There has been an increase in recent coaching literature aimed at helping coaches to create more emotionally intelligent athletes; in the belief this will benefit performance by improving motivation, awareness, problem-solving capability, decision-making, and resolve. The move to bring emotional…Read more

Team cohesion is “a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or satisfaction of member affective needs” (Carron et al., 1998). There are…Read more

How do groups and teams differ? Early research by Cartwright and Zander (1968) made the distinction that a team is any group of individuals who must interact with each other to accomplish shared objectives. This leads us to identify that…Read more

The use of self-talk is central to the management of cognitive anxiety. The regularity and content of internal dialogue is individual and situation dependent. Research has defined self-talk to be any time that a person engages in a conversation with…Read more

Traditionally a variety of psychological skills are employed by sports psychologists to enhance performance. These include: imagery; attentional focusing activities; arousal regulation; and goal setting. In general imagery, visualization, mental practice and mental rehearsal are terms that have been interchangeable…Read more

There are numerous examples available aimed at helping people become more effective or efficient in their performance. These are not just sports specific but many come from personal development, self-help or corporate settings. In previous blogs goal setting has been…Read more

We recently came across a research paper that had been presented at a conference in 2007 by John Raglan, entitled “The Psychology of the Marathoner”. Obviously this struck our interest, especially as there were some interesting analysis within it. As…Read more

In recent years research in sport psychology has moved away from the identification of personality traits as a means to identify peak performance levels; particularly as the multitude of different personalities in elite sport grows. Away from sport a number…Read more

A range of negative emotions, principally shock, disbelief, anger, frustration and depression, have been reported by athletes following severe injury. Over time these negative emotions are replaced by optimism and focus as the athlete concentrates on the rehabilitation. The quicker…Read more

Research across a variety of performance settings has identified that routines can ensure that all positive influences on performance are supported (Schack et al., 2005). They help by diverting attention from task-irrelevant thoughts to the task-relevant plan. The habit allows…Read more