When we think of sports coaches, we often think of the physical aspect of their roles: fitness training, sports specific drills and tactical decisions, but, the best sports coaches also incorporate psychology into their coaching. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

                                                        Liverpool’s recent success is often attributed to Jürgen Klopp’s focus on psychology

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One aspect of sports psychology that I feel should be carefully considered by every sports coach is that of cognitive appraisals. Within this blog, I will introduce cognitive appraisals of stress, explain their importance and recommend some ways of working towards a challenge state within your athletes. 

 

“... there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” – Hamlet

 

So, what are cognitive appraisals?

 

Cognitive appraisals are a response to a stressful situation, which is formed by an evaluation of the task demands and the resources available. If task demands outweigh the resources, then a threat state is adopted whilst a challenge state is met when the resources outweigh the demands. A threat response is seen as negative to performance whereas a challenge state on the other hand is the desirable response, due to it creating optimal performance. Challenge states improve performance in a variety of different ways, including improving attentional control and leading to better kinematic movement.  Challenge states also elicit biological responses which are optimal for performance including increased adrenaline secretion, increased cardiac output and decreased total peripheral resistance (1). Many models have been proposed to explain this concept in a visual framework, each of which build on each other. 

 

 

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                    An integrative framework of stress, attention and human performance- a visual explanation of challenge and threat appraisals (2)

 

What determines cognitive states?

 

As a coach, it is important to be aware of factors which can affect your athlete’s cognitive appraisal. This awareness is important to enhance the likelihood of a challenge appraisal within your athletes. Different environmental and individual factors can affect this, examples of which are:

• Exposure to adversity – with an exposure to a moderate amount of adverse life events leading to a higher perception of challenge (3).

• Personality- with consciousness and extraverted athletes having lower threat appraisal due to lower susceptibility to stress. (4).

• Distress tolerance- with athletes who have a lower tolerance to distress being more likely to appraise a stressful situation as a threat (5).

 

 

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It could be said the England rugby team appraised the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand as a challenge, therefore allowing them to react positively 

 

 

Although there are many key sports psychology topics which are important to promote in sports coaching, I have chosen to write this on cognitive appraisals due to the direct effect which coaches can have on them. Coach-athlete communication is a crucial part of psychological development, and physical performance, and its effectiveness can be impacted by the quality of the communication. Irrational team talks have been shown to elicit high levels of anxiety, which leads to the task being perceived as a threat. In comparison, rational team talks lead to a perception of higher resources and more manageable demands. This challenge state leads to less goal avoidance orientation. Consequently, as a coach you should try to facilitate challenge states using rationality in communication between yourself and your athletes (6).

 

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                                                  The communication between a coach and athlete can have a huge effect on cognitive appraisal

 

How do cognitive states affect you as the coach?

 

Another reason this topic is so essential for coaches to understand is that your cognitive appraisals can also impact your coaching style. If you have a tendency to appraise situations as a challenge, it is shown you have a greater capacity to offer social support and feedback to your athletes. Whereas if you have a predisposition to see things as a threat, you have higher autocratic behaviour and use less positive feedback (7). This highlights the importance of an understanding in this area. 

 

So, how can you foster a challenge state?

See infographic for further advice on this.

 

Although challenge and threat states may seem deep rooted and unchangeable, this isn’t the case. In order to avoid your athletes, and indeed yourself, falling into a threat state, steps can be taken. There is an extensive list of possible interventions to improve challenge states, of which different things will work for different athletes (and indeed different individuals). However, some key methods include:

• Adapting your coaching style to be rational and facilitative.

• Encouraging self-distancing to enable challenge.

• Promote positive self-talk to increase perceived competence and resources. 

• Imagery interventions to target challenge inducing imagery.

• Methods to increase self-efficacy (the expectation that one can successfully perform a behaviour (8)) which is a predictor of high performance even within a threat state (9).

• Methods to reduce avoidance goals (goals focused on avoiding negative outcomes (10)), which are an indicator of poor performance even in a challenge state (9).

 

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To conclude, as a coach you should be aware of your own influence, and external influences on cognitive appraisals, in order to facilitate better physical and psychological states within your athletes, which will subsequently lead to better performance. 

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1. Behnke M, Kaczmarek L. Successful performance and cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 2018;130:73-79.

2.  Vine S, Moore L, Wilson M. An Integrative Framework of Stress, Attention, and Visuomotor Performance. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016;7(1671).

3. Moore L, Young T, Freeman P, Sarkar M. Adverse life events, cardiovascular responses, and sports performance under pressure. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2017;28(1):340-347.

4. Allen M, Frings D, Hunter S. Personality, coping, and challenge and threat states in athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 2012;10(4):264-275.

5. Lee S, Park C, Russell B. Does distress tolerance interact with trait anxiety to predict challenge or threat appraisals?. Personality and Individual Differences. 2018;132:14-19.

6. Evans A, Turner M, Pickering R, Powditch R. The effects of rational and irrational coach team talks on the cognitive appraisal and achievement goal orientation of varsity football athletes. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. 2018;13(3):431-438.

7. Dixon M, Turner M, Gillman J. Examining the relationships between challenge and threat cognitive appraisals and coaching behaviours in football coaches. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2017;35(24):2446-2452.

8. Bandura A. Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review. 1977;84(2):191-215.

9. Turner M, Jones M, Sheffield D, Slater M, Barker J, Bell J. Who Thrives Under Pressure? Predicting the Performance of Elite Academy Cricketers Using the Cardiovascular Indicators of Challenge and Threat States. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 2013;35(4):387-397.

10. Elliot A, Church M. A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1997;72(1):218-232.