What exactly is Sport Psychology?
It is the scientific study on athlete’s reactions and behaviours in athletic scenarios; and then utilized to enhance performance.
Meaning: Sport Psychology can be for everyone. By watching athletes play their chosen sport, we are able to analyze and manipulate their play to produce the desired results more frequently.
What are examples of Mental/Psychological skills?
Goal setting, arousal control/anxiety reduction, affirmations/self talk, mental imagery/visualization, emotional control, communication, attribution training.. etc.
Who uses Sports Psychology?
Just about every college, national, professional and Olympic sports team has a Sports Psychologist on staff. There are also numerous individual professional athletes who work alongside sport psychologists. As time progresses, so does the realization about the positive effects of sports psychology; and everyday more and more athletes realize the need to train their minds.
Some Benefits of Mental Training:
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Why should someone use mental training?
Besides the numerous reasons above, mental training can not only benefit the individual on an athletic level, but can also benefit the individual on a personal level. Outside of sports, mental training is extremely beneficial because it teaches the individual to set goals, prioritize, stay positive (positive self talk), stay focused, and other tools such as anxiety reduction. I believe that the younger we teach these skills to kids, the more prepared they will be for life!
Sports Psychology is not a new field, but is rapidly becoming popular in amateur athletics. The reason for this popularity increase is because it works.
The Alan Richardson’s basketball test is a SINGLE example:
- Richardson took a group of athletes and performed a simple test on them. Richardson took a basketball team and assessed their performance and shooting ability. After the pre-test he broke the athletes into three groups:
Group 1- played basketball every day for 13 weeks
Group 2- had no practice mentally or physically
Group 3- Did not touch a ball but used mental imagery alone for 13 weeks
- At the end of the 13 weeks, Richardson tested the groups individually on their basketball shooting ability
Group 1 - Had a 24% increase from their previous test
Group 2 - Had no increase or decrease
Group 3 - Had a 23% increase
- Even though group three had not touched a ball in thirteen weeks, their results were just about identical to the group that had practiced with the balls every day. This is one example of the power of sport psychology.
The Richardson test is one of the most published tests about sport psychology, but has not been the last. Continued research shows athletes require mental toughness in sport. The sooner we can learn these techniques in our lives, the sooner we will be able to benefit from them!
I hope that this page has answered any of your questions that you may have had about Sports Psychology, and what it has to offer. If there are ANY questions that still remain after reading this page, feel free to contact us.