Moral and psychological preparation of an athlete

Long-term observations have revealed an indisputable relationship between the results of human activity and his psychological state. Depression or joyful excitement immediately affects the quality of work. In the complex process of building your own body, the slightest nuances of your mental state are instantly reflected in the results. It's no secret that inspiration is a state of extraordinary lightness and elation, when the most difficult tasks are solved without much difficulty, the limits of the possible disappear. Without this state, any creativity is impossible. Sport is also creativity, and a high level of skill in sports borders on art. And there is no person who has achieved great results who has never felt “wings behind his back.”

But if inspiration in art is characterized by a certain ephemerality, elusiveness, then in sports this state is more concrete. Moreover, research has proven the possibility of consciously invoking it. It is for this reason that the moral and psychological preparation of an athlete is no less important than work on improving muscles and strength physical indicators...

1. OBS
2. I.G. Schultz autogenic training exercises
3. Autogenic training exercises and methods of psychological influence

OBS

The concept of inspiration in sports has become synonymous with optimal combat state (OBS) - the best sports form. Special psychophysical preparation allows you to mobilize all resources in a matter of minutes, but this apparent ease is based on many years of painstaking and hard work.

OBS is deeply individual. Distinguish three its main component: physical, emotional And intellectual.

Physical component is a combination of strength, speed and speed-strength qualities and corresponding physical abilities. The higher the level of training of an athlete, the greater his capabilities.

Each sport has its own characteristics, which means that OBS is associated with certain physical sensations and parameters. So, in bodybuilding these are well-developed muscles, a proportional, beautiful body, a feeling of “muscular joy” during training, constant concentration, etc. It is not enough to know this state; you need to remember it and be able to consciously induce it. Physical sensations are easier to grasp and remember than mental ones. In addition, memory can be insidious and at the right moment it can fail - it cannot “raise” the required information from its depths. Keeping records of your feelings makes your work much easier.

The second component is emotional condition athlete. To denote it, the term “level of emotional arousal” is adopted, that is, the strength of excitement. Depending on the strength of excitement, the level of emotional arousal is differentiated: high - low, increased - decreased, etc.

As in the physical aspect, there is an optimal state. The simplest method of monitoring the level of emotional arousal is to count your heart rate (HR) immediately before performing an exercise. Heart rate is an objective factor, as opposed to a subjective assessment, which can be erroneous. At bodybuilding competitions, an athlete, before going on stage, may consider himself ready to perform competitive exercises, while pulse data shows an overestimated level of arousal or, conversely, insufficient readiness of psychophysical strength. Only a few very experienced athletes are able to control their condition based on purely subjective sensations, but even they come to this by trial and error. While taking a pulse test in itself is easy to do and very informative even for beginners.

You cannot start a competition program thinking about its ending - the performance will be disrupted. It is necessary to focus on the formula “Here and now!”, analyze and control your feelings at the moment.

This ability is not given at birth, but is acquired only through intense training. An athlete must be able to completely “switch off” from the world around him, so that for him only the working muscles, only the action that his body is performing at the moment, really exists.

Concentration should not be confused with mental tension, which has a rather negative effect, enslaving and tightening the muscles.

Every athlete should know timehe needs for concentration. It is quite easy to monitor this process - using a stopwatch, you need to record the time of concentration before several dozen attempts and compare the results.

The factors indicating the onset of the optimal level of emotional arousal, like the physical component, are strictly individual, and it is advisable to record them not only in memory - so that by the method of mental self-regulation one can consciously induce the required state in oneself at the right moment.

We have come close to the last component of the psychophysical “trio” - intellectual. Without a clear program of action, even with the “peaks” of all other states, there cannot be a high result. A person tends to attribute any failure to the influence of a number of external factors, and not to his own condition and behavior: too bright light when performing, bias of judges, etc.

In order to depend less on chance and even make it serve you, a technique for mastering it is necessary. personal OBS. To do this, you need to record your feelings on the eve of a particularly successful performance or during the training process before an exercise, after which you felt that this or that muscle group had been “worked out” well. Or choose a state yourself that would correspond to your goal and remember it. For example: “I am light and active, my mood is excellent, my muscles react instantly, I see how a muscle contracts, etc.” Whenever possible, phrases should be clear and concise. Then divide what you have written according to focus and determine which component of the OBS individual phrases belong to. Since all psychophysical processes are strictly individual, each athlete has his own personal combination of OBS components, one of which, as a rule, prevails.

Against the background of the above, it becomes especially important activity of a trainer. Using the entire arsenal of physical and technical training, the instructor helps the athlete acquire the necessary emotional and intellectual mood.

Warm-up makes it possible to realize the physical component of OBS - to achieve lightness, speed of reaction, a feeling of strength and elasticity of all muscles, it also has a beneficial effect on the emotional state. The inclusion of ideomotor processes involves the intellectual component.

This technique requires regular use. In addition, the word once given to oneself should become an indisputable law.

