Dr. John F. Murray shares the latest in sports psychology research and practice and gives his expert interpretation on how this can help
Sports Psychology and Sports Anxiety Treatment
The UW Health Sports Medicine department recently offered a nice overview of some of the ways that sports psychologists can help athletes. Their goal is to help these competitors best use their mental and emotional skills to achieve peak athletic performance, and I applaud them for their emphasis. The article points out that sports psychologists can minimize the psychological effects of injury and build coping skills to deal with adverse situations. Some of the mental skills alluded to incude finding the right level of energy for best play, enhancing motivation, using visualization, and also reviewing what are internal and what are external motivational aspects. Finally, the need for expert focus applies to almost anything you can think of in business or sports.
Nice Book on Sports Psychology For Dummies by Leif H. Smith
There are so many good books today on sports psychology and I commend Leif Smith for writing one. His smart guide to gaining the winning edge with sports psychology can help a lot of people. Don’t forget that one on one mental coaching is always better than information or a book, but we can always use more good books in the field.
Dr. John F. Murray’s Take: Borrowing from the good people writing and talking about sports psychology is the starting point for any good application of science. I commend the folks at UW as well as Leif Smith for their efforts as more and more people in the mainstream media, and the general population of performers, learn more about what this fascinating field can offer! See all the exciting updates at my main page at JohnFMurray.com and the developing new site at SportsPsychology.com.
