Arousal and performance in sports psychology
A colleague mentioned to me about looking into the theory of arousal in sports psychology. The main premise of the theory in a greater sense in that to keep someone happy they must maintain a balance of the right levels of arousal meant for them as an individual.
Some individuals may have low levels of arousement and these may be satisfied by something like reading or sewing. Others may have a much higher level of arousement and need to seek out certain activities which are extremely exciting to them, something like roller coasters, skydiving, etc.
People all have different levels that need to be satisfied. I'd like to look at the premise of this in sports and exercise classes.
The premise of arousement in exercise and performance in general is that we need to have a high level of arousement to perform at our best - however when we are over aroused we will begin to lose our technique and our performance will suffer for this.
If we looked at say for example, music and arousement levels, in my Zumba classes this would be very different to my ballet classes. In Zumba although I want them to maintain the right technique of the steps, the main goal in Zumba is to get a great cardio workout, so to do this I would maybe want my music to over arouse my students, get them over excited to push themselves even more than they normally would. However in ballet classes, it is very important they are trying to get technique right in case they injure themselves, so the music for this class, whilst still trying to arouse them, needs to be slightly slower and more controlled for them to follow properly.
I'm interested in looking at how other factors might affect the arousal levels and how we as teachers control these factors to create the right level so people are enjoying the class and are also being challenged.
There is also a lot to look at towards how arousal levels can negatively affect performance due to it relating to anxiety levels. For example if someone is overly aroused before an exam for example, they may feel start to feel very anxious and pressured, which may result in low concentration levels and they may not do as well on the test as those with lower levels of arousement.
Found a great website that explains it really clearly - https://academy.sportlyzer.com/wiki/arousal-and-performance/
I was thinking about this being my main question - however after speaking to Paula we agreed as I'm not trying to prove this theory I may just want to include it in my inquiry and not as a main component.
Some individuals may have low levels of arousement and these may be satisfied by something like reading or sewing. Others may have a much higher level of arousement and need to seek out certain activities which are extremely exciting to them, something like roller coasters, skydiving, etc.
People all have different levels that need to be satisfied. I'd like to look at the premise of this in sports and exercise classes.
The premise of arousement in exercise and performance in general is that we need to have a high level of arousement to perform at our best - however when we are over aroused we will begin to lose our technique and our performance will suffer for this.
If we looked at say for example, music and arousement levels, in my Zumba classes this would be very different to my ballet classes. In Zumba although I want them to maintain the right technique of the steps, the main goal in Zumba is to get a great cardio workout, so to do this I would maybe want my music to over arouse my students, get them over excited to push themselves even more than they normally would. However in ballet classes, it is very important they are trying to get technique right in case they injure themselves, so the music for this class, whilst still trying to arouse them, needs to be slightly slower and more controlled for them to follow properly.
I'm interested in looking at how other factors might affect the arousal levels and how we as teachers control these factors to create the right level so people are enjoying the class and are also being challenged.
There is also a lot to look at towards how arousal levels can negatively affect performance due to it relating to anxiety levels. For example if someone is overly aroused before an exam for example, they may feel start to feel very anxious and pressured, which may result in low concentration levels and they may not do as well on the test as those with lower levels of arousement.
Found a great website that explains it really clearly - https://academy.sportlyzer.com/wiki/arousal-and-performance/
I was thinking about this being my main question - however after speaking to Paula we agreed as I'm not trying to prove this theory I may just want to include it in my inquiry and not as a main component.
Comments
Post a Comment