What is Sport Psychology?

What exactly is Sport Psychology? Our mind state can be as influential to a successful performance as our physical state, yet we so often take it for granted. Sport Psychology, sometimes called Mental Training or Mental Skills Training is used to help an athlete with the mental or emotional component of their sport. It can include techniques to improve focus, promote relaxation and concentration, or turn pre-game jitters to your competitive advantage. A Sport Psychology Consultant can help you with appropriate goal setting, including when to move up to the next level; design specific strategies for an upcoming competition or deconstruct past competitive experiences to target areas for further mental training; recover from a set-back or injury; and competently negotiate issues with coaches, teammates or other competitors.

How will Abigail be able to help me?

I have helped individuals with

Fear after an accident or fall
Performance anxiety
Focus and concentration, particularly under pressure
Developing a positive, confident mind state
Goal setting
Making perfectionism work
Overcoming mental limiters
I am just starting out in my sport, is sports psychology really for me?

Sports Psychology can help anyone who wants to improve their performance while increasing their enjoyment. Learning mental training techniques early in your athletic career can be enormously beneficial. Many upper level athletes are still novices in mental training, so no matter where you are in your sport, sport psychology can provide tools and tactics to help you succeed. Sports psychology is often used as one tool to specifically improve performance. However it can also address issues around your relationship with your horse, issues with team mates, or attitudes toward practice; challenges that are faced by competitors at every level.

FAQs

Will sports psychology help my child?

Since I started competing at such a young age, I am able to relate to young athletes and understand the stressors and issues that are unique to them. In addition, I have worked with young athletes from a variety of sports including equestrian, soccer, and bike racing. I have found that for young people, sports psychology can really help to increase their enjoyment of and commitment to their sport, as well as enhance their performance.

I no longer compete but I’d like to help the students I coach, will this be useful for me?

Coaches are still competitors but in the frustrating position of standing on the sidelines as their students either perform or don’t perform. I can advise coaches on how to instruct their students in the basics of mental training. I can also, by using some of the same techniques, help coaches to be more effective leaders and trainers.

How will it work?

Your appointment will be either in person or on the phone. The first appointment is 1 hour. Initially, we’ll talk about your athletic history and the specific issue that prompted you to contact me. We will explore your goals and then move on to consider which aspects of your mental approach are working for you and which need building or refining. We’ll investigate what’s holding you back, what’s keeping you from achieving what you want, be it a clear cross country round, a podium finish or a place on the Olympic team. Subsequent appointments are 50 minutes long and are tailored specifically to your needs. We may spend time deconstructing a recent competition or creating strategies for an upcoming event. I may guide you in a visualization session to help you work through an area where you are feeling particularly stuck. Depending on your needs, I’ll assign exercises and practice drills to supplement our work between sessions. Mental training is very like physical training, the more you practice, the more you improve. In our sessions together, we become co-creators of the strategies and mental skills that will propel you to achieve your dreams.

I’ve read books on sports psychology, so how will this be any different?

My experience with different athletes has shown me that we all have basically some version of the same issue; fear, performance anxiety, a tendency to “Choke” or “Freeze,” problems when we try to advance a level, problems coming back from injuries. But I have also seen how for each individual, the expression of these issues, their “symptoms,” are unique; the manifestation of the problem is different for different people. For this reason, the cookie cutter programs provided by books, while interesting and informative, will not provide the benefits or deliver the results that an individually designed program will.