A Brick On The Olympic Medal Wall

Abstract

Each and every “brick” in the 4-year Olympic preparation program is important and has its own role in the construction of the desired result. The present paper focuses on presenting the Improvisational Theatre component in the mental preparation program of the Olympic Epee Team before the 2016 Olympic Games. There were identified a lot of similarities between Improvisation Theatre and fencing, as follows: the dialogue with the partner/opponent; accepting the duel and challenges; the unpredictability and tolerance of the unknown; reaction speed; attitude towards taking risks; confidence in the initial decision; uncensored access to manifest latent resources too; the ability of coping with the surprise element; when high performance is achieved, the need to return to base (Game/Load). The athletes involved in this program were the members of the Olympic Women’s Epee Team. As a result of the complementary training program, the athletes identified the fact that all the difficulties they had faced during the Improvisational Theatre training sessions were also present during the bouts, concluding that the transfer between the non-specific training (Improvisation Theatre training) and the specific sports preparation could be done successfully. The added value of these training sessions was in terms of attitude, flow, pleasure and decision-making.

Keywords: Olympic Gamesimprovisationmental training

Introduction

Psychological training is part of the training process and respects the same principles as sports training. Mental training has the role of adding a plus value to the already excellent physical, technical and tactical preparation of the athletes. In Viola Spolin’s (1963) perspective, talent is the highly-developed capacity of an individual to experience, and applied sports psychology aims to put the athlete in the situation of experiencing this sense too, gaining knowledge about him/herself and facilitating self-development. Most of the time, training routines suppress spontaneity and develop the conscience of self-performance. The sports involving an opponent, in our case, fencing, are about spontaneity, intuition, fast decisions and courage of taking risk.

On the one hand, sports performance has been over the years a source of inspiration for many domains. Even the Improvisation Theatre had this source of inspiration. Keith Johnstone (1979) created TheatreSports inspired by the ancient wrestling, which he considered to be a theatre for the working class, and came up with the idea of replacing wrestlers with improvisers. On the other hand, improvisation techniques have been used over the last decades in various domains, with great success. In a pilot experiment, Gangl (2014) redefined the effects of theatre on people with a mild traumatic brain injury, also using, as intervention tools, exercises specific to the training of the Improvisation Theatre actor, such as the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the La Trobe Communication Scale and a questionnaire designed by the author of the study; the researcher concluded that actor-specific training exercises had effects on subjects improving their communication skills, increasing their sense of inclusion, improving their ability to manage and balance anxiety in situations of public expression and helping them regain confidence in their own person and power. The idea of becoming aware of you, which Uta Hagen (1973, 1991), Viola Spolin (2008), Brian Way (1967) and Keith Johnstone (1991) pointed out as the goal of gaming exercises or Improvisation Theatre exercises, was considered relevant and important for the study conducted by Gangl (2014). In his book, Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness and Cognition, Drinko (2013) discusses several experiments and studies outside the Improvisation Theatre, but using improvisation techniques and principles, for example, for treating people with autism or diagnosed with dementia. While dealing with autism, he only discusses personal experiences or of other participants in the Improvisation Theatre (Drinko, 2013, p. 114), regarding dementia, the author mentions an ongoing, organized and targeted research to find treatment, specifying that the measurements are far from the end (Drinko, 2013, p. 29). According to Drinko, researchers at North-Western University use techniques and methods specific to the Improvisation Theatre as a possible treatment for people diagnosed with dementia. Actors in the Lookingglass Players Improvisation Theatre group lead workshops for people suffering from dementia, and the participants so far, according to preliminary results, have shown increased levels of comfort and progress due to the fact that, in improvisation, the focus is on the present, on the “here and now”, not on past experiences or anticipation of the future. Research leaders relate this requirement, to be “here and now”, of the Improvisation Theatre and the rule “yes, and ...” (the rule that the only possible answer in the Improvisation Theatre is “yes”, complemented by a new action/proposal), to the progress in the treatment of participants and an improvement in the quality of their lives.

