iStadia's presence in social media - groups for sport & exercise professionals
As part of our overall promotion, we obviously try to practice what we preach to sport & exercise professionals by maintaining a profile on other websites.Ultimately, if you are a member of iStadia (and if not why not?), it is of benefit to you if you can take a few moments to join and help promote these groups.
iStadia - Sport & Exercise Professional Networking on Facebook - includes updates from us, and latest blogs, articles and news automatically added to the page.
If you are on Facebook, please become a 'fan' and share the page with your friends, either in a message or by posting it to your profile.
Now, we know that lots of you will be members on Facebook, so no excuses...
iStadia also has a group on LinkedIn. We automatically post all blogs, articles, news and events to the LinkedIn group, and also repost specific content in other sports and fitness groups.
If you are on LinkedIn, please join our group.
Socialmedian is a relatively new site that has been gaining in popularity and is already very popular among those 'in the know' when it comes to social media.
Socialmedian is about pulling news together into networks. Guess what? Yes, we have a group there too!
Visit iStadia's sport & exercise professionals network page on socialmedian, 'clip' our material and even add your own rss feeds.
Twitter is the social tool of the moment, and all sorts of sites are capitalizing on its popularity. Twitter groups is one of these. All you need to join is a twitter ID - no additional signin required.
In addition to helping us, by joining the sport and exercise professionals twitter group we can keep track of you and ensure that we are following you.
Diigo is more of a social bookmarking site, but also has groups, so why not have one there! I'm finding that Diigo is getting better and better results, having recently acquired furl.
Why not give it a go? You'll find our sport & exercise group here.
Ballhype is more aimed at sport fans, but is also very popular. It's slant is towards sports that are popular in the US, but does cover sports such as Tennis, Golf, Soccer and there is the old 'other sports' category too.
If you are aming to reach consumers - in particular sports fans - you should try ballhype. Even if you are not, it is worth bookmarking your blog posts here for the purposes of SEO.
Help us to help you - by joining us on these other sites. If you would like to suggest any other sites, please do!
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Why Capello was wrong to tell Rooney to calm down
I've just read (on the BBC) that Capello has told Wayne Rooney that he needs to calm down, calling him a "crazy man". I disagree fundamentally with this, and believe that Rooney at his best is a little crazy, and definitely not calm, but full of energy and mischief.
Referring to Rooney's sending off last week (see my post Manchester United's March Madness) "What were you doing punching the corner flag? You're a crazy man, a crazy man,".
To me, Rooney at his best is not calm, as I said, but energetic and out to make nuisance of himself by trying new things. He is audacious and arguably a maverick.
At his worst, Rooney is an angry player who storms around confronting people and making a nuisance of himself in an entirely different, and unproductive, manner.
The difference is not intensity, activation, energy or arousal - to use a few terms. Using Reversal Theory as a guide, the difference lies in whether Rooney is playing 'in the moment' (playful state) or his mind is somewhere in the future or past (serious state). 
One often hears a manager say about a player "If you took that side of he personality out of his game he wouldn't be the player he is". Reversal Theory allows us to unpick problems like this and look for triggers that cause a 'reversal' from one state (e.g. the playful and rebellious states) to another (serious and rebellious). This might be a "bad" decision, growing frustration, or it might be the influence of a leader (microclimate), but the triggers can usually be found and managed.
Notice from the states used as an example that both "good Rooney" and "bad Rooney" are in the rebellious state (which sounds bad, but isn't necessarily). So, if you want "good Rooney" the answer, I believe, is not to calm hom down or try to stop his rebellious streak, but to keep him playing 'in the moment.
This could involve staying focused on the process (what do I need to do now?), self-talk or other cues to encourage 'playful' thinking, or even use of a physical cue (a reminder of the mindset require).
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
The sporting transatlantic divide (as played out on Google)
Working in a transatlantic company by day, I'm always struck by just how different the American and British cultures are - and nowhere is that much more evident than in sport.
Reflecting on that, I thought I'd check how the difference in our sporting cultures played out on the internet by looking at Google Trends. Just how real is the transatlantic divide in sport? Are we really two sporting countries divided by a common language?
