Sports Psychology

Advertising and Marketing Psychology Business Psychology CLINICal Psychology Criminal Psychology Death and Dying Psychology P S Y C H O L O G Y I N A C T I O N

Family Psychology Media Psychology

Performance Psychology Rehabilitation Psychology

School Psychology Sports Psychology

P S Y C H O L O G Y I N A C T I O N

By David Wilson Anne S. Walters, PhD, ABPP, Consultant

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C O N T E N T S

Introduction: What Is Psychology? .............................. 6 Chapter 1: Becoming a Sports Psychologist ............... 10 Chapter 2: History and Development of the Field ...... 26 Chapter 3: Common and Unusual Issues ................... 42 Chapter 4: HowPsychology Helps ............................. 58 Chapter 5: Takeaways for Everyday Life . .................. 74 Series Glossary of Key Terms ...................................... 90 Further Reading & Internet Resources ...................... 93 Index . ............................................................................. 94 Author’s Biography and Credits ................................. 96 KEY I CONS TO LOOK FOR : Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase readers’ understanding of the text while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

What Is Psychology? When we look up the meaning of the word psychology , we learn that it comes from two Greek words—“psyche,” which means “mind,” and “logia,” which means “the study of.” Hence, psychology is “the study of the mind.” (Merriam-Webster.com) Essentially, psychology aims to study and better understand emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, with the goal of benefiting society. Those who choose to study psychology generally have a strong urge to help others, though the definition of “others” can vary across concentric circles of influence, from the individual to the family and then on to broader systems such as a school, neighborhood, or society. That urge to help and understand people and their behavior is perhaps the most basic motivator that leads an individual to want to pursue the study of psychology. Some describe psychology as a “hub science” to depict the way that it links to the social sciences, the natural sciences, medicine, and the humanities. In university settings, however, psychology is considered a social science. Social sciences deal with the study of human behavior in its social and cultural aspects. They include fields such as anthropology, sociology, political science, history, education, and economics. These fields are certainly diverse, and yet one can see the commonality: these disciplines all teach us more about how the individual and society interact and influence each other. Another important distinction is the one between psychology and psychiatry. Simply put, psychologists pursue

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graduate level degrees (master’s or doctorate) in psychology, whereas psychiatrists complete medical school prior to specializing in psychiatry. After medical school (and receiving an MD degree), there are three years of psychiatry training to become an adult psychiatrist. If they want to specialize further (such as in child and adolescent psychiatry or forensics), there is additional training in this specialty field for several years and then they must take a board examination to become certified in their specialty area. Psychiatrists can prescribe medication, and psychologists cannot (although in some rural or underserved areas this is an option for psychologists). Psychiatrists are also uniquely suited to understand biological or medical contributions to mental illness. On the other hand, some day-to-day practices of psychiatrists do not look that different from those of psychologists. What does studying psychology entail? There are so many options! Within psychology, there are multiple fields of study. Some of them you will learn about in these volumes, but it would take far too many volumes to cover all of them. If you’re interested in exploring more about psychology beyond this series, you might consider developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and comparative psychology. Developmental psychology is the study of development throughout a person’s life, from infancy through old age. Some of the more famous developmental psychologists have been Jean Piaget, who identified stages for the development of cognition in children, and B. F. Skinner, who studied the process of learning and taught us about the concepts of operant and classical conditioning. Another field, cognitive psychology, studies human thought: one famous psychologist in this field is Noam Chomsky, who studied the development of language. Comparative psychologists study animal behavior, and in this area Konrad

Introduction

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Lorenz studied the process by which baby geese “imprint” on the first object they see after birth. If you Google Professor Lorenz, you may see pictures of goslings following him around the yard. Although there are many ways to cluster the various subfields of psychology, one common distinction is between clinical and nonclinical applications, sometimes also referred to as applied psychology vs. basic research . Clinical or applied psychology focuses on understanding and treating psychiatric disorders that challenge day-to-day functioning. Treatment is derived from an evidence base that assesses outcomes or the ways that a treatment is effective. Establishing an evidence base is an important aspect of the work of a psychologist. Some devote their careers to this work, which can overlap with nonclinical or research applications. Researchers use scientific methods to advance knowledge in the field in a variety of topics. These psychologists work in academic settings as well as industry and organizations. Why would you want to become a psychologist or even to study psychology? The field of psychology has countless applications to everyday life, and as such, it can be a jumping off point for many careers. The reader will learn about different psychology careers in these volumes. What’s more, as a major in college, psychology can be applied to a variety of careers outside of psychology, such as human resources, teaching, criminal justice, and many others. For those who have the option to take an elective psychology course in high school, it can be a wonderful opportunity to get a jump start on the weighty decision of what to major in and to see whether the subject matter interests you. In writing this introduction, I can give you a window into a personal choice. I am a child clinical psychologist and have devoted my career to helping children and their families. I work

