Sports Psychology

According to Wikipedia, sports psychology is the “scientific study of people and their behavior in sport contexts and the practical application of that knowledge.” A sports psychologist has two main functions in mind. The first is to understand how psychology effects the person and the next is to understand how participation in sports effects the persona of the person.

Sports psychology works to enhance a participant’s performance and to give them a mind set to deal with adversity during competitive sports. The sport participant is taught to relax, to concentrate on what they need to do, to have the confidence to play as they know they can and to set goals they want to achieve.

“The Mental Edge” says that “winning is 90% mental and 10% physical.” Interesting concept. Do you wonder how much mental activity goes into a football player’s mind as he is getting knocked to the ground over and over again during a game? According to professional football coaches, it is all mental. Every player has to know what is expected of him with every single play. They have to know if they are to move forward or backward and left or right and this all comes from being mentally prepared to play the game.

Basically there are 4 Cs to what a sports psychologist teaches: Concentration, confidence, control and commitment. If the player being counseled by the psychologist learns the 4 Cs, he is thought to go on to have an awesome career in his sport.