In his extensive work on improvisation and its effects on consciousness and cognition, Drinko starts from the premise that training for externalisation in improvisation brings changes to the brain’s functioning. The author argues that once an experienced improviser steps on stage, extraordinary things may happen to their state of consciousness and cognition (Drinko, 2013, p. 93). Referring to Daniel Kahneman’s two thinking systems, Drinko states: “By focusing outward on one’s scene partners, the game of the scene or the space, skilled improvisers can order consciousness in such a way that system 1 or intuitive, automatic thinking rises to the surface in the competition among different modes of thought” (Drinko, 2013, p. 93). We believe that, even if Kahneman (2012) has claimed that man is subject to the traps of intuition and that, although it would be desirable, there are no ways to train the intuition and System 1 to reduce their frequency by cognition, the Improvisation Theatre offers such training. Through Improvisation Theatre training, the actor also manages to increase the speed of transition from System 1 to System 2 (and vice versa). Improvisation teachers, such as Viola Spolin, Del Close and Keith Johnstone, have proven that their approaches to creativity are working. Changing/directing attention on the outside helps players to respond quickly, spontaneously and creatively. Also, as Drinko notes, this concentration on the outside also has another effect on the mind in improvisation: when each improviser’s attention focuses on other improvisers, the clues and signs of others’ behaviour and thought processes become more accessible to see, interpret, and the improviser is more natural to react to (Drinko, 2013, p. 97).

In the light of these studies, we considered Improvisation Theatre techniques to be useful also in the area of sports performance.

There are a lot of similarities between Improvisational Theatre and fencing, as follows: the dialogue with the partner/opponent; accepting the duel and challenges; the unpredictability and tolerance of the unknown; reaction speed; attitude towards risk-taking; confidence in the initial decision; uncensored access to manifest latent resources too; ability of coping with the surprise element; when high performance is achieved, the need to return to base (Game/Play); structure of the training; intention.

Problem Statement

Before the 2016 Olympic Games, the epee team relived the failure from London 2012. They felt a profound fear: on the one hand, a profound fear of success before the Olympic Games, because victories were associated with high expectations from the sports authorities and, on the other side, a significant fear of failure in the final competition, the Olympic Games. They seemed blocked and lost, in the sense of the certainty of self-control and own potential of coping with future events. Their spontaneity was lost into perfectionism and technique, and their intuition was suffocated by cognitive interference. The joy, pleasure and performance madness were lost into responsibilities and expectations. In this context, with a team with high physical, technical and tactical competencies, but with suffocated mental resources, it was necessary something new, something that could get them out of the routine, pre-set scenarios and mental blockages.

Along with other unconventional means of psychological training and some classical methods of mental training, we introduced Improvisational Theatre into their athletic preparation. The premise in Improvisational Theatre games is that the intuitive must be accessed to incorporate intelligence, in our case strategic intelligence specific to fencing. Also according to Viola Spolin (1963), through improvisation, participants have a direct experience (“here and now”) and integrate the mind and the body into a challenge to a state (or flow) where they are fully involved intellectually, physically and intuitively, spontaneous in action and gain knowledge in the act of doing. The act of doing means experiencing.

We thought that, by developing spontaneity in athletes, they would restructure/reform inside themselves, considering the perspective according to which spontaneity frees from the past, from memory chocked with old-facts information and undigested theories and techniques (Spolin, 1963).

Improvisation is a particular mode of performance activity, in which performance, the production of work is “here and now”, “on the spot”. Improvisation combines and exploits the skills of using the body, the creativity, the objects and all human resources to formulate and reformulate a coherent expression of an idea, a situation and a character (Frost & Yarrow, 2016). Improvisation involves the development of skills and attributes necessary for performance and other individual and group resources, for being able to spontaneously respond to the immediate environmental stimuli without preconception, to renegotiate being and doing and access possibilities of finding solutions in every situation.

Research Questions

The central research question is whether including theatrical improvisation techniques in the psychological preparation program, before the Olympic Games, is beneficial regarding spontaneity and freedom from the past.

The secondary research question centres on the possibility of identifying the difficulties from the bout into the Improvisational Theatre training sessions. In this sense, we aim to determine whether it is possible to regulate some of the challenges through theatre, with an effect on the performance dimension.

Purpose of the Study

The present study had a rather practical approach, entering the zone of applied sports psychology. Therefore, our primary goal was to stimulate the team towards accessing intuition and spontaneity by including games of Improvisational Theatre in the psychological preparation program. We aimed to do, not necessarily observe and measure.

