confidence level are directly related to athletes' "ideal competitive state". This ideal competitive psychological state is considered to lead to ideal competitive performance, that is, athletes will have ideal competitive performance in these best psychological States. Specific methods include goal setting, imagery training, attention training, self-dialogue and the cross combination of several methods.

Traditional psychological skill training, which emphasizes self-control to achieve the best psychological state, has certain defects in both theoretical basis and practical operation when helping to solve problems encountered in practice. For example, trying to suppress and control thinking may also lead to unwanted emotions appearing at a higher frequency; How to operate to make each individual reach the best state and so on.

Compared with traditional psychological skill training, mindfulness psychological training based on living in the present and accepting without judgment may help athletes deal with cognitive, emotional and perceptual problems more effectively. Regular mindfulness practice can help athletes improve their self-regulation ability, or the self-regulation ability of current attention.

The purpose of mindfulness training is to keep alert at all times. This technique emphasizes developing the ability to pay attention to current facts without judgment through mindfulness practice. These current facts include external stimuli and internal psychological experience, that is, people are aware of internal and external events but do not make any evaluation and judgment (good, bad, right, wrong, useful, useless, etc.). Individuals are only told to observe and describe these experiences, accept their existence, but not to carry them out.

Applicability of different projects

Because of the characteristics of meditation itself, that is, by paying attention to the present experience without judgment and accepting those negative and uncomfortable feelings to achieve inner peace and harmony, mindfulness training may be more suitable for closed self-expression sports, such as shooting, archery, gymnastics, diving, golf and so on. These projects are characterized by closed skills, mainly self-expression, and self-feeling can easily affect behavior. In the process of behavior performance, it is required to exclude external interference, be calm inside and pay close attention to task clues. But for boxing, football and other direct confrontation projects, it may not be applicable. Because these projects are interactive, not only the self's thoughts and behaviors affect the performance results, but also the other's thoughts and behaviors are the main influencing factors.

Application of Mindfulness Training in Foreign Countries

At the 20 12 London Olympic Games, 19-year-old Korean teenager Jin Zhangmei defeated China athlete and former Olympic champion Chen Ying and won the women's 25m pistol championship. She set an Olympic record in the qualifying round. In the final, she was 0.8 ring behind, and the last group of five shots hit 510.8 ring, among which the high score was 10.9 ring, which was finally successfully reversed. Jin Rose revealed in an interview that mindfulness training helped her win the Olympic gold medal. Because of the short barrel length of pistol, it is particularly important to control the body, so meditation is of great help to the performance.

The British cycling team won 8 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze at the 20 12 Olympic Games, which became the biggest winner of the event and laid a solid foundation for Britain to rank third in the medal list. Star players Hoy, Wiggins and pendleton all thanked the psychologist Steve Peters who worked with the British cycling team for more than ten years after their success. He established an innovative psychological management model to help athletes manage their emotions, which involves many skills related to mindfulness. In addition, he also helps O 'Sullivan, a famous snooker player, manage his emotions. Results O 'Sullivan won the world championships of 20 12 and 20 13.

Peter Haberl is a senior sports psychologist in the United States Olympic Committee. He has worked with many excellent national teams, and he is very interested in mindfulness intervention and cognitive behavioral therapy. He believes that mindfulness meditation is a good method of consciousness and attention training. Mindfulness meditation is not only a series of skills, but also a way of existence. Mindfulness training can cultivate the ability to focus on a certain point, maintain attention and regain attention. In Haber's view, knowing where one's attention is and being able to point it to where one needs it is an important ability for high-level athletes to achieve good results in the Olympic Games.

Psychological counseling and training that can really help athletes grow up can only be completed if social and cultural conditions permit. For China athletes, mindfulness may be more suitable for the local cultural background, with natural affinity, and may be more suitable as a means of psychological training.