SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

Sport Psychology
Sport psychology is a proficiency that uses psychological knowledge and
skills to address optimal performance and well-being of athletes,
developmental and social aspects of sports participation, and systemic
issues associated with sports settings and organizations.

Sport Psychology interventions are designed to assist athletes and other

sports participants (e.g., coaches, administrators, parents) from a wide
array of settings, levels of competition and ages, ranging from recreational
youth participants to professional and Olympic athletes to master’s level
performers.

 “Sport psychology is about understanding the performance, mental

processes, and wellbeing of people in sporting settings, taking into
account psychological theory and methods.” Meijen, 2019
 Sports psychology is now widely accepted as offering a crucial edge
over competitors. And while essential for continuing high performance
in elite athletes, it also provides insights into optimizing functioning in
areas of our lives beyond sports.
 As a result, psychological processes and mental wellbeing have
become increasingly recognized as vital to consistently high degrees of
sporting performance for athletes at all levels where the individual is
serious about pushing their limits.
 Indeed, as cognitive scientist Massimiliano Cappuccio (2018) writes,
“physical training and exercise are not sufficient to excel in
competition.” Instead, key elements of the athlete’s mental preparation
must be “perfectly tuned for the challenge.”
 For example, in recent research attempting to understand endurance
limits, psychological variables have been confirmed as the deciding
factor in ceasing effort rather than muscular fatigue (Meijen, 2019).
The brain literally limits the body.
 Beyond endurance, mental processes are equally crucial in other
aspects of sporting success, such as maintaining focus, overcoming
injury, dealing with failure, and handling success.

Real-Life Examples

As long ago as 2008, Tiger Woods confirmed the importance of his mental
strength and ability to push himself from within (Moran, 2012):

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an

American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks
second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.
[5]
 Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time and one
of the most famous athletes in history.
“It’s not about what other people think and what other people say. It’s about
what you want to accomplish and do you want to go out there and be
prepared to beat everyone you play or face?”

And golf experts agree. While Tiger Woods’s natural gifts are self-evident,
you can never count him out when he is losing, because of his robust
mindset. He is always prepared and always has a plan (Bastable, 2020).

Tiger's Unusual Training

Tiger credits his late father, Earl Woods, for his ability to focus when the

pressure is on. In a famous Nike ad about 10 years ago, Earl talked about

his unusual training methods. He would intentionally drop the golf bag, or

jingle coins and make noise during Tiger's backswing. He promised his son

that nobody would be as mentally tough. 

Earl knew how to train for mental strength. He served in the U.S. Special

Forces (Green Beret) in Vietnam. Many people who are in great physical

shape try out for the Army's most elite commando squad. Most fail in the

first week because strength is only one attribute they look for. Intense focus

on the work to be done--the task at hand--is a critical attribute. 

Recently, an ad for a British commando unit (the Royal Marines) showed a

soldier hiding in the jungle, focused on watching the enemy. A big, hairy,

and really scary spider is shown slowly crawling across the man's face. Of

course, the soldier doesn't flinch. It's a real Marine and a real spider. The ad
is intended to show that these elite fighters are taught to keep their focus,

despite the terror.

Winning a golf tournament under pressure isn't the same as facing down an

enemy in the jungle, but they're both achieved by using the same mental

habit--focus on the work to be done. Nothing else should get in the way.

We use similar mental training to help people overcome stage fright in

public speaking. Anxiety is caused when people allow their minds to

become distracted, typically with fearful thoughts. For example, during a

presentation speakers will think to themselves: What if my boss doesn't like

my presentation? What if I fail to win over the customer?  Instead, calm and

confident speakers will focus on one slide at a time, one message at a time.

They let the outcome take care of itself. They're only focused on performing

their best in the moment.

When the pressure is on, maintain your focus on the task at hand and

achieving a positive result. Golf commentators made several references to

"Tiger's steely stare" in the final round of the Tour Championship. It's not

the stare that makes him successful--the stare is a symbol of single-minded

focus, a skill you can--and should--build to be successful in any area.

Vision and the right mindset will overcome

When sports scientist and motivational expert Greg Whyte met Eddie Izzard,
the British comedian didn’t even own a pair of running shoes. Yet Whyte
had six weeks to prepare her for the monumental challenge of running 43
consecutive marathons.
Vision, belief, science-led training, psychological support, and Izzard’s epic
degree of determination were the essential ingredients that resulted in
success (Whyte, 2015).

