Sports Psychology
Basically, sports psychology is a proficiency that makes use of both the psychological skills and knowledge to address athletes’ well-being as well as their optimal performance, social and developmental aspects of participating in sports, and the systemic matters which are associated with sports settings. In accordance to the American Psychological Association, it is a field with specialists in addressing the co-relation between sports performance and the psychology of players, including psychological traits of optimal athlete performance, well-being of the athletes as well as coaches and lastly the sports organizations.
The specialists in sports psychology are referred to as Sports Psychologists. They play key roles in this field. Traditionally, they approach the discipline in two points of view (1) practitioner oriented and (2) academic oriented. Combining their roles under these two categories, below are what psychologists do.
Helping the athletes in coping with performance fears
Fear is a common phenomenon by many athletes who are perfectionists when it comes to thinking of how other people would think of their performance. A sports psychologist helps them to overcome such fears as, fear of failure, embarrassment and the general anxiety
Helping athletes to improve their mental skills for performance
This is one of the common roles of sports psychology, teaching athletes mental skills to enhance their performance in the field. Through this approach, athletes gain confidence, intensity, focus and composure to face the competitors. This improves the performance of athletes.
Helping athletes to prepare mentally for a competition
Equipped with some of the mental skills mentioned above like confidence, composure, focus and intensity, athletes become mentally prepared to face any competition regardless of how tough it is. This improves their performance too.
Helping athletes return to play after injury
Depending on the nature of injuries most athletes undergo, returning to play sometimes become difficulty because of fear of undergoing the same experiences in future. They are left with mental scars even after being physically healed. Sports psychologist can help athletes cope better with such pressures.
Below are some of the positions under sports psychology available at the Bachelor level
Applied sport psychology
Clinical sport psychology
Academic sport psychology