The Sport Psychologist最新文献

Despite a growing interest in emotions in sport psychology, little has been written about the contextual elements triggering athletes’ emotional experience. This single case study aimed to analyze the inducers of an elite table tennis player’s emotional experience throughout his career. He was ranked among the 15 best players in the world, and his career spanned more than 20 years. Inspired by the critical-incident method, we conducted a lengthy interview with the player, during which he related the most significant moments of his career. The categorization of the 96 critical incidents collected highlighted four inducers of positive emotions and five inducers of negative emotions, emerging over five periods (exponential progression, first difficulties, major difficulties, second career, and end of career). These findings contribute to the development of an innovative single-case-study design, allowing an understanding of the contextual origin of athletes’ emotions over the long term. Finally, highlights are discussed and recommendations for the practice of sport psychology are formulated.

Case conceptualization is an important stage in the sport and performance psychology (SPP) consulting process. The conceptualization of a case can influence a consultant’s understanding of the underpinning mechanisms contributing to a presenting concern, interventions selected to help a client, and the effectiveness of provided services. Guidelines for case conceptualization have been developed for SPP professionals, but little is known about how this activity is undertaken in practice. The purpose of this study was to investigate the case-conceptualization methods and approaches of certified SPP professionals. Fifty-two certified mental performance consultants completed an online qualitative survey exploring how they conceptualized cases. Our findings suggested that SPP consultants viewed case conceptualization as an ongoing process, something that helps a consultant understand a client’s presenting concerns and guide any intervention plans, a collaboration between client and consultant, and a way to evaluate the effectiveness of their practice.

In this study, nine Canadian competitive youth sport coaches’ challenges and successes in creating safer and more inclusive sport spaces were explored through individual pre- and postseason interviews and an in-season reflective portfolio of their coaching experiences. From a story analyst approach, the central narrative theme of “it’s my responsibility to enact change” was identified. A storyteller approach was then used to communicate the meanings of the central theme as accessible creative nonfiction composite stories: When is it okay to intervene?; burning out … it’s consuming me; and breaking through … it’s necessary work. Building on previous research, the findings demonstrate how coaches’ critical praxes shift on a continuum of awareness and advocacy. The creative nonfictions may be used by coach educators and mental performance consultants to help coaches and leaders in sport assess their critical praxes toward challenging social issues in sport and acting in ways that support advocacy and empowerment.

Cognitive-behavioral therapies and related approaches are highly prevalent within sport psychology practice. Traditionally, these approaches are delivered across interventions comprising multiple sessions. However, in the fast-paced environments in which many applied sport psychologists operate, practitioners are sometimes required to provide fast, effective, and impactful interventions to athletes at their point of need within a single session. Single-session integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy presents a potentially effective approach for practice wherein time is often at a premium, and there is frequently pressure to make an impact quickly to improve performance. In this article, we put forward a stimulus piece that contextualizes single-session integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy and overviews how sport psychology practitioners may use such techniques with athletes. We also put forth a call for more practitioners to report more idiographic case studies that feature the use of brief or single-session interventions to further build the evidence base for such approaches.

Coaches’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about mental health—or mental health literacy (MHL)—affect teams’ mental health climates and the detection, referral, and treatment of athletes’ mental health concerns. Thus, assessing collegiate coaches’ MHL, and factors related to its presence, is critical. Using the Mental Health Literacy Scale, 1,571 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) coaches were surveyed regarding their MHL and demographic and mental health experience factors. Overall, 99.9% of the coaches surveyed believe that athletes’ mental health affected their sport performances. Through hierarchical regression analyses, coaches’ exposure to mental health treatment, perceived helpfulness of mental health treatment, gender (i.e., woman), years coaching (i.e., fewer years), and current NCAA division (i.e., Division III) were significantly related to their MHL, explaining 15.5% of variance. However, coaches’ race/ethnicity did not reach significance. Recommendations regarding increasing coaches’ MHL and hiring appropriately trained and licensed mental health and sport psychology professionals are offered.

Key governing bodies (e.g., Association for Applied Sport Psychology) recognize that graduate programs must prepare multiculturally competent practitioners. Students and recent graduates of sport psychology master’s degree programs (N = 107, M_age = 26.32, SD = 5.19) reported moderate levels of feeling safe, valued, and comfortable within their program; low to moderate levels of multicultural training integration; and low to moderate satisfaction with their multicultural training. Students of Color (n = 42) compared to White students (n = 63) reported less satisfaction with their multicultural training; felt less safe, comfortable, and valued; and perceived less multicultural integration. Furthermore, perceptions of multicultural training integration and of feeling safe, comfortable, and valued were significantly related to satisfaction with their multicultural training. Training programs are advised to improve integration of multicultural training, invest in program climate to help students feel safe and valued, and ensure continuing education of faculty members.

The purpose of this study was to explore the internal dialogue of trainee sport psychologists (TSPs) and athletes immediately following athlete–practitioner consultations. TSPs (four male and three female, age 22–32 years) and athletes (four male, three female, age 19–29 years) completed a thought-listing procedure twice, while watching video recordings of their previous consultations. The thought-listing procedure involved participants’ pausing the video to record the in-session internal dialogue they had experienced during the consultation. Participants’ responses were categorized into six dimensions: time, place, focus, locus, orientation, and mode. TSPs’ and athletes’ retrospective accounts provided evidence that their in-session internal dialogue was (a) present focused, (b) about in-session material, (c) about the athletes or themselves, (d) about internal and external events, (e) professional (i.e., related to the session), and (f) neutral. Findings provide trainees and inexperienced practitioners with insights into the thought content of TSPs and athletes to guide their own athlete interactions.

In response to recent calls for promoting the contextual intelligence of sport psychology practitioners, the aim of the current study was to obtain the first-person competitive experiences of kendo fighters (i.e., kenshi). Existential phenomenological interviews were conducted with eight competitive Japanese-American kenshi residing in the United States. The findings of thematic analysis indicated that the participants possessed a strong commitment to earning ippon (i.e., a valid point), which was achieved by a subjective synchronization of mind, sword, and body in the execution of a strike against an opponent. They considered this to be a transformative experience, which elevated them perceptually out of the sporting context to a momentary sense of “cutting” the opponent with a real sword. The current findings also offer sport psychology consultants possible context-specific insights (e.g., importance of seme) and strategies (e.g., management of attentional focus, self-regulation techniques) for assisting kenshi in preparing for competitive situations.

In sport, there is extensive evidence that supports the benefits associated with a mastery climate. However, limited studies have explored how physical tools could be used to promote mastery climates in youth sport contexts. Using an action research approach, we sought to understand the benefits and drawbacks of applying tools grounded in goal setting to promote a mastery environment: (a) an “arm sleeve” to be worn by athletes during training and matches and (b) a “reflection sheet” for use pre- and posttraining/-matches. These tools were implemented for a 3-week period with a U13 academy team (18 players and two coaches). Based on observation notes, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews, the analysis showed that the arm sleeves were helpful reminders for process goals, whereas the coaches had abandoned the use of reflection sheets due to lack of time. The benefits and drawbacks of the tools are discussed while pedagogical and practical implications are considered.