What Is A Sports Psychologist?

Sports can be a fun way to challenge yourself, a team-building activity, or a way of life for many professional athletes and individuals. A clinical sports psychologist might offer support for those serious about sports and improving mental health, showcasing how to get the most from sports-related activity.

Psychology, exercise, and sports

Like other types of psychology, applied sports psychology is based on sports theories, research, and clinical experience. Sports psychology may rely on exercise, training, and sports performance knowledge or focus on competition-related developmental and social issues that athletes may encounter. 

Some clinical sports and sports performance psychologists focus on other mental health, mental skills training, and cognitive areas. For example, they might assist sports athletes in resolving stress or help them cope with mental illness, or teach individual athletes new sports skills to help them stick to a training routine without pushing themselves too hard. 

What does a sports psychologist do?

Finding a balance between intense training for a sport and self-care can be difficult for athletes to do on their own, which is why it can be helpful for them to work with sports psychologists who can aid them in goal-setting and achieving their sports objectives. Many sports coaches, career, and Olympic athletes work with a licensed sports psychologist trained in applied sports psychology. 

Sports psychologists

A sports psychologist often has a doctoral degree in psychology and has studied ways to enhance the sports performance and well-being of athletes. Sport counselors and clinical psychologists have a master's degree or higher and are trained to offer support with similar sports issues. They may also have experience in motor learning or specialize in sports psychology, sports medicine, or physical therapy for sports. To become a psychologist, they must go through board certification and test for a state license. 

Performance psychologists and therapists who specialize in sports may be athletes or former athletes. They may be associated with the American Psychological Association and often have education in the following areas: 

• Behavioral health in sports groups 
• Burnout in sports
• Developmental or social challenges in sports
• Training about sports competitions, rules, and organizations
• Performance enhancement skills 
• Common mental health challenges for those who play sports, such as self-confidence, performance anxiety, substance abuse, and eating disorders

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• Overcoming psychological factors related to serious injuries from sports

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sports Psychology is a growing field, with a 6% growth rate projected between 2021 to 2031. 

How a sports psychologist can help

Although a client's goals vary in sport psychology, many sports psychologists help their clients develop positive mental skills to improve their game. For example, they may help clients with the following:  

• Motivation
• Attitude
• Goal setting
• Commitment to goals
• Communication
• Positive self-talk
• Energy management
• Mental imagery
• Focus
• Processing emotions

Your mental health professional or sports psychologist may use various methods to help you build each of these skills. In psychological therapy, you can focus on the areas in your sport you believe you need the most improvement in to meet your overall goals. 

You may spend time assessing your motivation to determine its source. Your sports psychologist might focus on helping you develop a sense of self-determination and increasing intrinsic motivation to help sports performance. Intrinsic motivation involves feeling motivated for enjoyment, pleasure, or excitement without an extrinsic reward like winning or receiving a prize. 

After assessing your attitude towards sports, your psychology sessions might focus on how you feel about competition, winning, losing, learning, sports-life balance, or respect toward teammates. 

Committing to your goals may help you play better, so your sports psychologist might want to look at how you set and work toward your goals for a sport. Then, they might teach you to build skills, set dates, create strategies for success in your sport, evaluate your progress, and celebrate your achievements.

Communication might mean the difference between winning and losing if you're playing a team sport. Sports psychology and therapy might help you improve your active listening skills, be more assertive, manage angry reactions, or speak clearly. 

How you talk to yourself may make a difference during a sports game. Through psychology sessions, you may begin to identify unhelpful thoughts and how to change them to maximize your sports performance.

Therapists or psychologists who practice sports psychology may assess how you manage your energy and help you raise or lower your expenditure. For example, they might teach relaxation techniques for managing anxiety, such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, or guided visualization. Mindfulness, in particular, has been proven to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression, potentially helping sports athletes in a variety of ways. 

Using mental imagery in sports might help you improve your game according to performance psychology, so your sports psychologist may help you learn to do this. They can help you practice creating and focusing on images designed to enhance your effectiveness in the sports game.

Focus

Whether you call it attention, concentration, or staying in the sports game, focusing can often improve your ability to do well in your sport. Your sports psychotherapist might help you learn to stay engaged with what's happening in the game, teaching you how to control your attention and avoid distractions.

Many athletes learn to manage pre and in-game performance anxiety or other mental health challenges with a sport psychologist to improve their sports performance and mental health. In addition, a sport psychologist can use psychological techniques to help clients address their unwanted emotions or reactions to specific sports-related challenges (such as injured athletes having trouble getting back to training due to anxiety related to the injury). A sports psychologist is also trained to treat psychological conditions and psychological issues that can affect sports athletes.  

Sports psychology support options 

Each lesson you complete with your sports psychologist may be designed to help you do your best in each sports game.

Online therapy for improved mental health

Many athletes can be busy with sports and other commitments, so finding psychological support can be complex. In-person psychology might seem too costly or out of your schedule. In these cases, online psychology or therapy is as effective as face-to-face sessions. You might prefer online sessions, which can be easier to schedule around a sports athlete's busy training routine. Many online therapists offer the option to schedule outside of standard business hours, and some online platforms, like BetterHelp, offer messaging with your therapist throughout the week. 

Research has demonstrated that online sports psychology can help athletes improve their motivation and time management. It can also help you feel more supported and confident in your ability to excel with athletic performance.