Brave Mind - Sports Psychology
What is Sport Psychology?
Welcome to February’s Brave Mind article in the bsporty Magazine! We hope you have enjoyed our other articles in previous months’ editions, if this is your first time reading, we are pleased to have you with us!
So far, we have covered topics such as new beginnings and identifying your strengths and tools to manage them; your emotions, and what information they can give you, as well as ways to regulate emotions and why we may want to do that. This month we thought it would be a good time to introduce you to the world of sport and exercise psychology, focusing on sport psychology in February and exercise psychology in March.
So, what is sport psychology? Who is it for? And what benefits are there of having sport psychologists for athletes, coaches, and teams? As a profession sport psychology is focused on understanding the performance, mental processes and well-being of people who work in sport settings, using theory and scientific methods to support them. Some of you may be thinking, well… what does that mean?
To put it simply, just like a strength coach may help an individual build strength, agility and power in their bodies, sport psychologists help an individual with the organ between their ears… their brain! From professional athletes in the premier league, to Sunday league football, from Olympic athletes to recreational runners, the principles of sport psychology can help ANYONE.
Sport psychology is not just focused on performance and being a successful performer, it can also help people with their mental wellbeing, using psychological theory to help people with their emotions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. From academies and youth sport to professional business settings and even eSports, sport psychologists work with individuals and teams to become better versions of themselves, using psychological theory to support.
At Brave Mind, we use sport psychology as a foundation of our work. We take the principles that support mental wellbeing and try to teach individuals in rugby clubs around the country, including University’s and schools, the importance of mental well-being in their lives. We hope to give you a flavour of some of the topics we think are really important, in our articles for BSporty in 2023.
We hope you enjoyed a brief introduction to what sport psychology is, check out next month’s article where we will explore exercise psychology!
