Mental Health and the Whole Athlete The mental health epidemic among adolescents has been causing us to really become aware of how to prevent these issues for the future generations. NYS having mandated mental health education and social emotional education among schools within the past year, brings us to a better place if handled effectively. […]
The above image is credited IPTL World https://www.iptlworld.com/ Working in various youth sport environments and with several young athletes on an individual basis brings about numerous challenges in relation to athlete motivation and the motivational climate that is created by those supporting young athletes. The topics of this article are aimed at helping parents and […]
It doesn’t seem that long since the London 2012 Olympic Games were gracing our TV screens in the Summer that saw Great Britain achieve 29 Olympic Gold medals across 26 sports. Fast forward to the present and we are edging ever so closer to another sport filled Summer, with the 2016 Olympic Games being held […]
The 2015 Edinburgh Marathon is almost upon us. The gun will go off at 9.50am on 31st May with thousands of runners streaming out of Edinburgh on the 26.2 mile course. I will be one of these runners. I have been training for the Edinburgh Marathon since about January. Having completed two 10km runs and […]
Theories of Motivation Motivation is a key aspect of sport and can be used to predict an individual’s behaviour during a performance depending on what is driving them. It can be defined as: ‘the hypothetical construct used to describe the internal and/ or external forces that produce the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behaviour’ […]
Coaching is far more than just teaching sports skills to individuals and teams. It is also about inspiring, giving confidence and motivating others by building quality relationships. You need to poses the emotional expertise in order to build those relationships with an individual or within a sports team. In sports psychology this emotional expertise is […]
Now 2016 is fully upon us, many of us will have noticed an increase in the amount of people in your local gym. A diverse range of individuals, some of whom may never have taken part in any exercise before, will be busting a gut on the cross trainer, hoping to burn off the calories […]
Mental toughness is hard to quantify and define, and it is increasingly evident that the concept can mean different things to different people. UK researchers Jones et al. (2002) carried out an in-depth study with top international athletes and concluded mental toughness to be: ‘having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to […]
Self-talk is a valuable tool, one of the most effective methods of instilling self-confidence. Talking to yourself, despite being the first sign of madness, is also capable of improving performance. Self-talk is used by most elite sportspeople to instil confidence, increase motivation and to help them to ‘get into the zone’. It is accepted that […]
“Motivation will almost always beat mere talent” Norman Ralph Augustine Motivation is a key subject for athletes, coaches and sporting organisations. In sport psychology, we attempt to define and measure the ‘right motivation’. The self-determination theory is one such attempt to define the ‘right’ motivation, suggesting that more self-determined forms of motivation lead to positive […]