Greg Whyte, OBE (born 21 June 1967), also known as Super-Greg, is a

former Olympian and a Sports Scientist. He won European bronze and
World Championship silver medals, also competing in two Olympic Games,
representing Great Britain in the Modern Pentathlon.[1][2]
Whyte has been involved in Comic Relief. His role has been to train and
coach celebrities who do challenges for charity, such as comedian David
Walliams, John Bishop, James Cracknell, Cheryl Cole, Gary Barlow,
and Eddie Izzard.[3][4]

Greg Whyte debunks five diet myths

DON’T EAT CARBS
“Zero-carb diets are nonsense because we need carbs to fuel the exercise
which keeps us fit and healthy. Just control your intake and stick to
complex carbs like rice, potatoes and pasta instead of sugary products.”

AIM FOR FIVE A DAY

“It doesn’t matter whether you eat five or eight portions of fruit and veg a
day, just that you get a good mix of colours. Each colour has different
nutrients which support your health and fitness in different ways.”

NEVER EAT FATS

“Fat is crucial for energy metabolism, hormone production and brain
function, so to have a fat-free diet would be extremely bad for you. Limit
your intake of saturated fats and aim for fish oils, olive oils and avocados.”

IT’S OK TO SKIP A MEAL

“If you miss a meal you will mess up your metabolism and trigger cravings.
Eat three meals a day and try to keep them evenly spaced out throughout
the day.”

SNACKS ARE BAD

“If you are exercising regularly there is nothing wrong with a healthy snack
to keep you feeling full. Go for snacks high in protein, like yogurt or nuts,
as opposed to cakes and crisps.”
“Obviously I was a sportsman myself. I was a silver medalist in the Modern
Pentathlon World Championships and I’m an Olympian. But I think my two
biggest challenges have been David Walliams’ Thames swim and helping
Eddie Izzard run 43 marathons in 50 days,” says Greg.

EDDIE IZZARD

Eddie Izzard - an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer,

and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of rambling whimsical
monologues and self-referential pantomime.

 Her stand-up comedy tours have included Live at the

Ambassadors (1993), Definite Article (1996), Glorious (1997), Dress to
Kill (1998), Circle (2000), Stripped (2009), and Force Majeure (2013). She
starred in the 2007 television series The Riches and has appeared in
numerous films including Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, Shadow of
the Vampire, The Cat's Meow, and Valkyrie. She has also worked as a voice
actor on films such as Five Children and It, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince
Caspian, Abominable, and the Netflix original series Green Eggs and Ham.
Among various accolades, Izzard won two Primetime Emmys for Dress to
Kill and was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway performance
in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
In 2009, she completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief despite
having no history of long-distance running. In 2016, she ran 27 marathons
in 27 days in South Africa in honour of Nelson Mandela, raising £1.35
million. Regularly performing in French, among other languages, Izzard is
an active supporter of Europeanism and the European Union. A
dedicated Labour Party activist, she twice ran unsuccessfully for the
party's National Executive Committee but temporarily joined as runner-up
after Christine Shawcroft resigned in March 2018. Izzard is genderfluid and
has said she prefers she and her pronouns, but "doesn't mind" he and him

On 27 July 2009, with only 5 weeks' training and no significant prior

running experience, Izzard began seven weeks of back-to-back marathon
runs (with Sundays off) across the UK to raise money for Sport Relief.[47] She
ran from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London,
carrying the flag of the country—England, Scotland, or Wales—in which she
was running. In Northern Ireland, she carried a self-designed green flag
bearing a white dove. The blog Eddie Iz Running documented the 43
marathons in 51 days, covering at least 27 miles per day (totalling more
than 1,100 miles), ending on 15 September 2009. [48] Izzard received a
special award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 for these
achievements.[49] In March 2010, she took part in the Sport Relief Mile
event.[50]
On 16 February 2016, the BBC announced that Izzard would attempt to
run 27 marathons in 27 days through South Africa for Sport Relief. [51] The
significance of the number 27 came from the number of years Nelson
Mandela was held in prison. In total, she would aim to run more than 700
miles in temperatures of up to 40 °C. Izzard had attempted such a project
in South Africa in 2012, but withdrew due to health concerns. [52] She
completed the first marathon on 23 February 2016, completing the
marathon challenge on 20 March 2016 at the statue of Mandela in front of
the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Because she had spent a day in hospital,
she had to run two consecutive marathons on this last day. She raised
more than £1.35M for Sport Relief.[53] A BBC documentary detailing the feat
was broadcast on 28 March

Reframing arousal

When sports psychologist John Kremer was approached by an international

sprinter complaining that pre-race anxiety was impacting his races, he took
time to understand what he was experiencing and how it felt.