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in an academic medical center, which means that although I do clinical work, I also teach and supervise psychology students at many phases of their career. In addition, I write for various venues and conduct applied research into the outcomes of the treatment we provide. I am also an administrator, and as such I attend to aspects of psychology as a “business”: hiring and training those who do the work in our setting and tracking our budget, to name a few examples. One of the best things about this career is that every day is different, and yet the common experience is of helping others. In producing this series, we hope that we can provide a window into the varied choices you can make with a degree in psychology. From professor to therapist, working with toddlers or the elderly, teaching business psychology or conducting family therapy, there is likely at least one application of the subject of psychology that will appeal to you. I hope the exploration is rewarding!

Anne S. Walters, PhD, ABPP Clinical Director Children’s Partial Hospital Program Clinical Professor Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Introduction

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Sports psychology is one of the youngest disciplines of psychology. WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

Credentials: Demonstrated achievements or certifications necessary for a particular career. Personnel: Employees of an organization. Prerequisite: Knowledge, action, or achievement needed for another process. Protocol: A guideline, rule, or method of the highest importance. Viable: Practical, applicable, survivable.

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Becoming a Sports Psychologist

One of the youngest disciplines of psychology, sports psychology has only become a viable career within the last several decades. However, as more and more psychological applications have demonstrated their value to athletes on the field, court, or rink, teams across many different sports have responded by hiring sports psychologists to help their players and coaches develop a winning mental approach to the game. Sports is a big business, after all: the most popular professional sports teams in the United States are valued at over one billion dollars each, while the highest-paid athletes can earn millions of dollars per year. In competitive activities like sports, a small advantage can result in many wins, meaning that teams are eager to find new ways to motivate and inspire their players, and to help their stars reach even greater heights. As our understanding of “sports” evolves, furthermore, to include competitions such as video games or relatively new sports like pickleball, these psychologists must adapt to provide new insights and help players develop better

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All sports psychologists must complete graduate-level schooling in psychology.

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skillsets. Sports psychologists have the unique opportunity to be a member of the team, helping athletes to reach higher levels, even if the psychologists do not have to break a sweat. Starting Off: Undergraduate and Graduate School Some professional psychologists face a relatively brief pathway toward beginning a career in their field. That, however, is not the case for sports psychologists, who will require many years of education and training before they can provide professional advice and receive compensation. While a handful of positions related to sports psychology, like physical trainers, may not need much of an education at all beyond specialized training, a sports psychologist must complete nearly a decade of education. Like other psychologists, they first require a college degree. A two-year associate’s or four-year bachelor’s degree in psychology are usually a fundamental first step on the pathway toward this career, given that it will help a future psychologist to understand everything from the scientific protocols of psychology to the application of psychological research. Given that some schools specifically provide an undergraduate degree in sports psychology, this can provide an excellent beginning for someone who is interested in this career. Even a lower level degree in psychology may not always be a requirement, because all sports psychologists must complete graduate-level schooling in psychology, and some graduate schools will accept students with a previous background in a similar field, such as sociology or sports science. A double major may be helpful but is also more stressful. Regardless of degree choice, any incoming graduate student to a psychology programmust have the necessary coursework prerequisites so that they understand the methods needed in advanced study; an undergraduate degree in psychology will fulfill the prerequisites. Undergraduate

Chapter 1: Becoming a Sports Psychologist

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Sports psychology students may take courses in anatomy.

