A Tale of Two Traditions in Applied Sport Psychology: The Heyday of Soviet Sport and Wake-Up Calls for North America

Abstract

This paper is the second of two essays designed to acquaint English-speaking readers with the work of Avksenty Tcezarevich Puni (1898–1986), one of the fathers of Russian sport psychology. In our previous essay “The Russian origins of sport psychology: a translation of an early work of A. Tc. Puni” (Ryba, Stambulova, & Wrisberg, 2005), we discussed Puni's innovative ideas of psychological preparation of athletes based on his classic paper “Psychological preparation of athletes for a competition” that was published in 1963. In that essay, we grounded Puni's pioneering work within the specific socio-political and historical context of his era by providing a brief overview of his life (including extensive explanatory footnotes) in pre- and post-Socialist Revolution Russia. In this paper, we attempt to further historicize the work of Puni on the psychological preparation of athletes by discussing his ground-breaking model of Psychological Preparation for a Competition (PPC) and contrasting that work with the activity of sport psychology consultants taking place in North America during the same time period (i.e., 1960s and 1970s). In a concluding section, we will discuss some of the lessons sport psychology consultants have learned in the decades since Puni developed his model and suggest some ways future models might expand on Puni's view of the provision of psychological assistance for athletes.

Notes

In the Russian language there is no word for what Bandura (1997) refers to as “self-efficacy,” but by “sensible self-confidence” Puni meant situation-specific self-confidence based on the athlete's understanding of what and how he/she was going to perform in the competition. It also meant an optimal level of confidence based on the athlete's evaluation of his/her own readiness compared to the readiness of the opponent.

Here Puni meant achievement motivation and stressed the point that athletes should always be motivated to achieve their goal and compete to the very last moment. Puni also stressed that motivation should be optimal for this athlete in this particular competition.

In several earlier publications (including the paper published in 1963 that we discussed in our first essay), Puni insisted that “psychological preparation” should be restricted to what he later called “specific psychological preparation for a competition.” This was probably because Puni did not want to confuse psychological preparation with another concept he was discussing at that time, called “volitional preparation,” which referred more to the aspect of determination or will power. However, during the 1960s the term psychological preparation had become so common among athletes, coaches and sport scientists that Puni was able to discuss it in terms of both specific preparation and general preparation, with volitional preparation being included in the latter category (see again Figure 1).

According to Puni, routines included a decrease in training loads 2–3 days before a competition (i.e., tapering), the avoidance of emotionally exhausting activity (e.g., sexual activity), relaxation/autogenic training, pre-competition mental and physical routines, etc.

K. S. Stanislavski was a famous Russian actor and stage director. He developed a system of professional training for actors that included mental skills training. Much of Stanislavski's philosophy of training can be found in the book, Stanislavski on the art of the stage. (Translated with an introductory essay on Stanislavki's “system” by David Magarshack).