Biofeedback for Sport and Performance Enhancement

Abstract

The technology of biofeedback has great promise for sport psychology and specifically for psychological skills training. Psychological skills learned through biofeedback training can be applied in practice and competition and can lead to improved athletic performance. This chapter includes a brief literature review of biofeedback and biofeedback training and describes the current state of biofeedback research in sport and its implications for athletic performance enhancement. Further, biofeedback training models such as the Wingate Five-Step Approach and the Learning-Modification-Application (LMA) Approach, based on the periodization principle, are presented. Finally, future directions and conclusions for the integration of biofeedback training as part of athletic preparation are presented.

The Effect of Biofeedback Training On Anxiety in Physical Education Teachers Short Title: Biofeedback Training and PE Teacher's Anxiety

“…The overall results of this study indicated that PE teachers in the LMA group exhibited the greatest improvement in reducing anxiety compared to the Games group. The results validated our basic hypothesis derived from previous research [7] and from applications of the LMA with elite athletes [7,9].…”

“…The main feelings of anxiety experienced are worry, nervousness, and apprehension, which can contribute to a feeling of loss of control and depression in the long run, as well as a decrease in physical health [21,22]. Similar to the known interventions to reduce anxiety, such as physical activity, relaxation training, yoga and a variety of psychological interventions, the LMA approach can be used as an effective means to reduce and control physical education teachers' anxiety [7,23,24].…”

“…In these cases teachers will learn personal coping strategies to have at their disposal, in order to manage stress when it inevitably occurs. One of these effective coping strategies is biofeedback (BFB) training [7,8].…”

“…To overcome this limitation, two training models-the "Wingate 5-Step Approach" (W5SA) [15] and the Learning-ModificationApplication (LMA) Approach [7,9] were developed. The W5SA enables athletes to transfer the psycho-regulative skills acquired in the laboratory to real training and competition, utilizing testing and different simulative material.…”

“…Thus, the goal of this method is to improve athletic self-regulation, optimize competitive behavior and improve athletic performance. Studies indicated the effectiveness of this method in populations such as athletes [7], physical education pupils [16] and musicians [11]. Later, the LMA approach was developed, which is an improved method of the W5SA [7,9].…”