students will only be admitted to a graduate program in psychology if they have strong grades, achievements, and letters of recommendation, meaning that only the most successful students advance to the next level. Any sports psychology job posting will require that applicants undergo graduate-level schooling in psychology. That could entail a master’s degree (MS), a doctoral degree (PhD), or a doctor of psychology degree (PsyD). Sports psychology programs have increased in popularity in recent years, and many major schools provide these specific courses of study. While the specific school chosen for an undergraduate degree is not as important, the choice of school for graduate-level coursework

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can matter a great deal toward a career, and students should choose the most prestigious program available to them. Unlike lower-level psychology degrees that instruct students on many topics, graduate-level degrees focus on specific areas of psychology and have a higher difficulty level for students. These students take classes on a variety of topics, ranging from sports science (such as anatomy, the study of the human body) to business applications. While a graduate student pursuing a career in sports psychology may take some coursework in other fields like marketing or criminal psychology, they usually do so only to apply its findings to their own discipline. They may also help their graduate instructor, or other university faculty members, to conduct research, since students with research credentials (like publications in academic journals) are seen as more productive and knowledgeable. Over several years (two years for an MS, four to five years for a PhD or PsyD), graduate level students will learn how to address issues that are common to athletes and teams, such as how to plan goals for the season or how to deal with frustrations. They also learn the standards and regulations for professionals in this discipline, so that they will understand the requirements they must follow once they begin their careers. Broadly speaking, sports psychology graduate programs can be broken down into three separate sub-disciplines that have different, although often overlapping, career paths: • Applied sports psychologists work with teams and athletes to develop solutions to problems that occur during games, practices, and training. • Clinical sports psychologists provide athletes with mental health counseling and support. • Academic sports psychologists conduct research and instruct students at universities.

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Applied sports psychologists work with teams to develop solutions during games, practices, and training.

During graduate-level schooling, students will study each aspect of these sub-disciplines, and by the time they finish their advanced degree, they will have the skills needed for a career in any of the three. Typically, a graduate-level student will determine which of the three they want to pursue as a career early on in their program and will have more coursework devoted to that particular pathway. The Next Steps: Medical Study, Internships, Fellowships, and Licensure Like many other careers in psychology, a student will have the choice to pursue medical studies related to their area of interest. Psychology, after all, is closely tied to the medical study of

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the human brain, meaning that psychologists often benefit in their careers frommedical training. Sports psychologists may choose this medical training not only for its direct application in psychology, but also for the opportunity to address athletes’ physical issues, such as injuries. Some sports psychologists function as physical therapists, especially for teams that do not have the resources to hire further personnel , and they must understand how competition affects both mind and body. Advanced medical studies in areas like kinesiology (the study of how the human body physically functions) can provide sports psychologists with insight needed to address common athletic concerns. Most sports psychologists, whether they pursue medical studies or not, will need to complete an internship. Internships are typically arranged through a university, given that students will earn credits toward degree completion during this opportunity, but some internships (including medical internships) are completed following graduation. An internship may be available at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and while both are prestigious, a graduate-level internship will be more important for this particular career. Interns will be placed with a sports team and get hands-on learning with the athletes, coaches, and training staff, usually over the course of six to 24 months. While they may have individual experiences with members of a team, they do so in an environment where they report back to supervisors or superiors to better understand how to address an issue. The internship provides key insight into the practical application of their coursework and research, allowing students and/or graduates to see how best to communicate with athletes and provide useful advice. Compensation for internships will vary: a post-doctoral research fellowship will pay about the same as an entry-level position, while an internship to be completed in college might pay little or nothing at all. An

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unpaid internship called a practicum gives students specific job experience with an organization, allowing them to apply their learning to real-world work situations. Despite the lack of pay, a practicummay turn into a job opportunity as an intern builds professional relationships and demonstrates their value to a sports team. Internships are so important that a student who does not enter an internship programmay struggle to find a job after graduation. For sports psychologists who are specifically interested in academic research, a post-doctoral fellowship will boost their chances of landing a position at a university. This fellowship typically lasts just one to two years and focuses specifically on research: the fellow will join a laboratory or research institution, assist other researchers with their work, and have their names published on research papers or books. Fellowships are only available to PhD graduates and are similar in nature to the last few years of a PhD program, when a student has completed their coursework and spends most or all of their time conducting research. The last stage of the professional training needed is licensure. Many fields of psychology require a license for professionals, and sports psychology is no different. Sports teams will not hire unlicensed psychologists, just as hospitals will not hire unlicensed doctors. Licenses require examinations, testing students on the fundamentals they have learned regarding psychological care, treatment, and legal standards. In the United States, a psychologist who has completed a PhD program will need to complete the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). Individual states have their own standards for licensing and certification, including requirements for continuing education to be taken periodically throughout a person’s career. After becoming licensed, a sports psychologist can begin their career.