Kremer helped reframe the athlete’s perception of his pounding heart

from stress negatively affecting his performance to being primed and ready
for competition (Kremer, Moran, & Kearney, 2019).

John Kremer

 
John Kremer runs his own successful consultancy business, having
been a Reader in Psychology at Queen's University Belfast for 31 years.
Along with his academic interest in sport and exercise psychology he has
worked directly with a wide range of national and international athletes and
teams in over 50 sports.
Our goal in Pure Sport is simple. It is to help you use the mental side of
your sport and thereby allow you to explore your true sporting potential.

Visualizing success

Diver Laura Wilkinson broke three bones in her foot in the lead-up to the
U.S. trials for the 2000 Olympics.

Working with a sports psychologist, she created a routine involving

visualizing a series of complex dives performed flawlessly every time. Not
only did she successfully qualify, but she went on to take gold at the
Sydney Olympics despite limited (real-world) practice and a foot that was
not yet fully healed (Afremow, 2014).

Laura Wilkinson is used to diving over hurdles.

The 42-year-old mother of four has leapt over many in her latest comeback
—to make her fourth Olympic Games in Tokyo next year in platform diving.

To date, she is best known for the struggles she overcame at her first
Olympic Games in 2000—when she moved from eighth place to first and
won the first Olympic gold medal for U.S. women in platform diving since
1964 - on a broken foot.

No American has accomplished this feat since then, and Wilkinson hopes to
do it again next summer.

Broken Foot, Almost Broken Dreams

Wilkinson was a 22-year-old college student when she qualified for her first
Olympic Games 20 years ago. Already a two-time NCAA champion and the
1998 Goodwill Games gold medalist in platform diving, Wilkinson’s goal was
not just to make the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team. It was to win an Olympic
gold medal.

But six months before the 2000 Games, disaster struck. While practicing a
dive out of the pool, she struck her feet on a wood block that she was
jumping off. She fractured a bone in her left foot. But her right foot took the
brunt: three broken bones, with one dislodged under her foot.
In an ideal world, Wilkinson would have immediately had surgery. But
Olympic Trials were only three months away.

She opted for a cast.

“We had no idea if it was going to heal well enough to dive off of it,”
Wilkinson said in a recent phone call from her home in Texas. “I was in
three different casts for 10 weeks.”

In June, just two-and-a-half weeks before Trials, she was finally able to
practice her dives off the10-meter platform again.

“It was crazy,” she recalled.

But the injury had an unexpected silver lining. It gave her a mental edge.
She won Trials and realized that if she could get through that competition,
she could get through anything. 

The Memory of A Friend

Three months later, in September 2000, she was in Sydney at the 2000
Olympic Games facing a strong Chinese team. Her foot still hurt—and she
had to climb the platform’s ladder wearing a tennis shoe to protect her
mangled foot—but this is the meet she had trained for, it was now or never.

Wilkinson dove steadily through the preliminary round’s five dives, finishing
fifth. But in the semifinals, she fell to eighth, 25 points behind the leader,
15-year-old Sang Xue from China.

Wilkinson’s first two dives in the final were steady, scoring 8 to 8.5. But she
knew the divers ahead were scoring 9s. It was time to “put it all out there.”

But as the third round began, a minor disaster struck. The batteries died in
Wilkinson’s portable CD player. She relied on music to calm her down
between rounds, and she began to panic.

“Then I started laughing because I was panicking in this really important

moment in my life,” she said.

Instead of music, she gave herself a pep talk. She was about to perform a
dive that she had consistently done well leading up to the Sydney Games—
a reverse two-and-a-half somersault tuck. As she remembered all those
good dives, confidence returned.
She nailed the dive, “entering the water knife straight with barely a ripple,”
wrote Mark Landler in the New York Times, and scored the highest points of
the competition—four 9.5s.

