Sport’s psychology has continued to grow on an international basis and its fundamentals are expanding into all areas of fife in the form of performance psychology. Keywords: Sports Psychology, Applied Psychology, Performance Enhancement and Zone In today’s world of sports virtually every professional team. Division 1 university teams and many of the top individual professional sports stars all have sports psychologists on staff. Our society in united States is sports crazy. Industry analyst Plunked Research Ltd. Estimates that the U.
S. Sports market -? including ticket sales to professional sporting events, sports related clothing to equipment sold in sporting odds stores -? generates $400 billion in revenue in an average year (Evolved, 2014). Our craving for sports, however, means that the athletes we support and follow face increasing burdens to accomplish ever higher peak performances. “Everyone is trying to figure out how to maximize talent,” says Scott Goldman, PhD, director of clinical and sport psychology at the university of Arizona.
That means finding an edge that goes beyond being In top physical form. Experts In the field no longer think of peak performance as a natural by-product of practice and physical conditioning, says Brown. Now they take a broader view. Instead of focusing on playing-field victories, they recognize that athletes need the same sharp mental skills used to compete successfully in business, the arts and in the operating room. “We believe the field really is performance psychology,” says Mark Aggie, PhD, director of sport and performance psychology at the University of Denver. This isn’t specific to sports, even though it developed from sports. ” (Evolved, 2014) That means opportunities for sport psychologists aren’t limited to Olympian and elite athletes. Career options are peeing up on stages and in boardrooms. If a pro quarterback can visualize a precise pirouette, says Brown. The same mental preparation that helps NAB players sink half-court shots can help an advertising executive land the big account. It’s all about achieving top form and a positive outlook despite setbacks, losses or distractions (Evolved, 2014).
The earliest writings and literature describing what today would be called sport psychology was discussed in a series of essays published by French born Pierre De Cooperation in 1913 titled Essays De Psychologies Sportive. Cooperation organized the first sport psychology congress called the Congress of Psychology and Physiology of Sports which was held in 1913 (Koreans, 2007). During his lifetime, he published over 1300 articles, 30 books, 50 pamphlets, 30 posters and leaflets many of which addressed the psychological characteristics of involvement in sports.
He organized the first Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896 and was president of the International Olympic Committee from 1896 to 1925. Two of the Olympic congresses had a emphasis on psychology of sport in 1897 and later in 1913. Koreans, 2007) Coleman R. Griffith has been thought of as the father of sports psychology in the American and may have been the first to be hired professionally as a sports psychologist by a professional sports team.
As the director of the Research in Athletics Laboratory at the University of Illinois he published a number of articles and books on sports psychology. This was during the late sass’s and early sass’s. He published two textbooks that were both on sports psychology: Psychology of Coaching (1926) and Psychology and Athletics (1928) (Green, 2003). Much of the research and ratings of early psychologists before Griffith on sports related topics were published by physical educators along with traditional clinical or educational psychologists in tandem (Koreans, 2007).
Griffith was hired as the team’s sports psychologist by P. K. Wrigley who was owner of the Chicago Cubs professional baseball team in 1938 when the team was losing. Wrigley thought it was less expensive to hire Griffith than to pay for better players. He published more than 600 pages reporting on his work with team between 1938 and 1940 although his work was undermined by coaches and there who didn’t like his intrusion into their team (Green, 2003).
Griffith had success with college football and basketball players who were more readily familiar with scholarly research and following college coaches directions without revolting. Professional baseball players at the time were for the most part was not college educated and many of the coaches were players as well (Green, 2003). After leaving the Cub’s he did not conduct any more sport psychology research again. Most likely because of how none of his suggestions and findings was implemented by the Cub’s organization and how much resistance he received from the players as well as coaches.
Although many would surmise that Griffith attempt with the Cub’s was a failure other sports teams followed utilizing these fundamentals. The sass’s SST. Louis Browns hired New York psychologist and hypnotist, David Tracy to help their team. In the ass’s, the Philadelphia Phillips brought in professors from the University of Delaware to start a research program for baseball. By the sass’s many teams used tools like the Athletic Motivation Inventory and the Wonderful Test as standard tools or deciding on drafting professional players (Green, 2003).
By the early sass’s, the American Psychology Association began to support sport psychology interventions in using clinical psychological theories like mindfulness-acceptance-commitment randomized controlled trial comparing MAC (mindfulness-acceptance-commitment) with traditional psychological skills training programs with high level athletes from two NCAA Division I athletic departments in the EN United States. MAC participants were found to show over 20% improvement over traditionally trained athletes (Garner Moore, 2012).
Many within sport community had always believed that the home team has an advantage in competitive play. Percentages show that the home teams in athletics tend to win more than lose. In 1998, Jennifer Butler and Roy Bandmaster found that in certain situations people perform worse, not superior when in front of supportive spectators. In their research they found being in front of an audience of pleasant, welcoming people caused amplified levels of pressure and fear of failure. They inferred that the participants hated to disappoint those who encouraged them Assassin, 2008).
Fletcher & Maier believe that if applied sport psychology is to be recognized as an responsible field it must develop a more comprehensive understanding of competence and its repercussions for the preparation and growth of its practitioners. They feel that there is currently a lack of standardization of what is accepted as professional development accomplishments (Fletcher & Maier, 2013). From the first essays of Pierre De Cooperation on sports psychology in 1913 to the first professional sports franchise to hire a sport psychologist, Coleman Griffith in 1938 he interest in sports psychology has continued to grow and flourish.
As many of the mainstream clinical psychological domains have been applied in a sport framework to successfully enhance the athletic performance and mental health of competitive athletes the field of sports psychology will continue to flourish (Gardner & Moore, 2012). The continuance and development of accepted models of competency and professional development in the area of applied sports psychology will build a culture of acceptance within the psychological community (Fletcher & Emmer, 2013).
