http://www2.auckland.ac.nz/ua/search.ptml
www.cricklewood.net/ quality.html
www.faualumni.org/ NationalCapitalChapterJMU.htm
Sports Psychology is psychological foundations, processes and consequences of the psychological regulation of sport-related activities with one or more persons being the subject(s) of the activity. Consdering your body is a mass of muscles and nerves linked together into the central processing unit that is your brain. Sports psychology uses the central processing unit to its greatest effect in controlling your body to give it the best possible sporting performance.
There are three main areas of Sports Psychology
Goal Setting:
* The first step in setting goals in sports is to decide ones level commitment to the sport
* Next one has to decide on which skills should be mastered. Either skills as a team, or as an individual playing a certain position. One needs to look at who they are competing against and weather or not they have what it takes to match their goals.
* Lastly, one must look at their life goals. For instance the goals in which one sets for sports cannot overlap ones that may have to do with careers, relationships, education, and other facts of life.
Imagery & Simulation - Practicing in Your Mind
* Because the nerves in your brain are massively linked: and that vast numbers of nerve cells are linked with a hugely greater number of interconnections.
* Imagery is the process by which you can create, modify or strengthen pathways important to the co-ordination of your muscles, by training purely within your mind. Imagination is the driving force of imagery.
* Imagery rests on the important principle that you can exercise these parts of your brain with inputs from your imagination rather that from your senses: the parts of the brain that you train with imagery experience imagined and real inputs similarly, with the real inputs being merely more vividly experienced.
Focus & Flow
Focus is giving the skill one is trying to accomplish full attention
Flow is the being completely engaged in the implementation of the skill trying to be accomplished, and forgetting about everything else that could be on ones mind
In order for one to accomplish focus and flow, one must learn how to do a couple of key things. First, one must learn how to improve his/her mood. Second, one must learn how to control distractions. Lastly, and probably most importantly one must learn how to manage stress.
In Conclusion
Considering sports are 90-95% mental sports psychology is very important to obtaining the optimum amount of skill. Considering competition is tight, athletes are extremely physically fit, and the margin for victory is thin, using the mind to overcome competition is very important. Today, many sport teams, ranging from recreational to pro are using sport psychology to their benefit. So, get physically fit, and fit in the mind!
