Critical perceptions for optimal performance in sport.

'All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.'--Leonardo da Vinci

'There is no reality, only perceptions.'--Phillip McCraw

'The map is not the territory.'--Alfred Korzbyski

In a sports psychology practice clients frequently ask the question: Where is a proper or effective starting point to make a significant change in my life or to improve performance? In these kinds of questions you can detect a curiosity and search for a starting point or a foundation from which you can orientate yourself and explain the world around you. Perceptions can be the most profound starting point to introduce significant changes in your life. When you are working with perceptions, you are working with core mental adjustments that can change an individual's universe in seconds and can lead to a total re-alignment of mental capacity. Staples underlines the power of perceptions by stating: 'Individual perception is all-encompassing and all-powerful. How you perceive the world defines for you the environment you live in. It defines your hopes and your fears, and sets upper limits on your expectations in life.' (1)

In essence the meaning of perceptions is the fact that every individual creates his own reality he lives in with his own perceptions of life. The implication for the athlete is that he/she can create his/her own performance-boosting perceptions as well as his/her performance-blocking perceptions.

Perception refers to the way the individual organises the information and sensations that he or she receives from the world. It also refers to the way in which an individual understands, interprets and assigns meaning to situations, a phenomenon, experiences, people and life in general. The neurolinguistic programming framework of human behaviour focuses heavily on the importance of perceptions. The concept of internal representations of the outside world refers to the mechanism of how perceptions operate. Hill summarises the essence of how perceptions actually operate in the following statement: 'Our personal perceptions of "the world" or "reality" are the result of mental processing that depends on selective attention, sensory interpretation, and contamination or alteration by past experiences. These and other elements of sensation and perception shape and distort our internal representations of the outside world. Some of these distortions are advantageous and some harmful.' (2) The importance of Hill's statement is that perceptions can create advantages or harmful limitations.

Perceptions can be compared with the working mechanism of filters that allow us to filter only certain stimuli that can enter the mind and block out other stimuli. If we change perception, we also change the filter with which we look at the world.

Perceptions that block and boost performance in sport

Let's use an example in sport to explain the power of perception. For example, two athletes who find themselves in exactly the same circumstances with the same coach, same team mates and same sporting set-up can differ radically in terms of their perceptions in sport. The first athlete perceives the competition situation in the following way: Competitions are in essence a major threat, because it is a place where the participant is critically evaluated by family members, the coach, spectators and maybe selectors. There is no room for mistakes and this zero defect tolerance towards mistakes creates tremendous pressure that eventually leads to the experience of distress (unpleasant stress). The chances that this athlete will choke under competition pressure are obviously quite high, because of the participant's debilitating perception of the situation.

The second athlete perceives the competition situation in a radically different way: Competitions are a privilege and a major challenge. Competitions are in essence a special place that is created to demonstrate your talent and level of proficiency in the sport. Competitions are the ideal situation where you can risk performing at your best. Although you are not deliberately trying to make mistakes, you view mistakes as investments and turning points in your experience.

A mistake can only be a mistake when you refuse to correct it. Mistakes can be used constructively to intensify your focus and become more task orientated in your performance. Mistakes need not be a distracter that can derail your performance. This performance-facilitating perception leads to the creation of a eustress (pleasant stress) state and the athlete reduces the competition pressure to a level where a playful and creative attitude can prevail.

It is clear that athletes can create two different competition realities for themselves through the power of perceptions. (3) The pleasant or unpleasant experience of stress itself is dependent on the perception of stress. When an athlete informs me that he has a stress problem and that he cannot handle stress well in the competition situation, I usually ask the following: Do you see the symptoms of stress (for example dry mouth, butterflies in the stomach, and sometimes jelly legs) as symptoms of weakness or indicators that your body is getting ready and activated for competition? The client may be astonished by the question, because the question makes him aware that stress is not all bad and that there are different options in viewing the symptoms of stress, as well as a freedom of choice in the interpretation of the symptoms of stress. Using the idea that stress, in essence, is energy that can facilitate performance and you can either fight or join it. If you perceive and interpret the stress symptoms as constructive and necessary to be properly psyched up, it will certainly facilitate your performance and the eustress or the enjoyment of the stress can boost your performance optimally. However, if you perceive the stress symptoms negatively and interpret them as indicators that you cannot handle stress, you will obviously experience distress or unpleasant stress that will debilitate your performance. (4)

Filter effect

The filter effect of perceptions can also be illustrated by the athlete's perception of the opponent. If the opponent is perceived as an enemy and opposition force, all the distracting information associated with the opponent as a performance block, an obstacle, an irritation and psyching-out force will be filtered into the mind. This perception and the negative information associated with the opponent will automatically block the athlete's opportunity to reach his goals. With this set of task-irrelevant cues and information, the chances of an optimal or reasonable performance are quite slim.

In contrast, a more constructive perception of the opponent will improve the athlete's chances of having a peak experience, when he/she percieves the opponent as a constructive force that can boost and facilitate performance. With this constructive perception of the opponent, all the task-facilitating cues such as:

* the better the opponent performs, the better the chances that he is going to get the best out of me,

* I need the opponent to compete, without him there is no competition,

* the opponent reminds me of my own unique style and unique strengths that I must focus on to compete with myself and to master myself in my sport, will filter into your mind.

