Sports Psychology

By Dr. Jack Singer


When the chips are down, the athlete often cannot share his/her inner
fears, anxiety and anger issues with the coach or their parents. Now,
the athlete has a new ally...the professional Sports Psychologist
(also referred as the professional Sport Psychologist).

The Sports Psychologist, who should be Certified and well-trained in
examining the whole person, can provide the athlete with skills that
can really develop an elite athlete from a good athlete. Coaches and
trainers focus almost exclusively on left brain activities, including
game plans, strategy, technique, speed, agility, muscle building,
etc. Most athletes focus exclusively on training using the left
brain. Accordingly, athletes are cheated because their right brains
are being ignored.

Right brain activities include balance, emotions, music, and
visualization, all of which can really enhance performance. The
Sports Psychologist trains the athlete to exercise the right brain
along with the left brain. For example, teaching mental toughness
skills (including intensity, confidence and emotions during key
moments in competition) critically important in peak performance.

Overcoming pressure is another right brain activity that can be
taught to athletes. These skills include recognizing the causes of
emotions during key moments in competition and how to modify those
emotions, if necessary.

Stress management skills are critical and necessary if the athlete
wants to compete successfully and consistently. Interestingly, a
certain amount of tension (i.e., being on edge, pumped up, psyched)
is crucial for peak performance to be maintained. In fact, the
athlete with too much relaxation is at the same disadvantage as the
athlete with too much tension. The key for each athlete is to learn
where the exact mixture of relaxation and tension lies. This is where
the Clinical Sports Psychologist with hypnosis training can really
help the athlete zone in on that level and learn to modify it as game
conditions warrant. Too much tension is lowered by deep breathing and
calming thoughts and not enough tension is raised by jumping,
exercises, etc. to raise the heart beat.

Goal setting, while a left brain activity, is closely linked with
right brain activities, such as emotions, patience, optimism and
learning to overcome obstacles. These are also key skills that the
Sports Psychologist can teach the athlete.

In addition, there are many issues in an athlete's life that can
impact her/his sports performance. Relationship stressors,
personality traits (e.g., perfectionism, anger vulnerability),
attention deficits, mood changes, and the lack of life skills (e.g.,
assertiveness) are just a few of the factors that can dramatically
impact ones performance on the playing field. Consequently, a
comprehensive initial history and mental status exam is necessary in
order to plan the treatment. In fact, many parents bring their
youngsters to me in order to teach them life skills that will also be
used in their sport. For example, the young athlete who gets overly
anxious during competition also gets overly anxious prior to taking a
test. The same coping skills can be taught for both issues.

Perhaps the best right brain skill the athlete can learn is self-
hypnosis and visualization. I have referred to these skill sets as
the "unfair advantage," because they really propel athletes to
enhance their performance.


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