What is Sport Psychology?
What is sport psychology all about?
If two equally physically talented athletes/players or teams compete against each other, who wins? What separates good athletes from the very best? Why do some people perform better under pressure than others? Sport psychology can help to answer all these questions and more.
I now want you to think about the sport that you play. What percentage of your sport is psychological or the mental side? Now think about how much time you (or your athletes/players, or your child) spend ‘training’ or ‘working on’ the psychological or mental side of your sport.
Often people will say something like 70% or 80% but they are not working on the psychological side of their sport. Sport isn’t just about the technical, tactical and physical side. Just like you spend time, training or working on the technical, tactical and physical side, you need to spend time working on the psychological side too.
How will sport psychology help me?
Sport psychology can help you to cope with the mental demands of your sport. Whilst it can help you to understand how you think and feel and how this affects your performance.
Sport psychology can help with many areas including nerves/anxiety, confidence, understanding and managing emotions, concentration, dealing with pressure and coping with injury.
FAQs
Is sport psychology just for athletes/players?
No, sport psychology is for everyone and is everyone’s business. I work with coaches, whether that is by helping them to integrate sport psychology into their coaching sessions or by helping them to create the best environment, whilst I also support parents/guardians, helping them to support their child on their sporting journey. Anyone can benefit from sport psychology whether that is referees and officials, businesses, or anyone in a performance environment (e.g., dancers).
How long are the sessions?
One-to-one sessions typically last between 45 minutes to 1 hour. Workshops and sessions delivered to schools, colleges or universities are typically 1 hour; however, this can be altered depending on your needs.
Where do sessions take place?
All services are available face-to-face or online. For face to-face sessions, these typically take place at your environment whether that be the training ground or school, college, or university. In terms of one-to-one sessions, this depends on where you feel most comfortable. Again, these could take place at the training ground or we could meet at a café. I have found working with others, that sitting in a café can be less daunting than an office, is informal and is more relaxing. There may also be occasions when I may want to come and observe you training or competing.
I think my child would benefit from sport psychology, but I am worried that they won’t open up in a one-to-one session, what should I do?
This is something I hear quite often from parents and can completely understand their worries, and therefore I spend time getting to know them and building the relationship. Plus, I believe that I am creative and over the years I have tried various ways to get people to open up such as writing things down, drawing or acting things out (so far, this has worked, even with the quieter ones). Some also like to have their parents sat in on the session. Workshops are also a good option if you want to introduce them to some sport psychology concepts.
I have seen various titles (e.g., mental performance coaches, mindset coaches, mental skills coaches) offering similar services, so what is the difference and why should I choose to work with a Chartered Sport Psychologist over these?
Whilst some of these may do good work, what differentiates us is that ours is a protected title, meaning that only those with certain qualifications can call themselves a Chartered Sport Psychologist. I, like other Chartered Sport Psychologists have done at least 6 years of studying and training to be able to use this title, whilst we also must adhere to the British Psychological Society Code of Conduct. Our work is also underpinned by research which we keep up to date with, which we then apply to our day-to-day work.
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Whether you require support as an Individual, Group/Team or in Education, you are just an email or telephone call away from getting the help you need.