Sport Psychologist

Although athletic injury is common in sport, little is documented about the application of psychological principles to injury rehabilitation. This study surveyed athletic trainers on the use of psychological strategies with injured athletes. Athletic trainers (N = 115) responded to Likert rating scales on athlete characteristics, efficacy of psychological strategies, and perceived importance of trainer knowledge about psychological strategies. Results revealed that trainers distinguished between athletes coping most versus least successfully with injury on characteristics of willingness to listen, positive attitude, intrinsic motivation, and willingness to learn about the injury and rehabilitation techniques. Trainers rated effective psychological techniques for facilitating athlete recovery as good interpersonal communication skills, positive reinforcement, coach support, and keeping the athlete involved with the team. Knowledge about using a positive communication style, strategie...

This study was designed to examine if mental skills and strategies such as high confidence, commitment, and the use of cooperative routines, as well as previously unexamined physical, social, and environmental factors affect Olympic performance. Athletes and coaches from 8 Atlanta US Olympic teams were interviewed. Four teams met/exceeded performance expectations and 4 teams failed to perform up to performance predictions. Focus group interviews were conducted with 2 to 4 athletes from each team. Individual interviews were conducted with 1 or 2 coaches from each team. Each interview was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by three trained investigators using hierarchical content analyses. Differences existed between teams that met/exceeded performance expectations and teams that failed. Teams that met/exceeded expectations participated in resident training programs, experienced crowd and family or friend support, utilized mental preparation, and were highly focused and committed. Te...

Whether life skills are developed through sport greatly depends on how coaches create suitable environments that promote the development of youth (Gould & Carson, 2008). The purpose of this study was to examine, using Gould and Carson’s (2008) model of coaching life skills, the philosophies and strategies used by model high school coaches to coach life skills and how to transfer these life skills to other areas of life. Interviews were conducted with both coaches and their student-athletes. Results indicated that coaches understood their student-athletes preexisting make up and had philosophies based on promoting the development of student-athletes. Results also demonstrated that coaches had strategies designed to coach life skills and educate student-athletes about the transferability of the skills they learned in sport. Although variations were reported, coaches and student-athletes generally believed that student-athletes can transfer the skills learned in sport to other areas of...

This focus group study examined the sources of enjoyment and nonenjoyment
among younger and older English children in the sampling years of sport participation
(ages 7–12). Concurrent inductive and deductive content analysis revealed
that, consistent with previous research, younger and older children reported sources
of enjoyment such as perceived competence, social involvement and friendships,
psychosocial support, and a mastery-oriented learning environment. Nonenjoyment
sources included inappropriate psychosocial support, increasing competitive
orientation, negative feedback and reinforcement, injuries, pain, and demonstrating
a lack of competence. Differences between younger and older children’s sources
of enjoyment and nonenjoyment also emerged. Younger children reported movement
sensations as a source of enjoyment and punishment for skill errors and
low informational support as nonenjoyment sources. Older children reported
social recognition of competence, encouragement, excitement, and challenge as
sources of enjoyment with rivalry, overtraining, and high standards as sources of
nonenjoyment. These differences underscore the importance of tailoring youth
sport in the sampling years to the needs of the child.

This paper revisits a 1970s study of Coach John Wooden's teaching practices in light of new information. The original study reported discrete acts of teaching, including the number of instructions, hustles, praises, among other instructional moves. Using qualitative notes recorded during the original study, published sources, and interviews with Coach Wooden and a former UCLA player, we reexamined the 1970s quantitative data to better understand the context of Wooden's practices and philosophy. We conclude that exquisite and diligent ...

We conducted a counterbalanced repeated measure trial to investigate the effect of different internal and external associative strategies on endurance performance. Seventeen college-aged students were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions to test the notion that different attention-performance types (optimal Type 1, functional Type 2, and dysfunctional Type 3) would influence endurance time on a cycling task. Specifically, Type 1 represented an effortless and automatic, “flow-feeling” attentional mode. Type 2 referred to an associative focus directed at core components of the task. Type 3 represented an attentional focus directed at irrelevant components of the task. Participants completed three time-to-exhaustion-tests while reporting their perceived exertion and affective states (arousal and hedonic tone). Results revealed that Type 1 and Type 2 attentional strategies, compared with Type 3 strategy, exerted functional effects on performance, whereas a Type 3 strategy ...