Top Sports Searches in the last 12 months
The differences really are remarkable. Looking first at the UK, over that last 12 months, the only entries in the top searches that really match up are golf and the generic "sports". Of course both share the top entry of "football" but of course the term has a completely different meaning in the two countries.
Both top search lists reflect the popularity of specific sports in each country. "Football" in the UK (soccer) is followed by golf, rugby and cricket. Sadly, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, which markets itself as "sports entertainment) makes the British top ten. In the US, the big sports by searches are football (American football), golf, basketball and baseball, with soccer (perhaps surprisingly) making it too.While the big news agencies are also represented, another noticeable difference is that while in the UK two football clubs make the top ten (Liverpool and Arsenal - I suspect that Manchester United do not make it because there are more ways of searching for them e.g. "Man United", "Man Utd") while it is the leagues themselves that are the bigger brands in the US - NFL & NBA.
Rising Searches in the last 12 months
The top spots in the rising search reflect the sports that are most searched for, but while in the US it is an event (Superbowl 09), in the UK it is a computer game (Fifa 09). Unsurprisingly, the Olympics made a big splash in both countries. More surprisingly so did Euro 2008. Otherwise, both lists to some extent represent the teams and athletes that were in the spotlight. In the US, we see Michael Phelps, then the (Boston) Celtics (NBA "World" Champions), (Philadelphia) Phillies (World Series Champs) and the (LA) Lakers (NBA Finalists). In the UK, the obsession with football comes out again, with Hull City (newly promoted to the Premier League) and Ronaldo (World Player of the Year).Rising Searches in the last 30 days
If anything, the UK shows slightly more diversity, with horse racing (and the Cheltenham festival) and the start of the Formula 1 racing season coming into focus.
I hope you found that interesting. It is just a surface skim of our sporting cultures, but the differences are stark. It would appear that the transatlantic sporting divide is alive and well!
Top searches in Sports, United Kingdom, Last 12 months
1. football
2. club
3. golf
4. bbc
5. sports
6. rugby
7. cricket
8. wwe
9. liverpool
10. arsenal
Rising searches in Sports, United Kingdom, Last 12 months
1. fifa 09 Breakout
2. beijing 2008 +4500%
3. surf the channel +1750%
4. olympic games +650%
5. euro 2008 +250%
6. olympics +200%
7. hull city +140%
8. soccer manager +130%
9. wiki +90%
10. ronaldo +40%
Top searches in Sports, United States, Last 12 months
1. football
2. golf
3. basketball
4. sports
5. nfl
6. baseball
7. soccer
8. olympics
9. nba
10. espn
Rising searches in Sports, United States, Last 12 months
1. superbowl 2009 Breakout
2. nbc olympics Breakout
3. beijing 2008 Breakout
4. michael phelps +1900%
5. 2008 olympics +1000%
6. olympics +500%
7. euro 2008 +500%
8. celtics +100%
9. lakers +90%
10. phillies +70%
Rising searches in Sports, United Kingdom, Last 30 days
1. champions league draw Breakout
2. champions league +450%
3. cheltenham +350%
4. uefa +250%
5. carling cup +130%
6. jumpers for goalposts +100%
7. inter +100%
8. real madrid +90%
9. f1 +90%
10. racing results +70%
Rising searches in Sports, United States, Last 30 Days
1. ncaa bracket Breakout
2. 2009 ncaa bracket Breakout
3. march madness +1250%
4. ncaa tournament +1200%
5. world baseball classic +1100%
6. ncaa tournament 2009 +1050%
7. ncaa +600%
8. ncaa basketball +550%
9. cbs +450%
10. college basketball +80%
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Which Website Analytics Tool Do You Use?
Recently I logged into our Google Analytics account to find that the reports for iStadia and the iStadia marketplace had gone. Just like that! So I searched their help forums and found that people with similar problems had been told "well, you must have deleted them".Given that, I don't hold out much hope of retrieving them, so decided to act on a recommendation and try Clicky Web Analytics.
After just a few days, I'm finding it really useful and despite an annual fee (versus Google's free tool) I'll certainly be talking to Keith and recommending that we take up their professional subscription at the end of my trial. (After all, we can't expect things of value to be free all the time, not even on the web!).
