Seminar-Sportspsychology, Hamar, 15-16.10.10

Some of the participants

Last weekend I participated in a seminar arranged by Hedmark and Oppland Idrettskrets in Hamar-Norway. The purpouse with the seminar was to give coaches and athletes a thorough presentation of  sportspsychology, some clues of what needs to be done in order to get as good you can get, the importance og motivation and goalsetting, why communication is important in a relationship between coach and athlete, how to build confidence and the importance of establishing a self.

1. Establishing a self:

Marco Elfasadi

Marco Elfasadi was first to adress the audience. He talked about why it is necessary and vital for each individual to have a solid self. A self deals with what you are-your identity. Confidence is all about what you do-your actions. To have relations with people you love and care about is vital in order to develop and establishing a self. Your family, friends and relatives are of outmost importance in connection with this.


2. How to fullfill your potensial:

Kjetil Andre Aamodt

Kjetil Andre Aamodt was the next lecturer. Being a former athlete in alpine sports and having won several gold medails both in the Olympics and WC he had no problem whatsoever to catch the attention of the audience. He told us about his years at young age, how he trained and what made a difference to him when it comes to the mental part. He had an inner motivation to do good in his sport-to achieve. Starting at young age and coached by his father he had a broad attitude when it comes to basic training. He made it very clear that the most important factors behind his success was commitment, focused connection, confidence, ongoing learning and mental readiness.

3. What is sportspshycology?:
Frank Abrahamsen talked about skills-what they are and how they are thaught. Further on he presented with good examples what characterises a good athlete. According to him a good athlete is commited, focused, has high confidence, is highly motivated, willing to learn, works towards targets in all activities, has established mental strategies and is conserned about to have high quality in all his works. It's important though not to identify with your own performances, but instead focus on getting better short term, and best long term.

4. Motivation and goalsetting:

Frank Abrahamsen, Anne Frøyen, Nicolas Lemyre

Nicolas Lemyre held a lecture about goalsetting. Distinction was made between short- and long term goals. It was also important to make sure that the goals were possible to quantify. In addition he defined different categories of goals. They were related to performance, process and results.

5. Confidence:
Anne Frøyen lectured about confidence. How to build it, maintain it and develop it. The latter is strengthened by a good relationship between coach and athlete.

6. Relationship-coach-athlete:
Finnally Frank Abrahamsen presented a model for communication between coach and athlete(SDT-model)
Important factors here are autonomy vs controll, high internalisation vs low internalisation. He also presented a motivational tool used as an interview .

It was two good days spent. Being an athlete myself it was very interesting to learn the importance of commitment, confidence and focused connection. Further on I made note of the practising of goalsetting, disiplin, mental strategies and most of all-patience, willingness to train over lengthy period of time with high quality in order to perform long term.

Summary by Oppland Idrettskrets:
http://www.idrett.no/krets/oppland/nyhetsarkiv/Sider/internasjonalklasse.aspx


All pictures with courtesy of Oppland and Hedmark Idrettskrets