Applied Sport Psychology

The Association for Applied Sport Psychology was founded in 1986 and is the leading organization for sport psychology consultants and professionals who work with athletes, coaches, non-sport performers (dancers, musicians), business professionals, and tactical occupations (military, firefighters, police) to enhance their performance from a psychological standpoint. This association is a professional organization that is focused on human performance. They obtain this mission through education, research and practice. The Association also known as the AASP upholds certain values. These values are those of excellence in which they strive for equality, the value of respect where people are treated with dignity, integrity to communicate directly

The first one is management of anxiety and energy. This skill primarily focuses on helping individuals who experience high arousal levels that cause them to perform poorly. Some helpful treatments for managing it would be breathing techniques and meditation. The following skill, concentration control, is where one is able to be focused especially on themselves and where they are aware of their mentality in a particular situation. There is also communication that is used to improve the quality of group and individual interactions in a sport environment. Goal setting, the skill to enhance motivation and help one focus their attention on certain aspects that need improvement. Imagery, visualization and mental practice skills where one is able to recreate or create and experience in their mind to help control situations. Self-talk, where one practices having positive thoughts. And lastly there are the skills of both team building and time management. Team building helps groups work closely, efficiently and well with one another while also building trust. And time management allows one to schedule their time to avoid being

article, both Johnson and Gilbert emphasize seven mental skills. In the first skill, goal-setting, there are three phases - planning phase, meeting phase and the follow up phase. The athlete and coach should be working together on each of these phases. The second skill is to have a “No Mistakes, Only Learning Opportunities,” mindset. This is where an athlete is able to review certain areas that need improvement and to evaluate and assess those certain factors. The ability to obtain the skill of imagery, where an athlete can visualize genuine life scenarios before they actually happen or to recreate the ones that did. Once this is mastered the performance level can increase in a positive way. There is the skill to be fully focused. In certain situations, an athlete should learn to take a few mental timeouts. They should be relaxed and not feel tense in any way in order to remain focused and not distracted. This would then lead them into being positive and into having the “I Can,” attitude at every step regardless of any obstacles that may come in the way. In this an athlete may find themselves practicing the skill of positive self-talk, to boost their self confidence giving them a higher performance result. Lastly to relax and make routines, one must learn to lower stress levels whether that be through breathing skills or thinking positive thoughts first away from the sport related events and then gradually build to the actual situation at