Insight aids athletes

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33438, 21 January 1974, Page 16

Insight aids athletes

It was of practical benefit to an athlete to know something of his personality, because he could be conditioned to suppress or boost certain characteristics, said Dr J. E, Kane, director of the department of physical education at the University of Leeds in Christchurch yesterday. This conditioning could. even be used to the extent of ["desensitising” a player who was prone to losing his temper in times of stress, he said. Dr Kane, who is on the [executive committee of the (International Society of (Sports Psychology, will give la paper on psychological aspects of physical education at the British Commonwealth (and international conference on health, physical education and recreation being held at Lincoln this week. Dr Kane said that teachers I of physical education had long been taught elementary psychology as far as it affected sport, but today the subject was treated at much (greater depth. He said a day would be set aside at the twentieth

World Congress of Sports Medicine, in Melbourne next month, to discuss psychological factors in sporting performance. Dr Kane will be one of the three speakers on the subject. Dr Kane said that, if the

finalists in a race such as an 800 m event were considered, they would be found to be similar in fitness and the amount and type of training they had done, and even in body shape.

However, some would perform better than before, and others would perform worse. This could not be explained purely in physical terms. What stopped a man “bringing it off” was a psychological matter, said Dr Kane. Dr Kane said he would also talk about motivation, movement, and non-verbal communication such as dancing, as well as the psychology of learning skills.