There are many areas within the field of sports psychology. Here are some examples:

Applied Sports Psychology

This sub-field focuses on delivering performance-enhancement skills like visualizing, positive thought, goal setting and managing emotions and arousal. Practice in this area would normally involve working in an athletic setting, such as a sporting facility or athletic institution. The main emphasis of applied sports psychology is to work directly with athletes, helping them to acquire mental training techniques.

Clinical Sports Psychology

This area deals with treating psychological problems that many athletes suffer from. Clinical sports psychology involves counseling work to diagnose and treat a wide variety of psychological based issues facing the athlete, which many include: substance abuse, depression, eating disorders, anger and anxiety. A professional in this field must become a skilled clinical and counseling psychologist beforehand.

Academic Sports Psychology

Some people are mostly interested in the research aspect of sports psychology, and for these individuals, furthering the knowledge in the field is a priority. By working at academic institutions in the lab, researchers of sport psychology provide valuable data to professionals out in the field.

If you are planning on getting a sports psychology degree, or starting a sports psychology program, it is recommended that you receive the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) newsletter and journal, as the field is rapidly advancing all time and current information pertaining to the study must be closely watched.

Undergraduate Psychology Students

Courses specific to sports psychology are still quite rare at most academic institutions, thus it is recommended that students interested in this profession conduct their own research in how to pursue such a career. It may help to get involved with local sport teams or athletic clubs to observe how teams function, and become more intimate with athletic settings. Undergraduates should keep in mind that their involvement is strictly non-professional, as a degree or certificate is needed for any consulting work.

Certified Sports Psychologists

A legitimate sports psychologist must have a doctorate and the requiring training and license to practice sports psychology. Proper credentials ensure that practitioners in the field are competent and tested at what they do.

Sports Psychology is the study of the psychological and mental factors that influence and are influenced by participation and performance in sport, exercise, and physical activity, and the application of the knowledge gained through this study to everyday settings. A person with a sports psychology degree is interested in how participation in sport, exercise, and physical activity may enhance personal development and well-being throughout the life span. Sport psychologists are also involved in assisting coaches in working with athletes as well as helping improve athletes’ motivation.

Why is Sports Psychology Important?

The increased stress of competitions can cause athletes to react both physically and mentally in a manner that can negatively affect their performance abilities. They may become tense, their heart rates race, they break into a cold sweat, they worry about the outcome of the competition, they find it hard to concentrate on the task in hand.

This has led coaches to take an increasing interest in the field of sport psychology and in particular in the area of competitive anxiety. That interest has focused on techniques that athletes can use in the competitive situation to maintain control and optimize their performance. Once learned, these techniques allow the athlete to relax and to focus his/her attention in a positive manner on the task of preparing for and participating in competition. Psychology is another weapon in the athlete’s armory in gaining the winning edge. Getting an online sports psychology degree ensures that you will find employment among elite athletes and fitness trainers.

What Can You Do With A Sport Psychology Degree?

Teaching/research in sport sciences and working with athletes on performance enhancement. Teaching/Research in psychology and also working with athletes. Providing clinical/counseling services to various populations, including athletes. Health promotion and working with athletes, but not necessarily directly in sport psychology. Youth sport organizations may employ a sport psychology professional to educate coaches about how to increase the satisfaction and enjoyment of participants and about coaches’ roles in promoting development of self-esteem.

Sports Psychology Graduate Program: MA, MS, PhD

Sports Psychology online graduate programs involve an understanding of the various psychological/mental factors that affect performance in sports and exercise. Those who earn a masters (MS) or PhD degree in sports psychology can become sports psychologists, prevention specialists, enhanced performance trainers, faculty members and more.

Athletes Can Benefit From Sports Psychology

If you are serious about your mental game it is time to get beyond the hype. The key to improving psychologically is having valid and reliable information about mind-body processes that drive peak performance. Being labeled or told what to do is not a science-based approach to sport psychology. Most coaches, athletes and even sport psychology practitioners have at best limited insight into key neuropsychological factors that underlie performance tendencies, especially during critical moments during competition. Before you can benefit from mental training you need to know about key measures that have been shown to affect performance profoundly. Science-based mental training is predicated on knowing as much about athlete functioning as possible. A sports psychology program will offer a degree in the science of helping athletes achieve their highest goals. Improving mentally takes more than just visualizing or engaging in self-talk, interventions that many athletes are not even capable of engaging in effectively. Your so-called Athlete’s Profile determines to a large extent what mental training method will work best for you. Importantly, you also need to know if an intervention is really working and how. In order to experience evidence-based sport psychology you need to be tested and observed during practice and competition while being monitored. You must go beyond antiquated approaches to mental training, into the realm of sophisticated, cutting-edge sport psychology if you want to know where your mental game stands and how to get to the next level.

Sources:
http://www.wcupa.edu/_Academics/sch_cas.psy/Career_Paths/Sports/Career07.htm
http://www.gradschools.com/Subject/Sports-Psychology/342.html
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/psych.htm
http://www.americanboardofsportpsychology.org/

Staying Relaxed

Once upon a time, it was thought that athletes had to be psyched up to deliver their best performance. Scientific research has proven otherwise. For the best potential performance, athletes should reach a relaxed state of mind where their arousal is slightly above normal. In this optimal state, the performer feels energized, yet relaxed. This is a delicate balance that must be practiced many times before it can be reliably achieved during athletic competition. Sports psychology is focused on studying this optimal state, and how to instruct individuals to reach this mindset during times of high stress.