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Each pro sports team may not need more than one sports psychologist on staff.

Applied Sports Psychologists: The Numbers Game

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that jobs for psychologists will grow at a rate of 14 percent, which is well above the average, between 2018 and 2028. However, that is for all members of the specialty and does not address the problems that sports psychologists face if they want to pursue a career in applied sports psychology. One of the largest setbacks that an applied sports psychologist may face before and during their career is the lack of available opportunities, which are often broken down at the professional, college, and secondary-school levels. While each big city has multiple professional sports teams, each teammay not need more than one sports psychologist on staff, and some may not even want or be able to afford a

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sports psychologist at all. Colleges and universities have even more athletes than professional teams, with hundreds or even thousands of students competing year-round. However, universities also have their own psychology departments, and may prefer to hire or promote their existing faculty rather than take an outsider. Finally, there are high schools with many different teams, but most high schools lack the funding needed to hire outside professionals. They may require that a psychologist provide other services specific to high school life, such as counseling, or be a high school teacher themselves. All of these setbacks make applied sports psychology a difficult career to break into. However, there is good news for those

Some sports psychologists are hired to work for sales or business teams.

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interested in this career. First and foremost, not all applied sports psychologists work with athletes and coaches. Some find that their skills are better suited for business applications, since sports metaphors and ways of thinking are so prevalent in the business community, and they are hired to work for professional teams (such as sales teams) rather than sports teams. Additionally, the interest in sports psychology is growing among teammanagement. Fewer and fewer team executives andmanagers retain the old-school mentality of being tough as nails, withmany choosing to hire psychologists as a means of achieving better performance. National Basketball Commissioner Adam Silver famously opened up in 2019 about the mental health of NBA players, claiming that many were unhappy despite their celebrity status and huge paychecks. Many athletes themselves are seeking out a

Four NFL players talk about mental health issues.

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Athletes Speaking Out about Mental Health

Many professional athletes report that they live in a culture that discourages speaking out about personal problems, including mental health problems, because they are pressured not to create a distraction or bring negative attention to their team. Recently, some athletes have begun to challenge that harmful culture, talking about how their seemingly glamorous lifestyles are filled with struggles and challenges. Former National Hockey League player Colin Wilson wrote two separate articles for a website called The Player’s Tribune : the first addressed his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the feeling that his life was often out of his control, while the second opened up about how that struggle led to an addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills, and cocaine. higher quality of life and have written open letters or newspaper articles about their struggles with issues like depression. Finally, sports teams usually give applied sports psychologists a great deal of leeway to come up with their own solutions to problems, meaning that they have greater independence at their job. Clinical Sports Psychologists: “Normal” Psychology A clinical sports psychologist is probably the most similar career to what youmight think of as a traditional psychologist: someone who sees patients in their office, talks about their concerns, and works toward finding a solution. Those particular sports psychologists are referred to as “clinical,” because the term in the medical

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Clinical sports psychologists work with individual athletes.

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science community refers specifically to working with patients. That, however, oftenmeans that clinical sports psychologists are separated from the team itself, working with individual athletes instead of developing strategies for the entire group. Many clinical sports psychologists are themselves not employed directly by a sports teambut will work as consultants. They may be self employed or employed by a group of psychologists who provide services tomany different businesses, including sports teams. Clinical sports psychologists often require more experience or skills than practitioners in other areas of sports psychology, because An applied sports psychologist will pursue a career at a university or a research institution. They require a PhD and often a post-doctoral fellowship. These professionals advance their careers primarily on their skills at conducting research rather than efforts to motivate individual athletes or teams. As university faculty, they will also have teaching duties, meaning that they are responsible for teaching undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in psychology, including psychology courses that may be outside their field of interest. Their careers are primarily bound to their research productivity: academic sports psychologists search for the keenest insights they can find, and then publish their conclusions in academic journals. In this career, quality and quantity of publications matter: some journals are more prestigious than others, making a publication particularly noteworthy, but all are expected to publish often throughout their careers. Academic sports psychologists will also pursue research grants (funding provided by outside sources), and the psychologists who bring in the most grant money will have the most promotions and best job offers. they are called on to handle the most serious problems. Academic Sports Psychologists: Research and Development

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Text-Dependent Questions

1. How many years does it take to complete an MS degree in sports psychology? 2. Why do some unpaid internships turn into job opportunities? 3. Why do some sports psychologists work with businesses instead of (or in addition to) sports teams?

