Sport Psychology
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 focus totally on executing your best performance skills under the most stressful circumstances. (Tutko,T 1976 pg.5) To excel in a sport is a contest with yourself, to call upon the natural abilities within you own mind and body. Each person begins at a different location mentally, physically and with respect to the support we are given. An athlete quest for personal excellence requires the most of what you have- whatever that may be.
Mental Imagery
"Your images lead your reality"
One of the best practice fields for peak performance is the mind. Many athletes use mental imagery for quick rehearsal before an event: A diver, for instance, might perform a double somersault with a half twist one final time in his mind as he readies himself on the board. Mental imagery can also help people prepare for possible hazards. A squash player might run through a difficult back court return in his or her mind to rehearse the various options that might be necessary in case of a delayed reaction. Psychologists s...
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...equence, from mind (mental imagery) to body, from target to performance. Each step eliminates nonessentials so that the single focus or vision can fully absorb the performer's awareness. (Barrington.J,1987.61.53) Developing an ability to directly focus on critical performance cues and hold it there until the body is free to follow the visions of the mind is crucial to high level performance.
The principles of sport psychology are helping athletes succeed far beyond just body strength but past their mind barriers. An achievement that can only be attained with dedication and a will to let your mind explore the all possibilities no matter how extravagant. Thanks to the extensive coverage of psychological training, the sports enthusiast can understand the need for an benefits of sport psychology.
Bibliography:
Tutko,T 1976
Barrington, J.1987
Athletic trainers are mainly responsible for injury recovery and injury prevention. However, these responsibilities are physical concerns, but what about the mental concerns? There is a movement within the athletic training field to approach sport injuries with a more holistic perspective. Many athletic trainers have had inadequate education in sport psychology to institute any sort of psychological initiative in their rehabilitation programs. This paper will discuss some of the prospective ideas and various methods of rehabilitation tactics that could be used in the field, as well as how to perhaps properly train athletic trainers to administer these mental treatments, along with the physical treatments. These mental treatments will be related back to sport and exercise psychology concepts, such as strategies for setting realistic goals, methods for enc...
Sport and exercise science is a multidisciplinary field that draws on knowledge from the broader parent disciplines, the subareas that make up sport and exercise science also draw on measures, constructs and concepts from each other. In fact, it is suggested that sport psychology should include knowledge from other sub-disciplines within sport and exercise science in order to gain better understanding of situations specific to
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
Performance psychology involves the process of facilitating the development of skills needed by the performer during his time to shine in a performance. Also, the process is almost entirely related to the events prior to the performance since they are the foundation of the desired result. This preparation involves practicing not only physically, but also mentally, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally. In fact, the physical aspect of a performance has much less bearing than the mind and soul aspects. Tennis is a perfect example of this. No matter how much a player practices, if in the face of a match the player becomes too nervous, all of his body will freeze and will make unforced errors very easily. That used to happen quite often at the beginning of my matches until I managed to train my mind to stay focused on playing rather than winning. I also remember reading a book about tennis when I was about 8, and there was a question that said something like, “How much of a tennis match is technical, tactical, physical, and mental?” and several professional players answered by saying that the mental part contributes with just about the entire game. At first, since I had not experienced a real, challenging match before, I thought to myself, “No, that’s not right. It’s 25% each. It makes sense; it’s math”. Looking back I realize how silly my comment was because I had no idea what a true performance was like, and that the physical aspect although important, is more relevant in the preparation for a match. Any performance is made up of various smaller elements that each contribute to the big picture, just like the piece of a puzzle; however, each one has a unique placement that no other piece can fill in.
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.