What's different about Clicky? First of all, their 'spy' functionality provides a real-time element. So, if I tweet about something on iStadia, I can see what kind of response I get to it.
Yesterday, I noticed that someone based in Ghana had accessed our contacts importer several times in a few minutes. This seemed odd, and suggested that they might be having a problem. So I dug a bit deeper and found that they had accessed the page around 50 times. Now, I'm very happy that they were so persistent, but we need to know if there's a problem, and Clicky can help with that and help us to provide the customer service by reaching out. Because it allows you to name visitors we can eventually pinpoint (after reaching out through sitemail) who is having problems like this.
Another example: Today I noticed that someone from a Premier League football club has come onto the site via our membership benefits page. They then visited a few more pages before going back to the membership benefits page, but they didn't sign up. To use a fishing analogy, I'd say we got a bite there, but our benefits page perhaps wasn't quite enticing enough for them. I can investigate further, looking at everyone who has visited that page, and see what their pathways through the site have been as well as getting a conversion rate. I can go a step further and monitor specific goals with tracking codes, but haven't gone to that level yet. I'm sure that I will, however, given the insights and improvements that it might bring.
I know that Google analytics can do a lot of these things (but not real time), but I just find Clicky to be more intutive and, well, useful.
Check out Clicky Web Statistics and take your free trial.
(Note that this is an affiliate link, but I don't expect to make my fortune from it. I really do recommend the product).
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Manchester United's March Madness!
A week ago (as I write this) Manchester United looked imperious and unassailable at the top of the Premier League. It looked unlikely that anyone would stop them defending their title and, indeed, winning an unprecedented quintuple. Two straight defeats and the story is quite different. While they still hold a lead in the Premier League, a Liverpool win tomorrow would cut that back to one point (albeit with a game in hand).
The real story is not arithmetical, however, but psychological. Liverpool, on the back of convincing wins against Man United and Real Madrid, will take fresh confidence from their rivals' defeat at Fulham today, and revitalise their belief that they can still win the title. Chelsea, having lost to Tottenham today, failed to capitalise on their opportunity to close the gap.
In this week of madness, Manchester United have had three players sent off: Vidic, Scholes and Rooney. All three will be missing for Aston Villa's visit to Old Trafford on April 5.
While United have excellent strength in depth, to have three such influential players out won't help them.
But it is Rooney that I'm interested in. I've so often watched Rooney and thought that he was the barometer of the side that he is playing in. For England, who so often seem (at least pre-Capello) to huff and puff their way through games, belying the talent at their disposal, Rooney often cuts an angry figure. When Rooney is angry, England are a team without creativity and spark. With an in-form Manchester United, Rooney is a different man - full of energy, and always lookign to try something different - a maverick if you like.
Rather than being the driver of his team's 'personality', I think that Rooney reflects it. He's not a player that can hide his emotions all that well. I'd put it down to 'climate'. It's the influence of key people (leaders) on the collective mindset of the team.So what I'm wondering today is this: With Rooney being sent off for stupidly throwing the ball away and, of course, with Manchester United losing two games on the bounce, are cracks appearing in the mental strength of the Manchester United squad, and of Alex Ferguson?
Just before Liverpool stumbled and allowed Man United to overtake them, their manager Raphael Benitez let off a rant about Man United and Alex Ferguson which was seen as a sign of the pressure getting to him. I was therefore interested to note that Fergie was reported this morning as talking about the money that Liverpool would be spending this summer.
I wouldn't call it a rant, but it suggest that Ferguson's mind may have been on Liverpool - which is exactly what Liverpool would want.
Things just might get even more interesting tomorrow - but only if Liverpool can deliver. Which, to be honest, we can't fully rely on....
