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Effective leadership in sport at the elite level can make the difference between success and failure.However, while the importance of leadership is acknowledged there is little published evidence regarding how the required skills could or should be developed. The current case study reports the implementation of a leadership development program with elite professional cricketers. The intervention itself was focused at three levels: (1) captaincy development, (2) leadership skill development, (3) personal growth and leadership development. Program effectiveness was determined through the feedback provided by the individual players on the program, the reflections of the sport psychology consultant, and feedback from the professional staff.Evaluation and reflection of the program suggests that a formal development program can be both beneficial and impactful in enhancing the leadership capabilities of elite players. Keywords:captaincy, athlete leadership, personal development Accepted author manuscript version reprinted, by permission, from Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2016, 1 (1-4): 16-25, http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/CSSEP.2016. © Human Kinetics, Inc. Developing Leadership Skills in Sport: A Case Study of Elite Cricketers ContextI am a qualified sport and exercise psychologist based in the United Kingdom, on the Health and Care Profession's Council (HCPC) register (government registration) as a practitioner sport and exercise psychologist. I am also a British Psychological Society (BPS) chartered Psychologist and a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist. At the time of the intervention I had being working in the professional cricket environment for six years, and with the Cricket NGB for two years. Consultancy PhilosophyMy consultancy philosophy has evolved over the past 10 years from a cognitivebehavioral approach to being positive, cognitive, humanist. Positive because I firmly believe in the central tenant of positive psychology -to focus on optimal human functioning, and aiming to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and groups/teams to thrive (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). This perspective underpins my focus on strengthsbased approaches to practice (e.g., Gordon & Gucciardi, 2011). Indeed, in recent years strengths based approaches have featured increasingly frequently across a range of domains (Ludlam, Butt, Bawden, Lidsay, & Maynard, 2015). Specifically, practitioners adopting strengths-based approaches seek to identify and grow individual strengths rather than focus on individual deficiencies.My approach is also cognitive because many of the interventions I apply seek to influence cognitions and beliefs (Beck, 2005). The cognitive approach is underpinned by at least three key principles (Dozois & Beck, 2011). First, the individual's cognition is assumed to affect both their emotions and their behaviors. Second, it is assumed that individuals can learn to monitor and modify much of their cognitive...

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BackgroundResearch focused on mental health in sport has revealed a need to develop evidence-supported mental health practices that are sensitive to sport culture, particularly for non-elite athletes. A consensus statement was produced to assist effective mental health awareness in sport and guide programme implementation in this rapidly emerging field.MethodThe AGREE Reporting Checklist 2016 was used in two international expert consultation meetings, followed by two online surveys. Experts from 10 countries and over 30 organisations contributed.ResultsSix objectives were agreed: (1) to define mental health awareness and service implementation constructs for inclusion in programmes delivered in sporting environments; (2) to identify the need to develop and use valid measures that are developmentally appropriate for use in intervention studies with sporting populations, including measures of mental health that quantify symptom severity but also consider causal and mediating factors that go beyond pathology (ie, well-being and optimisation); (3) to provide guidance on the selection of appropriate models to inform intervention design, implementation and evaluation; (4) to determine minimal competencies of training for those involved in sport to support mental health, those experiencing mental illness and when to refer to mental health professionals; (5) to provide evidence-based guidance for selecting mental health awareness and implementation programmes in sport that acknowledge diversity and are quality assured; and (6) to identify the need for administrators, parents, officials, coaches, athletes and workers to establish important roles in the promotion of mental health in various sports settings.ConclusionThis article presents a consensus statement on recommended psychosocial and policy-related approaches to mental health awareness programmes in sport.

Whilst much research has suggested a positive link between pre-performance routines (PPRs) and performance, the specific mechanisms of the process have yet to be understood fully. It has been suggested that the PPR may influence performance through lowering the athlete's anxiety, and/or increasing their self-efficacy, but to date this has not specifically been explored in detail. As a result the aim of the current study was to explore the impact of specific individualised PPRs on performance, anxiety and self-efficacy in semi-professional soccer players. Participants were 20 male semi-professional soccer players (M = 19.45, SD = 2.81) recruited from clubs in England. Adopting a repeated measure design, players were tested on performance, anxiety, and self-efficacy pre- and post a 7-day intervention period in which the participants learnt a new PPR. The data were analysed using factorial mixed measures analysis of variance (ANOVAs), with the results revealing a significant difference in somatic anxiety for the experimental group and a decrease in performance for the control group. The study provides further support for the suggestion that the PPR can enhance performance by reducing experiences of anxiety prior to performance.