The purpose of this paper is to present, using Moon's (1999, 2004) generic view of learning, a new theoretical perspective in order to understand how coaches learn to coach. After presenting her main concepts, a case study of an elite Canadian coach is used to illustrate the ...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of motivational self-talk on self-efficacy and performance. Participants were 46 young tennis players (mean age 13.26, SD 1.96 years). The experiment was completed in five sessions. In the first session, participants performed a forehand drive task. Subsequently, they were divided into an experimental and a control group. Both groups followed the same training protocol for three sessions, with the experimental group practicing self-talk. In the final session, participants ...

This study evaluated the effects of a personal-disclosure mutual-sharing (PDMS)
intervention on team cohesion and communication among 21 male professional
soccer players from a top division club within the United Kingdom (UK) before an
important match in the latter stages of a domestic cup competition. Data from the
Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) and the British Scale for Effective Communication
in Team Sports (BRSECTS) showed no statistically significant changes
in cohesion or positive and negative communication from pre to postintervention
(i.e., pretest to posttest); yet the team performed above their expectations in the
important match only to lose in a penalty shoot-out. Social validation data further
revealed that most players felt the intervention was worthwhile and benefitted the
team by enhancing closeness, understanding of teammates, and communication.
We discuss strategies and guidance for sport psychologists considering a PDMS
intervention in the context of professional sport teams. Future research directions
considering the effects of PDMS with other professional and youth UK sports,
collective efficacy, and social identity is outlined.

The aim of the present investigation was to develop an instrument assessing the content and the structure of athletes’ self-talk. The study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, a large pool of items was generated and content analysis was used to organize the items into categories. Furthermore, item-content relevance analysis was conducted to help identifying the most appropriate items. In Stage 2, the factor structure of the instrument was examined by a series of exploratory factor analyses (Sample A: N = 507), whereas in Stage 3 the results of the exploratory factor analysis were retested through confirmatory factor analyses (Sample B: N = 766) and at the same time concurrent validity were assessed. The analyses revealed eight factors, four positive (psych up, confidence, anxiety control and instruction), three negative (worry, disengagement and somatic fatigue) and one neutral (irrelevant thoughts). The findings of the study provide evidence regarding the multidimens...

The study’s objective was to investigate the motivational significance of the coachathlete
relationship in team sports. 591 athletes completed the Perceived Motivational
Climate in Sport Questionnaire (Newton, Duda, & Yin, 2000) to assess perceptions of
the coach-created motivational climate and two Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaires
to assess direct perceptions (Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2004) and meta-perceptions
(Jowett, in press) of the relationship quality. Canonical correlation analyses
revealed that the perceived task-involving features of the coaching climate, in which
role importance, co-operation, and improvement are emphasized, were associated
with experiencing higher levels of closeness, commitment, and complementarity with
the coach. Perceptions of the ego-involving features of the coach-created environment
which emphasizes punitive responses to mistakes, rivalry, and unequal recognition
were associated with lower levels of perceived closeness, commitment, and complementarity
with the coach. These results support the notion that the coach-athlete relationship
has implications for the motivation of athletes participating in team sports.

This study examined the relationship between felt arousal, thoughts/feelings, and ski performance based on recent arousal and affect conceptualizations. An eclectic integration of these perspectives suggests that to understand the arousal-performance relationship, researchers need to examine not only a felt arousal continuum (i.e., intensity or level ranging from low to high), but also a concomitant thoughts and feelings continuum (i.e., ranging from positive to negative). Recreational slalom ski racers completed a self-report measure examining felt arousal and thoughts/feelings prior to several ski runs. Results demonstrated a significant relationship between felt arousal level, thoughts/feelings, and subjective ski performance ratings, but not for actual ski times. In contrast to the inverted-U hypothesis for subjective performance ratings, high felt arousal is not associated with poor performance ratings if it is accompanied by positive thoughts and feelings.

