Sport psychology is a competitive profession with rigorous and demanding entry routes in terms of education, training and accreditation. Once qualified, the sport psychology practitioner will face complex, day-to-day professional challenges of the kind not always covered in conventional sport psychology textbooks. Becoming a Sport Psychologist is the first book to reveal the reality of working in sport psychology through the personal perspectives and narratives of some of the world’s leading sport psychologists, top professionals with many years experience of working at every level of sport, from amateur to elite, in consulting and support roles, and in sport psychology research. With each chapter focusing on a key issue or issues in professional practice, each contributing psychologist discusses their own education, training and professional experience, their personal motivation and their approach to consulting and delivery, helping the reader to develop a rounded understanding of how to succeed in sport psychology. The book also explores key professional issues such as intervention style, work-life balance and the commercial aspects of sport psychology practice not covered in other books, plus it offers a summary of typical education and training routes and additional information on professional organisations and accreditation schemes. Becoming a Sport Psychologist is invaluable reading for anybody considering a career in sport psychology, or any practising sport psychologist looking to extend and develop their professional skills.

This edited book by two prominent professionals of Sport and Exercise and Performance Sciences addresses relevant issues and experiences as one becomes a sport, exercise and performance psychology practitioner. Chapters discuss the supervision and training involved along with models of practice, theory, techniques, and ethical issues.

Contemporary sport psychology is a rapidly developing and theoretically rich discipline, and a sophisticated and challenging profession. The Routledge International Handbook of Sport Psychology offers a comprehensive and authoritative guide to contemporary sport psychology in all its aspects. Written by a team of world-leading researchers and practitioners from five continents, including both established scholars and the best emerging talents, the book traces the contours of the discipline of sport psychology, introducing fundamental theory, discussing key issues in applied practice, and exploring the most important themes, topics and debates across the sport psychology curriculum. Uniquely, the book presents comparative studies of the history and contemporary practice of sport psychology in ten countries, including the US, UK, China, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Israel, helping the reader to understand the cultural and contextual factors that shape international practice in sport psychology. As well as covering in depth the core pillars of sport psychology, from motivation and cognition to group dynamics, the book also includes a full section on cultural sport psychology, a vital but under-explored sub-discipline that is having a profound influence on contemporary theory and practice. With 56 chapters and unparalleled range, depth and currency, the Routledge Handbook of International Sport Psychology is an essential addition to any library with a serious holding in sport psychology.

Sport psychological training, an important part of athletes’ preparation, can give them the final edge in competition. This book provides a systematic structure for conducting sport psychological interventions that can be followed not only by sport psychologists, but also by athletes and coaches. The authors describe sport psychological measures that are based on scientific knowledge and have proven to be valuable in their applied work. The book is divided into two main parts. Part 1 presents the basic structure for sport psychological interventions and Part 2 focuses on concrete interventions and training measures. Part 1 further addresses the importance of personality factors for sports performance, illustrates how an athlete’s personality development can be enhanced, gives basic knowledge about diagnostic tools, and discusses talent selection. The second part of the book describes basic training, which focuses mainly on relaxation techniques, as well as skills training, essential for the stabilisation of athletic performance. Maintaining a balanced recovery-stress state is particularly important for the avoidance of overtraining. The book illustrates how athletes’ stress and recovery levels can be monitored in order to prevent overtraining. Part 2 further addresses how critical situations in an athlete’s career (including, for example, conflicts, career termination, and injuries) are to be handled, presenting various impact interventions, including clinical hypnosis. The final chapter of the book presents a mental toolbox, giving the practitioner an overview that will help to quickly identify a problem, its possible causes, and solutions.

A ‘coach’ is more than just somebody who leads in the organisation and delivery of structured sport. The role of a coach goes beyond leadership, requiring an understanding of theories of teaching and learning. To become a coach you must know how people learn. Becoming a Sports Coach aims to introduce the multi-dimensional and inter-locking knowledge bases that any aspiring coach will need to develop, and that any established coach needs to master in order to improve their professional practice. While traditional coach education pathways have focused on what to coach, this book argues that understanding how knowledge can be communicated to learners is just as important. Asking why we coach, through critical reflection and self-knowledge, is also an essential part of the process of becoming a sports coach. The book explores three types of knowledge – content knowledge, pedagogic knowledge and self-knowledge – challenging the reader to reflect on their own coaching experiences and to develop a personal philosophy of coaching. It explores key pedagogic themes in contemporary coaching studies, such as humanistic coaching, inclusive practice, coaching for understanding, and the athlete-coach relationship. Real case studies are used to illuminate the ways – transferrable across sports - in which coaches can apply theory to practice and ultimately enhance their work. With contributions from leading coaching researchers and practitioners, combining practical guidance with important theoretical insights, this book will help any coaching student or developing professional to better understand the journey to becoming an effective sports coach.

This text provides an introductory look at the opportunities and goals in the field of sport and exercise psychology.

Whether you are an athlete suffering from nerves or someone who lacks motivation to exercise, sport and exercise psychology can help. As the discipline of psychology evolves, more and more people are training to become sport and exercise psychologists. But how do you qualify, and when you do, what is the job really like? This is the first guide to this fascinating and growing profession. It provides an overview of what the role involves, the educational qualifications and training you will need to take, and what those first few years in the job are actually like. It includes a wealth of tips on how to make the most of the opportunities available. The book also features testimonials from people currently working in the field, who reveal not only what helped them along the way, but also what they would have done differently. How to Become a Sport and Exercise Psychologist is authored by two of the leading academics within sport and exercise psychology in the UK, both of whom have a wealth of experience in the field. The guide is the perfect companion for anyone considering this exciting career.

Mark B. Andersen examines authentic examples of sport psychologists at work to teach readers how to use their knowledge of sport psychology in an effective and efficient manner.

Because there are many ways in which we can apply psychology to sport and, given the wide range of activities that different cultures regard as sport, it is helpful to adopt quite a broad definition of sport psychology. In 1996, the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC) produced such a broad definition, which, slightly simplified, reads, 'Sport psychology is the study of the psychological basis, processes and effects of sport.' This of course begs the questions, what is sport and what is psychology? Although many athletes would insist that sport necessarily includes an element of competition, the term 'sport' is used, both in the FEPSAC definition of sport psychology, and throughout this book, in the broadest sense, including any physical activity for the purposes of competition, recreation, education or health.

Guided by the principles of cultural sport psychology (CSP), this book explores the psychosocial issues surrounding elite sport and psychological practice in Singapore. CSP recognises the importance of understanding people as individuals, rather than objectifying and interpreting psychological processes independent of the socio-cultural context in which they stem from. For sport psychology to progress, it is imperative to distinguish and appreciate the difference between treating someone the same (i.e., culturally blind approach) and treating them equally (i.e., possess cultural awareness). To address the paucity of cultural-specific research, this book explores the psychosocial issues of elite sport in Singapore using CSP as a theoretical and guiding philosophy. Given Singapore’s recent successes at the Olympic and Paralympic levels, this book is ideally timed to investigate the social and cultural developments of elite sport as they occur in a specific sociocultural context. The authors argue that if elite sport and sport psychology is to progress in Singapore, there is a need to refine its elite ecosystem, regulate the practice of sport psychology, and work towards establishing a professional community centred around a culture of constructive exchange, debate and cooperation. This book presents a blueprint to any researcher, national institute, or practitioner, to systematically explore the culture and context within which they operate and organise action plans to address unique needs that were identified through this process.