Research Project

Use the Internet to find the psychology graduate program website of a nearby university. Create a flowchart of the different individual specializations that students can pursue in the different degree programs, and the courses that they list as requirements for this degree. Circle or highlight the courses that are directly relevant to sports psychology.

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The Olympic athletes of ancient Greece followed a system to develop mental fortitude.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

Ethic: A strongly held belief or standard. Fortitude: Strength, durability, power.

Largesse: Sponsorship, funding, financial backing. Orthodoxy: Original, sometimes unchangeable, belief.

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History and Development of the Field

Like many other areas of psychology, the history of the study of sports psychology has roots both ancient and modern. The Olympics of classical Greece, which began nearly 3,000 years ago and provided the inspiration for our modern Olympics, featured athletes who followed a “tetrad” system of preparation, concentration, moderation, and relaxation to develop mental fortitude . These athletes also followed strict, regimented training phases, similarly to how modern sports teams have different training components such as weightlifting, drilling, and scrimmaging. Many ancient Roman gladiators also trained intensively in schools, called ludi gladitorum , where both muscles and minds were prepared for one of history’s most brutal sports. Yet, just as psychology only emerged as a true science in the 1800s, so too are the roots of true psychological sports study only about a century and a half old.

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From Amateur to Pro Sports Sports in the 19th century were quite different from sports today. While major athletes of the modern era, like LeBron James or Lionel Messi, make tens of millions of dollars per year and are known across much of the entire world, many athletes of the 1800s were not widely known past their own city blocks. Most organized sports were offshoots of businesses like factories, providing a means for workers to have fun and build team spirit, relying entirely on the largesse of ownership for costs and paying little or nothing to players. Even high-profile professional teams could not afford to pay their players much money at all; the highest-paid baseball player in 1874, Ross Barnes, cashed in a salary of just $2,000 at a time when an unskilled worker made about a dollar per day. As such, many sports teams lacked the money needed for any kind of training, either physical or psychological. Such training, furthermore, was not always welcome: one fundamental ethic of these early sports was amateurism, the belief that true athletic talent should always win out instead of rigorous training. Despite the lack of money and the focus on amateurism, teams then as now wanted to win, and they pursued ways to get an advantage. Some of the first scientific studies on sports psychology, using the collection of data to indicate what did and did not improve performance, took place about the same time as the first modern Olympics. In fact, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, published articles on topics in sports psychology (despite his lack of training in psychology itself) such as the motivation behind children’s sports, the degree of stress and strain an athlete should avoid in competition, and how to achieve mental focus for better athletic performance. Coubertin, like many of the first sports psychologists, believed in the close links between body and mind, and his work was influential as the field grew.

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In 1988, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed professionals to participate.

A French doctor named Philippe Tissié, known today as the founder of French physical education, was one of the very first to study mental changes in athletes when he performed studies on bicyclists in long-duration races in 1894. An American psychologist, Edward Scripture, measured the reflex speed of sprinters and fencers. Fellow American researcher Norman Triplett measured the influence of other participants on cycling, using concepts of social psychology (also an emerging area of psychology) that are today known as social facilitation , meaning the improvements in performance when in the company of other people. Triplett discovered that cyclists will pedal harder in group races than in stand-alone races, indicating the influence of competition on athletic performance. He also found that the influence of other people extended past cycling: children who were around other children proved capable of reeling in a fishing line more quickly than childing performing the same task alone.

