Role of Sports Psychology in Enhancing Player Performance
Sports Psychology
It is study of how
psychological factors influence the sports, athletic performance, exercise and
physical activity. It is a proficiency that uses psychological knowledge and skills
to address optimal performance and well-being of athletes and social aspects of
sports participation, and issues associated with sports organization. Sports psychologist
investigate how by playing sports can improve health and well-being.
History
Sports psychology was
primarily the domain of physical educators, not researchers, which can explain
the lack of consistent history. The birth of sports psychology happened largely
in Germany. In early 1920s, the first sports psychology laboratory was formed
by Dr. Carl Diem in berlin. The lab measured physical abilities in sport and
Schulte published Body and Mind in sport, in 1921. The Americans felt that
their sport performances were inadequate and disappointing as compared to
others, this led them to invest more in methods that better their athletes’
performances. The advancement of sport psychology was deliberate in Soviet
Union, due to creation of sports institutes where sports psychologist played
vital role.
Types of Sports Psychologists
There are various types
of psychologists such as:
·
Clinical psychologists
·
Developmental psychologists
·
Forensic
psychologists
·
Educational
psychologists
Educational Sports
Psychologists
Educational sports
psychologist uses psychological methods or psychological skills to improve
athlete’s sports performance. This includes teaching them how to use some
technologies like imagery, setting, goal, or self-talk, energy management, for
better performance on field.
The main goal of
educational sports psychologist is performance enhancement by teaching skills
to athletes on how to manage the mental factors to maximize the potential. They
also assist them with challenges they face during sports. This includes
recovery from injury, plans for sticking to training regimen, or help with
dealing with emotional strain of being in public eye.
Clinical Sports
Psychologist
They work with athletes
who have some mental issues or weak mental health such as Anxiety or depression.
They use different strategies from both sports psychology and psychotherapy and
help athletes to improve their mental health and sports performance at same
time. They meet with athletes that have mental issues and work with them to
provide the mental health solutions they need both individually and in public.
Exercise Psychologist
Exercise psychology is
defined as study of psychological issues and various theories related to
exercise. An exercise sports psychologist works with everyday exercisers or
non-athletes to help them learn how to make working out habit. This work can
include some techniques used by other sports psychologist like goal setting,
practicing mindfulness, and motivational techniques.
Techniques in Sports
Psychology
There are some common
techniques or skills that sports psychologists teach to athletes for improving
their performance and mental health.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is a
procedure of systematically planning ways to achieve specific accomplishments
with certain duration of time. According to research, goals should be
measurable, specific, difficult but attainable, time-based and combination of
short-term and long-term goals.
According to Dr. Eva V.
Monsma, short-term goals should be used to achieve long-term goals. He also
stated that it is important to set goals in positive terms by focusing on
behaviors. Long-term goal should have a series of short-term goals that
progress in difficulty. Having challenging short-term goals will remove
repetitiveness of easy goals and help us to achieve the long-term goal with
full focus.
Biofeedback
It uses external
technology to make individual aware of internal physiological processes. There
is some evidence that psychological measures, like heart beat or brain waves,
appear to be different in athletes than that of normal person. It could also
have beneficial implications for athletes to be able to monitor and control
these physiological measures to maximize their performance.
Anxiety and Stress
Although the anxiety
and stress are often considered a negative thing, they are necessary response
for body to survive. Its natural for body to exhibit some anxiety, however, it
becomes a problem when it begins to inhibit activity. Anxiety is a momentary feeling
of nervousness or worry that accompanies the arousal of body. There is also
somatic state anxiety, in which body experiences physiological response to
arousal.
Drive theory is an
approach that considers anxiety to be appositive asset. In situations where
anxiety is high, performance increases proportionally. But this is not accepted
as athletes can be psyched up. It is entirely dependent on individual’s
personality, so it cannot be applied to all athletes.
To conclude, principles
and techniques of sports psychology not only improve athlete’s performance, but
it is also useful in real life. One may need to pond upon factors in continuing
their goals and plans because in real life too, we are striving to achieve our
goals of life. In short, reaching to top requires a series of smaller actions
being performed on daily basis. Along with that, psychological skills like
mindset and goal setting can also mould the tides of athletic performance.
Comments
Post a Comment