In this sense, our objectives can be structured as follows: (1) Creating psycho-sensory exercises for a favourable climate, removing censorship and inhibitions that may occur; (2) Physical and mental stress relief, stimulation of imagination, awareness and activity of distributive attention, teamwork, practicing the concept of attitude; (2) Increasing spontaneity; (3) Increasing tolerance to the unknown; (4) Growing confidence in one’s capabilities; (5) Diminishing social fear of success and failure through exposure; (6) Increasing the ability to accept the new; (7) Increasing mutual knowledge and team cohesion; (8) Working with optimal parameters in a team, taking responsibility and practicing promptness in making decisions.

Research Methods

The research methods used to achieve the proposed objectives are the pedagogical observation method and investigation method (through the feedback questionnaire). In this study, observation was directed to the behaviour of athletes placed in unfamiliar situations, but possibly easily integrated as non-specific training complementary to psychological assistance. The following were similar to those that can be traced in specific athletic training. The observed data were recorded after the end of each working session.

To identify possible areas of action/intervention of non-specific training deriving from Improvisation Theatre techniques, the opportunity/need for such training and also the games with the most intensive impact on athletes, we chose to use the Feedback-Questionnaire Survey method. Feedback questionnaires were prepared before each session, according to the objectives of that session, and were completed by athletes at the end of the session. Feedback forms included five items: (1) Which of the exercises seemed most useful to you?; (2) Which of the tasks seemed the least comfortable?; (3) How do you think you can transfer the information from today’s practices into your performance?; (4) What do you think you could improve on yourself through specific Improvisational Theatre exercises?; (5) In general, how did you feel today before, during and after the workout? Also, the subjects’ verbal reports, perceptions, impressions and thoughts were recorded and taken into account to know both the extent to which they received the indications and the degree of mobilisation and impairment during the activity.

Findings

Conclusion

Taking into account the fact that athletes are aware that they have the same difficulties on the fencing strip as they had during the improvisation training, we can conclude that the transfer can be done successfully, and the non-specific training using Improvisation Theatre techniques can facilitate the specific sports training efficiency. This conclusion responds to our research question. Also, the athletes signalled the need to include improvisation in all stages of training and stated the benefits of including improvisation-specific exercises as such in sports training.

In high-level sports training, each factor becomes essential and significant to the objective of the competition. All trained elements, as well as the native ones, are dynamic to achieve the goal. In the context of the Olympic Games, all previous experiences have gained meaning and cannot be defined as single elements. The Improvisation Theatre came as a plus value, a breakthrough, a new breath when it was demanded.

Training is the key and the road to both improvisation actors and elite athletes. The training for the unpredictable and the novelty should complement the already established training methods, as it has proven its usefulness through this experiment. For the improvisation actor, any sliding of the present attracts, for themselves and the stage partners, the failure of the construction, the impossibility of continuing the development of the act, which, in the classical theatre, is not valid. That is why the improvisation training applied to other human activities is essential and has beneficial effects. In some areas of activity, such training for acceptance, for improving communication ability, for desensitisation to the stress of being watched, is a kind of paradigm shift. In sport, its benefits rely on learning or developing mental skills through other methods than those already known by the athlete, mainly through play and experimentation, aiming to remain in a “here and now” state.

In improvisation, we have the opportunity to experience various emotions and learn more about ourselves in relation to these emotions, as well as to learn to overcome fear faster, not to delay decision-making, to quickly overcome failures and misses and to cultivate our joy. All these are useful skills for elite athletes.

Improvisation is a rediscovery and an exercise of freedom and a kind of courage training, you must have the courage to expose yourself, to make and accept suggestions (without starting to think “why was I invested with such a role?”), to carry forward the ideas and proposals of the other, to make and assume arbitrary steps, to find justification for the actions of others and make their projects possible, to make decisions, to activate intuition. In improvisation, you think in action, and emotion is secondary. Improvisation training applied to performance athletes had a positive result. The goal was partially achieved – the need was identified, but for the next step, the methodology and measurements have to be modified before the training sessions to find out which are the skills improved and those gained by the athletes.

We also think that this type of training can be used successfully for team sports, although we still do not know how the effects can be assessed.

Improvisation is not intended to turn participants into future actors, but to trigger inner springs existing in each of us that help to disinhibit, mentally relax and overcome psychological “thresholds” that seem insurmountable.

Acknowledgments

To the Olympic Women’s Epee Team for their availability and activation of the entire body of resources

References

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