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Amateurs at the Olympics

The creation of the modern Olympics in 1896 provided the first global means of athletic competition. The founders of these games, however, believed that professional athletes would diminish the value of the competition, and they denied entry to any sportsman (and by the next games in 1900, sportswomen) who competed for money. This philosophy was partially a means of social control, as only wealthy persons had the time and finances needed to develop the skills of world-class athletes. Nevertheless, amateurism remained a component of the Olympics for a long while; not until 1988 did the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allow professionals to participate. Like many other Olympic rules, many countries found loopholes: communist nations like the Soviet Union trained athletes year-round but did not pay them, instead listing their employment in a profession like factory worker to maintain amateur status. With early research, sports psychology managed to achieve a few connections into mainstream sports as professionalism expanded. After the First World War (1914–1918), sports teams across the world grew in size, popularity, and revenue, meaning that there was not just more interest in sports but more money on the line as well. Baseball superstar Babe Ruth went to Columbia University’s psychology department in 1921 for a series of psychological tests to help explain his skill at hitting. In 1926, professional football coach “Pop” Warner ran a test with American psychologist Walter Miles to determine the effects

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Baseball superstar Babe Ruth looked to psychology to help explain his skill at hitting.

of signal calling on the burst speed of players along the line of scrimmage. An interest in gaining a competitive advantage led to many players, coaches, and psychologists beginning to think outside the established orthodoxy of sport. Shrinks and Sports Like all other sciences, sports psychology could only advance as quickly as researchers could perform studies and publish their findings for the community. One of the first publications in sports psychology history was written by German researcher Robert

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Werner Schulte. His 1921 book Body and Mind in Sport set the foundations for many concepts in sports psychology research and findings. Schulte, unlike many psychologists of the time, had access to his own entire research laboratory at the Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen, the German College for Physical Exercise. For the next decade, Schulte’s publications influenced other researchers across Europe. Two Russian psychologists, Avksenty Cezarevich Puni and Piotr Antonovich Roudik, conducted major research on sports performance by studying the influence of preparation and memory, respectively. Roudik founded Russia’s first sports psychology research laboratory, while Puni studied the influence of mental focus in the sport of table tennis. Both researchers influenced Russian sports for decades, helping to develop the strategies that would help the Soviet Union win nearly 400 gold medals (second only to the United States, all-time) throughout the 20th century. In the United States, Coleman Griffith founded the first psychological research lab on sports studies in 1925 at the University of Illinois. He wrote two key books, Psychology of Athletics (1928) and Psychology of Coaching (1926). Griffith likely taught the first university-level sports psychology class to Illinois students, simply called “Psychology and Athletes.” While Griffith’s research influenced several major league teams, including the Chicago Cubs, his laboratory was famously shut down in 1932 because the researcher had developed a poor relationship with the university’s football coach. Today, Griffith is known as the father of North American psychology in sports, having published some two dozen studies in the field. However, Griffith’s work did not affect broader psychological studies, as it was too far outside the mainstream of a growing (and not entirely trusted) science. During the 1940s, a woman named Dorothy Hazeltine Yates made history as perhaps the first applied sports psychologist in US history, demonstrating

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great success for her work with boxers. Yates was one of the first sports psychologists to use positive statements as a means of developing confidence. Her achievements are doubly impressive due to the low number of women in both sports and psychology during that era. Building a Team After the Second World War (1939–1945), professional and college sports again experienced a new growth in fan interest, which in turn led to greater resources available for the team. Fewer and fewer teammanagers held onto the belief about amateurism as more and more teams began to see the value of intensive training for their teams. While players of that era were still underpaid relative to modern athletes, they nevertheless earned enough

Texas Longhorn players get hypnotized!

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that they no longer needed to work another job in the offseason. As a result, more athletes could commit more time to training, with a greater number of support staff to help them out. As teams built out their staff rosters, they expanded from a handful of managers or coaches to include fitness trainers, equipment managers, and team physicians. With greater numbers of people working on sports teams, and with the new field of sports medicine growing by the day, opportunities for sports psychology grew in tandem. Additionally, sports took on greater and greater importance in global society due to international factors like the Cold War: communist and democratic nations competed intensely to field the most talented athletes in the Olympic Games, while best-on-best sports series (like ice hockey’s 1976 Summit Series between the USSR and Canadian national teams) captured the attention of entire countries. With such a fertile space for growth, sports psychology began to come into the mainstream. Psychologist Franklin Henry, of the University of California-Berkeley, proved to be a pioneer during that era, demonstrating aspects of physical and mental performances that had been unknown to science. His studies on motor learning and control helped to demonstrate the link between changes in brain perception and changes in body movements. Additionally, previously unresearched topics, like the personality of athletes and their ability to perform in a sport based on mental arousal, gained notoriety due to Henry’s insights. Applied sports psychologists also helped to move the discipline away from journals and textbooks and into the mainstream of sports business. David Tracy, a psychologist who studied hypnotism, was one of the first applied sports psychologists, hired by the St. Louis Browns (a baseball team that moved to Baltimore and is today the Orioles). Tracy believed that intensive hypnosis could help players to better relax and

