Training Articles - Psychology
- Sports Psychology Tip: The Last Day You Ever Choke in Sport
Lisa Lane Brown explains how to cure overwhelming nerves and performance anxiety to perform at your best under pressure in sport.
- Using Sports Psychology to Train the Brain to Win
William Rover explains how training the mind can have a positive impact on performance.
- 12 Steps to Climbing Confidence
Emily Pitts provides an insight into her "12 Steps to Climbing Confidence" training program that is delivered entirely online.
- Sports Psychology
Why counselling is essential for athletes.
- Your Dream Psychology Job
Working in any industry requires a firm grasp on what you enjoy, what you are good at, where your talents lie, and what kind of work environment you thrive in. These things are not always easy to figure out for yourself, but finding your perfect job becomes much easier once you know them. Here are some tips to help guide you toward your ideal career path in psychology.
- Mental Training Techniques
Camilla Sheppard provides an overview of how you can improve your performance with simple mental training techniques. Research has shown that having self-belief, a high level of concentration and self-control can vastly enhance even the most successful athletes' abilities.
- Pressures of being an Elite Athlete
Isobelle Biggin provides an overview of her doctorate research project into coaches' and athletes' perceptions of mental ill-health in elite athletes, how these issues arise and the challenges and barriers in athletes accessing support.
- Building Mental Strength
Sports are a pastime enjoyed by many. Whether sports are played professionally or by amateurs, it is essential to be healthy physically and mentally. When building physical strength, one's progress is quite visible, but mental strength development may not be so easy to see. There are many different ways in which people can increase their mental strength.
- The education required to be a sports psychologist
Sports psychology encompasses various disciplines within sports science and psychology. Aspiring graduates can choose multiple pathways in their education and career. There are numerous employment opportunities in sports psychology, including teaching, therapy, counselling, research, coaching, etc.
- Athlete Depression
Even though exercise can help improve mental health, The British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that the rate of depression among scholastic athletes can be as high as 21%.
- Which Is More Important for Athletes
Physical or Mental Preparation?
Physical abilities and sports skills are worked on throughout the career, but the same kind of treatment deserves mental preparation - the best coaches are aware of that, and their players go through a "drill" that strengthens their "head".
- Finding the sport that best suits your personality
Sport has long played a role in developing communities and cultures. Whether you love to be active or have nightmares about being picked last on the football field, there are sport options out there for you.
- Emotional Training
The physical objective is the fitness/strength/speed requirement, and this usually determines the structure and content of the session. The value objective is a skill or psychological factor you want to be learnt or practised. Defining both objectives when planning a cycle or session helps you achieve a balance and progression in training.
- Self-Esteem
Confidence and high self-esteem have always been promoted as the best, most important aspect of one's personality, but is such high self-esteem always good to have in sports? Let us find out.
- Study and Motivation
Being motivated all the years while studying is not so easy. There are many ways to cope with this problem, and professional help from outside is one of the main ones. Interested in the details, then read on.
- Goal & Process Motivation
David Lowes and Dr Matt Long spent time with Olympic champion David Hemery CBE who provided an insight into his winning mentality. It is October 15, 1968, and in the high altitude of Mexico City, a 24-year-old British athlete wearing number 402 is settled in his blocks out in lane six as he attempts to become Olympic champion over 400m hurdles. Now 44 years later, we analyse the reflections of David Hemery in his finest hour through recourse to the tool of Reversal Theory.
- Minding your Mental Fitness
David Lowes and Dr Matt Long investigated the mindset of mature elite athletes and social athletes' perspective. Being in the right frame of mind is essential to deliver a performance allied with endless hours of steady running and repetition work on the track for middle-distance athletes.
- Controlling the Raging Monster Within
To control your emotions during a competition, you must do two tasks - have an accepting mindset before a competition and arm yourself with mental strategies to cope with errors or mishaps.
- Mental toughness - Count your blessings
Dr Matt Long explores some useful mental strategies that you could use to help you cope with endurance events like the marathon or the Tour De France.
- What influence will sports psychology have on the rehabilitation of injuries and the improvement of the performance of sports skills?
