Sport Psychology

Lecture Date: 10/29/25

What is Sport Psychology? 

  • The study of how psychological factors influence sports,       

trust was a key to having athletes seek help 

Promoting trust and confidentiality can promote 

Highlighting athlete role models 

Flow State 

About understanding stress when under a given pressure (can be found over all different domains of performance) 

Can also be called performance psychology which encompasses more of the domains covered 

Mental Toughness 

  • most buzz word in sport psychology 

  • how you respond when thing don’t go your way 

  • performing consistently 

  • This is not a personality trait, rather this is something that you train and learn to have 

  • 5 second rule- when making a mistake you are given 5 seconds to be frustrated before you move on from the mistake 

Confidence 

  • belief in your ability to perform 

  • trust in preparation 

  • Self talk is one of the 

  • Focussing on what you can control not what you can’t control (control the “controlables”) 

Concentration 

  • Ability to stay focus on task at hand and stay present 

  • Allows us to maintain the flow state 

  • Mindfulness 

Goal Setting 

  • Help give direction and purpose 

  • Outcome goals- what you ultimately want to achieve 

  • Process Goals- routine goals 

  • Performance Goals- short term goals 

  • Flexibility (Big goals, loosely held) 

  • A- dream outcome 

  • B- Strong realistic success

  • C- Base line 

  • ABC helps keep athletes grounded while still working towards growth 

Motivation 

  • Keeps athletes going 

  • Extrinsic ($5 motivation) can cause the motivation to decrease 

Visualization 

  • Helps build confidence while under pressure 

  • Pink elephant effect (Ironic process theory)- brain does not easily process negation (paradox outcome that make the negative thoughts visualized and causes the negatives to happen) 

  • Forces the mind to focus on try to achieve rather than trying not to fail 

Arousal Management 

  • Peripheral nervous system 

  • Stress cause the sympathetic nervous system to increase 

  • Recognizing a rise in nerves and then recovering from this 

  • Athletes learn to reframe nerves from a sign of anxiety to a sign that they are prepared and ready 

  • Stress mindset- the way that we view stress can impact how our body feels and responds to stress 

Teams are hiring clinical psychologists on staff to help support athletes year round 

  • Separate clinical and sport psychology 

  • CMPC need a Master’s and a CMPC certificate (psy D and Phd may give you an edge) 

  • Can take a research career approach as well