The filter effect of perceptions can also be easily demonstrated by the following visual exercise. The first instruction is to look at all the black blocks in the picture and try to make sense from it. Give yourself one or two minutes.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The second instruction is not to look at the black blocks but rather look at the open spaces between the black blocks and see if you can find some meaning in it. More specifically, see if you can find a hidden word written in between the black blocks. You will find the word FLY written in between the black blocks. Now do the same with the second picture.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

You will need far less time to find the word LET written by the open spaces in between the blocks. The reason for this rapid increase in speed is first of all the fact that you know exactly what you are looking for and, secondly, your perception of these kinds of pictures has changed instantly and forever. In the same way, other major perception shifts can change as quickly and permanently. Whenever you see one of these kinds of trick or illusion pictures, you will be able to filter the right and relevant information through to give it sense and meaning.

The most common performance-blocking and -boosting perceptions in sport are summarised in Table I. Remember that the spectrum of perceptions in sport is rich and multidimensional. Table I represents only a fraction of the spectrum of possible perceptions, namely the ones that are regularly encountered in sports psychological settings.

In a nutshell

* Perceptions are in essence your map, representations, paradigm of the world and life in general. It is the way you interpret, understand and perceive a situation or phenomenon.

* When you work with perceptions you work with core mental adjustments. Perception shifts can have a profound effect on our mental universe. Changes can be fundamental and radical, and quantum leaps in performance levels are possible.

* The primary function of perceptions is the filter function that allows certain information to filter through and blocks out irrelevant information. This is a basic function of a perception that is either debilitating or facilitating. It all depends on the nature of the situation and the constructive and enriching quality of the perception in the situation.

* Perception shifts can be swift, silent and permanent. They can occur over a period of time, but can also happen in a few seconds. Luckily, perceptions can be altered and perceptions are also coachable.

References

(1.) Staples WD. Think Like a Winner. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau (Pty) Ltd, 1991: 78.

(2.) Hill KL. Frameworks for Sport Psychologists. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2001: 157.

(3.) Steyn BJM, Potgieter R. Direction and intensity differences in performance anxiety among elite and novice athletes. African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance 2005; 11(3): 315-325.

(4.) Jones G, Hanton S, Swain A. Intensity and interpretations of anxiety symptoms in elite and non-elite sports performers. Personality and Individual Differences 1994; 17(5): 557-663.

B M J STEYN, D Ed, D Phil

Professor, Department of Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria

Professor Steyn is registered at the HPCSA. He has qualifications in Sports Science (D Ed) and Psychology (D Phil). He has published many articles and delivered scientific papers both internationally and nationally at scientific congresses. He has prepared numerous national and international sport participants for international competitions.

Table I. Performance-blocking and performance-
boosting perceptions in sport

Performance-blocking perceptions     Performance-boosting perceptions

Competition is a threat: family,     Competition is a challenge:
coach, selectors, spectators,        wonderful opportunity to
critically evaluate me, I have to    demonstrate ability and level of
be perfect and I have zero defect    proficiency, ideal to risk and
tolerance where I have no room for   give my best, mistakes are used
mistakes in my performance.          constructively as an investment
                                     experience and as a tool to
                                     intensify focus and performance.

Stress is unpleasant and             Stress is pleasant and facilitates
debilitating for my performance.     peak performance. The opponent is
The opponent is an enemy and an      a constructive force that will
opposition force that prevents me    bring out the best in my own
from reaching my goals and           unique performance.
winning.

Success equals winning and I only    Success is more than winning. I
experience success when I beat the   measure success when I improve in
opponent with the least effort.      my mental, technical and strategic
                                     game, as well as my fitness level.
                                     The final success is to master
                                     myself in my sport.

Success can only be measured by      Success is measured by the
the outcome. Winning is not the      refining and constant improvement
only thing, it is everything.        of the process of participation.

I see criticism as an unnecessary    I see criticism as a source of
and painful experience and I         information and select only
usually take it personally.          relevant criticism to work with.
                                     I ignore the irrelevant criticism
                                     and never take criticism
                                     personally.

I see setbacks and injuries as bad   I see setbacks and injuries as a
luck and unnecessary; they can       normal part of high-performance
only obstruct and prevent me from    sport and believe that I can
reaching my goals in my sport.       transform setbacks and injuries in
                                     a constructive way. Setbacks can
                                     provide the time to re-orientate
                                     in sport and can offer an
                                     opportunity to improve my mental
                                     toughness.

Success comes from the way others    Real success and satisfaction come
evaluate and see me. I have to       from satisfying and pleasing
keep my family, coach, and           myself in my sport (self-
everyone else happy (other-          referential) and by keeping myself
referential). It is important to     happy in my sport. If I am happy I
have the approval of others.         can overflow and satisfy other
                                     people as a secondary by-product.

Sport is very important for me. I    Sport is a bad master but a good
invest so much time and effort in    servant. I always want to stay the
my sport and I experience a lot of   boss and the master of my life.
pain if I lose. I cannot afford to   Sport is one of the many places
lose or fail.                        where I can discover and enjoy
                                     myself.