Over the last decade, retirement in elite sport has received considerable attention from researchers. From studies it has been found that the termination of a sporting career induces changes in athletes personal, social and occupational lives. Changes in these areas can potentially affect athlete’s cognitions, emotions and behaviors. After an athlete retires it is usually […]
In part one we looked at James Loehr’s (1982) model of the Ideal Performance State which gave us a brief insight into the power of the mind-body connection. We came to understand that fear is an emotion that we attach to a certain situation based purely on our perception of that situation or of a […]
Extrinsic motivation is ‘external’: people – in this case athletes – are driven to succeed by factors from outside i.e. money, prizes, acclaim, status, praise. Intrinsic motivation comes from within i.e. an athlete driven by a need to succeed because they want to be the best and are not overly concerned by financial or ego […]
Conflict within a team sports at both amateur and elite level is a likely occurrence at some point! Conflict can arise among members of sports teams which may negatively impact individual and team performance (Laious & Tzetzis, 2005). Moreover, team development theories (Gesick, 1988, 1989; Tuckman, 1965) suggest that team conflict has important influences on […]
A Team-Building Intervention Whether it is on or off the playing field, effectively dealing with conflict goes a long way in determining success. Once teams successfully overcome conflict, trust develops between team members, leading to higher levels of team cohesion and greater team effectiveness (Teklab et al., 2009). A team building workshop is one intervention […]
After witnessing a schoolgirl aged 12 with two prosthetic blades running in a High School Sports Day 100m event in front of the entire school without any leveling distance advantage, it has only furthered my own interest into the motivation in disabled sport. So! What possesses her to take on such a challenge? Being in […]
You have the talent, you’ve been working hard at your game, you’re physically in great shape and you’ve won plenty of times in the past – but when it comes to the big events, you just can’t finish off that winning position. If we were to take elite golf as an example, let’s take a […]
I was reading the book Bounce: How Champions are Made recently, and the author mentioned a Michael Jordan commercial for Nike from several years ago. Watching the commercial again, I realised how powerfully it demonstrates the importance of accepting failure and setbacks as we strive for greatness in whatever we do. In order to remain […]
Anxiety surrounding body image and exercise is related to muscle gain, weight control and attractiveness leading to the question “Does this manifest in sport?” In short, yes it does, while athletes and coaches should be aware that personal sporting identity and body image are vulnerable to damage due to a perceived failure to meet the […]
Anxiety is a concept that is widely discussed by performers and coaches. Practitioners involved in sports performance need to be aware of anxiety related symptoms. Once awareness is built it would be prudent to deal with anxiety related issues. There are two distinct aspects of anxiety. One aspect emanates towards trait anxiety. Trait anxiety relates […]