The Evolution of Sports Psychology: Trends and Development

Introduction

High-level performance in sports is, of course, highly contingent upon one's physical abilities. In order to compete at the collegiate, Olympic, or professional level, one must both possess a certain minimum threshold of natural athletic talent and demonstrate the dedication and patience necessary to achieve the consistency and improvement required to remain at these high levels of competition. However, even given these two virtues, the aspiring athlete may find this difficult path further beset by psychological challenges. Competition at a high level requires confidence, focus, clarity, even temperament, and a host of other qualities that can at times be easily accessed, at other times difficult to summon, and at still other times seemingly impossible to locate.

It is thus that the field of sports psychology remains in a state of constant evolution. For athletes at every level, it is sometimes necessary to consult a professional with the capacity to put emotional challenges into perspective, to bring one's mental game up to par with one's physical game, or to come to terms with the inherent ups and downs that come with athletic competition. The discussion here reveals that the field remains ever-changing, with the implications of effective sports psychology strategies having a direct and long-term bearing on career development.

Current Trends in Sports Psychology

One of the major points of evolution in the field connects to the ever-growing understanding of the human mind, of mood conditions, and of socio-emotional processes. In addition, there is continual improvement in recognizing the connection between the mental and physical dimensions of individual experience. It is for this reason, as Terry (2010) indicates, that sports psychologists have increasingly placed an emphasis on mood profiling and mood regulation as ways of helping athletes better understand the impact of their emotions and adapt strategies for controlling them. Terry indicates that "mood profiling can assist processes such as acclimatisation, determining optimal training load, tapering, monitoring injured athletes, problem identification, and also act as a catalyst for discussion. The mood regulation process involves assessment and interpretation of mood responses, followed by prescription of evidence-based interventions that, ideally, have been pre-learnt and practiced." (Terry, p. 1)

This indicates that one of the trends currently favored by practicing sports psychologists involves helping the athlete adjust his or her mental approach to the game in order to accommodate particular qualities identified by a mood profile, as well as particular ways of using self-driven interventions to prevent the negative effects of mood variation. Terry refers to specific contexts in which this approach may be called for, such as coping with injury and shaping training strategies according to individual capabilities and thresholds.

Future Developments and Mental Game Coaching

Future developments in the field point further in the direction of providing athletes with the internal instruments and strategies necessary to take control of their own mental processes and emotional habits. According to Kumar and Shirotriya (2010), a major preoccupation of the field is referred to as Mental Game Coaching. This, the research explains, is "the segment of sports psychology that concentrates specifically on helping athletes break through the mental barriers that are keeping them from performing up to their peak potential. By focusing on the mental skills needed to be successful in any sporting competition, mental game coaching seeks to achieve the overall goal of performance improvement." (Kumar & Shirotriya, p. 155)

This reflects an improved understanding within cognitive psychology of the individual strategies that produce the best performance results. It is largely predicated on the established finding that athletes tend, when compared to non-athletic groups, to demonstrate higher levels of confidence, optimism, and positive self-perception. According to Edwards and Edwards (2011), this is part of what allows such individuals to become athletes and to succeed as athletes. Simultaneously, such confidence and self-perception are often tied directly to performance, suggesting a reciprocal relationship. Accordingly, their study reports that "this research compared psychological well-being and physical self-perceptions of convenience samples of health club members, hockey players, runners, soccer players, surfers, and a control group of non-sports persons. All sports groups perceived themselves to be significantly more psychologically well than the control group. There were no significant differences in perceived psychological well-being among the sports groups themselves." (Edwards & Edwards, p. 9)

Conclusion

Today, professional athletics constitute a booming multibillion-dollar industry. This denotes both a great deal of opportunity and a tremendous amount of pressure for competitors. It also means that there is extensive interest — from parties well beyond the athletes themselves — in ensuring their success. As a result, the field of sports psychology continues both to escalate in relevance and to evolve to meet the changing mental and emotional challenges related to athletic competition.