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Muhammad Ali Sports Psychology

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A renowned boxer with an attitude and a rocky climb to the top.
Faced with prejudice, racism and not to mention knockouts and knockdowns.
Sport Psychology is the use of psychological knowledge to enhance wellbeing and improve optimal performance of athletes (APA, 2016). Muhammad Ali took the boxing world by storm with an unforgettable yet controversial personality. He remains the only three-time lineal world heavyweight champion and with only 5 losses in his whole career. Ali’s attitude towards boxing has always been one of determination and enthusiasm about the sport. His stubborn nature and strong mindedness help him hold his ground in both the ring and against the government. Muhammad Ali uses a range of sports psychology elements to give …show more content…

Self-talk in most cases is an inner monologue however, for Ali he decided to voice his motivation. Ali used this technique to raise his arousal levels to fall into the optimal performance bracket. While elevating his opponent’s arousal so much so that his rival drops into an over aroused state. By angering his opponent into an over aroused state his competitor is no longer as focused or as attentive.
Famous for his trash talk and psyching out his opponents, especially in the 1960 match against Jimmy Jones.
“At the weigh-in Clay loudly asked Martin (his trainer) if he was in a hurry, making sure that Jones could hear. Clay then announced that his trainer could choose whether Clay should knock out Jones in the first round so they could get home sooner or if Clay should take it easy on his opponent and let the match continue for three rounds. The amused trainer told Clay to take his time. He did, and he beat the psyched-out Jones in a three-round decision.” (P.32)
Steve Waugh is a good parallel to Muhammad Ali, his strategy called ‘Mental Disintegration’. In which the individual is going to intimidate and not be dominated. By intimidating the opponent and using mind games his strategy was quite similar to how Ali used to psych out his

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