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Sports teams employ psychologists to help improve their performance.

gain confidence, having seen the influence of this treatment for soldiers in the First World War. The Browns, for their part, saw how other industries had employed psychologists to improve performance, and hoped that they could be ahead of the competition by investing in this new type of treatment: I will teach the Browns players to talk to their

arms, so they will feel more limber and strong, and to talk to their legs, so they will feel more speedy and supple. When I have a player under hypnosis, I will tell him the next time he feels nervous he should take two deep breaths, allow his shoulders to slump and he then will feel relaxed. I’ve noticed a certain tenseness among the Browns.

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Tracy, like many famous psychologists in history, can be criticized for over-promising and under-delivering. The Browns won just eight out of 32 games with him on the payroll, and the broader sports industry believed that the effort amounted to little more than a publicity stunt or a desperate hope. While Tracy failed to turn around the Browns, he nevertheless demonstrated that psychologists had a lot to offer to sports teams. “The experiment has convinced us there is a definite place for psychologists in sport,” said Browns owner Bill DeWitt. Tracy

The draft has paved a pathway toward the most successful athletes commanding the highest wages.

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himself claimed that the fault lay in management, not his ideas: “When I joined the Browns, I had an idea I’d have the status of a coach, with authority to call the players together, possibly once a week for meetings . . . the Browns got a million dollars’ worth of publicity, but they failed to get the benefits of my work.” Sports Psychology in the Mainstream The second half of the 20th century saw both sports and sports psychology grow to become standardized disciplines. Teams realized the necessity of paying for wins: unionization among players led to greater negotiating power, while the introduction of rules like free agency and the draft paved a pathway toward the most successful athletes commanding the highest wages. At the same time, sports psychology also gained acceptance in the broader scientific community. The first World Congress of Sports Psychology, held in Rome in 1965, led to the development of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) and the establishment of norms for the field of study. Under the first ISSP president, Ferruccio Antonelli, the International Journal of Sport Psychology was established in 1970, signaling a milestone moment in this scientific field. In addition to the ISSP, individual nations and regions established their own societies: 1966 saw the development of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity; 1967 saw both the British Society of Sports Psychology and the French Society of Sport Psychology come into being; and by the end of the 1970s many other major nations like Canada, Japan, Germany, and Korea also established professional organizations for this psychological field. Academic research continued to provide progress toward better understanding of the mind-body connection. Like in previous eras, however, this progress was not always straightforward. In 1966, the publication of a book called Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them, by psychologists

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Bruce Ogilvie and Tom Tutko, led to criticism by the broader mental science community. Ogilvie and Tutko developed a personality assessment that they claimed predicted athletic success; critics believed that it was not based on strong psychological research. Their book, as the name suggests, theorized that some athletes will create problems for teammates, coaches, and (at the professional level) ownership, but that these “problems” could be controlled. Like the previous decade’s controversy with David Tracy and the St. Louis Browns, however, the publication of Problem Athletes shone more light on the topic of sports psychologists and led to many more students and With more investment, more research, and more efforts to build a psychological community, sports psychology began to accelerate during the late 1970s until it became the established field of research that it is today. New journals published scientific findings to the world, such as the Journal of Sport Psychology (1979), Sport and Exercise Scientist (1984), Sport Psychology (1986), and the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (1989). The Association for Applied Sport Psychology, established in 1986, became the largest applied sports psychology organization in the world while also creating a Certified Consultant training pathway for those who wish to be recognized as experts in their field. The American Psychological Association formed Division 47 to specifically focus on exercise and sports psychology. The US Olympic Committee created a sports psychology advisory board and created the first permanent office of resident psychologist, in 1989, hiring Shane Murphy, who would be the first psychologist sent to an Olympic Games. The acceptance of sports psychology as a mainstream discipline can be reflected by the 2009 World Congress of Sports young psychologists pursuing this area of study. Psychology at the Goal Line

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Professional sports teams hire psychologists to develop winning strategies.

