Sport & Performance Psychology

Sport & Performance Psychology

Sport and performance psychology is becoming more and more popular with athletes, and performers, coaches/teachers, and organisations but there are still a great many people who are unsure of what sport and performance psychology actually is.

Sport psychology uses the principles and theories of modern psychology and applies them to the performance of athletes to maximise their enjoyment and enhance performance in their chosen sport. It teaches individuals to use their mind to its maximum ability in order to fulfil potential.

What we see time and time again in all sports is that the physical differences between athletes at the top levels are very small. In most cases athletes are at similar levels of skill, strength, fitness, agility endurance.

Every person, no matter what their area of performance (e.g., sport, coaching, work, dancing, exercise), has an “Ideal Performance State” (IPS). Your IPS is a state where your mind and body are working together and performing at their peak so that your performance is focussed and seems effortless. Sport psychology can help people identify their ideal performance state and learn how to use mental skills to achieve their ideal performance state as often as possible.

We work with people to identify their goals then set about giving them the skills to achieve them. The skills that athletes learn with a sport psychologist are the same as any physical skill in that they can be learned, practiced and mastered. Our philosophy is that if we can physically train our bodies to become fitter, more skilled, and tougher…mental training can do the same for your mind!

Here are some of our roles that we see as being crucial if our clients are to succeed:

• Integrate effective and optimistic thinking into sport, work/study, and life.
• Identify strengths and weaknesses in the mental approach of individuals.
• Refine the mental approach of effective performers to gain optimal performance.
• Working with ineffective performers to overcome obstacles in their mental approach to reach their full potential.
• Teach mental, emotional and behavioural control strategies and skills, such as relaxation, concentration, imagery, goal setting, confidence, problem solving and competition planning.
• Provide personal counselling (where necessary) and life management strategies for individuals addressing issues such as relationships, communication, anxiety, depression, disordered eating and injury rehabilitation.

Most people believe that there is a physical and mental component to successful performance. Simply put we work with people to train and improve the mental aspects of performance giving them a more complete preparation for success.