Psychological Skills Training with Community College Athletes: The UNIFORM Approach

Abstract

The present study examined a 10-week psychological skills training (PST) intervention called UNIFORM (Johnson & Gilbert, 2004) with a community college softball team. The intervention was based on the transtheoretical model (Prochaska & Marcus, 1994). Results showed that the athletes learned the skills, enjoyed the intervention, and significantly increased their application of relaxation and goal setting during practice and their application of relaxation, imagery, and self-talk during competition as measured by the Test of Performance Strategies (Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy, 1999). Though there were some positive changes, decisional balance and self-efficacy scores (DB-PST, SE-PST; Leffingwell, Rider, & Williams, 2001) were not statistically significant. The UNIFORM approach enabled community college athletes to learn psychological skills and apply them during practice, competition, and in their everyday lives.