Remaining Confident

Performing with confidence is a key ingredient for achieving greatness in athletics. It is no wonder then that sport psychologists work diligently in raising and maintaining the confidence levels of their clients. The internal feeling of confidence is expressed outwards through superior athletic performance. In this state, the athlete believes in their ability and does not feel the fear of failure. Confident athletes should not wish or hope to be successful, but they should expect the best outcome at all times during in their training and performance. Confidence should be built into a kind of faith, where the athlete doesn’t question the possibility of failure or overly analyze the odds of winning or the threat from the competition.

Total Focus

To achieve peak performance, an athlete’s mind must reside in the present moment. Future fears and memories of the past must not cloud the mindset of elite athletes. To exist solely in the present moment, allows the performer to be 100% committed to the task at hand. It permits the athlete to become completely absorbed in their actions, seemingly slowing down time and enhancing their abilities. All great athletes have attained this level of focus. Improving focus and lengthening an athlete’s concentration are important areas of work in the field of sports psychology.

Achieving Automation

There is a time when top level athletes feel that their actions are on autopilot and that their motions seem effortless and in perfect unison with the task at hand. With simple grace and ease, they can make even the most challenging situation seem like a walk in the park. This behavior is linked to lowering conscious control and allowing subconscious, instinct-like behavior to take over. To put it simply, the less the athlete thinks, the faster and more accurate they become. To reach this optimum state, a performer must shift their regular conscious control over to a part of the brain that relies more heavily on instinct and gut reactions. The athlete must have the confidence to let go and allow their body to make split-second decisions without conscious interference. Sport psychology studies this phenomenon and attempts to apply techniques that can help athletes realize their subconscious abilities.

Keeping Sports Enjoyable

All athletes must deal with disappointment, stress and anxiety during times of training and competition. Although they may truly love the sport that they are involved in, athletes may not always feel positive about themselves or the sport that they have pursued during times of great struggle. Chronic negative emotions can lead to depression or other psychological problems. Left unchecked, these issues can develop into serious mental illness. Such problems can be identified and treated by a certified sports psychologist. Part of keeping an athlete in a healthy and optimal state is making sure that they always feel that they are in control of their life. This means boosting their sense of self-efficacy so that they always believe that ultimately, they are in charge of their actions and emotions, and not the other way around.

The sports psychology program can be considered a sub-discipline of Psychology as well as Sport and Exercise Science. It is presumed to be an applied field whereby the principles of psychology are transferred to settings including exercise programs and organized sport. As an academic discipline, sport and exercise psychology is the scientific study of people and their behavior in sport and exercise contexts and involves such topics as personality, motivation, attributions, arousal, leadership, and goal-setting. In essence, the field is concerned with the psychological determinants of behavior in movement situations as well as the psychological effects of sport engagement and physical activity.

Main Factors of Sports Psychology

Mental States: Concentration and Focus

This is the mental quality to focus on the task in hand. If the athlete lacks concentration then their athletic abilities will not be effectively or efficiently applied to the task. Strategies to improve concentration are very personal. One way to maintain focus is to set process goals for each session or competition. The athlete will have an overall goal for which the athlete will identify a number of process goals that help focus on specific aspects of the task. For each of these goals the athlete can use a trigger word (a word which instantly refocuses the athlete’s concentration to the goal) e.g. sprinting technique requires the athlete to focus on being tall, relaxed, smooth and to drive with the elbows - trigger word could be “technique”. These are techniques that you can learn from an online sports psychology degree program

Self Confidence and Beliefs

Confidence results from the comparison an athlete makes between the goal and their ability. The sports psychology program teaches how to communicate with top-level athletes to improve their confidence and self-efficacy. The athlete will have self-confidence if they believe they can achieve their goal. (Comes back to a quote of mine - “You only achieve what you believe”). When an athlete has self confidence they will tend to: persevere even when things are not going to plan, show enthusiasm, be positive in their approach and take their share of the responsibility in success and fail. To improve their self confidence, an athlete can use mental imagery.

Self Control of Emotions and Thoughts

Identifying when an athlete feels a particular emotion and understanding the reason for the feelings is an important stage of helping an athlete gain emotional control. An athlete’s ability to maintain control of their emotions in the face of adversity and remain positive is essential to successful performance. Two emotions that are often associated with poor performance are anxiety and anger. Anxiety comes in two forms - Physical (butterflies, sweating, nausea, needing to urinate) and Mental (worry, negative thoughts, confusion, lack of concentration). Relaxation is a technique that can be used to reduce anxiety. When an athlete becomes angry, the cause of the anger often becomes the focus of attention. This then leads to a lack of concentration on the task, performance deteriorates and confidence in ability is lost which fuels the anger - a slippery slope to failure.

Commitment To Goals

Sports performance depends on the athlete being fully committed to numerous goals over many years. In competition with these goals the athlete will have many aspects of daily life to manage. The many competing interests and commitments include work, studies, family/partner, friends, social life and other hobbies/sports. Setting goals with the athlete will raise their feelings of value, give them joint ownership of the goals and therefore become more committed to achieving them. All goals should be SMARTER. Many people can contribute to an athlete’s levels of commitment with appropriate levels of support and positive feedback, especially during times of injury, illness and poor performance.

Sources:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/psych.htm
http://www.wcupa.edu/_Academics/sch_cas.psy/Career_Paths/Sports/Career07.htm