I think you are right. I am a big fan of the sports psychology “business” and believe that a good sports psyche / mental skills professional is a potential winning edge for your team but there are very very few of them available.

My experience is that most people promoting themselves as sports psychologists – i.e. focused on sports performance, are in reality what I would call sports welfare psychologists - i.e. really good at working with athletes with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, social anxieties etc but don’t really understand concepts like “winning” and “living on the edge”.

As a result, because a lot of your colleagues are focussing on fixing what’s broken instead of enhancing performance, the “one week wonders” – e.g. those people who do one week NLP courses and call themselves mental skills coaches – have found an opportunity and a niche in the sports industry.

My opinion is that motivated people like you have to start kicking your professional association and the Universities to change the way they train, educate and develop the next generation of sports psychologists – and teach them to focus on winning rather than welfare.

Incidentally my wife of 14 years is a psychologist so I managed to find both a great partner and an excellent professional!

WG

Love the analogy about finding a good sport psych is like finding a good wife (b. impossible). As sport psychs ourselves we know this to be true and although there are many reasons for it the two biggest are:
1. confusing titles (sport psych, sport and exercise psych, performance psychs…and that’s just us)!
2. Many qualified sport psychs do a poor job and some non qualified mental coaches do a good job.
Cheers, Gareth

It is amazing how many coaches, athletes and the general public will say, “The game is all mental”, but then spend 99% of time preparing exclusively by physical training.

And when they do work on mental skills training it is often in a classroom or consultation room and is not really integrated into the training environment.

Mind and body working together in harmony – everyday – in all training and competition activities is the key.

WG

I know people will get upset about this article and write to tell me the difference between sports psychologists, life coaches, performance coaches etc – but in the end, you have to find people who want to work with the coach and athlete, who can develop a rapport and understanding with coaches and athletes and are prepared to partner with coaches and athletes: it is a team effort with shared responsibilities and accountabilities where everyone is respected, listened to and trusted.

WG

Lots of people use phrases like “the game is all mental” or “it’s 99% mental” but who is actually incorporating mental skills training into every training session? Mental skills training is at least as important as technique, sports skill and physical preparation and in some sports it is THE most important skill.

WG

mick