Most professional and elite amateur athletes will agree that their psychology has a large influence on their sports performance.

Most professional and elite amateur athletes will agree that their psychology has a large influence on their sports performance.

Most professional and elite amateur athletes will agree that their psychology has a large influence on their sports performance. Most will concede that they could benefit from the services of a sport psychologist. Despite this, the significant majority under utilize our services (Carmen. Zerman and Blaine, 1968; Brewer and Petrie, 1996.) It is well known by all who play sports that defeat often stems from the inability to manage anxiety, fear, anger or despair. In addition drug abuse, eating disorders and depression are common among athletes (Brewer and Petrie, 1996.) Narcissism and sociopathic personality disorders are often diagnosed in athletes (Anderson, Denson, Brewer & Van Raalte, 1994.) Coaches who are ill-equipped to handle such matters will attempt to provide a common sense approach to these complex problems and will frequently fail the athlete. \

QUESTION – PLEASE POST YOUR RESPONSE TO THE FOLLOWING :

a. Do you consider sport psychology a joke or a job?

b. Provide 3 reasons to support your argument (A keen student might even email a coach at SMU and ask them about their views of Sport Psychologists and would they ever consider using them with their athletes)