Chemistry Recruitment

What is Sports Psychology 

Sports psychologists workwith predominantly professional athletes and sports people to improve their performance through mental training. This is usually in addition to themworking with a coach who helps them to perfect their technique or increasetheir strength stamina and physical fitness. The belief here is that it is asmuch your mental and psychological preparation than your actual fitness.

Why is it important? What really affects performance?

As Joel Fish writes “ If you are distracted by 1%, that could mean the difference between medalling and not medalling”. That one percent could be a mental rather than physical distinction. 

Home crowd advantage – much evidence supports the notion that being ‘athome’ creates a distinct advantage. Why?

• Judges - Strong statistical evidence shows that there is “a quite dramatic advantage in sports involving subjective judging like boxing, gymnastics and team games.”[1] The home crowd seduces Judges and referees and this effect increases with crowd size.
• Home crowds can support competitors and maintain their mental state
• There is no evidence to suggest that home advantage has such as effect in events such as track and field, weight lifting and tennis.

Expectations – whilst being at home has it’s advantages, thereis also added pressure. Chinese sports officials ran an experiment earlier thisyear when they invited the parents and loved ones of competitors to watch themperform. In many sports, such as diving, shooting and gymnastics, they werenegatively affected. The pressure of the crowd was too much and they “requireda very high stability in their psychology” before they were ready to face thereal event[2].

Anxiety – pressure does not work for everyone. Whether itis pressure from the crowd, your family or yourself, it’s not always positive.Many techniques have been developed to try and diminish the effects of this kind of stress.

What techniques do they use?

Yoga and pilates – many relaxation exercises are used to alleviatepressure and help maintain focus. Blocking out negative thoughts and feelingsis key in performance. Stress is only perceived in the way we interpret thesituation and a more relaxed psychological reaction to competition is helpful.[3]

Goal-setting – using systems used in other areas, like theSMART principle help in both physical and mental training[4]:

Success is a by-product of doing what you love.Success does not breed happiness, happiness breeds success. 

S – Specific goals

M – Measurable goals

A – Adjustable andAction-orientated goals

R – Realistic goals

T – Time-based goals

Subliminal messaging – a person listens to music or some other calmingsound. This is usually known as ‘pink sound’ under which verbal messages areplaced at an inaudible level. These are usually intended to be relaxing, aboutdiet or motivational. Top retail stores use such messages to reduce theft.

Imagery – usually known as visualisation, self-hypothesisor mental rehearsal, this involves taking someone through the event andimagining a positive feeling and outcome. It focuses on breathing and imagining ahead of time the perfect outcome for the event. [5] There is also a focus here on the enjoyment youget from the sport you’re doing. Despite belief to the contrary, success isnormally a by-product of doing what you love and most struggle when theyattempt to be successful to give them happiness.[6]

What does this mean to us?

Sports psychology isalready having a big effect in how young people are now taught about sport and fitness. From the late 80’s and continuing today, they no longer just learnabout the body, but also the attitude and mentality of great sports men andwomen. [7]

Whilst recruiting may not yet be an Olympic sport, mental attitude is still important. Why not take this test and find out how sports confident you are?

Find it by clicking below,it will take around 25 minutes:

http://www.sportsconfidence.biz/sport_psychology_assessment.htm