Elite athletes are known for their exceptional physiology. Arguably, their superior strength, power, endurance and biomechanics all play a key role in enabling their success. However, these physiological factors tend to be relatively similar across elite performers, meaning that physiology is not the only piece of the puzzle of creating champions. Translating such physical determinants […]
Football has been described as “more than just a game” (Jones, 1995). As a result, footballers are experiencing psychological distress despite achieving great sporting success. To attest to this point, more than one quarter of professional footballers suffer from symptoms of depression and anxiety (Gouttebarge, 2014). Football is a highly pressured environment where emotional experiences […]
Have you ever been told that you are a perfectionist? Or have you ever felt that you a perfectionist? When everything needs to be “just right”? There is a difference between striving for excellence and wanting to do well, compared with excessive perfectionism. Perfectionism has been described as a personality trait or a set of […]
A controversial issue within the psychology field is perfectionism. Perfectionism is described as a broad multidimensional personality trait characterised by the pursuit of extremely high standards; striving for flawlessness, and over critical performance evaluation (Frost et al. 1990; Flett & Hewitt, 2005). Some may debate that being a perfectionist athlete is admirable because of the desire […]
What is perfectionism? Perfectionism has been identified as an innate characteristic of personality (Stoeber et al. 2007), in a sporting context it is characterised by the setting of exceptionally high standards, a complete striving for flawlessness and the overly critical evaluation of one’s performance (Frost et al. 1990; Flett & Hewitt 2005). Perfectionism is widely […]
How do athletes become elite players in their chosen sport? Is it their innate talent or do they train every hour of every day to become an elite player? It is often said that ‘practice makes perfect’ and to a certain extent this is true, the more you practice a skill the more likely you […]