新闻英语Unit 5sports and Sportspeople.ppt

* * Unit 5 Sports and Sportspeople Word bank psych up 使心理上作好准备 raw talent 天资 noisy distraction 令人分心的喧闹声 flashing light 闪烁不止的灯光 back flip 后空翻 visualize 想象 rehearse 排练 incorporate 吸收；合并 slalom 障碍滑雪 build confidence 培养自信心 Psyching Up Athletes To get to the Olympics, athletes need an abund- ance of raw talent, good training and willingness to sweat and sacrifice. To win at the Olympics, they need more. They need to be mentally prepared. It is the job of sports psychologists to help athletes toward that goal, training their minds as effectively as the coaches train their bodies. For many athletes, competing at the Olympics is the dream of a lifetime. They often find themselves under a tremendous amount of pressure. Sports Unit 5 Sports and Sportspeople psychologists train athletes to prepare for that pressure and to learn to deal with it. Psychologist Michael Mahoney of Pennsylvania State University, for example, conducted training sessions with members of the U.S. Olympic weight-lifting team under conditions similar to those they would have to compete under at the Games. They practiced in a large stadium, with noisy distractions and flashing lights. Athletes who had expressed nervousness before the crowd were taught to focus their attention on the sport, rather than the audience. Mahoney once worked with a gymnast who had a Unit 5 Sports and Sportspeople hard time doing a back flip, a move that he had done with ease in the past. Mahoney found that the athlete had no clear picture of himself doing the move. on the contrary, he was picturing what he was doing wrong. With Mahoney’s help, the athlete was able to learn to visualize doing the move correctly and was finally able to perform in that way. The visualization technique is one of the most common tools of sports psychologists. Using visualization, athletes can rehearse mentally. Many athletes have incorporated the technique into their training. In fact, psych