The Psychology of Sports Essay

(Miserandino, 1998, p. 287) Athletes can also suffer greatly from anxiety and stress. (Holm, Beckwith, Ehde, Tinius, 1995, p. 463) Any of these conditions can be detrimental to ones competitive ability. Techniques such as mental imagery training and relaxation techniques can be used to attack problems in these areas. (McKenzie, Howe, 1997, p. 196) Marianne Miserandino's research was focused on failure, and why athletes believe that they don't accomplish their goals. She learned that starting at young age, athletes are told that failure comes from their lack of ability. This is called learned helplessness. (Miserandino, 1998, p. 287) In her study she approached this problem by splitting her subject into two groups. One group received feedback about their shooting techniques and were told that lack of effort was the reason for missed shots, not lack of ability. The other group received only feedback on their techniques.

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.

Starting from my freshman year in high school I have always been more intrigued by the human mind and how it operates. Thanks to the study of psychology my curiosity only flourished even more as I got older. I find the observations psychology gives about human behavior very interesting, and I have been fascinated by it for as long as I can remember. I’ve been caught in between approaching the journey of being a sports psychologist and an industrial organizational psychologist. I am passionate about sports and studying Psychology. I plan on extending my knowledge in the mixture of the two and contributing it towards my future. I want to examine the various areas of sports psychology and also learn more about the idea of improving quality 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.

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,

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

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.

The study results included that there were few differences between the male and female athletes perception of sport psychology except the males tend to view sport psychology as having to do with mental things and females viewed it as having a problem. Both genders seemed to view the barrier of using sport psychology services to be admitting you have a problem and how others (peers) would view it, embarrassment. Other conclusions from this study were that high school athlete has a positive attitude about sport psychology and want to gain a better understanding of the field. It was noted, the focus group facilitator’s background in the field of sport psychology was shared in the group and may have influenced the participates positive attitude

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.

Although mental rehearsal is not as beneficial as physical practice, it fairs better than no practice at all. Therefore a program involving both mental and physical rehearsal training seems to be the most beneficial to the individual. However, improvements need to be made by sports psychologists in the area of mental rehearsal, so athletes can have a better understanding of the game and what is involved to enhance their performance. Further studies need to be conducted to determine when and why mental rehearsal techniques will be effective to enhance better performance by athletes in their sporting

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).

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

Mental toughness is not a new concept in sport, but is generally misunderstood. Coaches design programmes to develop mentally tough athletes, predominately in professional sport, to separate elite performers from good performers (Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993) as physical talent itself is not the only component that can lead an athlete to success (Gucciardi, Gordon, & Dimmock, 2008).