SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY: HISTORY, OBJECTIVES AND PROFILE - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

The psychology of sport is a discipline that uses knowledge acquired by science of human behavior to achieve maximum develop welfare and potential athletes. She is also in charge of the social and systemic aspects of sport, in addition to studying how biological development influences the performance of athletes.

In recent decades, sports psychology has gone from being a marginal discipline and not recognized by any official body, to a work, educational and research alternative to the best known branches of this science. Today, organizations as important as the American Psychology Association (APA) recognize it as a valid application of knowledge about the human mind.

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For a professional to be considered a sports psychologist, they must have obtained a degree as a general psychologist, and have completed a specialization in this field. However, there are some similar disciplines that do not require a university degree. The most famous case is that of sports coaching.

Sports psychology professionals can intervene with athletes and other professionals related to the world of exercise (such as parents or coaches) of any level, discipline and age. Thus, a sports psychologist can treat people as diverse as a child entering an amateur soccer competition, and an elite athlete preparing for the Olympics.

History

First steps of sports psychology

Sports psychology is a relatively young discipline within the sciences that study human behavior and thought. In 1920, the psychologist Carl Diem founded the first laboratory related to this subject in the Deutsche Sporthochschule, in the capital of Germany, Berlin.

Five years later, in 1925, two other laboratories related to sports psychology were founded. The first was created by AZ Puni, at the Leningrad Institute of Physical Culture. The other was founded by Coleman Griffith at the University of Illinois, after having started teaching the first course in history on this discipline in 1923.

A year after founding his sports psychology laboratory, Griffith also published the first book on the subject, The Psychology of Training (1926). Unfortunately, his laboratory had to close in 1932 due to lack of funds. From this point on, it took several decades for interest in sports and training psychology to resurface.

Resurgence of sports psychology

Between the 1930s and the 1960s, interest in sports psychology declined to a great extent, almost completely abandoning this discipline. However, starting in 1965, the relationship between the science of human behavior and sports performance began to be studied again, this time in a much more intense way.

Thus, in 1965 a psychologist named Ferruccio Antonelli created the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP), which to this day remains one of the most important associations related to this discipline.

Thanks to the work of this psychologist and many other professionals, in the 70s the first university courses related to this subject had already been created in the United States.

At the same time, in 1970 the first academic journal related to sports psychology, the International Journal of Sport Psychology, was created. Almost a decade later, in 1979, the second scientific publication on the subject was created: the Journal of Sport Psychology.

As early as the 1980s, more professionals began conducting rigorous research on the effects of psychology on athletic performance, and on how exercise could be used to improve physical and mental health, reduce stress levels, and improve the mood of people with different problems.

The psychology of sport today

Thanks to the efforts made in the past decades by professionals in the sector, today sports psychology is a discipline recognized in practically the whole world, which has a large amount of scientific data and which helps many people, both in the athletic field as well as personal.

Thus, today the psychology of sport has two main objectives. On the one hand, it tries to discover how the knowledge we have about the functioning of the human mind, our emotions and our behaviors can help athletes of all levels to improve their performance and well-being.

On the other hand, sports psychology also focuses on the opposite: discovering what benefits exercise can have in the lives of normal people, and how to promote sports habits in them. The findings of both approaches feed back and reinforce each other.

goals

As we have already seen, sports psychology has two main objectives. On the one hand, it aims to understand how certain psychological factors can influence the performance of athletes, in order to help them improve and take their performance to the highest level.

On the other hand, this branch of psychology also seeks to understand what effects participation in different sports disciplines has on the human mind. In this sense, the effects of sport on different mental disorders, such as depression or anxiety, are also studied.

Often times, sports psychologists focus only on the first goal. This is because, by applying the knowledge obtained by this discipline with this goal in mind, better results are achieved in competitions, records are broken and, in general, victories in different athletic competitions are increased. In other words, in the short term this objective produces more interesting results.

However, in the medium and long term the second objective is just as important as the first, if not more. The reason is that, if an athlete is to be able to keep competing for many years and contribute as much as possible to the discipline he has chosen, it is necessary to ensure that his mental health is as strong as possible.

In addition, different investigations have shown that the fact of participating in sports disciplines and maintaining an exercise regimen has very positive effects on different psychological aspects, such as personality, emotional control, empathy, the ability to work in a team or the state of mind.

