Sports Psychology Research Paper

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.

(Voelker). Therefore, athletes are trying to find an edge that goes beyond physical abilities and conditioning. Professional sports organizations along with Universities hire sport psychologists to help athletes stay on top of their game. With the field growing, so is the need for psychologists at all levels. Even beyond Olympians and professionals, the need extends all the way down to college athletes and even high school athletes looking to advance in their prospective sport.

This report was created to help the Florida Sports Committee understand why Clear Choice Coaching will want to partner and incorporate the sport phycology discipline in our practices to help us with our approach to recruit, retain and develop our coaches. This report was created to bring attention to the benefits of working together with coaches and sport psychology professionals to help advance and implement reliable yearly platforms of activities that carry out quality measurable assessments. We concentrate in coaching Soccer, Basketball, Tennis and Football. We are confident by integrating this discipline we will develop increased efficiency, knowledge sharing and transfer of improved skills to our athletes. We can see the benefits that

Our thoughts, diet/nutrition, exercise, rest, environment and physiology have a positive or negative impact on us which affects how well we perform and feel. In the world of sports, this is very easy to demonstrate because the mind/body connection provides you with immediate feedback. When you are positive, your performance excels. When you are negative, your performance is adversely affected. With various types of distress, or

Today in sports athletes endure many mental and physical obstacles from there competitive environment. Many of today's best athletes work with sports psychologists to help them handle the pressures found in this competitive atmosphere. One question that athletes ask is, why cant they play in big games as well as they anticipate themselves doing? Sports psychologists feel that spending all their time on body conditioning and athletic skills will not ensure that athletes reach their peak performance.

Sports today are popular not only in the United States, but also throughout the rest of the world. Due to the fact that sports have such a large impact on the world around us, it is common to grasp their effects on us as a society. Personality is who you are or accordingly, is defined as the sum of all physical, mental and sociable characteristics. It is important to understand the positive and negative side effects of being heavily involved in sports. What I have experienced from being involved in sports throughout my childhood and into my teenage years was that my personality was developed through sports and made me who I have become. The results I came across while writing this paper have only increased my bias to the topic even if it still needed to be proven with facts. Sports have a positive effect on a person, much like it did on me mentally, socially, and physically. I came to my topic when I was trying to figure out what I was passionate enough to write about. Sports have always played an enormous role in my life and I had the opportunity to show how it affects people’s day to day lives.

When it comes to emotions and psychological well being athletes are not machines and they should not be expected to deny any mental struggles. Trainers, coaches, and physical therapists are there for their physical training but they also require psychological support. Those closest to the athletes need to learn to recognize the warning signs such as an overly self-critical nature, perfectionism, and fear of failure to be able to seek out help for the athletes. Sport governing bodies and organizations should induce protocols and procedures about how peers, coaches, and support staff can help when dealing with an athlete suffering from a mental illness. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has released “Mind, Body and Sport - Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Wellness” which is a resource developed to provide information and outline the roles and responsibilities of sports staff and coaches as well as identifies the Models of service, and NCAA resources and policies. This is an extremely helpful and reliable source that other sporting organizations should follow. Also, high performance programs for both individual and team sports should require programs to have a team sport psychologist to be readily available for athletes, and to work with them on throughout the sporting season to be able to develop mental skills to better them on, and off the court. It should become the “responsibility (of the sport association) to provide the services and care to help each athlete reach his or her full potential” (Hainline 2014, 7) In some situations, Sport psychologists may find themselves having to address mental health issues with the athletes they counsel that they may find is out of their capability to deal with mental health problems. It may be

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.

If I was forced to choose a field in Psychology, I would most likely choose to be a sports psychologist. According to the American Psychologist Association, a sports psychologist will, “Help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, become more motivated, and learn to deal with the anxiety and fear of failure that often accompany competition (American Psychological Association, 2016, para. 2).” This would be my prefered field because I could somewhat connect with my patients since I am very active in sports and other competitive activities. If I was in this field, then I would be able to best help because I have known the intense feelings of stress and anxiety that comes along with a serious sport and I could be able to communicate

In earlier days sports psychology was mostly concerned with developing assessment methods that would identify those people with the potential to become serious superior athletes. Today the focus is on psychological training, exercises that strengthen the mental skills that will help athletic performances on the path to excellence. These skills include mental imagery and focus training. If an athlete is serious about becoming the best he or she can possibly be, the most essential ingredient is commitment to practice the right things. It takes incredible commitment to reach the top: a commitment to rest and train the body so it can perform under the most demanding conditions and a commitment to train the mind to

Although many people consider sports a getaway from work, it does have countless good health factors. Team sports help boost self-confidence, which can lead to a skill and strength increase. Mentally, self-confidence also can increase self-esteem and self-image. Depression and stress are also avoided in team sports, as the mind is distracted when physically active. In team sports, self- perception and maintaining a healthy weight is also helpful for a good health psychologically. The people enrolled in sports have psychologically differences compared to the people who

Sport psychology, as indicated by the AAASP (Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology), is the study of psychological and mental components that impact and are affected by participation and execution in sport, exercise, and physical activity. Moreover, it is the utilization of the information increased through this study to ordinary settings. A sport psychologist is keen on how interest in sport, exercise, and physical movement may improve advancement and prosperity for the duration of the life span. There are three things that sport psychologists participate in: exploration, training, and application. With respect to research, they may endeavor to discover answers to a limitless number of inquiries through hypothetical or observational, essential or connected, and lab or field

Children who participate in sports are developing rapidly in sports skills, sportsmanship, and psychologically, but does this come from organized sports are just nature’s process. Children develop emotional and social benefits from participating in sports. Children experience character and leadership development through peer relations leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in anxiety levels. Children will get opportunities to experience positive and negative emotions throughout their practice and games trials. It is important for the coach to understand the “psychology of youth sports and physical activity participation” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011 p.516).

Sports today are very popular not only in the United States, but also throughout the rest of the world. Due to the fact that sports have such a big impact on the world around us, it is common to see their effects on us as a society. Personality is who you are or in other words is defined as the sum of all physical, mental and sociable characteristics. It is important to understand the positive and negative side effects of being heavily involved in sports. What I have experienced from being involved in sports throughout my childhood and into my teenage years was that my personality was developed through sports and made me who I am. The results I came across while writing this paper have only increased my bias to the topic although it still had to be proven with facts. Sports have a positive effect on a person, much like it did on me mentally, socially, and physically. I came to my topic when I was trying to figure out what I was passionate enough to write about. Sports have always played a big role in my life and I had the opportunity to show how it affects people’s day to day lives.