Sports Psychology Degree

Get A Sports Psychology Degree

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