This was the final meeting that I will have with my client, the meeting lasted for 1 hour (time allowed if needed to over run session) I met the client with their coach and parents at a meeting room at the golf club. This meant that the surroundings and attendees were the same at the first, original meeting to help the client stay at ease and relax.
The aims of this session were to review my clients program and thoughts linked to this program. In order to see how my client felt and wether their had been any improvements linked to using the techniques I asked my client and her coach a few questions linked to the past 6 weeks.
(Questions to my client)
- Do you feel that these techniques have helped lower your anxiety prior to a game?
“Yes, I feel very confident now going into the competition season as I know that I can effectively lower my arousal now using these techniques. By lowering my arousal prior to the match I feel so much more confident and ready to compete.”
- Which was your favourite technique?
“Listening to music was my favourite technique I think because I felt that doing this allowed me to forget about the pressure as I was linked with the song. Especially the lyrics as they were all positive and upbeat allowing me to stay confident’
- Which technique (not necessarily your favourite) did you think had the greatest effect on lowering your anxiety?
“ Even though listening to music was my favourite, I do feel that the controlled breathing helped my anxiety levels the most as prior to this program before a game my breathing would be short and choppy when my anxiety levels were high causing my shot be to jerky and lower in power. However by using the controlled breathing I felt that I could return my breathing back to the normal level allowing my shots to be more smooth, steady and powerful making my game better”
- What would you change? and why?
“ If I were to change anything about this program I would just want a larger selection of songs to choose from at the different intervals as currently I would be listening to the same songs in the same order every time I play and I think this could get to repetitive and boring over time”
(Questions to the coach)
- Have you seen any improvements in the athlete during the program?
“Yes, I have seen improvements in many areas during this program. I feel that my these techniques lowing there anxiety their swing and shots have become more effective and useful during the game allowing them to move up the ranking. I can also see that they are overall more confident going around the course now and take more risks and generally put themselves out these which, in the future, will be a major advantage of these techniques on the athlete.”
Strengths and weaknesses
The strengths and weaknesses of the program have been that it had a great effect on lowering my clients arousal as from the responses from the coach and client showed that her game has been improving and they feel more confident during the game which is having a positive effect on the movements and decisions that they make around the golf course. Furthermore the client actually likes the techniques that I prescribed and they feel like the work. This is a huge benefit that my client likes the techniques and feel that they work as this will ensure that they continue using them in the future as they can see that they have been helping with their performance.
Another strength of the program was that I educated the client prior to them practising the technique as this allowed them to fully understand the technique and get the most out of the technique by using it correctly. Similar to this we slowly progressed from the client practising the technique on their own to practising the technique in a mock game situation with other golfers. I feel that this was a huge positive of my program as it allowed the athlete to get to grips with the techniques without the pressure of the other competitors and competition atmosphere, so they could really see the effects of the techniques when they compared their play to other competitors.
The weaknesses of my program were that within the 6 week program I didn't have the time to use biofeedback during two different competitions. This biofeedback would have allowed me to see the difference that using these techniques created. As one competition (without using the techniques) would hopefully have seen a higher HR,BR and a weaker decision skills. Then the other competition (with using the techniques) we would hope to see a lower HR, more controlled breathing rate and more informed decision making. I feel that if I had time for this it would have show my athlete using data how effective the technique is on there anxiety and bodily functions.
Secondly if I had a longer period with my client I would have created a larger song selection that they could have used during the routine, as currently I only gave the athlete 1 song per section. I feel that over time I would create a larger playlist that can be used to reduce the possible boredom and repetition of the current playlist.
Future prescriptions
For the future I would recommend to my client that they continued using these techniques as I felt that they had a positive effect on my client and it was helping their performance. Linked to this I would recommend that my clients looks into creating a larger playlist as they mentioned that they could get bored. This will give them variety and reduce the repetition.
Another method that I would recommend would be biofeedback to see the effects that the techniques have overtime and my client will be able to see that by looking through the data and analyse where there are still areas to improve.
Finally I would just recommend that my client uses these techniques at the next major competition they have (where their anxiety would be higher than normal) and analyse how the techniques made them feel.
Debrief
In the debrief with my client I highlighted the following;
- The success of the program
- Their effort they played into using the techniques
- The future recommendations
- What I felt went well and what I would change
- How I feel that it helped
By discussing this with my client I feel that it would help cement the success of the program into my clients mind so that they continue to use this in the future, as the will know that I think it will have a huge effect on their performance and they will want to succeed in the future and they will know that this will help.
Test of Performance Strategies
This is the questionnaire I asked my client to fill out before and after the six week program. I have placed both together for the ease of comparison. The Blue is before and the pink is after. From looking at these questionnaires you can see that my client has made high improvements in many areas either staying at the sam level or improving by 1/2 the will have a positive effect on their performance over the future.
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