Caveat High Jump

Caveat: Imagery and self-talk are complex pieces to a dynamic puzzle and can't be implemented alone or in the beginning. Just like a staircase, one step at a time. Philosophy, communication, goal setting, motivation and self-confidence must be addressed first.

The high jump is a track and field event where an athlete must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at a measured height. The athlete runs towards the bar and using a leaping and head first movement with their back to the bar. In the case of Jeremy, he is trying to improve his jump by 4 cm by using mental skills training because he has a minor injury. Besides his injury, he is discouraged.

I believe a combination of training with PETTLEP imagery (to improve his sport skill

P - Physical - In uniform with the rest of the team practicing their jumps with him anticipating his jump (emotion). Trying to replicate the kinestitic movements in his mind.

E - Environment – on the actual track field, simulate noise from a greatest hits video. Typical time of day. Sweat. Point toward the high jump

It also assumes that he has a solid understanding and track record with process and performance goals as a means to achieving his outcome goals.

Along with PETTLEP imagery for Jeremy, I believe it would be prudent to also intertwine self-talk into the PETTLEP model to enhance the reality of functional equivalence since Jeremy has already effectively utilized self-talk before. This would greatly expand the “emotional” factor in the model and it would help him get over any discouragement he has at this time regarding his injury.

The core of my self-talk program will be “positive thinking programming”. This mental skills training technique focuses on frequently repeating positive thoughts in order to increase confidence, improve concentration, enhance motivation, control stress, and perform optimally.

Positive affirmations, team mottos, and motivational slogans would be utilized to emphasize a characteristic or a goal involved in the total process of the high jump. Cue words would be created to trigger automatic responses or executions and would be focused on aspects and techniques for the high jump with an emphasis on gaining additional