• Cognitive factors play an influential role in athletic development and functioning
• Belief in athletic efficacy determines who chooses to pursue athletic activities
• The execute skills athletes must exercise control over
• Acute stressors
• Vexing pain
• Discouraging slumps

Cognitive Phase of Skill Development (371)

• Cognitive representation in the first of athletic skills developed
• Modeling
• The most effective way of transmitting information about a skill is through proficient modeling
• Observing models perform allows individuals to gain knowledge about the dynamic structure skills being acquired
• In viewing modeled skill, attention must be paid and symbolisms must be formed
• Fixed skills - predictable situations - diving, golf, darts
• Generative skills - unpredictable elements - basketball, football
• Information for skill development can be modeled by
• Pictures
• Demonstrations
• Verbal instructions
• Computers and tv are helpful modeling tools
• Allow athletes to follow their own enactments
• High speed cameras capture what the eye misses
• Self-modeling is a great way to learn to perfect athletic skills
• Performances are captured on film
• Film is edited and flaws are cut out
• Raises efficacy as well as skill

Making the Unobservable Informatively Observable (373)

• A common problem in mastering athletic skills is that performers cannot fully observe their own behavior
• Swimmers and golfers
• Thus they may practice faulty habits
• Video feedback holds the solutions
• The automation of complex skills involves atleast three (3) major processes
• Mergerization - segments of skills are merged into larger skills until it becomes fully integrated
• Production of Contextual linkages - actions are linked to recurrent contexts
• Shift in attention from execution of action to its correllational results - focus on the target, not the mechanics

Cognitive Enactment (visualization)

• Visualization is a cognitive skill that must be developed
• Individuals must mot be told just to visualize with no guidance
• Good visualizers profit more from cognitive enactment
• Executional success is a matter of self-belief as well as skill
• There are many constraints on when one can practice physically, but skilled performances can be visualized repeatedly with no sweat at any time and place
• Cognitive stimulation diverts attention from disruptive thoughts in stressful, competitive situations
• Visualizing positive outcomes raises efficacy which in turn boosts performance
• There are many facets of athletic skills that can be the focus of attention
• Cognitive
• Plans
• Strategies
• Motor - regulation of action patterns and accompanying sensations
• Emotive - stress management and reduction of tension

Impact of Model Attributes on Self-Efficacy and Performance (379)

• The impact of athletic models
• Assumed similarity carries a heavy weight
• Women are especially inclined to act on their belief if the models voice belief in themselves
• Of special interest is power of a presumably superior athlete to undermine the efficacy beliefs of uncertain people
• Given a choice individuals are likely to select models with similar attributes and ignore those with whom they have little in common
• Results clearly show the strength of self-modeling proficiency

Self-efficacy's Contribution to Acquisition of Motor Skills (380)

• Most people regard athletic skills as depending on innate endowment
• Aptitude is converted to mastery through effort
• Ought not view physical ability as an inherent aptitude
• Efficacy differs from confidence
• Confidence is a non descriptive term that refers to strength of belief
• Perceived self-efficacy is given powers of attainment
• The field of sports psychology is heavily invented in personality trait measures
• They do not have predictive power
• They provide little guidance for how to structure training
• Efficacy beliefs and goals were more predictive of athletic functioning than was "competitiveness"

Self-Regulation of Athletic Performance (383)

Cognitive Aspects of Athletic Ability

• A common mistake is to judge ability by physical skills alone
• Perceived self-efficacy emerges as the sole determinant of overtime performance
• Athletic performance is co-determined
• "Can he win when he doesn't have his good stuff?"
• A capability is only as good as its execution
• Level of perceived self-efficacy is the one psychological factor that most consistently differentiates successful from less successful athletes across a variety of sports
• Raising efficacy beliefs : competitors outperformed opponents
• Beliefs in efficacy contribute to resilience against the adverse effects of defeat
• In some, mere sight of a formidable opponent instills lower efficacy beliefs
• Athletes of comparable abilities but differing self-assurance do not perform at the same level

Efficacy Beliefs in Performance Regulation by Goal Challenges (386)

