Sport psychology: a merely motivational talk?

storymarcialarts (25)in #psychology • 6 years ago

When the words "sport psychology" come to mind, we imagine some person cheering or trying to raise the mood in the not so best moments of the team, perhaps while the team is resting, their coach, dedicates his most great words with a magical content that makes the team to raise the spirit and the mood to emerge victorious on the scoreboard. All of this is perhaps a little imposed idea by Hollywood. Now going more towards reality, it is true that part of the work of a sports psychologist is to raise the mood among the team, but this is only one of the smallest aspects of what it really is all about, its usefulness in high performance sports teams is increasingly needed despite not being too much known.

What is sport psychology about?

Sport psychology is a science that takes knowledge of psychology and sport science with the aim of improving the performance of athletes having a healthy psychological state. It also studies and investigates the repercussions of sport on the community or society and applies new teaching methodologies in a way that makes sports have a better transmission of knowledge. Sport psychologists deals with any problem that is related between the psychology of the athlete and his relationship with the sport.

1 The sport psychologist analyzes the reaction times, personalities, intelligence and motor skills of the athletes for a better function in sport

2 Develop motivation and concentration skills since these two psychological characteristics are key to success in any sports

3 Do psychological exercises before entering a period of competitions or games, this is also known as psychological warming since they are self-relaxation exercises and control over the stress of the season.

4 Guide for the team coach to improve their teaching methods aiming at an easy understanding of the collective.

5 The sports psychologist seeks through different dynamics a greater social union of the team as this way (players know each other better and have a good friendship situation) improves the effectiveness of the team.

These are just some notions that the sports psychologist is responsible for but as explained before, this field is very broad and I hope to give you a vision of how capable it can be. Little by little, sports teams are incorporating new sports psychologists into their new templates.