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“Lost Movement Syndrome”
This is a more distressing version of the Yips or Choking when the performer seems to completely lose the ability to perform a specific movement. It’s as though they have a mental block where they know they are capable of performing the movement but they can’t even start the previously automatic motor program.
Self-reports by people who have experienced this frightening event include:
It was really stupid; I couldn’t pull myself together because the butterflies were too bad.
My legs turned to jelly and that’s all I could think about. Then I couldn’t bounce and I just wished I could calm down. (This is a classic example of Type B thinking*.)
I just felt so nervous.
- I couldn’t think of anything else. It just kept going round in my head and I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it.
When the Lost Movement Syndrome initially began to occur, the symptoms included:
Freezing,
- Inability to commence the move,
- Fear and lack of readiness for the move,
- Anxiety prior to training sessions,
- Crying, annoyance, frustration,
- Feeling stupid,
- Perceived pressure from parents, coaches and other competitors,
- Dislike of other people watching,
- Frustration about not knowing the reason for missing the move,
- Increased practice which made it worse, and eventually avoidance and lack of interest in training.
Fearful reactions gradually begin to build up:
- I started thinking about the moves and realized that they were dangerous, but I wasn’t scared of hurting myself, I was scared of the move itself.
- One specific action would be fear provoking: “Initially there were thoughts I could ignore but then it started to build up until I got really scared of them.”
Type B thinking
These self reports are all examples of Type B thinking* which in this context means negative inner dialogue. The destructive effects of Type B thinking can be grouped into four major categories:
The four errors caused by Type B thinking
I. Negative emotions
Any emotion such as anxiety, anger or fear will create an increase in muscle tension. Therefore you inadvertently produce Sub skill Y instead of Sub skill X. This produces more muscle tension than Sub skill X requires and your motor skill execution is say a little too hard, or too quick or even too late or to soft – and you hit the ball in the wrong direction, even if it is only slightly off target from your preferred direction.
Type B thinking including MoMs* and other negative inner dialogues, such as “I’m hopeless” or “I must be perfect” can rapidly cause a negative emotional arousal response through the Peripheral Nervous System. This emotional activity will cause increased muscle tension which is counterproductive to your learned motor skill program.
II. Type A blocking
When Type B thinking takes over your concentration several things can happen:
Research has shown that negative thinking causes your attentional field to shrink and become narrow due to focusing on something you may regard as a threat to your success.
This “Narrowing effect” simultaneously consumes conscious memory capacity and directs your attention toward incorrect and irrelevant TRF’s*. This leaves you with less than 100% concentration capacity to detect and respond to important objects and TRF’s* in your concentration circle.
You can become aware of the absence of correct concentration which causes further Type B’s such as “I couldn’t understand where the twist came from and the more I tried the less I could imagine doing it”.
Type B thoughts can prevent, cloud or diminish your mental clarity. You become involved with the emotion of the moment. We use phrases like “Fogged in”, or during moments of anger you “See red” which means to be consumed with rage and desire to retaliate. One of the cricket players in the research moment* above actually stated “I couldn’t concentrate, my mind was full of panic and confusion.” This is a common experience for players in every sport.
Blocking can lead to disastrous consequences such as extreme emotions like panic or rage. In a panic or rage response you tend to become consumed with the emotion of the moment and rapidly spiral into a “Death dive of no recovery” which can take you into the worst possible mental space devoid of correct concentration resulting in many errors cause more Type B thinking followed by the “Death Dive of no recovery”*.
III. Negative Self Efficacy
Self-efficacy is complex and in essence refers to one’s belief in one’s ability to perform the movement, skill or action required.
Clever research has shown that self-efficacy belief systems can be controlled by inner self-talk and this is crucial in determining final outputs in strength, perseverance and effort during carefully monitored laboratory experiments. Physical strength can actually be increased or decreased by careful manipulation of self-efficacy.
Examples from other research moments in sport identify the inner thoughts of players during moments of low self-efficacy:
“My confidence was really low”
“I’m weaker than that guy”
“I’m ranked lower than her”
“I can’t play as well as him/her”
“It was the one thing I love most and I looked stupid”
“Negative thinking is never far away. If it’s happened once it can happen again.”
IV. Sports Phobias
Sports phobias are unpleasant and inappropriate emotional reactions which occur in unique situations which are specific to each individual. They are learned responses just like your physical sports skills.
Unfortunately they are bad – a phobic response conflicts with your desired and appropriate motor skills. Sports players can develop an “Approach – Avoid” phobic image. Players will report statements like: “I thought about them a lot, and I’d been doing lots of imagery work at home before, but now it was different. I thought about them all the time and I didn’t like thinking about them because it would scare me.”
In this case the mental image of the movement, even when away from the playing field, had slowly become associated with the concepts of failure, anxiety, frustration, confusion, fear, incompetence and embarrassment.
This causes the player to avoid even thinking about the movement, and may even cause them to reducing the amount of practice time, both physically and mentally.
Typical sports phobias include:
Particular playing fields and locations where you may have been beaten or played badly on previous occasions.
A new venue where you haven’t played before. The unknown circumstance can cause “fear of the unknown”, especially if you had bad experiences at unfamiliar locations before. In this case your Type self-talk* probably goes something like “I never play well at new venues” and that can rapidly spiral into “See it’s happening again” if you play badly at some point in the competition.
Certain opponents.
Being watched by an audience or television cameras.
When leading the match.
Big matches, major tournaments or championships.
And many other personal examples of situations and characteristics of performing.
* Term used in Winning Zone Mental Skills training program