Being A Sports Psychologist Essay

According to USA Today, 44 million Americans experience some type of mental illness; including, 30% of athletes reported being depressed while nearly half reported experiencing high levels of anxiety. Athletes of all ages tend to find themselves at an increased risk of suffering from a mental illness. Factors such as injuries, failure in competition, and overtraining can lead them to increased psychological stress. Typically, people suffering from a mental illness go visit a therapist or psychologist. In today’s day in age, sports psychologists are becoming more common all around the country. Athletes, parents, coaches, and athletic trainers are constantly looking for new ways to benefit their athletes mental state and overall performance.
“There are four areas in which a sports psychologist can help. The first is performance enhancement – mental training skills for training and competition. The second area is health and exercise psychology. Examples are working with injured athletes, self-esteem and compliance with rehabilitation programs. The third is social psychology and deals with, among other things, group dynamics, team building, youth sports and socialization into and out of sports. The final area is clinical sports psychology, in which athletes receive help for deep-rooted problems such as eating disorders, depression or even suicide” (“Choosing a sports psychologist”). Millions of people all over the nation suffer with a mental illness every day of their lives. In addition, typically athletes, of all ages, have a significant amount of pressure placed upon them. This added stress placed on athletes tends to lead to their poor mental states. Having someone to talk to like a sports psychologist, other than parents or friends, is an excellent start to overcoming adversity. A sports psychologist is a way to help them alleviate their struggles and find a process to if not diminish the problem find a process to help shrink it. By working hand in hand with sports psychologist athletes are typically able to control their stress and anxiety, enhance their performance throughout different psychological techniques, develop communication skills, develop
According to Profession Psychology, the 1970s and 1980s were a time of tremendous growth the academic programs in sports psychology. Before this time psychologists were being hired to work with athletes. So an individual who majored in psychology and had a particular liking to sports could call themselves a ‘sports psychologist.’ With this being said, athletes weren’t necessarily getting the best possible therapy they could for their mental instabilities. Although these individuals were psychologists, they didn’t study the performance and sports aspect which is what helps make sport psychology different from regular psychology. Furthermore, in 1985 the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology was formed to improve the profession of sport psychology. There have been many recent improvements to the sport psychology study; including, the importance of performance in their definition of sports psychology. Which is why sport psychology is now also commonly referred to as performance psychology. According to Professional Psychology, there are four areas of training. These four areas of training are performance excellence, mental health counseling, consulting psychology, and performance specialty domains. The profession of sport psychology has made tremendous improvements in a relatively quick amount of time. Improvements are only going to continue as there