• Personal challenges through goal setting contribute to athletic skill
• String motivators
• Combine proximal with distal goals
• Self-respect operates as a powerful motivator
• The higher the self set goal, the better the performance
• In accord with goal theory, performance attainments are better predicted by personal goals than by assigned ones
• The form that goals take affect motivation
• Poor goals are
• Vague
• Distant or remote
• Easy to fulfill
• Goals without feedback
• Better goals are
• Set high
• Include achievable sub goals
• Feedback allows foe adjustments
• Goals + efficacy to reach them = performance

Perceived Efficacy in Management of Competitive Stress and High Risks (388)

• Relation between anxiety and impaired performance
• In social cognitive theory, anxiety and impaired performances are coeffects of a low sense of efficacy to meet competitive demands
• In basketball, efficacy accounted for 40% of anxiety
• A common assumption in sports psychology is that anxiety arousal debilitates performance. "Whatever effects physiological arousal might have are likely to depend more on
• How much attention is paid to it
• Whether it is interpreted as being psyched up or distressed
• To the extent that perceived arousal affects performance, it does so through the influence of efficacy belief

Thought Control Efficacy in Managing Stressors, Failures, and Slumps (391)

• Consummate athletes have a remarkable efficacy to block out distractions and control disruptive, negative thinking
• "I don't worry about who's on base, who's at bat . . . I just concentrate on the next pitch"
• "It is me and the shot."
• Athletes must develop the efficacy to cope with failure because it is visited upon them unmercifully often (391)
• A lot of stress is self-inflicted
• Dwelling on failures rather than savoring successes
• All athletes make mistakes
• People can better rid themselves of disruptive thinking by concentrating their attention on the task at hand
• In athletes, weak efficacy heightens vulnerability to adversity
• Get down on themselves
• Brood over mistakes
• Conjure up disastrous mistakes
• Inefficacy feeds on itself
• Efficacious athletes do not exacerbate performances problems by disruptive emotional patterns and disruptive thought patterns
• Cognitive restructuring help "one shot at a time"
• Relax performance standards - more things are viewed as successes
• Good old fashioned "short rest" and break from the game
• Conquering a slum is not entirely an individual matter

Self-Management of Pain and Recovery from Injury (393)

• Athletes do not come equipped with fewer pain receptors than non athletes
• They must learn to play through pain and fatigue
• The belief that pain is controllable makes it so
• Efficacy beliefs aid in recovering from injury

Self-Efficacy enhancement of Athletic Performance (394)

• Past Performances
• Performance is not a cause of performance
• Different occasions mean different determinants, including
• Perceived self-efficacy
• Goal aspirations
• expected outcomes
• Perceived constraints
• Under some conditions, prior performance is an inflated predictor of itself
• When non ability factor is extracted in Multivariate analysis
• routine is performed repeatedly in isolation

Efficacy Belief in Transcendent Attainments (396)

• Analysis of breaking records
• Regardless of athletic activity, immediately after a barrier is broken, it is rapidly surpassed by others
• Once extraordinary performances are shown to be attainable, they become commonplace
• Records are not broken in uniform gradations, but in step like triumphs (chunks)

Coaching Influences on Development and Maintenance of Self-Efficacy (397)

• Coaches may differ in style, but they all have remarkable efficacy in their abilities to motivate and teach
• They get their players to believe in themselves
• This is achieved not through rambling pep talks, but through careful mastery experiences
• They model confidence
• They provide corrective feedback
• They place players in game situations and have them execute plays that have a good chance of success
• Work them gradually into pressure situations
• Removing athletes prematurely undermines their efficacy
• What counts is not the failure or the difficulty, but how it is construed and framed by the coach

Collective Efficacy and System Interdependence (403)

• A highly gifted player can raise team efficacy
• A weak link can lower team efficacy
• The whole of a team is much greater than the sum of its parts
• Players often judge team efficacy higher than individual player ability
• A collection of superstars often fails to produce a championship team

Preparatory Efficacy versus Performance Efficacy (405)

• Momentum
• Occurs when perceived self-efficacy and performance build on each other in an upward cycle
• Is governed by changes in perceived competitive efficacy, immediate strategies and microgoals for gaining control, self-evaluative reactions, and concerns over likely outcomes