Profile of the sports psychologist

In order to pursue a career in the world of sports psychology, it is necessary for a person to have a series of fundamental skills. Because professionals in this area can practice in many different fields, they have to be able to adapt and work in different ways and with people of very different characteristics.

Next, we will see what skills and competencies a sports psychologist must have in order to perform their work well.

Extensive knowledge of sports science

Perhaps the most important skill a sports psychologist can have is keeping up with the new discoveries that are constantly being made related to this area. Thus, as in other professions such as medicine, the person will have to constantly update himself so that his knowledge does not become obsolete.

Why is this competition so important? If a sports psychologist does not fully understand the relationship between mind and body, he will not be able to help his patients develop their full potential.

In fact, if you work in more sensitive areas, such as mental health or sports accident rehabilitation, a mistake on your part could have really negative consequences.

Good social, emotional and cognitive skills

As with most professionals in the field of mental health, a sports psychologist must be able to remain calm in stressful situations, communicate effectively, empathize with their clients or patients, and help them manage their emotions.

On the other hand, sports psychologists must also develop cognitive skills such as critical thinking, which helps them make the most appropriate decisions for each moment; and they must be able to observe what is happening objectively, so that their emotions do not interfere with their professional decisions.

Mastery of different sports and intervention techniques

Finally, the main role of sports psychologists is to apply the discoveries made within the study of mental health to improve the performance of their clients, or their mood.

Therefore, they must be familiar with both the sports disciplines to which they are engaging, as well as with various psychological techniques that allow them to achieve the best results.

Thus, for example, a professional in this discipline who works as a coach of a soccer team must be sufficiently familiar with this sport to be able to be effective in what he does.

However, you also need to understand the best ways to apply your existing intervention techniques to enable your athletes to perform at their best in the short and long term.

Specialties

Although technically there could be an almost infinite number of sports psychology specialties, the truth is that in practice professionals are divided into a series of common areas depending on the tasks they perform most frequently. Here we will see some of the most important.

Sports psychology for young people

The professionals who are dedicated to this area are specialized in advising, training and guiding young athletes and their families. Some of your tasks include helping them develop their self-esteem and confidence, working on team skills, and maximizing the positive effects that exercise has on the character and personality of those who do it.

On the other hand, youth sports psychologists often have to deal with a number of common problems, which may include the following: bullying or harassment, peer pressure, participation anxiety, balance between sport and other areas of life, lack of motivation, or management of parental expectations.

In addition to this, professionals in this sector can collaborate with other people involved in sports processes with young people, such as parents and coaches, so that they know how to deal with athletes in the most effective way possible.

Training psychology

The figure of the coach psychologist has emerged in very recent times, but it has already become one of the most important specialties within this branch of knowledge.

The task of these professionals is to guide athletes and their coaches, managers, team captains and families to collaborate and achieve their most ambitious goals.

In this way, coaching psychologists can work both with the entire teams to improve group cohesion and motivation, as well as carry out training processes for coaches and managers that help them understand how to better communicate with those who are under their control. position.

Finally, these professionals can also work individually with some specific athletes, in such a way that they help them deal more effectively with problems such as performance anxiety, lack of self-confidence, doubts regarding their race or any other typical difficulty that may arise during the performance of an activity of this type.

Main applications

Due to the breadth of your interests, sports psychology can be applied in a huge number of different ways. Here are some of the more common ways a sports psychologist can apply their knowledge.

- Study the relationship between different personality factors and sports performance, and help athletes to work on those they need.

- Design intervention programs that help normal people to extract all the benefits of sport for their lives.

- Improve the motivation of athletes, whether professional or amateur, so that they can fully enjoy the discipline they practice.

- Help athletes develop useful skills for the disciplines they practice, such as emotional management, effective communication or the ability to work in a team.

References

1. "Sport Psychology" in: American Psychological Association. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from American Psychological Association: apa.org.
2. "An overview of sports psychology" in: VeryWell Mind. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from VeryWell Mind: verywellmind.com.
3. "Sports psychologist" in: Psychology. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Psychology: psychology.org.
4. "What is sports psychology?" in: Study. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Study: study.com.
5. "Sport Psychology" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org.