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,

The present review will analyze and critique five empirical sport psychology-related research articles. Moreover, the discussion of each article will include which statistical method was used, why it was used, and whether or not it was appropriate for the data. In addition, the article discussion will include a description and possible critique of the author’s interpretations of the results.

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.

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

Professional and ameteur athletes go through many mental challenges in their sport. Some as simple as to whether a defensive back in football has to make a tackle to something as serious as a player with a concussion contemplating suicide. As an athlete, it is difficult to be able to handle all the praise and judgment from the on-looking fans that are examining every move they make. It is becoming more and more evident that the mental state of an athlete plays a major role with, not just ones on-field performance, but also ones off-field performance. This is why many teams and associations are hiring sports psychologists to assist these athletes with their mental struggles.

There are over 450,000 athletes competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) level across 24 different sports in the United States (NCAA, 2012). What psychological qualities separate the successful student athlete from the non-successful student athlete (i.e., a student athlete who completes their eligibility and graduates, or gets drafted into the professional level)? We know sport psychology and mental performance training can assist athletes in achieving peak performance by teaching confidence, goal setting, imagery, mental toughness, how to deal with pressure, relaxation, positive self-talk and more (Shemake, 2014). This study aims to identify if certain student athletes posses some of these characteristics without

Baseball as you may know, is a mental game. The famous New York Yankee catcher once said, “Baseball is 90 per cent mental. The other half is physical”. The use of sport psychology is vital in a game like baseball which I have an very deep background in playing and coaching. Through learning about sports psychology, it is easy to relate past experiences to different things that have been learned in class. There have been many situations that I can relate to psychology of sport, after playing in such a mental game.

State anxiety occurs during competition and decreases performances but interventions can decrease cognitive and somatic anxiety (Prapavessis, Grove, McNair, & Cable). Athletes can also attain anxiety when they do not see their coaches as competent. For example, if a coach were to tell a soccer athlete to do this and then they get hurt they would not trust them and be anxious doing any other directions (Myers, Beauchamp, & Chase, 2011). Since coaches are able to reduce an athlete’s anxiety then, coaches have the ability to create a positive atmosphere and in this study student-athletes had an overall positive view of their coaches' ability to develop autonomy-supportive team climates (Noble & Forester, 2016). According to researcher’s anxiety may be a predisposition but state anxiety is heavily influenced by the motivational climate, more specifically ego environments athletes reported increases in anxiety over the season (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007). When athletes enter state anxiety many have coping methods, and PPR may influence performance through lowering the athlete’s anxiety (Hazell, Cotterill, & Hill, 2014) or even self-talk (Miles & Neil, 2013), but the success of using these techniques would depend on the situation. However, some research suggests that regardless of competition (good or bad) and sport (long duration/short duration) athletes reported an equal number of experiences and implemented coping strategies (Nieuwenhuys, Vos, Pijpstra, & Bakker, 2011). With this conflicting research on how it effects athletes, there is research that states giving athletes CSAI-2 or sports oriented questionnaires can help both parties understand each other (Hall & Kerr,

Myths are commonly taken as fact when it comes to many of these areas of sport psychology. Coaches, teachers, and athletes will never change unless they inspect or are taught the facts and research behind these various theories and behaviors. This can be a large problem for those athletes who are instructed incorrectly, and it could potentially damage their futures in athletic competitions.

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.

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.

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

Of note, while the references and resources involving athletes and athletics are limited, there is existing research that connects personality

Mental factors are extremely important in relation to success in sport and the adherence of a physically active lifestyle. Mental factors such as confidence and efficacy hold place in such a way that limits and enables athletes to commit or quit an activity. Mental factors limit ones ability to motivate self to work towards a goal that is set fourth either by a team or an individual client seeking fitness achievement. If an athlete or client is not mentally prepared then they may fall short of achieving their process or even outcome goals. This disparity can leads to the cease or demise of ones athletic and or fitness career.

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).