Meanwhile, her competitors faltered badly. Wilkinson moved into the lead.

“Calm down,” her coach, Kenny Armstrong, reminded her. “You’ve got two
more dives!”

Looming for Wilkinson was her fourth dive—the same one she was
practicing when she broke her foot. Plus, for the take-off, she would have to
push really hard off the ball of her broken foot.

“I knew that it was going to be the dive that it took,” she said. “I was kind of
freaking out because I knew I had a shot now, I was somewhere in the
hunt.”

And still, she had no Discman.

Looking for words of wisdom, Wilkinson walked over to Armstrong. Her

coach told her to “Do it for Hilary.”

Hilary Grivich was a gymnast-turned-diver who had been killed in a car

accident three years earlier. Grivich was on the U.S. gymnastics team that
won silver at the 1991 world championships, but she missed making the
1992 U.S. Olympic Team. She hoped to make it to the Games in diving and
was a friend and teammate of Wilkinson’s at The Woodlands Diving
Academy in Texas.

At first, memories of Grivich sent Wilkinson reeling. Then she remembered

one of their conversations where Grivich had talked about the importance of
making an Olympic team.

“It dawned on me that this wasn’t just my dream,” said Wilkinson. “This
was about so many more people who have this dream who never have this
opportunity. I had all these teammates who helped me when my foot was
broken. They were so supportive of me. I knew it wasn’t about me anymore.
It became so much bigger.”

The fear and pain disappeared.

“It wasn’t pressure, it was this power behind me,” she remembered. “That
made all the difference.”
Her inward two-and-a-half somersault pike was close to perfect. Li Na,
another Chinese diver, recovered from her poor third dive and moved within
two points of Wilkinson. But it was not enough. Wilkinson held off Na by
1.74 points and won the first gold for the U.S. in platform diving in 36
years.

In November 2000, she had surgery to repair her foot. Rather than
rebreaking it, surgeons
removed the dislodged bone. 

Olympic Comeback
Wilkinson competed in two more Olympic Games—2004 and 2008. By then,
platform diving’s degree of difficulty had taken off.

She added a flip or twist, or even two twists, to every dive, and she arrived
at the Beijing Games with some of the hardest dives ever performed by
women. Still, she finished ninth.

Wilkinson retired after the 2008 Games to start a family with husband
Eriek Hulseman.

They now have four children, ages two to nine.

Inspired after watching platform diving at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games,
Wilkinson announced her comeback in March 2017—the same day that she
was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Since then, she has had neck surgery, which kept her off the 10-meter
platform for over a year. She had just returned to the platform when Covid-
19 turned the world upside down.

Wilkinson spent the spring doing dryland training at home. She was back
diving into a pool by mid-June but still does not have access to a platform. 

And she and Hulseman are home schooling their four children this year.

When Wilkinson talks about the last six months, she laughs wryly—like all
mothers who have been handed one more ball to juggle. But she is
embracing the challenges. For Wilkinson, it’s all part of the journey.

“Yes, I have big goals and big dreams for Tokyo,” she said. “But the best
part about this is I get to do what I love doing, and I have no regrets about
that. Whether I make the team and do really well or not, I won’t regret this
decision to go after it because it’s my passion and it’s what makes me feel
complete.”
She also hopes to inspire others.

“For all the people who maybe think they’re too old to do something they
love to do, don’t let society or culture decide that for you,” she encouraged.
“If you want to do it, if you love doing something, do it.”

Laura Ann Wilkinson (born November 17, 1977 in Houston, Texas) is

an American diver, 3 time Olympian, and Olympic gold medalist. She is the
first woman to win the three major diving world titles. [1] Wilkinson retired in
2008. After nine years of retirement, she returned to competition in 2017
and placed 2nd at Nationals. She trained for her fourth Olympic Games
(2021) at Texas A&M University’s swimming and diving facilities but did not
qualify

FATHER OF SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

 Coleman Griffith is regarded as ‘The father of sports psychology’ in the

United States of America for his contributions to the field as early as 1925.
He began as a professor of educational psychology at the University of
Illinois where he conducted research that lead to works “Psychology and its
relation to athletic competition” in 1925, The Psychology of Coaching in
1926 and The Psychology of Athletics in 1928. Griffith was also hired as a
sports psychologist in 1938 for the Chicago Cubs which was a huge
achievement. Despite his abundant and pioneering research on sports
psychology Coleman Griffith’s contributions were not regarded with much
significance until the 1960s. This is when the positive benefits of a sports
psychologist on an athlete and/or a team were witnessed and experienced
on a larger scale.

