Sports Psychology

The practice of sports psychology has grown along with the popularity of competitive sports themselves. As more and more money has gone into developing highly skilled athletic programs, more money has also gone into understanding the mental attitudes and functions of those they are built around. The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with a simple framework depicting how using sports psychology can translate into improved competition performance. This article is intended to help heighten the general understanding of the sports psychology practice for players, coaches, and the public. What the author seeks to learn is, “If so many athletes need psychological support and are aware that they have this need, why don’t they seek treatment more often” (Gee).

The author’s first hypothesis is that athletes view sports psychologists much like the general public view any doctor who specializes in mental processes, negatively. People who need psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors are often labeled as being mentally unstable by society. The public often isolates them or makes them feel inferior for having difficulty dealing with their feelings and thoughts. Athletes have the same fear as any person who would be recommended to a mental specialist, that they might become less revered in the public eye if they were in need of mental or emotional support.

The second reason that the author believes sports psychology is being underutilized is because of a lack of understanding about the practice by coaches and athletes. Coaches and players are unable to see immediate benefits from therapy. It is not like lifting weights or taking nutritional supplements where direct improvements that can be tested immediately are seen. The absence of immediate results causes a lot of skepticism in the athletic community for people who are used to seeing results. The overall lack of confidence in the practice of sports psychology makes it even more difficult to help them understand the positives and try it.

What makes sports psychology relevant? On paper many athletes put up extremely impressive numbers. However, these numbers are not always consistent, they are ideal. The author refers to ideal performance as “Absolute Performance” and explains how physically a person may be capable of a certain feat on paper but they do not always perform up to that level due to the day-to-day factors that they are faced with. What the author leaves us with is “Relative Performance” which he states as being the level of performance people are capable of in real life conditions. The author claims that there are two limiting factors that cause the drop from Absolute Performance to Relative Performance, physiological and psychological obstacles. Physiological inhibitors are taken into consideration and thrown out in this research. This leaves the other performance-limiting factor though, psychological obstacles.

Anxiety is a main instigator in causing poor performance in athletes. This mental disorder does not only cause stress but can physically limit normal functions as well. Loss of vision, fine motor skills, and concentration are all effects of anxiety that can hurt performance. Most cognitive anxiety for athletes comes from losing feelings of self-worth due to a lack of athletic achievement and can be devastating. Another form of anxiety is somatic which is extremely detrimental to athletes. Somatic anxiety manifests itself in fine motor skills or in muscles making routine functions seem difficult and uncomfortable. Both forms of anxiety have responded to therapy by sports psychologists. Through therapy psychologists are able to teach athletes how to separate success and self-worth or retain critical skills by relaxing.

All psychological problems are very personal. Every athlete requires individual attention and a fresh perspective in order to release the troubles that they are encountering. A stress free athlete is able to focus more on the competition at hand and will ultimately perform better because of it. Detrimental thoughts and actions because of excess stress can negatively effect an athlete to perform far below their physiological capabilities. Because of this sports psychology is necessary to provide the tools and practices that athletes and coaches need to avoid such situations and perform at the top of their threshold.