An Inside Look at Sports Psychology

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

Sports psychology deals with the mental and emotional aspects of physical performance. It involves describing, explaining and predicting attitudes, feelings and behaviours in an attempt to improve performance. In the film 'Coach Carter,' directed by Thomas Carter, sport psychology is used effectively to enhance the performance of a high school basketball team. However, this improved performance is not limited to the basketball court, it extends into the classroom where the students use goal setting, motivation, concentration and confidence control, ultimately to become accepted into college, avoiding a life of drugs, gangs and prison.

Sport psychology is the sport science that seeks to understand psychological and mental factors that affect performance in sports. For my observation task I choose a runner. It is a middle-aged woman who perform this sport for 10 years. She was preparing herself for marathon. She is a professional runner and she took part in these kinds of competitions before. My task explores the affects that are associated with female athlete before and during the competition day.

A potential career that I have in mind is becoming a Sport Psychologist. The first scholarly article I found is titled “NCAA Athletic Administrators’ Preferred Characteristics for Sport Psychology Positions: A Consumer Market Analysis”. The study conducted in this article looks into the market for Sport Psychologist in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It compares different Athletic administrator’s preferences for sport psychology positions based on time, commitment, affiliation, payment, services, and clients. The next scholarly article I found is titled “Professional Philosophy in the Sport Psychology Service Delivery: Building on Theory and Practice”. The purpose of this article is to explain the role of professional philosophy in sport psychology practice. Examples of how professional philosophy is the foundation of sport psychology practice are shown. And a conceptualization of the philosophy of service through s discussion of the the necessary components that were grouped using a hierarchy chart are explained. Both of these articles use a unique research process, and have relevance to my potential career path.

Sports and Exercise psychology is the scientific study of the psychological factors that are associated with participation and performance in sports , exercise and other types of physical work out. Sports and psychologists are keen on helping individuals use psychological principals to achieve optimal mental health and to improve performance. Students learn how participation in sport and physical activity affects an individual’s psychological development, health and wellbeing throughout their life.

Next, there is going to be an explanation of how anxiety and performance relate among athletes. A lot of sports psychology is related to anxiety. It shapes the way we think and behave prior to an event. “The ability to cope with pressure and anxiety is an integral part of sports, particularly among elite athletes” (Humara, 1999). If one is unable to get through the psychological battle that is going through their heads, it will lead to doing poorly when participating in an event.

Meyers (1991) has shown that an increase to fitness levels in athletes is important to enhance their self-esteem and interpersonal behaviours. Physical practice is important not only for mere practice, but having a clear functioning mind toward the sport, adhering to exercise programs in an endeavour to improve athletic performance, both physically and mentally (Meyers, 1991). Researchers are finding it necessary to modify their approach towards athlete behaviour to enhance performance in the field of sport (Mendoza & Wichman, 1978). Studies also found that mental rehearsal was as effective as physical practice in improving performance, however physical practice gave athletes the benefits of enjoyment and motivation towards sport (Mendoza & Wichman, 1978).

It has been identified that through sports psychology one can improve their physical ability and performance. Sports psychology is the study of how the mind, mental states and behaviour effect sporting performance. There are several sport psychology techniques, which have helped me become a better volleyball player. These techniques include planning for performance, controlling arousal levels, mental rehearsal and concentration.

For the first learning experience, I chose to discuss Sports Psychology, which discussed several key points that I have used since taking the course and will use in the future. Some of the course objectives included: covering various psychological principles that are associated with sports, discussing psychological variables that can hinder athletic performance or enhance it, and illustrating numerous psychological techniques that can enhance athletic performance. The main goals were to apply the theories of psychology to real world situations in sports and to allow students to gain a better understanding of psychological techniques that may help them in the future, which can be applied to social situations as well as situations in sports setting. Personally, this class had such a huge impact on me because it gave me a foundation of psychology, in which I based my own athletic performance on. For

The articles employ different structures; one is written in chronological order and the other is organized by problem and solution. “Sport Psychology: the Ultimate Spring Board of Excellence” is formatted so that the reader can understand the origins of sport psychology. The author, Jitendra

The sports psychology sports terminology that stood out was motivation. It was noticeable that motivation played a key role in the game. The hustle a long with determination defined the outcome for the both teams. Furthermore the team who was more motivated for victory one the game the.

Sports psychologists main purpose is to help athletes use psychological principles to reach peak mental health and to enhance their in game performance. With that purpose they have to understand how engaging in sports, exercise, and/or physical activities is going to affect the way an athlete’s brain is going to function so that, they can promote psychological development, health and well-being throughout their

Chapter 1 describes current condition and general challenges among student athletes’ community as well as specific challenges in the college athletes’ community intervening in this program research. In addition, the purpose of this research is presented referring to relationships between general challenges student athletes tend to face with and the specific challenge addressing in this research. At the end of this chapter, organization of chapters is showed as well.

One of the most important activities for an athlete to be successful is for him/her to set goals (Sports Psychology, 2014). They need to determine what their personal goals are and their team goals that they can achieve together (Sports Psychology, 2014). Goals can help to focus action, mobilize effort, and provide a purpose to the athlete’s efforts (Sports Psychology, 2014). It also provides motivation for the athlete and helps to assist with increased performance (Sports Psychology, 2014). Most athletes develop outcome goals (Sports Psychology, 2014). These goals focus on the outcome or the results of a situation (Sports Psychology, 2014). They sometimes have performance or process goals, which focus on improving performance

Sports psychology is one of the most up and coming sciences in the field of psychology. The primary focus of this field is to teach these athletes in utilizing their mental capacity and their physical talent to the fullest to reach that max performance. Psychologist in the sports field examine the performance of the players and use principles that include motivational, cognitive, and behavioral attributes to reach these high-performance levels (Cox, 2012). A large portion of success that occur in sports is due to mental factors and mastering the psychological aspect of it. Seeing the importance of mental training in the past years has become crucial today. Scientist have developed a variety of mental training programs that focus on mastering the skill of self-confidence (Cox, 2012).