Emotion is a big part of the psychological affect on society. We want to give the reader a framework depicting how the mental training improve their performance. After the testing, the author found (Chris, 2014)There are a number of psychological factors that have the potential to negatively affect an athlete’s ability to perform optimally, for example,anxiety, nerves, poor concentration,and self-doubt (Chris, 2014). And the detrimental thoughts, attitudes also will affect the athlete’s ability. In here i want to talk more about the somatic anxiety. We know anxiety will cause many different physical condition and mental disease. This is very dangerous if we do not use correct methods to treat. One of
Sports psychology can be defined as the study and application of the attitudes and behaviors of athletes (including team athletes) that impact (either positively or negatively) performance in sports or competitive settings. The goal of sports psychology is to help athletes and teams identify unhealthy attitudes and beliefs, apply mental toughness skills and peak performance strategies to perform at optimal levels (Cohn). Sports psychology is not recognized as a traditional field of practice offered by graduate programs; although, it is a recognized field of specific study under Kinesiology and Physical Education Programs. Sports psychology was first founded in 1920 by Carl Diem in Berlin, Germany. Later on, in 1925, sport psychology was brought to the U.S by Cloman Griffith. These early psychologists aimed to observe the effects of mental state on different factors of performance such as reaction time, tension, relaxation, and awareness (Haney). In the 1960’s Griffith’s research interest in sports psychology reemerged after having faded away for a while; however, the field had a...
Sports Psychology Today. Mental Edge Athletics, 4 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. Forde, Pat.
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
Visualisation is the most common and effective technique used within mental imagery in sport (Harmison, 2011). To do this you envision yourself executing physical sequences of the sport (Harmison, 2011). It has been shown that visualization helps the athlete to perform at a higher level, through increasing traits of the ‘ideal mentality’. In the process of visualization your must imagine correctly and successfully all aspect of the motion, going through frame-by-frame and using all senses. Studies looking into visualization have shown that mental practice can increase real strength and performance creating an almost virtual iron aspect. This study by ( ) has also proven that visualization activates the same neural circuits that actual seeing does, visual imagery activates the brains visual cortex therefore through the imagining of movement it actives the motor ...
Rushall, B. S., (1995). Mental Skills Training for Sports, Sports Science Associates, Spring Valley, CA., 8.1- 8.3,
Sports psychology draws on knowledge from the fields of Kinesiology and Psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors. In addition to instruction and training of psychological skills for performance improvement, sport psychology may include work with athletes and coaches regarding injury, rehabilitation, communication, and team building (Weinberg, R.S. & Gould, D.,2010)....
Motivate the motivation, simple words that can mean some much to an athlete, but what is motivation really? In the games and sports, psychological and physiological factors play an important role in determining the performance level (Grange & Kerr, 2010; Schilling & Hyashi, 2001). Motivation also plays an important role in determining the performance level an athlete, but plays a role in the psychological and physiological factors as well. Motivation is more than a behavior or idea, it is an impact on how we interact with others, how we process defeat, feel, and how we play. Motivation will not only help an athlete get the starting position or gain an award but more importantly, help an athlete reach their potential. Motivation like most things
In my final season of baseball, the coaches had hired a sports psychologist to help with the mental aspect of the game. The psychologist had us work on imagery and envisioning success, and naturally I doubted that it would help. About half way through the season I finally attempted this imagery practice before I pitched. I held a baseball and closed my eyes. While holding the correct grip for each of my pitches, I envisioned myself successfully throwing all of my pitches to every location of the plate. When finally stepped on the rubber, I found that I had a lot more confidence in commanding each of my pitches because I had already seen them. I felt that this had a significant impact on my performance, so I continued this practice for the remainder of my career. This was an example of personal mastery for me, because it helped me envision what I needed to do in order to achieve my
Sport and exercise psychology is a mandatory aspect of the sport science discipline. This discipline contributes to the various professional practices associated with physical activities such as - teaching of physical education, recreation and health promotion, and kinesiology related professions - because it plays a mental role for the participants. Sport and exercise psychologists view physical activity in several different ways: physical activity as a tool for health, physical activity as a tool for human potential, and physical activity as a tool for social change. This aspect of psychology may be the most important aspect of physical activity, because of the contributions of exercise and sport psychology to health, human potential, and social change.