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Anxiety Interpretation (Anxiety Direction) vs Reversal Theory in Sport Psychology
I received my copy of The Sport and Exercise Scientist* in the post today, and gave the cover the usual cursory glance (it is actually good, but I just don't have much time to read it). My scan picked up an interesting question: "Is studying anxiety interpretations useful for sport and exercise psychologists?". So I thumbed through and found a rather interesting debate between two sport psychologists, staged by email and reprinted for the benefit of others. The debate gave me heart and caused me frustration, because while it opened up an important avenue for research and practice, they both missed the fact that a theory has been in place for over 25 years that adequately addresses all of the issues raised. That theory is Reversal Theory (Apter).So you have my conclusion. Let's rewind so that those of you that don't have access to The Sport and Exercise Scientist can get a flavour of the debate.
The protagonist was Dr. Steve Mellalieu, and the respondent Professor Andy Lane.
Mellalieu asserted that the study of anxiety interpretation represented a significant improvement in the ability of sport psychology to turn theory into effective practice. Anxiety interpretation or 'direction' refers to whether an athlete perceives anxiety to be 'facilitative' or 'debilitative' to performance.
He focused on the implicit tendency for non-directional approaches to anxiety to lead to interventions that work at a symptomatic level (which I believe to be true), stating "anxiety symptoms viewed as "faciliative" or "debilitative" has not only changed the way researchers approach how elite athletes successfully manage competition stress, but has also fundamentally altered the way in which practitioners work with performers experience compeititve anxiety" and that "traditional interventions aimed at symptom reduction have been found to be inappropriate for sports requiring high activation states and subsequent mental and physical readiness for competition".
OK. Let's put aside stress for a moment. I don't know why it has slipped into the discussion, as it is a separate construct which may or may not be caused by anxiety.
I almost completely agree with this. Just because someone experiences anxiety does not mean that arousal reduction is the appropriate path to take.
Indeed, Reversal Theory describes 16 primary emotions. 8 of those are influenced by physiological arousal (has arousal fallen out of favour as a label, because Mallalieu used several other terms to refer to it?).
So what? Well, Anxiety is experienced in the Serious (Telic, to use the academic terminology) & Conformist motivational states with high arousal (below).
What this means is that the options open for intervention are:
a) Lower physiological arousal, thus bringing the athlete 'down the curve' towards relaxation
b) Facilitate a 'reversal' from the serious (telic) to the playful (paratelic) state, perhaps through a cognitive intervention such as reframing, thus changing the emotional experience to excitement. Another reversal might be from the conformist to the rebellious (negativistic) states, which will be experienced as anger. This might seem counter-intuitive but it may be what John McEnroe used to do - get angry to break out of another emotional state
c) Change 'focus' to another pair of states - I don't show these states, but the focusing on the controllables (using process goals) for example can bring the mastery state into focus, and while there may still be a level of anxiety, it goes into the 'background' (I'll talk about protective frames later - but this might also increase confidence and facilitate the experience of arousal as excitement).
OK. So the point here is that this theoretical approach has been accessible to sport psychologists for at least 2 decades and more.
Both Mellalieu and Lane agreed that facilitative anxiety is a contradiction in terms. Anxiety is a negative emotional experience. Simple as that. Mellalieu argued that it could be interpreted in positive ways. I don't doubt that - he mentions as a 'signal' that one is ready to perform, for example.
But I agree with Lane's assertion that "an athlete reporting high scores of facilitative cognitive anxiety cannot be displaying anxiety alone, but a different emotion, and one not assessed by the directional scale". Bingo! Indeed Mellalieu unwittingly agrees:
"athletes who interpret symptoms associated with anxiety as facilitative, also tend to be simultaneously confident and excited".
Hmm. Anxious and excited? There's a lot of research that suggests this is not possible (I'm not an academic and don't have references at my fingertips but there are some starting points at the foot of this post). Not at the same exact point in time, that is. However, in 'reversals' happen instantaneously, and in some cases frequently, so that an athlete who is oscillating between two motivational states might report feeling anxious and excited. But not technically at the same time.
Confidence is important here too. Yet again, Reversal Theory has an explanation for this. There is a concept in Reversal Theory (yes, it is a multifaceted theory and it does take some work, which I'd provocatively hypothesize is why it isn't more widely used in sport psychology) called 'protective frames'. The 'confidence frame' is one of these, and when it is present, an athlete may be aware of the threat that makes them anxious, but in fact experience a pleasant emotion - excitement. This is akin to the skydiver who is terrified as he jumps from the aeroplane, but when the parachute opens loses all sense of fear and instead experiences exhilaration.
