The performers who need to achieve success in sport tend to approach challenges, they are not afraid of failure and are extremely competitive, they enjoy a challenge however if they fail they tend to attribute failure to unstable factors such as the competitor they were against, however if the player achieves success they attribute it to internal factors such as their own choices throughout the game and there own ability. The performer seeks feedback off others in order to improve and is happy to take risks in order to achieve, this tends to show that they have high confidence.
If the performer has both a high Nach and low Naf then they also have a tendency to approach success. These people experience the highest motivation when there is a 50% chance of success this will allow them to get into their Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning, this is an individual zone for each performer where there arousal is at an optimal point in order for the skill to be performed, this is different to the inverted U theory as it s suggested that there is a zone of optimal arousal that varies from person to person, from sport to sport, and not just one set point upon the graph.
An extroverted person is more likely to have a Nach as they enjoy the attention focused upon them if they succeed. Whereas someone with a high Need to Avoid Failure is more likely to be introverted. Someone with learned helplessness tends to feel useless and believes that failure is inevitable, The person tends to have low self efficacy which has been bought about by poor past performances or perceived failure which may have been reinforced by others. Someone with learned helplessness tries to avoid the situation and when they must approach it they do not try their best in order to Avoid the feeling of failure.
In order to change the performers learned helplessness there must be a new approach taken, the coach could use previous accomplishments in order to show the person that they can achieve and that they are not useless, to go with this the coach could use verbal persuasion in order to convince the athlete that they can achieve, as well as this the coach can show someone else performing the skill in question to show that it is not as complicates as it seems, then the performers emotional state should be evaluated to see what they are making of a physiological state.
The coach through verbal persuasion could also explain that the can be controlled by internal factors, such as if the performer does not put any effort into the activity then they will not achieve success. The coach could also attrbute failure to unstable factors such as the tactics that they applied, this will mean if this unstable factor is changed then there will be a chance of success.
Positive reinforcement can be used when the individual does begin to accept the challenge, this will strengthen the stimulus response bond and therefore the skill in question will become more fluent and effective. It would also be a good idea to control the performers state anxiety, if the perception of the demands is high then the player is more likely to become anxious, this can be fixed through verbal persuasion, explaining to the player that the skill isn’t that hard and then showing them a demonstration and so using visual persuasion too.
The importance of the situation can also cause anxiety, however the coach can explain situation isn’t that important. And then the perception of the performers ability to cope may also cause them anxiety, meaning that the coach will need to draw on previous experiences where the performer excelled to persuade them that they are good enough.