Sports Psychology

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

Chapter 2: History and Development of the Field

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