Psychology in Sports
The mind-body connection is a very powerful one. For everything you think in your mind, your body has a reaction, regardless of whether it is real or imagined. For example, have you ever had a bad dream? Usually, you will wake up and your heart is racing, you are sweating and very agitated, even though all you were doing was sleeping. But, in your mind there was something bad going on and your body was reacting to it. Here?s another example: if you are home alone and you hear a noise and interpret it as the wind, you are fine; but if you interpret it as a prowler, your fight or flight response takes over and you become fearful. Your heart begins going a mile a minute, your eyes dilate, and you are scared. These are just a few examples of how strong the connection is between your mind and your body. With this premise, it becomes unmistakable how necessary it is to train both the mind and body for 'peak performance'.
It was neat to see that, at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, there were approximately 20 Sport Psychology Consultants there working with athletes. It has also been noted that 1/3 of the golfers on the major tours work with a Sports Psychologist or Consultant. Slowly but surely athletes, teams, coaches and managers are not only saying that they feel sports is mental, but also they are doing something about it. They are hiring Sports Psychologists, reading books, and devoting time to team building and mental training.
In sports, so many things are left to chance. Sports are predictably unpredictable. Why let your mental mindset be another one of those things? There?s no reason for your mental game to be your one weakness! You have the power to control that. These tools and resources will help you remove psychological barriers that can get in the way of ??peak performance?? and give you some control over your own performance. Mark McGwire has worked with a Sports Psychologist since 1991, saying that the sessions help him find inner peace. He said it was totally his decision and the best one he made.
Up until about a decade ago, a Sports Psychologist or Consultant was considered a person who athletes went to see only when they had a problem, not someone who healthy and productive athletes and teams spent their time with.
However, what this argument does not take into account is that athletes have an abundance of pressure put on them that most non-athletes don’t ever experience. Hence, the saying, “go hard or go home”. A recent study emphasizes this fact as McClatchy notes, ”The researchers monitored mood levels of 465 collegiate athletes over three years and found 6.3 percent of the athletes met the criteria for clinically significant depression and 24 percent were considered ‘clinically relevant’ “ (2016). Studies like these prove that athletes are not blind to the idea of depression, but rather experience this disorder themselves. Anxiety has a huge role in depression. As sportsperson, there is constant effort to become an awe-inspiring player. As the stakes of the game raise, so does the anxiety. Some want a scholarship, some want to show off what they offer to a team that got a scholarship, and some are professionals. Regardless of whether it's grade school sport or a professional sport, failing at personal goals one set is down right depressing. Kearns and Hwang state that, ”While it’s not clear whether the source of challenges to a student-athlete's mental well-being is the same as those non-athletes, collegiate athletes are known to encounter unique stressor that the general population doesn’t have to deal with, such as the demands, relationships with coaches and missed scheduled classes” (2014). Pressure is something everyone experiences. However, athletes experience some of the same pressure that of non-athletes and then some. Being on a sports team is demanding to time and the idea of being “superior”. In athletics, coaches are everything. For example, If a coach likes how a person attributes as a team player, then that person will get a chance to shine. However, if the coach is not very fond of one, then the chances of opportunities are not very
According to Weinberg and Gould (1995), mental practice is related with mental training to competition. Based on Murphy and Martin (2002), mental practice can be divide into two which is imagery techniques and verbal techniques. Imagery techniques can be visual rehearsal, kinesthetic rehearsal or emotional rehearsal. While verbal techniques are self talk and performance cues. Based on Suinn (1993), mental imagery can be defined as mental creation or re-creation of sensory experiences that appear to the person imagining them to be similar to the real event. Imagery is one of the techniques that can be used to improve sport performance among athletes. According to Morris, T., Spittle, M. and Watt, A. P (2005), the most important thing to know
Wiese-Bjornstal, D. M., Smith, A. M., & LaMott, E. E. (1995). A model of psychological response to athletic injury and rehabilitation. Athletic training: Sport health care perspectives, 17-30.
A. A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Anxiety in Athletes. April 2002. Athletics Insight: Online Journal of Sports Psychology. 29 May 2002 http://www.athleticsight.com.vol1iss2/Psychoanalytic_Anxiety.htm Stress Management: Behavioral Psychotherapy for Performance Enhancement.
Teens Health. N.p., 10 Oct 2013. Web. 6 Nov 2013. "The Coach-Athlete Relationship.
Playing a sport whether its basketball, soccer, football or any other of your interest can be thrilling, and accelerating. Not only can it be fun yet physical exercise is good for the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, as an athlete one must keep in mind that playing any sport, injury is part of life and inevitable. Research has proven from time to time that severe injuries in sports can trigger psychological mental health issues, affecting them in their athletic performance.