El área de psicología de la Federación Madrileña de Deportes de Invierno organizó 5 jornadas de tecnificación: esquí alpino, mushing, 2 de patinaje sobre hielo y 1 de hockey hielo. En un total de 15 sesiones entre 1-2 horas de duración se llevó a cabo una planificación coordinada con los entrenadores y vocales de cada deporte, con el fin de favorecer un trabajo integrado que tuviera aplicabilidad en sus entrenamientos durante las jornadas. Se pudo ver que esta forma de trabajo conjunto favorece la comunicación del equipo técnico interdisciplinar que tendrá como consecuencia una formación más completa del deportista. Además, el entrenamiento en habilidades psicológicas (como la orientación motivacional y la gestión de pensamientos) forma un conjunto coherente dentro del entrenamiento y junto al contexto de reflexión, autoconocimiento y debate establecido durante las sesiones, permitió ampliar las formas de enfrentarse a su deporte, tanto en entrenamientos como en competiciones.

The psychology department of the Madrid Winter Sports Federation organized 5 high performance group sessions: one session each of alpine skiing, mushing, and ice hockey, and two of figure skating. A total of 15 sessions lasting 1-2 hours were held to coordinate planning with the coaches and spokepersons of each sport modality in order to promote an integrated work that could be applied during training.  These sessions showed that such a t effort promotes communication of the interdisciplinary technical team, which will help athletes achieve a more complete training. In addition, training in psychological skills (such as goal setting and thought management) is part of a coherent training. The context of reflection, self-knowledge, debate and practice established during the sessions allowed athletes to broaden the ways of dealing with their sport both during training and in competitions.

The relationship between dispositional achievement goal orientations and satisfaction and beliefs about success in sport are determined for a sample of 333 students from the USA who were administered the Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ). In addition, the degree of ...

This paper presents a case study of an elite female coach and her career termination from a 20+ year career following a critical life incident. A novel autobiographical approach was adopted whereby the participant undertook expressive writing to describe her experiences before, during, and following coaching an athlete at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Thematic analysis indicated seven phases related to the participant’s experiences of the critical incident: Build up to the event, the event, the aftermath, recovery and reflection on the event, sampling of new avenues, enlightenment, and career rebirth. The findings reinforce the high demands placed upon elite coaches, the subsequent threats to physical and mental well-being, and the importance of having robust psychological skills and suitable social support to cope with these demands. Implications for preparing and supporting coaches for successful career transition are discussed.

This study examined the effectiveness of instructional self-talk on acquiring and performing three basketball skills (dribbling, passing, and shooting). Sixty-two young, novice players were organized into two groups. The experimental group accompanied the practice of three specific drills with self-talk. The control group performed the same drills traditionally. Six assessment sessions were completed. Repeated measures MANOVAs showed that experimental group participants performed better than their control group counterparts when dribbling and passing. Experimental group participants and their coaches reported using self-talk more when passing and dribbling and less when shooting. In addition, experimental group participants achieved significantly better dribbling and passing scores (p < .05) between assessment sessions. These results support instructional self-talk as an effective tool for skill acquisition and performance enhancement of skills low in complexity.

This study examined the contribution of instructional self-talk and observational learning on the development of long jump technique. Sixty-nine beginner athletes were randomly assigned to four groups: ‘self-talk’, ‘video’, ‘self-talk + video’ and control group. All groups performed 24 practice sessions, consisting of a cognitive intervention program in the form of either instructional self-talk or observational learning, or a combination of both, and the practice of specific drills. A significantly higher performance improvement was recorded for the self-talk group in post test, whereas when kinematic variables of the motor skill (center of mass displacement) were assessed, “observational learning” proved to be more effective. The findings of the current study suggest that young, beginner athletes, participating in complicated tasks, may benefit from cognitive intervention techniques, through enhanced attentional focus on the most critical elements of the motor skill.