Coleman Roberts Griffith (May 22, 1893 – February 7, 1966) was an

American sport psychologist. Born in Iowa, he is considered [by whom?] the
founder of American sport psychology.[1] Griffith studied at Greenville
College until 1915, and then studied psychology at the University of Illinois.
While at the University of Illinois, Griffith established what he claimed to be
the first sports psychology laboratory in the United States. At this time
Griffith worked closely with the University of Illinois football team, studying
how factors such as psychomotor skills and personality variables related to
performance and learning of athletic skills. Due to financial reasons, the
Research in Athletics Laboratory eventually was closed, which led to Griffith
becoming a sport psychologist with the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
Throughout his time with the Chicago Cubs, Griffith examined the players
and completed a series of reports for Philip K. Wrigley, the owner of the
Chicago Cubs team, with the results eventually summarized in a large
report. His ideas were met with resistance, but he helped the Cubs to be
successful while there. Griffith ended his career in the department of
education at the University of Illinois until his retirement in 1961. Some of
Griffith's main contributions to the field of sports psychology came from his
publications The Psychology of Coaching (1926)[2] and The Psychology of
Athletics (1928).[3] These publications were written during Griffith's time at
the University of Illinois and covered topics such as how a coach must have
knowledge in athletics, physiology, and psychology to be successful. Much
of Griffith's research and publications have become the foundation for the
widely growing field of sports psychology and many of his ideas are still
used today.

Theories and Facts of Sports Psychology

Sports psychology is not one theory, but the combination of many

overlapping ideas and concepts that attempt to understand what it takes to
be a successful athlete.

Indeed, in many sports, endurance in particular, there has been a move

toward more multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, looking at
the interactions between psychological, biomechanical,
physiological, genetic, and training aspects of performance (Meijen, 2019).

With that in mind, and considering the many psychological constructs

affecting performance in sports, the following areas are some of the most
widely studied:

 Mental toughness
 Motivation
 Goal setting
 Anxiety and arousal
 Confidence

 
1. Mental toughness

Coaches and athletes recognize mental toughness as a psychological

construct vital for performance success in training and competition
(Gucciardi, Peeling, Ducker, & Dawson, 2016).

Mental toughness helps maintain consistency in determination, focus, and

perceived control while under competitive pressure (Jones, Hanton, &
Connaughton, 2002).

While much of the early work on mental toughness relied on the conceptual
understanding of the related concepts of resilience and hardiness, reaching
an agreed upon definition has proven difficult (Sutton, 2019).

Mentally tough athletes are highly competitive, committed, self-motivated,

and able to cope effectively and maintain concentration in high-pressure
situations. They retain a high degree of self-belief even after setbacks and
persist when the going gets tough (Crust & Clough, 2005; Clough &
Strycharczyk, 2015).

After interviewing sports professionals competing at an international level,

Jones et al. (2002) found that being mentally tough takes an unshakeable
self-belief in the ability to achieve goals and the capacity and determination
to bounce back from performance setbacks.

Mental toughness determines “how people deal effectively with challenges,

stressors, and pressure… irrespective of circumstances” (Crust & Clough,
2005). It is made up of four components, known to psychologists as the
“four Cs”:

 Feeling in control when confronted with obstacles and difficult

situations
 Commitment to goals
 Confidence in abilities and interpersonal skills
 Seeing challenges as opportunities

For athletes and sportspeople, mental toughness provides an advantage

over opponents, enabling them to cope better with the demands of physical
activity.

Beyond that, mental toughness allows individuals to manage stress better,

overcome challenges, and perform optimally in everyday life.

 
2. Motivation

Motivation has been described as what maintains, sustains, directs, and

channels behavior over an extended amount of time (Ryan & Deci, 2017).
While it applies in all areas of life requiring commitment, it is particularly
relevant in sports.

Not only does motivation impact an athlete’s ability to focus and achieve
sporting excellence, but it is essential for the initial adoption and ongoing
continuance of training (Sutton, 2019).

