Introduction

Sport Psychology is a term which is banded about more and more today in books, magazines, in the media, but in our experience some people are still unclear about what exactly it is and role it has to play.

Without a clear definition of what sport psychology actually is, people generally conjure up images of people lying about on couches having their heads read by a psychologist, or imagine that the job involves giving motivational talks to fire people up before the match and shouting words of encouragement from the sidelines. The truth is that there is more to it than that! Without good information, people may also be susceptible to false claims by people that have no professional credentials, and will not impact .

We aim to fill some of these gaps by explaining what sport psychology is, what the role of a sport psychologist is, explaining key words and phrases as well as discussing how to embark upon a career and advising where to find out more.

Understanding Sport Psychology

Sport Psychology is in fact a new and exciting area in sports performance which has been fast evolving since the 1950’s. It seeks to understand the behaviour of people involved in sport and exercise. Psychology can help to enhance the experience of women, men and children who partake in physical activity, whether it be those who participate purely for personal enjoyment or equally those who pursue a specific activity at an elite level. Sport psychologists also attempt to understand the psychological processes involved in the movement of the body, and the interaction between people, how learning and performance can be improved and the manner in which psychological perceptions can be enhanced. It has combined roots in the sport sciences, as well as being an applied psychological specialisation.

As an academic discipline, sport and exercise psychology is the scientific study of people and their behaviour in sport and exercise contexts and involves such topics as personality, motivation, attributions, arousal, leadership, team dynamics, and goal-setting. In essence, the field is concerned with the psychological determinants or mental components of behaviour in sport and exercise as well as the psychological effects of sport engagement and physical activity.

Attitudes to sport psychology vary enormously with people at one end of the spectrum seeing it as an ‘airy-fairy’ subject with little real value, while others at the other end viewing it as imperative. Rushall (1989) described it as, “the key to sporting excellence and success” and explains that although physiological and medical factors have their effect, it is the psychological factors that are the most important determinant of performance in elite athletes. England’s football manager, Sven Göran-Eriksson is a convert, stating “So little is required to be successful in sport. It’s certainly mostly a matter of psychology and in the end it’s that psychological difference that decides whether you win or lose” (Eriksson, 2001).

Sport Psychology encompasses a number of areas including:

1. Assessment and Testing of athletes. This is primarily undertaken for 4 reasons.a. Description – gaining information about various aspects of the athletes;
   b. Prediction – possibility of gaining knowledge about who will succeed in their chosen field;
   c. Diagnosis and intervention – pinpointing existing features of an athletes, and working with them to alleviate negative and encourage positive states and traits; and
   d. Selection and classification – using measures to select individuals for events (Singer, 1988).
2. Design and Delivery of training courses. Educating people about the impact of the mind upon performance forms a large part of the work of a Sport Psychologist.
3. One-to-one coaching. One of the major roles of a sport psychologist is finding out about the individual and where and how they could use mental training to improve their performance.
4. Group work. These are also an important part of the work of a sport psychologist. These often take the form of team building sessions where the psychologist acts as a facilitator to improve the quality of relationships between members of the team to ultimately improve the performance of the whole team. Also included in this type of work would be understanding group dynamics, communication, team roles and relationship building.
5. Research. Many sport psychologists, as scientists, are interested furthering our understanding of the effects of the mind upon performance by various experiments and collecting data. Because the subject is so young, it is important that as much good quality information as possible is gathered.