157 What Is Sports Psychology and How It Can Help You

Demystifying Mental Toughness

Today’s episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness is where my colleagues at Inspiring Sporting Excellence, Olivia Scott, Aditi Gandhi, Tom Short and Alexandra Harper all share what they feel Sports Psychology is and what Sports Psychology is not. I hope you enjoy listening to their insights and gain a better understanding of the field.

Key Learnings

• Sports Psychology is used to find ways to improve performance.
• Sports Psychologists help people in a proactive way to improve as well as overcoming mental game barriers and blocks.
• It isn’t possible to think positively all of the time.
• In gymnastics mental blocks are common and a large role of a Sports Psychologist is to work with the gymnast and coach to ensure everyone is aligned to the same goal.
• Coaches can benefit from working with Sports Psychologists as they’ll improve their self- awareness, learn new things about themselves and gain new tools to support their gymnasts.
• Backing off from improving skills are important at times despite being very difficult for gymnastics coaches to do.
• Sports Psychology is a process, it’s not a quick fix.
• Many discussions between parents and children about their sport involvement and development often come from a good place but could be timed better, when emotions are less roused.
• In football Sports Psychologists can help coaches improve their players by drawing their awareness to specific aspects of their coaching and behaviour.
• Being a sounding board for coaches is also a key role of a Sports Psychologist.
• Sports Psychology is not the answer to all of your problems.
• Sports Psychology is about helping people with their thoughts, feelings and behaviours so that they can reach their optimum performance levels or enhance well-being.
• The person we work with has the answers within them, it’s our job to draw those answers from them.
• 6 sessions in most cases with a Sports Psychologist will be a big help to clients in reaching their goals.

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Relevant Podcast Episodes

Ep062: JJ Vallely - Mastering The Mental Side Of Golf

Ep071: James Lau - Mastering the Mental Side of Tennis

Ep072: Tom Jones - Mastering the Mental Side of Cricket

Ep146: John Nassoori - What Is The Role Of A Sports Psychologist In Football?

Relevant Blogs and Resources

Blog: Mental Toughness is a Hugely Valuable Trait

Blog: 5 Coaching Tips to Develop Mentally Tough Footballers

Blog: How does Counselling work in Professional Sport?

What’s the fuss about - Sports Psychology Explained

How Sports Psychology for Children works

Sport Psychology Impact Stories