While there are several theories of motivation, the Self-Determination

Theory (SDT) has proven one of the most popular (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan
& Deci, 2017).

Based on our inherent tendency toward growth, SDT suggests that activity
is most likely when an individual feels intrinsically motivated, has a sense
of volition over their behavior, and the activity feels inherently interesting
and appealing.

Optimal performance in sports and elsewhere occurs when three basic

needs are met: relatedness, competence, and autonomy (Ryan & Deci,
2017).

3. Goal setting and focus

Setting goals is an effective way to focus on the right activities, increase

commitment, and energize the individual (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Goal setting is also “associated with increased wellbeing and represents an

individual’s striving to achieve personal self-change, enhanced meaning,
and purpose in life” (Sheard, 2013).

A well-constructed goal can provide a mechanism to motivate the individual

toward that goal. And something big can be broken down into a set of
smaller, more manageable tasks that take us nearer to achieving the overall
goal (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Athletes can use goals to focus and direct attention toward actions that will
lead to specific improvements; for example, a swimmer improves their kick
to take 0.5 seconds off a 100-meter butterfly time or a runner increases
their speed out of the blocks in a 100 meter sprint.

Goal setting can define challenging but achievable outcomes, whatever

your sporting level or skills.
A specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) goal
should be clear, realistic, and possible. For example, a runner may set the
following goal:

Next year, I want to run the New York City Marathon in three hours by
completing a six-month training schedule provided by a coach.

Goal Setting
Sport psychologists help athletes set goals that are ambitious but
attainable. An athlete who is only motivated only by winning is more likely
to lose motivation when the competition doesn’t go his way. A sports
psychologist will help him set goals that are intrinsically motivated, such as
a finishing time rather than order of finish in a swimming race. A sports
psychologist can also help set intermediate short-term goals that are
process-oriented, meaning that they focus on one aspect of the overall goal.
For example, a swimmer might set a goal of improving his flip turns.
 

4. Anxiety and arousal

Under extreme pressure and in situations perceived as important, athletes

may perform worse than expected. This is known as choking and is typically
caused by being overly anxious (Kremer et al., 2019).

Such anxiety can have cognitive (erratic thinking), physical (sweating, over-
breathing), and behavioral (pacing, tensing, rapid speech) outcomes. It
typically concerns something that is not currently happening, such as an
upcoming race (Moran, 2012).

It is important to distinguish anxiety from arousal. The latter refers to a

type of bodily energy that prepares us for action. It involves deep
psychological and physiological activation, and is valuable in sports.

Therefore, if psychological and physiological activation is on

a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement, the sportsperson must
aim for a perceived sweet spot to perform at their best. It will differ wildly
between competitors; for one, it may be perceived as unpleasant anxiety, for
another, nervous excitement.

The degree of anxiety is influenced by (Moran, 2012):

 Perceived importance of the event

 Trait anxiety
 Attributing outcomes to internal or external factors
 Perfectionism – setting impossibly high standards
 Fear of failure
 Lack of confidence
While the competitor needs a degree of pressure (or arousal) and nervous
energy to perform at their best, too much may cause them to crumble.
Sports psychologists work with sportspeople to better understand the
pressure and help manage it through several techniques including:

 Self-talk
 Visualization
 Breathing and slowing down
 Relaxation
 Sticking to pre-performance routines

Ultimately, it may not be the amount of arousal that affects performance,

but its interpretation.

5. Confidence

While lack of confidence is an essential factor in competition anxiety, it also

plays a crucial role in mental toughness.

As Gaelic footballer Michael Nolan says, “it’s not who we are that holds us
back; it’s who we think we’re not” (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Confidence is ultimately a measure of how much self-belief we have to see

through to the end something beset with setbacks.

Those with a high degree of self-confidence will recognize that obstacles are
part of life and take them in stride. Those less confident may believe the
world is set against them and feel defeated or prevented from completing
their task (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Self-confidence also taps into other, similar self-regulatory beliefs such as

staying positive and maintaining self-belief (Sheard, 2013). An athlete high
in self-confidence will harness their degree of self-belief and meet the
challenge head on.

However, there are risks associated with being too self-confident.

Overconfidence in abilities can lead to taking on too much, intolerance, and
the inability to see underdeveloped skills.

