Practitioners advocate the importance to engage in evidence-based practice at the forefront of issues regarding the provision of applied sport psychology. Accordingly, the present study sought to contextualize the process of theory-research-practice. Specifically, four attentionalbased techniques established within the sport psychology literature were depicted as applied scenarios and presented as a survey task. Experienced UK-based practitioners (n = 14) and individuals currently undergoing training (n = 14) were recruited to ascertain their theoretical and mechanistic knowledge, and whether these techniques were being utilized in the applied environment. Results suggested that the application of the techniques, in addition to the theoretical, and mechanistic knowledge may decrease from the trainee to experienced practitioner. The study highlights the need for an increase in research designed to be impactful in the applied setting, and addressing the needs of sport psychology practitioners, if our discipline is to advance and remain as evidence-based.
Although the field of applied sport psychology has developed, it faces further challenges on its way toward gaining greater professional status. The following principal criteria of professionalism are proposed as a test of such status: (a) provides an important public service, (b) has a knowledge-base underpinning, (c) has organizational regulation, (d) has a distinct ethical dimension, and (e) has professional autonomy. This article undertakes to explore the nature of implications for practice and the extent to which the suggested principal criteria justify a distinctive applied sport psychology profession. In doing so, we hope to stimulate debate on these and other issues in order that an even greater professionalization of our applied discipline may emerge.
This research qualitatively documents youth sport coaches' perspectives of sport psychology and sport psychology consultants (SPCs) in the United Kingdom. Youth coaches are a unique population yet to be examined, despite their significance to the development of athletes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight coaches who held a minimum of ten years experience with youth performers of a county to national level. Participants represented American football, hockey, soccer, and track and field. Inductive analysis identified twenty-four higher order themes, resulting in eight general dimensions: Role of sport psychology and SPCs, a sport psychologist's clientele, perceived work for sport psychologists, perception of where sport psychology belongs, expected characteristics of SPCs, professional accountability, and the facilitators and barriers of sport psychology. Results indicate youth coaches' support for the field of sport psychology, but the barriers SPCs face within youth sport are discussed. Consequently this article offers practitioners with applied solutions to overcome potential obstacles and improve current practices.
Disordered eating is a psychological ailment that befalls many athletes and can persist into retirement. Links have been established between disordered eating and societal and sport-specific pressures; however, little research has focused on the perspective of retired athletes in a time-based sport. The purpose of the current research was to explore the conceptualization of disordered eating in relation to swimming participation, how retirement affects eating patterns, and ways to mitigate disordered eating. Following IPA methodological guidelines, a homogeneous sample of retired swimmers (N = 6) was chosen for semistructured, participant-driven interviews determined by scores on a disordered-eating questionnaire. Three superordinate themes were revealed: (1) pressures unique to swimming, (2) transition to eating pattern awareness, and (3) maintaining ideal eating patterns in retirement. The results revealed a combination of novel findings and expansion of previous data on disordered eating. Suggestions for applications of current findings and for future research are also discussed.
Understanding and explaining the mechanisms, cognitive processes, and self-regulatory strategies that enable the acquisition and proficient execution of motor skills pose significant challenges for the evidence-based practitioner. In this article, we critically consider contemporary theoretical and research findings focused on the scientific study of mental processes in elite performers, specifically in relation to the preparation, practice, and execution of self-paced skills. On examination of some of the current issues in this ongoing debate, we seek clarity as to best practice, and present evidence as to why holistic temporally accurate movement cues hold significant advantages for elite performers.
Priming has recently emerged in the literature as offering advantages in the preparation for skilled performance. Accordingly, the current study tested the efficacy of imagery against a priming paradigm as a means of enhancing motor performance: in essence, contrasting a preparation technique primarily under the conscious control of the performer to an unconscious technique promoting automaticity. The imagery intervention was guided by the PETTLEP model, while the priming intervention took the form of a scrambled sentence task. Eighteen skilled field-hockey players performed a dribbling task under imagery, priming, skill-focus, and control conditions. Results revealed a significant improvement in speed and technical accuracy for the imagery condition as opposed to the skill-focus, control, and priming conditions. In addition, there were no significant differences in performance times or technical accuracy between the priming and control conditions. The study provides further support for the efficacy of imagery to elicit enhanced motor skill performance but questions the emerging emphasis on priming as an effective tool in preparation for physical tasks.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.