If there is will, there will be strength!

We must not forget that with the growth of sportsmanship, the OBS formula is specified and changed, because the athlete accumulates experience, adjusts sensations, etc. Over time, the level of self-esteem and self-confidence changes, and physical fitness improves. Hence the changes made to the OBS formula.

I would like to dwell in more detail on some methods of regulating the mental state of athletes. They are divided into medical and pedagogical.

Medical methods can only be used after consulting a doctor. They are best used as recovery drugs in the post-competition period, since any chemotherapy sometimes has an unpredictable effect on the athlete’s excited body. For example, in some situations even coffee can have a relaxing effect.

Pedagogical methods - this is suggestion and self-hypnosis. Experienced psychologists work with teams and individual athletes. But often the psychotherapist’s strong personality influences the athlete in ways that are inadequate to the task at hand. For example, A.M. Kashpirovsky had difficulties working with some athletes of the USSR weightlifting team.

I.G. Schultz autogenic training exercises

Therefore, the most accessible and acceptable is self-hypnosis method (autogenic training), proposed more than 50 years ago by the Berlin neurologist I.G. Schulz.

In bodybuilding, autogenic training, being a moral and psychological component of warm-up, allows the athlete to quickly enter the training process and stimulate the warming up of individual muscle groups or the whole body. In addition, the ability to meaningfully manage the process of relaxation and tension reduces energy costs and prevents injuries.

The main psychological attitude in any endeavor should be confidence in success — the slightest doubt will inevitably affect the result and undo months of hard work.

With the help of autogenic training exercises you can "program" your subconscious for success, for purposeful work, for achieving the intended goal. Results in bodybuilding depend as much on the psyche as on muscle strength! But we should not forget about the so-called “paradox of will” - the body’s protective reaction: the greater the psychophysical stress, the stronger the inhibitory impulses. Therefore, psychologists warn about the dangers of strong-willed attitudes such as: “I must!”, “I must!”, “At any cost!” and fixation on similar formulas. It is necessary to listen very sensitively and carefully to your moral and psychological state in order to prevent a nervous breakdown. We must remember that fanaticism, like any extreme, has its drawbacks.

As a rule, autogenic training exercises are carried out in the most relaxed position. The classic option is the “coachman” position, but any other position is possible in which it is possible to achieve effective muscle relaxation.

Here is the most common formula for self-hypnosis...

“I am absolutely calm.

The hand is warm.

The hand is heavy.

My heart beats evenly, steadily and calmly.

My breathing is even, deep and calm.

The solar plexus feels warm.

The forehead is pleasantly cool..."

The most difficult thing in the process of autogenic training is the ability to switch off from the environment and focus only on your own sensations and images. At the first stage, the main attention should be paid to the sensations of warmth and heaviness.

A tense and seemingly cold muscle is poorly nourished, since blood circulation is less intense due to vasoconstriction. Athletes who master the regulation of “internal heating” are able to voluntarily direct energy to the working muscle group.

For constant monitoring of the condition and for the purpose of analyzing the results of autogenic training, it is necessary to conduct diary. Entries should be brief and as informative as possible.

For example:

1. Day 1: “After class I felt tired and my legs were heavy.”
2. Day 2: “Last night I fell asleep unexpectedly quickly. I woke up feeling light. I have a desire to train."
3. Day 3: “While doing the biceps exercise, I felt a slight tingling, sometimes burning, especially in my right arm.”
4. Day 4: “After consulting with the trainer, I found out that the load on the arms was somewhat too high. I adjusted the technique of performing exercises for the arm muscles. After training - a feeling of muscle joy. Good mood."

A number of formulas with a positive dominant of the training process should be introduced into the individual system of autogenic training:

“Working out makes me happy! It’s a pleasure to train!”

Since the ability to concentrate is a skill, it must be constantly trained and maintained, bringing oneself to a higher level of perception.

During the period of work on reducing body fat and creating muscle definition, it is recommended to use the following self-hypnosis formula:

“I am absolutely calm, completely restrained in food and extremely full.

I am absolutely indifferent to fatty foods.

I’m indifferent to sweets and fatty foods.”

And one more important problem can be successfully resolved with the help of this type of psychological training - dream. Every second person suffers from insomnia, and every third athlete is dissatisfied with his sleep. In addition to the well-known remedies - walks, a warm shower or bath, an early dinner, etc. — autogenic training also gives a noticeable effect.

“The head is free of thoughts.

I feel peace of mind.

I want to relax.

The time will come when I will sleep peacefully.

The sleep will be deep, long and sound.

I sleep very well.

I’m relaxed, I’m lying down and sleeping peacefully.”

Once again I would like to remind you that organism each person individual, and the ways to achieve goals or states are also extremely individual. All the recommendations given above are only a guide, based on which the athlete himself must choose the formulas and methods of influence. And do not forget to pay special attention to self-control and listen carefully to your own body.