Sports Psychology and Peak Performance

What is sports psychology? How will it help you achieve peak performance?

Sports psychology is defined as “the study of a person’s behavior in sport…it is also a specialization within the brain psychology and kinesiology that seeks to understand psychological/mental factors that affect performance in sports, physical activity, and exercise and apply these to enhance individual and team performance.”

That’s it –an objective study of factors affecting sports performance and acting on these factors to enhance and achieve peak performance of an athlete.

The main goal of sports psychologists is to help athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, exercisers, fitness professionals, and parents is to assist optimal sports involvement, boost athletic performance, and promote better enjoyment of sport and exercise.

Sports psychology uses scientific research to come up with techniques to help athletes. The most common areas dealt by sports psychology which greatly affect peak performance are: anxiety management, attention and concentration, goal setting, and team building.

Sport psychology professionals are now receiving considerable attention. Professional athletes, fitness specialists, and major universities have acknowledged the significance of sports psychology in performance improvement.

The “knowledge and techniques developed by applied sport and exercise psychology to assist with improving exercise adherence, rehabilitating injuries, educating coaches and parents, building self-esteem, teaching group dynamics, and increasing effectiveness” are now taken advantage of to achieve not only peak performance but also improved attitudes and personalities of the athletes.

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Books on Peak Performance in Sports

Being able to perform and achieve peak performance in his/her chosen sport is the ultimate dream of any athlete.

Discipline, determination, hard work, and the right combination of attitude can make an athlete. So do a healthy diet and nutrition and the right training process.Here are three books which can help you step up your game to the next level and achieve peak performance:

1. Finding Your Zone: Ten Core Lessons for Achieving Peak Performance in Sports and Life by Dr. Michael Landon – Dr. Landon, physician and mental coach, has help athletes including Rich Beem and Michael CampbellI improve their performance; sharing tips on reaching a state or zone wherein thoughts and actions happen with complete harmony.

2. Mental Training for Peak Performance: Top Athletes Reveal the Mind Exercises They Use to Excel by Dr. Steven Ungerleider - In this updated edition with material on the best athletes of today’s generation, Dr. Ungerleider identifies the mental strategies champions use to achieve peak performance in a range of sports – from cycling and skiing to golf and tennis.

3. Coaching the Mental Game: Leadership Philosophies and Strategies for Peak Performance in Sports and Everyday Life by Harvey Dorfman – This book presents coaches of all sports definitive information on understanding an athlete’s mental awareness. It also has amazing “details appropriate coaching strategies aimed at perfecting the player’s mental approach to performance.”

These books will help both coach and more particularly, the athlete, achieve peak performance.

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Coaching in Sports

You can do this!” “Get ‘em!” “Try harder!”

You’ve probably heard this from your coach time and time again…

And you most likely know the coach’s role is not just coaching – it can also be being your number one fan, always urging you on and play harder; it can also be being your most ruthless critic, telling you what you did wrong out there on the field; and it can also be being your best counselor, giving you the best advice and motivating you to achieve your full potentials.

Coaching is a tough job, but it is also one which commands respect as well as affection from the athletes.

Although the coach’s role is many and diverse, there are a few which can be considered as the main responsibilities of a coach. Coaching includes preparation of training modules for the athletes, assessment and monitoring of progress, and predicting performance.

Your coach’s slap in the back for a great game means a lot and reflects both your commitment in helping you – the athlete – achieve your full potentials and attain peak performance!

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The Right Sports Attitude

In the pressure of the game, under the gaze of excited spectators, sometimes you can get carried away and forget the right sports attitude…

But what is the right sports attitude, you ask?

Is it competitiveness? Fair play? Mental preparedness?

As a matter of fact, it’s a healthy combination of all these plus some other equally important things. When you have the right sports attitude, you’ve already won the game, with or without the trophy.

The game isn’t all about winning…it’s also about accepting defeat and doing more and performing better in the next game.

An inspirational quote from Lynett Love, 1988 Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo:

“I used to think that the great champions were the ones who never lost. But I realize now that the great champions are the ones who lose and have the character to come back.”

Didn’t that motivate you to do better?

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Competitiveness in Sports

Highly competitive sports like baseball, soccer, football, basketball and ice hockey have a tendency to be violent – not only inside the court or field but on the sidelines as well, among the spectators.

This is a rather tricky issue to address…

What is competitiveness?

Competitiveness is “not the sense of having to win the game at all costs, but in having to win each move or action they make.”

This means the drive to continually improve one’s ability and achieve peak performance. Going out to the field or the court and giving it your best efforts, knowing you can still make the best today, better on the next game.

However, this is not exactly what is happening today, isn’t it?

Too much emphasis is placed on winning – winning at all costs!

It doesn’t matter if winning the game sacrifices your own body, your team mate’s, or the opponent’s, as long as you win…

Instead of concentrating on enjoying sports and the pleasure of playing, earning the physical benefits, and encouraging a lasting interest in athletics, competitiveness in sports focuses more on winning.

To most athletes today, competitiveness has become synonymous to winning.

But is this really the correlation between the two?

That’s certainly food for thought…

Check out your Top 3 Sports Performance Tips free report and exercise your mental muscles and be on the right track to achieving your peak performance!