Self-Talk and Confidence

A successful athlete must learn not only to handle pressure, but to thrive
on it. A sports psychologist teaches athletes to use self-talk and repetition
to enhance motivation and reinforce self-esteem. Muhammad Ali used self-
affirmation to become a champion. Ali stated “I am the greatest” so often
that he believed it, and so did his opponents, giving him the competitive
edge.
6. Visualization
Tiger Woods exceeded expectations in the 2008 Pro Tour not by spending
hours on the course, but by sitting quietly and imagining his swing. This
technique, called visualization, makes a competitive situation feel familiar
because you have already imagined it in detail. When an athlete pictures
herself reacting successfully to a competitive situation, her body responds
by reinforcing the neural pathways she needs to complete the action
successfully. A figure skater who lacks confidence in her double axel might
hire a sports psychologist to walk her through a visualization routine that
prepares her body to land the jump gracefully.
7. Relaxation and Concentration
Many athletes who have achieved breakthrough performances say that it
was “effortless,” or that “everything else disappeared.” This feeling that
some call “flow” and others call “the zone” is a state where the athlete acts
without thinking. A sports psychologist may teach a baseball player a
routine that he can use to block out the sound of heckling fans and focus
on nothing but the pitch.
8. Coping with Injury
An athlete’s identity, self-esteem and stress relief may come primarily from
his sport. When he is injured and must take a break from competition and
training, his world goes topsy-turvy. His identity as a team member
dissolves. He misses important competitions and loses fitness as his
competitors get stronger.
A sports psychologist can help an athlete cope with these issues by teaching
him to explore other aspects of his personality. Lance Armstrong describes
his identity transformation while fighting cancer in his book “It’s Not About
the Bike.” In a matter of months, Armstrong went from an elite cyclist to a
man who might not live through the year. After Armstrong recovered from
cancer, his efforts to fight cancer became as important to him as his efforts
on the bike.

Sports Psychology is about improving your attitude and mental game skills
to help you perform your best by identifying limiting beliefs and embracing
a healthier philosophy about your sport.

What Do Sports Psychologist Do?

The areas sports psychologists teach vary from one person to another
depending on their experience and qualifications. Below are the top roles of
an applied sports psychologist, a mental game coaching who helps athletes
improve performance via mental training…
1. Help Athletes Cope with Performance Fears

Sports psychologist can help athletes overcome fears, such as fear of

failure, fear of embarrassment, and general performance anxiety. This is
common among athletes who are perfectionists or highly dedicated athletes
that worry too much about what other people think about their
performance.

2. Help Athletes Improve Mental Skills for Performance

The most common role for a sports psychologist is to teach mental skills

for enhanced performance. A mental game expert can help you improve
confidence, focus, composure, intensity, and trust in athletic performance.
These mental skills help athletes improve performance and can help in
other areas of an athlete’s life.

3. Help Athlete Mentally Prepare for Competition

Another common role of a sports psychologist is to help athletes mentally

prepare for competition and practice. This includes many of the mental
skills mentioned above, but applied to specific situations on the athletic
field.

4. Help Athletes Return After Injury

Returning to play after an injury can sometimes be difficult for many

athletes depending on the nature of the injury. Athletes are often left with
“mental scars” long after an injury is physically healed. A sports
psychologist can help injured athletes cope better with the pressures
associated with returning to a prior level of performance–pre-injury.

5. Help Athlete Develop Pregame Routine

As part of mental preparation, the role of a sports psychologist includes

helping athletes develop mental skills used during pregame or prerace
routines. Athletes learn how to focus on the process instead of results and
be more proactive with their confidence prior to competition.

6. Help Athletes Develop Preshot Routines

Preshot routines are another common role of a sports psychologist. Here,

athletes learn how to use mental skills to prepare for a specific motor skill,
such as a golf shot, free throw, or field goal kick.
7. Help Athletes Improve Practice Efficiency

Another common role of a sports psychologist is to help athletes improve

the quality or efficiency of their practice. Many athletes, such as collegiate
athletes, have limited practice time. Coaches want to help these athletes get
the most out of their practice time by understanding principles of motor
learning and performance.

