What is Sport Psychology?

“Nothing can stop the person with the right mental attitude. However, nothing on earth can help the person with the wrong attitude ”

- Adam Peaty, 3 x Olympic Champion

Sports psychology is the understanding of the interaction between thoughts, emotions, behaviours and the environment. It can focus on all factors associated with enhancing performance levels, such as skill acquisition, performance anxiety, group dynamics and confidence. In addition to this, sport psychology also focuses on exercise participation, involving motivation to exercise, increasing participation and becoming more stress resilient.

Gaining greater awareness of how we interact in different situations can support us to make more effective decisions. This can improve our ability to better handle the demands of the sport and greater challenge ourselves. As a result, we can further adapt to new and unfamiliar situations leading to enhancing performance and improving our psychological wellbeing.

In a 2010 study, McNamara and colleagues interviewed world leading athletes on what it takes to reach elite success. They found that these athletes, ranging from hockey, judo, rowing and others, never mentioned any physical characteristics as the founding key. Instead, they labelled psychological characteristics, including commitment, motivation and stress coping, in helping them to overcome various barriers and obstacles to progress their skills and reach world class levels of performance. These areas can be hard to overcome, which is why I would like support you in developing the right psychological characteristics to enhance your sporting experience.

If you feel this may benefit you then I would love the opportunity to chat with you further to help you reach your goals and maintain your successes. Use the contact link below to get in touch.