What influence will sports psychology have on the rehabilitation of injuries and the improvement of sports skills performance? It is essential to realize that there is not one specific psychological skill that assists in repair. Each psychological skill obtained must be individualized based on the individual's psychological state and the sport that the individual is a participant in. A few examples of psychological skills include mental imagery, goal setting, and positive self-talk. These psychological skills may be used during sports injury rehabilitation to motivate athletes to adhere to rehabilitation.
- How hypnosis can help your athletes to produce their top performance
Hypnosis is an ergogenic aid used by many top athletes and teams that have been around for many years and is now making a comeback - due to the recently increased publicity that hypnotherapy is receiving.
- Wheelchair Racing
Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who provides an insight into the unique pressures of the Paralympic games
- How Does Psychology Affect Sports Performance?
Nate Roberts provides an overview of how goal setting, routine and visualization can help athletes and coaches overcome internal and external negative psychological factors.
- Managing Competitive Sports Stress
Barry Bremner provides an overview of five techniques for managing competitive sports stress.
- Performing Under Pressure
The article considers what pressure is, how athletes experience it and how to manage pressure. When you understand "how" and "when" you feel pressure, you can use them to help you instead of work against you.
- Psychological Skills Training
A review of psychological skills training and the factors that can influence the benefits of such a program for an athlete.
- It's all in the mind
A review of the techniques that will allow an athlete to relax and to focus their attention positively on the task of preparing for and participating in a competition.
- How your athletes can avoid
stress
If you are in a stressful situation, your athletic performance will be affected whether this is in competition or training. Here are some tips on how to manage stress.
- When you can manage your emotions, you
can perform at your best
We know from countless studies that mental skills are acquirable, and you can, with practice, learn to perform mentally. You could improve your confidence, concentration, motivation and anxiety levels if you chose to.
- Mental Models - Noticing
distinctions
How Jonny Wilkinson uses an imaginary girl to stay focused on the rugby pitch and how we might acquire similar mental skills.
- Time and its influence on
motivation
How an athlete's psychological relationship to time will influence their motivation.
- Is "Achievement Goal Theory" reality or
just a myth
A resume of an MSc thesis, which investigates if achievement goal theory is based on fact or fiction?
- What is the stimulus that gives rise to
a specific response?
How to build simple, powerful anchors for mental focus.
- The psychological side of
injury
The emotional stages an athlete goes through when injured.
- Wishing yourself a speedy recovery - the
value of the mind in body healing
It is important to speed the recovery process as much as possible. The evidence drawn from above suggests that hypnosis may be utilised as a part of the treatment during a recovery period.
- Zen Mind, Sports Mind
How to achieve a state of peak performance where actions are automatic, intuitive and unconscious and where bursts of 'spontaneous excellence' occur naturally and effortlessly.
- Taoist standing practice - for health,
strength and athletic development
A review of the Taoist standing practice helps strengthen the bones and tendons, increase core stability, and develop a strong competitive spirit.
- Taoist standing practice - core
stability
A explanation of the advanced standing posture and its benefits for developing core stability, as well as a more competitive mindset.
- Minding the injury
The four stages an injured athlete will go through on the road to recovery.
- Sports Psychology and Performance
Enhancement
How you and your team may benefit from the application of sports psychology.
- How to be a champion in sport and
life
Three key points that will boost your workouts to Olympic training status.
- Sports psychology guidelines for sports
parents
How parents can help make the sport a successful and fun experience for young athletes.
- Which sports produce low
self-esteem?
Athletes who develop eating disorders are female, and these athletes are usually found in a small number of sports, including gymnastics, cross-country, swimming, and track and field.
- The power of thoughts
There is scientific proof that negative thinking does play a role in producing negative outcomes. If you do not believe it, then try this experiment.
- Self-esteem in the athlete
Why athletes must learn to separate self-esteem from their level of performance in sports.
- Golf - it's all in the swing and the
mind
How to prepare your annual golf training program and the benefits of including psychology training into the program.
- Running Buddhas: Ultra-endurance and the
spiritual athlete
A look at the training the Japanese Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei undertake to perform such a feat of ultra-endurance and how you can apply some of their training to your sport.
- The Way of Energy and the Future of Performance Enhancement
A review of how the Eastern energy arts such as Chi Kung and T'ai Chi can have a positive impact on the four main areas of Sports Science - namely biomechanics, strength and conditioning, endurance and the mental game.
Contribute an Article
If you would like to contribute an article related to coaching or training, for inclusion in the Library, then please email me.