TOPIC 5: Introduction to
Sport and Exercise Psychology

DEFINITION

Psychology: The study of human and animal
behavior.

Sports psychology: It is the principles of
psychology used in a sport setting.

Athlete can gain the “mental edge” to reach their goals, recover from injury, or gain confidence.

Links the mental and physical aspects of training.

Self-talk: An internal dialogue

Optimism: The ability to see the positive side of
things.

Pessimism: the tendency to see the most
gloomiest of outcomes.

Focus: concentration at the task at hand and the
ability to exercise distraction control

Mental imagery: Clear pictures in your mind of
your performance using all the senses (sight,
sound, taste, smell and touch) to successfully imagine successful performances

Motivation: the drive or action towards a goal

Goal of Sports Psychologists or
Sport and Exercise Psychology
Coaches

To understand the social-psychological factors that influence people’s behavior and performance in sport and exercise activity.

Teach athletes techniques that are commonly used in sport psychology

An athlete or person has the ability to reach their potential, achieve peak performance in sport and exercise activity.

Example of application

Listen to empathy and provides emotional support to injured athletes.

Helps athletes to chart and monitor goals for rehab and to return to competition.

Teaches athlete relaxation and imagery techniques to use during rehab sessions.

Advises coach on factors (tension, life stress) that predispose athletes to injury.

Applications of clinical sport
psychology

Imagery

Involves the use of visualization procedures to
imagine physical performance, in absence of physical
movement.

It is also termed mental rehearsal or mental practice

Improve performance in activities that
require a lot of cognitive activity

Involves the production of
mental images in an opponent

Psycho-neuromuscular Theory

The use of imagery duplicates the motor pattern in the
brain, albeit on a smaller scale than with physical
practice.

This theory called the theory of muscle memory

Suggest that repeated mental practice allows the
performer to continue to activate the same brain systems
involved in movement.

PETTLEP

Holmes and Collins’ (2001) PETTLEP
model of imagery provides a framework for the effective execution of imagery interventions.

P = Physical

E = Environment

T = Task

T = Training

L = Learning

E= Emotion

P = Perspective

Top Sport psychologist

Dr Steve Peters

UK athletics team

British cycling team

Ronnie O’Sullivan-2012,2013 world snooker champion

Liverpool FC

England FA

Research Method in Sport and
Exercise Psychology

Questionnaires

Interviews

Observations