Answering this question will provide direction for every coach and sport psychologist. For me this is simple: to improve the athlete’s technique, skills, tactics and self-development. Athletes will spend hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks even years and years working on techniques, skills and tactics. Therefore our job as sport psychologists is […]
One common issue that athletes seek sport psychology services for is to learn how to perform in a competition as well as they do in practice. Your physical ability has not changed or decreased, so why does your performance? Weinberg and Gould (2007) state that many times “a lack of physical skills is not the […]
Anders Ericsson carried out extensive research on what it takes to become an expert. Ericsson (1993) says that it takes 10,000 hours (20 hours for 50 weeks a year for ten years = 10,000) of deliberate practice to become an expert in almost anything. ‘10,000 hours, brilliant I’ll become a pro golfer in 10 years’! If […]
In sports coaching, play and practice are said to be two of the key variables that influence skill acquisition. However knowing what is the more effective or what is the best combination of play and practice, as well as what age play and practice amounts should be integrated have proven to be a topic under […]