Mental Strategies – Reframing in Performance Sports – Part Two
Part One of "Reframing in Performance Sports" gave as an easy understanding of the concept of Reframing with six practise examples for the reader. In this part I present possible solutions.
A small wrap up of the first part: A normal Badminton set between equally strong opponents ends maybe 21:19 - meaning even though a player has won the set, he has to cope with 19 own mistakes, forced or unforced ones and winning shots of his opponent. Also meaning the player has to overcome possiblity 19 negative thought associated with the opponents points. If the player has no strategies to deal with the opponents small successes and his own failure, he will mentally go down and will not be able to show a good performance. But not only this, numerous other negative thought might come to his mind - a cheering home crowd, bad line calls, broken string, ... - that the player should be able to deal with. One technique is reframing - simplyfied explainded meaning, that you take a given situation and putting it in a for you positive context or view. A simple example is the first one:
Exercise 1: “This glass is half empty.”
Solution 1: Of course, the answer is something like "The glass is still half full."
Exercise 2: “The crowd is only cheering for my opponent, but it’s me winning the long rallies.”
Solution 2: A possible solution could be: "The crowd sees me as a strong opponent and is feeling that without their help, their player has not the ability to win this match. They are giving me the feeling, to be the better player."
Exercise 3: “The shuttle is damaged – just in between the rally – how should I practise right?”
Solution 3: "This happens also in tournament matches - I try to finish the rally as good as possible. This will help me to deal with this in important match situations. If this happens - I will be prepared."
Exercise 4: “18 all – and just now my string flies apart.”
Solution 4: "The small break is also a break for the opponent. My other racquet is as good as the old one, the string is even never. I will make a few shots for trial and go on with my tactic - he is the one distracted."
Exercise 5: “The umpire is from his club, he will be positive to my opponent.”
Solution 5: "Umpire are neutral - the last thing they wanna be blamed for is to favour their home player, maybe even be more critical with him because people know, they are in the same club."
Exercise 6: “Everybody knows that he is better than me, I will not have a chance.”
Solution 6: "He is so secure that he will win, he is underestimating me - this will be my chance."
I hope, these small examples gave you a better insight in the concept of "Reframing" and will help you and your players.
Best wishes,
Diemo Ruhnow
WANT UPDATES right to your inbox? Sign up for our free newsletter and you will be informed about new stuff, sign up here FREE BADMINTON.TRAINING NEWSLETTER !
Follow Us on Social Media - 
- even MORE Tipps & Video
About the author:
Diemo Ruhnow is currently working as Head National Coach Doubles for the German Badminton Federation. In his free time he writes for his websites http://www.badminton-training.com (English), http://www.badminton-training.de (German) and other Badminton journals.