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Psychology, hosted in Morocco. Seventy different nations sent representatives to the event, with some 700 experts discussing and debating progress in research and development. Applied sports psychology continued to grow as professional teams began to not just send their players to psychologists for mental help treatments, but also to hire psychologists to develop winning strategies throughout the season. In 1988, Harvey Dorfman broke ground as Major League Baseball’s first “mental consultant.” Dorfman would later write a book called The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance . Permanent psychology staff positions would take further time but arrived in number after teams realized their value. In 2016, Tish Guerin became the first on-staff psychologist for the Carolina Panthers of the NFL. She said of the experience:

Football—just because of the schedules, the demands, the constant changes in terms of you never know if you’re going to be traded or if you’re just entering the league or if you’re getting ready to work through, you know, retirement—there are just a lot of variables that go into the sport in general. And long-term, that can definitely take a toll. In [former NFL player] Steve Smith’s case, I was just super-excited that he shared his journey and just everything that he was going through to let other players know that, you know, it’s OK to not be OK, right?

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Sports Psychology

Text-Dependent Questions

1. In what year was the first modern Olympics held? 2. What professional sports team hired David Tracy? 3. What was the criticism of the book Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them?

Research Project

Go to the websites of ten professional sports teams, and check their staff listing pages. Make a list of the names, titles, and (if available) educational backgrounds of any persons on their staff who have the prefix “Dr.” in their names. Underline or bold any of these professionals whose primary responsibilities include psychology or mental health support.

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Athletic performance represents the fundamental root of sports psychology.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

Manifest: To become or appear. Myriad: A great many. Notoriety: Fame or celebrity, though not always for positive reasons. Strain: Weight or pressure.

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Common and Unusual Issues

Athletic performance represents the fundamental root of sports psychology. New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra famously said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental, and the other half is physical.” The study of sports psychology furthers the goals of athletes, coaches, and managers who are constantly looking for ways to improve individual or team performance. Winning and losing, the natural outcomes of all sport, can carry major consequences for mental health, especially as the rewards for winning rise at each level of competition. What is more, every athlete is a person and must manage all the myriad everyday factors that affect mental health, such as family, money, and sense of self-worth. Issues in sports psychology often address performances, both physical and mental, that span the range from ordinary to much more rare. Self-Confidence In 1993, New York Mets pitcher Anthony Young overcame a historical cold streak. After 27 straight games without a win, over a timespan of two seasons in which 439 other MLB pitchers

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earned a win, he played in a victory over the Miami Marlins. Throughout the slump, teammates and sports journalists alike praised Young for being a good player despite playing for a (very) bad team. Young himself fielded many interviews where he was asked how that performance affected his confidence. “I’m getting a lot of support,” said Young. “Everyone’s behind me 100 percent because they know I deserve better. Ain’t nothing going my way now.” Rather than doubt his own skills, he said, “I’m a good pitcher, I believe in myself.” All athletes experience bad games, errors, unlucky plays, or cold streaks. However, not all manage to overcome the mental strain that those things put on a person’s sense of self-worth. All competition requires confidence, but many factors affect confidence levels for both individuals and teams. “Confidence,” says Dr. Jim Taylor, author of Train Your Mind for Athletic Success , “is the single most important mental factor in sports.” Draymond Green of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors agrees, claiming that confidence separates great players from all other athletes:

Before you can ever reach anything, you have to believe it. You don’t just mistakenly become great at something—you probably at one time or another believed that you could be great at that. And then you worked to get great at that and you reached the greatness… you believed that before and you worked to get that.

Confidence and pride often overlap among athletes. “If they can’t handle it,” wrote WNBA star Liz Cambage in a Twitter post after a playoff victory, “get in the weight room or get out of the post.” Yet athletes in particular may come to doubt their confidence, because they often face one of the greatest challenges to it: failure. Failures manifest in sport at different

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