Ok. Back to the arguments.
I think that Andy Lane is bang on in principle. He calls for sport psychologists to drop CSAI-2 as a tool, and argues for the need to consider the impact of beliefs and regulatory processes on anxiety as one of a range of emotions.
Again, Reversal Theory fits the bill. The theory revolves not around anxiety or any other emotion, but around motivational states (also referred to as metamotivational states or motivational styles) which are like lenses through which we see the world, placing meaning and motivation at the heart of emotional experience.
Perhaps most of all I agreed with Andy Lane when he wrote "athletes don't understand the notion of anxiety direction". You know what? Neither do I. But athletes, coaches and managers get the basic structure of Reversal Theory and can relate it to their experience, making it and its diagnostic instrument, the Apter Motivational Style Profile, a powerful coaching tool.
So I hope that I've made a case for Reversal Theory. I was introduced to it by Jonathan Males, and started talking to Michael Apter whom I found to be a kind and fascinating man. As an indirect result, I ended up working for Apter International (though I've moved on now). I don't buy Reversal Theory because I worked for Apter though. I worked for Apter because I had used the theory in my work as a sport psychologist and found it to be an the antidote to the problems that stimulated this debate - the lack of transferrability of a lot of sport psychology theory and research to practice. Think of it as my Victor Kayam (the bloke from the Remington ads that liked them so much, he bought the company) moment - only I didn't buy the company.
But the main reason for posting this is my frustration that after years and years, sport psychology still treats Reversal Theory as a footnote in the anxiety literature. It's more than that, but rather than engaging with it, sport psychology tries to reinvent the wheel, and come up with clunky and self-contradicting constructs.
What's more, Reversal Theory has been used successfully in clinical psychology, smoking cessation, psychotherapy, exercise psychology, organisation performance, management development, consumer marketing and political lobbying among many other things (for a full bibliography check out the Reversal Theory Society)
I've shared a case study that you might find useful, and an introduction to Reversal Theory. But please, let's get some debate going on this. I will email this to both Steve Mallelieu and Andy Lane, and perhaps they will join in.
But we've also got a number of 'experts' on Reversal Theory on iStadia who are at least (mostly more) knowledgeable than I am: Michael Apter himself, Jonathan Males, Phil Moore, Gareth Lewis, Marie Shelton, Michelle Pain. Jo Thatcher and Jennifer Tucker (apologies if I've missed anyone!).
* The Sport and Exercise Scientist is the official publication of The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences
Useful reading:
Kerr, J.H. (2001). Counselling Athletes: Applying Reversal Theory. London: Routledge.
Apter, M.J. (2001). Motivational Styles in Everyday Life: A Guide to Reversal Theory. Washington: APA.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Sport & Exercise Professionals: Do you know that 'News' means YOUR news?!
We're starting to see some really positive signs that sport and exercise professionals are warming to using iStadia to develop their networks, caeers and business. Membership is accelerating, we see more people posting (though we'd like some of the early adopters to come back!) but one thing isn't happening: NEWS.
Does this mean that our members have no news? Is there nothing interesting happening in their professional lives? Are there no new contracts being won? No changes to their professional discipline? No interesting developments in their market? No new courses being offered, products launched or services delivered?
Of course not.
So, do they know that 'news' means their news? Perhaps sport and exercise professionals don't like to blow their own trumpets. I bet there's some truth in that (as you are such an ethical bunch), but sharing news doesn't mean overstating the truth or making other unethical claims.
But I'm sure that there is some of the former. I know that we have members who share their news with a mailing list. I'm on some of them. So, that must be part of the problem.
Of course there's at least one other explanation: They don't think it will make a difference. Well, you'll never know unless you go (as one advert used to say). But what we can say is that:
Some other members of iStadia - other sport & exercise professionals will see it AND
Other people that are searching for content like yours - potential customers - will see it.
So let this be a rallying call. Tell us what you're up to. Share your news. You are interesting. We do want to know. The world WILL be a better place for it, and if you do it regularly, it probably will make a difference.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
