Applied Sport Psychology

What is the purpose of training?
Answering this question will provide direction for every coach and sport psychologist. For me this is simple: to improve the athlete's technique, skills, tactics and self-development. Athletes will spend hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks even years and years working on techniques, skills and tactics. Therefore our...
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Applied Sport Psychology

Self talk
Everyone has an inner voice which can be either helpful or unhelpful – the angel on one shoulder (helpful) and the devil on the other (unhelpful). It is vital to remember that...
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Applied Sport Psychology

A Guide to Controlling Nerves
It is often the case that we suffer from anxiety. Anxiety can be acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term). Anxiety can also be related to pre-match nerves or develops over time due to...
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Leadership

How emotional Intelligence can enhance coaching practices
Emotional intelligence is a popular construct associated to business, education, health and more recently sport. There is clear evidence to substantiate that emotional intelligence is beneficial for performance. A number of...
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Applied Sport Psychology

Stamina boosting – The edge
Much of what holds you back from reaching a fitness, sporting or weight loss goal is in your mind. All too commonly we sabotage ourselves with our own limitations. Sport...
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Applied Sport Psychology

Ping Pong Panic: Explicit monitoring theory (EMT) and table tennis
The London Olympics of 2012 showcased a buffet of sporting heroes, but the Games also proved a ‘choking’ minefield for many athletes. Erratic shooting and overambitious passes in the Women’s...
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Applied Sport Psychology

Interventions to prevent choking in ping pong
Various intervention techniques may reduce choking.  Implicit learning strategies, such as analogy learning, have been found effective in table tennis44. This intervention provides support for EMT by showing that reductions in...
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Applied Sport Psychology

Hierarchy of needs
I am a great fan of humanism (i.e. belief in humanity) and one thing that has cropped up in my Psychologist training is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Broken down into five levels, ranging from...
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Applied Sport Psychology

Training to prevent choking
Within elite sport it can be a huge challenge to prepare not only physically but psychologically for the spike in pressure which can be encountered during competition.  The negative phenomena...
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Team Building

Team cohesion
Coaches often talk about teams needing time to “gel” in order to perform at their maximum potential. What exactly does this mean? It has been evidenced time & time again...
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