An INTRODUCING PRACTICAL GUIDE to optimizing your mind for sports

An INTRODUCING PRACTICAL GUIDE to optimizing your mind for sport. Sport Psychology is the study of the psychological factors that affect participation and performance in sports. It deals with increasing performance by managing emotions and minimizing the psychological effects of injury and poor performance. Some of the most important skills taught are goal setting, relaxation, visualization, self-talk, awareness and control, concentration, confidence, using rituals, attribution training, and periodization. With straightforward mental exercises, point-by-point suggestions for improvement and real-life examples – whether you're an aspiring athlete or just someone who wants to perform your chosen sport a little better, this INTRODUCING PRACTICAL GUIDE is the ideal tool.

Helps you become fitter and stronger, achieve your goals and enjoy exercise, with proven, expert techniques. This title is full of practical tips that can improve your performance whatever your sport or level of fitness, relieve stress and reduce anxiety about life's challenges, and make exercise a habit and feel better all round.

A practical handbook for sports psychologists that outlines the most effective interventions for athletes across a variety of sports. A practical manual for the growing force of sports psychologists helping today's athletes to unprecedented levels of application and success Offers specific guidance on the psychological assessment of athletes, uniquely presented in an accessible sport-by-sport format Written by an experienced practicing sports psychologist and author, who draws on his own methods and experience in the field

Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is a definitive guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. It goes further than any other book in surveying the full variety of issues that practising sport psychologists will confront in their working lives. It introduces the most important tools and skills that psychologists will need to be truly helpful to their clients, and it also adopts a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychologist, explaining how effective counseling, assessment, and therapeutic models can add important extra dimensions to professional practice. The book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: counseling; assessment; theoretical and therapeutic models; issues for the individual athlete, from injury and overtraining to depression; issues for teams, from conflict resolution to travel; working with special populations; mental skills, such as imagery, goal setting, and concentration. Moving beyond the traditional tracks of clinical psychology and performance enhancement, the authors in this book argue convincingly that psychologists would benefit from attempting to understand athletes’ social and familial contexts, their health, happiness, and interpersonal dynamics in the broadest sense, if they are to serve their clients’ best interests. With contributions from many of the world’s leading sport psychologists, and with clear descriptions of best practice in each chapter, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is essential reading for all serious students and practitioners of sport psychology, counseling, applied sport science, health psychology, and related fields.

Dr. Millhouse is a leading clinical sport psychologist with over 25 years of success helping athletes at all levels achieve their athletic potential. He has provided an easy to understand, step by step guide for parents to help their child learn the mental skills used by his students to avoid costly mistakes and win numerous NCAA, Olympic and World titles.

Think about your favourite sport. Now ask yourself how much of success in that sport is down to physical skills and how much is down to mental skills? We all know that physical skills are vital for performance and understand about training them. We know that psychology is important too, but what people actually do to understand and train in it is less well known. Sport Psychology: A complete introduction gives you the answers, explaining everything you need to know in one place. Structured in two parts, theory and application, part one defines the idea of personality and covers essential psychological traits, including mental toughness, confidence, motivation, stress and character. Part two covers topics such as assessment, skills training, coping techniques, building concentration and working with coaches and teams. You will also find substantial coverage of measurement questionnaires, skills and routes to practice. As well as learning about how the mind works and how that has an impact on sporting performance, you will discover what sport psychologists actually do to improve a performer's psychological skills and mindset. Sport psychology used to be simply about performance. Now, the role of the sport psychologist is more holistic and includes athlete wellbeing, working with coaches and support teams, and operating at a more organizational level. Whether you are a student, interested in sport and sport performance as a professional practice, or involved in sport at any level, Sport Psychology: A complete introduction is your go-to guide.

Contemporary sport psychology is a rapidly developing and theoretically rich discipline, and a sophisticated and challenging profession. The Routledge International Handbook of Sport Psychology offers a comprehensive and authoritative guide to contemporary sport psychology in all its aspects. Written by a team of world-leading researchers and practitioners from five continents, including both established scholars and the best emerging talents, the book traces the contours of the discipline of sport psychology, introducing fundamental theory, discussing key issues in applied practice, and exploring the most important themes, topics and debates across the sport psychology curriculum. Uniquely, the book presents comparative studies of the history and contemporary practice of sport psychology in ten countries, including the US, UK, China, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Israel, helping the reader to understand the cultural and contextual factors that shape international practice in sport psychology. As well as covering in depth the core pillars of sport psychology, from motivation and cognition to group dynamics, the book also includes a full section on cultural sport psychology, a vital but under-explored sub-discipline that is having a profound influence on contemporary theory and practice. With 56 chapters and unparalleled range, depth and currency, the Routledge Handbook of International Sport Psychology is an essential addition to any library with a serious holding in sport psychology.

Goal setting - Sport strategies - Controlling and directing energy levels - Concentration - Confidence - Coachingng___

Understanding and applying psychology within youth sport settings is key to maximising young athletes’ enjoyment, wellbeing, and sporting performance. Written by a team of leading international researcher-practitioners, this book is the first to offer an evidence-based introduction to the theory and practice of sport psychology for children and young athletes. It provides practical strategies and guidance for those working in or researching youth sport, demonstrating how to integrate sport psychology effectively in a variety of youth sport contexts. With real-life case studies that demonstrate psychological theory put into practice, it discusses a wide spectrum of issues faced by young athletes and recommends the best approaches to addressing them. Key topics covered include: the cognitive, social, and physical development of young athletes optimising fun, motivation, and self-confidence enhancing young athletes’ relationships with coaches, parents, and peers managing stress, injuries, and transitions effectively developing talent and long-term engagement in sport encouraging organisational culture change. The most up-to-date and authoritative guide to sport psychology for young people, this is essential reading for anyone working in youth sport.