KOTA KINABALU, 3rd AUGUST 2015 – Most athletes have nowadays realized the importance of psychology training for a competition and many great athletes also said mentality in a competition plays an important role in determining the result.
Thus, the mental and physical aspect of athletes is becoming more important compared to the past, where coaches and athletes have before this focused entirely only on their physical performance.
To maximize the mental aspect of the state athletes in Sukma Games, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has assigned the National Sports Institute (NSI) Satelite Centre in Sabah to carry out the task, and according to Sports Psychology Officer, Nursyaditina Ain Darussamin, they are on the right track.
“Our athletes have received lots of benefits from the knowledge that we have shared and our main task is to maximize their capability in their respective fields through sports psychology.
“What we are emphasizing is mental management and athletes will be given a target to achieve in the sports they are competing.”
He said, the nine state athletes who took part in the Thailand Karate-do Championship was the best example to show how it could fix their mental strength.
“This is the first international event for all athletes except for one and they have to put the mental training they have gone through to use; before speaking to oneself, imagery and calming, among others.
“Calming is especially important for them because they will need to stay calm through out their match, particularly when pressure is presence when competiting in international event which also see the participation of many foreign countries.
“My job is to motivate them and monitor their mood while in the competition and we will also do assessment before and during the competition, follow-up with a post-mortem when they are back, and I’ll be meeting them according to schedule.”
He also revealed that, the karate athletes who competed in Thailand were not given any target and their participation works only as a platform to test their mental strength.
“It acts only as a mental strength training routine and also for them who will be in action in the Sukma Games next year to gain some experience, and I want to see them be able to control their emotions, stay focus, improve their mental imagery, as well as giving themselves words of encouragement.
“In the post-mortem, they will be shown videos, to let them see their own mood and facial expression during competition and this is very important because I want them to show a better facial expression, focus on the upcoming competition.
“He said, basically, sports psychology can teach athletes identify the factors that leads to a good performance and also vice versa.