Below is a list of the top ten ways that you can benefit from sports
psychology:

1. Improve focus and deal with distractions. Many athletes have the
ability to concentrate, but often their focus is displaced on the wrong
areas such as when a batter thinks “I need to get a hit” while in the
batter’s box, which is a result-oriented focus. Much of my instruction
on focus deals with helping athlete to stay focused on the present
moment and let go of results.
2. Grow confidence in athletes who have doubts. Doubt is the opposite of
confidence. If you maintain many doubts prior to or during your
performance, this indicates low self-confidence or at least you are
sabotaging what confidence you had at the start of the competition.
Confidence is what I call a core mental game skill because of its
importance and relationship to other mental skills.
3. Develop coping skills to deal with setbacks and errors. Emotional
control is a prerequisite to getting into the zone. Athletes with very
high and strict expectations, have trouble dealing with minor errors
that are a natural part of sports. It’s important to address these
expectations and also help athletes stay composed under pressure and
when they commit errors or become frustrated.
4. Find the right zone of intensity for your sport. I use intensity in a
broad sense to identify the level of arousal or mental activation that is
necessary for each person to perform his or her best. This will vary
from person to person and from sport to sport. Feeling “up” and
positively charged is critical, but not getting overly excited is also
important. You have to tread a fine line between being excited to
complete, but not getting over-excited.
5. Help teams develop communication skills and cohesion. A major part
of sports psychology and mental training is helping teams improve
cohesion and communication. The more a team works as a unit, the
better the results for all involved.
6. To instill a healthy belief system and identify irrational thoughts. One
of the areas I pride myself on is helping athlete identify ineffective
beliefs and attitudes such as comfort zones and negative self-labels
 that hold them back from performing well. These core unhealthy
beliefs must be identified and replaced with a new way of thinking.
Unhealthy or irrational beliefs will keep you stuck no matter how
much you practice or hard you try.
7. Improve or balance motivation for optimal performance. It’s important
to look at your level of motivation and just why you are motivated to
play your sport. Some motivators are better in the long-term than
others. Athletes who are extrinsically motivated often play for the
wrong reasons, such as the athlete who only participates in sports
because of a parent. I work with athlete to help them adopt a healthy
level of motivation and be motivated for the right reasons.
8. Develop confidence post-injury. Some athletes find themselves fully
prepared physically to get back into competition and practice, but
mentally some scars remain. Injury can hurt confidence, generate
doubt during competition, and cause a lack of focus. I help athletes
mentally heal from injuries and deal with the fear of re-injury.
9. To develop game-specific strategies and game plans. All great coaches
employ game plans, race strategies, and course management skills to
help athletes mentally prepare for competition. This is an area beyond
developing basic mental skills in which a mental coach helps athletes
and teams. This is very important in sports such as golf, racing, and
many team sports.
10. To identify and enter the “zone” more often. This incorporates
everything I do in the mental side of sports. The overall aim is to help
athletes enter the zone by developing foundational mental skills that
can help athletes enter the zone more frequently. It’s impossible to
play in the zone everyday, but you can set the conditions for it to
happen more often.

I will add that sport psychology may not be appropriate for every athlete.
Not every person who plays a sport wants to “improve performance.” Sport
psychology is probably not for recreation athletes who participate for the
social component of a sport or do not spend time working on technique or
fitness to improve performance. Young athletes whose parents want them to
see a sports psychologist are not good candidate either. It’s very important
that the athlete desires to improve his or her mental game without having
the motive to satisfy a parent. Similarly, an athlete who sees a mental game
expert only to satisfy a coach is not going to fully benefit from mental
training.

A Take-Home Message
Becoming an elite performer result from years of careful planning and hard
work. The winners get to the top by identifying, defining, and achieving a
series of smaller goals along the way to reaching the podium.

But being at that level takes sustainable motivation and the ability to
remain calm under considerable pressure. Successful performance requires
the right mindset and psychological tools to allow the sportsperson to
overcome both defeat and success. Neither of which is easy.

Modern athletes (professional and amateur), coaches, and team managers

recognize the challenges within their sport and the competitive edge gained
from seeking sports psychologists’ help.

Time-crunched athletes require focused, pragmatic support and solutions

that allow them to deliver a consistent high-quality performance.

Even in the world outside the sporting arena, we are all competing.
Understanding the psychological mechanisms involved in overcoming
obstacles, hitting our goals, and achieving success is invaluable.

As academic philosopher David Papineau writes, many have come to realize

that “sporting prowess has much to teach us about the workings of our
minds” (Cappuccio, 2018).