I am a young ambitious student who strives to excel in everything I do. I want to study Sport Psychology as I know I possess the right skills to further and develop myself in the career of sports. I have the ability to understand others in sports as I also play sports myself. I have been in high pressured sporting situations which I have used my psychological skills to help increase my performance. What interests me in Sport Psychology is that I can make a big difference to not just my life but the lives of people in sport such as rehabilitating athletes or boosting athlete performance. I am fascinated by how different athletes perform in the same environment and getting practical with the mind, body and brain. Improving performance, consistency and stability in an athlete’s
Why are mental skills so important to performance and why are they often neglected by coaches and athletes? Yogi Berra has been quoted as saying, "sport is 90% mental and 50% physical." You can question his mathematical savvy, but if you're an athlete, coach or fan, you can't question his wisdom. (Hacker, 2000) Many athletes understand that while developing oneself to their physical potential is a critical element in performance potential, it is often a deficit in our psychological game rather than errors in our physical performance that keep us from performing at optimum levels in practice, games or matches. Spud McKenzie, the Budweiser poster puppy, suggested that it is important to say when, but also emphasized the critical element of knowing “when to say when”. It is often the successful athlete has recognized what needed to be done and the unsuccessful athlete was unable to do so. As a consequence, it is not the physical talents or abilities that separate athletes and teams, or successful versus less successful performance, rather, the psychological dimension that most frequently explains a given sport outcome or individual performance. For this reason games are played. Prior to each contest, judgment could be made with regard to which team or individual is the “more highly skilled”. If games were decided on who is the most physically gifted and/or talented individuals or teams, it would prove to be an exercise in futility to compete. As a result, whether you are an athlete or a coach, mastering the mental game of sport will allow you to achieve a level of success as a competitor than you could otherwise not achieve by focusing exclusively on the physical side of sport.
To convince your mind that you can overcome mental barriers you must be mentally strong and be able to tell yourself to push through even when it’s difficult. This is not a simple task and takes some practice. One of the most defining moments of my physical pilgrimage so far was when I was playing a playoff game my Junior year of high school. My team was losing badly and everyone thought we ultimately had no shot at winning and keeping our season alive. I on the other hand, knew that it could be done and that I couldn’t doubt my team if it was going to happen. I ended up getting two key hits that started a rally and caused us to come back and win the game. If I wouldn’t have been mentally tough in a situation where I could’ve easily gave in then my team wouldn’t have won that game. Recently, my mental pilgrimage has been a hard one. Once I arrived on campus I had to have a physical done to confirm that I would be able to play sports. Because of past family history and recent chest pains, I wasn’t cleared until 3 weeks after practice had started. This was very hard on me
Many may go to say that it is very important to be physically prepared for competition. Athletes will go out and do various strenuous workouts, push their bodies to the limit, and work until they cannot work anymore. Being physically tough is key to being prepared for competition, but just physically tough is not just the only thing an athlete should be when preparing for competition. It is just as, if not, more important to be mentally tough as well. Athletes must be able to think on the fly throughout competition.
Concentration is a skill, a choice, can be learned, needs to be practiced daily, is subjective in assessment, is dependent on the sport, the task, and the speed at which the task is occurring. Concentration is the action of focusing one’s attention with mental effort. Focusing is the center of interest of one’s concentration and attention is the actual act of applying the mind to something with readiness in order to zoom-in with an intentional effort. I believe concentration, especially in a jet or while engaged in a high risk sport such as rock climbing, rests on one’s situational awareness or SA. I will explain further in my paper; however, here are the basic “I will” actions that I will take to build and nurture concentration in my clients
In the article, “Athletes and Coaches Report Mental Health is Slightly More Important Than Physical Health in Overall Performance; Both Agree That More Communication is Needed to Address Mental Health Concerns.”, the Minds in Motion Depression Awarenes Campaign conducted a survey and found that the athletes and coaches believed that “mental health shares an equal, and/or slightly greater role than physical health, in defining peak athletic
Composure is one main thing that Athletes need in all sports.This is when somebody has something negative happen and they do not let it effect them.People should not be flustered from little things that happen in life.This is especially important when being a pitcher or quarterback or some kind of position that requires pressure and mental stability.Also when your play sports or work at a job its is important not to let the things you mess up on bother you. Composure and mental stability is not just something you pick; this is a Mental control that takes a lot of time to understand.
Recently many high-level sports people, including Olympian swimmers Ian Thorpe and Libby Trickett, have admitted to suffering from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Although sport has many positive impacts on personal wellbeing, such as a sense of achievement, social interaction and fitness, other aspects of competitive sport increase vulnerability to mental health issues. Key negative factors include intense training schedules, high standards, or failure to achieve goals and loss of identity or purpose once retired. Poor mental health is mainly an issue for an athlete’s own wellbeing, but will also affect their sporting career and the perception of that sport by others. For many people sport and exercise can have a positive
...ompetition environment. There is increasing recognition by the sports community that supporting athlete mental health is a vital aspect of competitive performance, and is as integral to success as the athlete’s physical abilities. The profession of sports psychology provides a very meaningful contribution to help facilitate athlete wellbeing and maximize the psychological skills required to compete at the highest level of competition.