Psychotechnical games and exercises.
Play, as part of a child's healthy development, helps them loosen up and gradually deal with difficulties that seem insurmountable to them at the time (playing at competing, for example). Using psychotechnical games and exercises appropriate to the athletes' age satisfies their need to play and, at the same time, serves to activate and develop the relevant mental functions, to adjust their psychological state, and to build and maintain relationships within the group — while also being a means of pursuing a dual career.
"Psychotechnical games" sounds like "games not to be taken seriously", and points to a limited application — "in sport"; while "self-regulation" suggests the familiar, permitted forms — a kind of psychotherapy with a muzzle on.)
In fact these exercises were devised, tested, applied and described in a variety of settings: in psychotherapy with neurotic patients, in work with elite athletes, in personal growth groups — everywhere a good psychologist's foot could tread, and everywhere it was then thought it could not.
The book "PSYCHOTRAINING: GAMES AND EXERCISES" (by Nikolai Tszen and Yuri Pakhomov), on which this article is based, is full of episodes of practice, of the joy and discovery of meeting what is human in yourself, of a growing interest in our capacity simply to be — alone with ourselves and together with others.
Why play psychotechnical games with athletes?
Every coach feels the need to lift a young athlete after a poor performance, or to help them handle the nerves before a start, or to say something bracingly sharp that lets the athlete pull themselves together. Over long months and years of intensive work together, a coach inevitably finds an approach to each athlete. Day after day, working against the resistance of the "human material", the coach becomes more perceptive and wiser. He comes to know his students' minds and characters in fine detail. He knows who to say what to, and when. To get inside each of their inner lives he acquires a whole set of psychological keys and lockpicks.
In most cases the coach solves all the practical questions usually assigned to psychology perfectly well himself. He solves them better than a psychologist with a diploma would. But a coach's intuition and experience are not all-powerful. And not every coach can boast of them. So alongside a masterly command of practical psychology, coaching also shows us the exact opposite.
Psychotechnical games and exercises are a universal psychological tool for a coach working with athletes of primary school, adolescent and youth age, because:
- Applied systematically, they can develop the core cognitive processes, the ability to self-regulate unhelpful mental states, and the building, maintenance and repair of relationships within a team or training group.
- They can reduce the subjective sense of fatigue and build and sustain athletes' motivation.
The game "Suspended animation", for strengthening relationships within a team or group:
What will the exercise help with?
In miniature, this exercise addresses the task of moving from estrangement to contact.Working in the role of "resuscitators", participants learn different ways of breaking down mutual isolation.
The main character of the exercise is not the person being acted upon but the person doing the acting.
❗️This exercise is especially useful for teams where mutual understanding and empathy need developing. It helps participants learn different ways of overcoming mutual isolation and of making contact without words.
The exercise lasts 5-15 minutes.
The "Suspended animation" exercise
How it works:
- Participants pair up
- One becomes the "frozen" one — motionless, with a blank stare
- The other is the "resuscitator", trying to bring their partner back to life
The rules are simple:
- The resuscitator may not touch or speak
- All they have is their gaze, their expression and their gestures
- One minute for the resuscitation
Signs of successful work by the resuscitator include involuntary remarks from the frozen partner, their laughter, a smile and other signs of emotional life. The criteria for coming out of suspended animation, which may range from obvious breaks in the silence and stillness to barely noticeable changes of expression, are set by the participants themselves according to their level of skill.
Probably everyone knows the feeling of estrangement rising like an invisible wall between two people: the partners seem to go wooden in front of each other, and stop feeling and understanding one another. And probably everyone knows the opposite feeling too: complete mutual understanding arises between two people, and, as if along an invisible channel, feelings and intentions flow freely from one to the other.