How Do Sports Psychologists Help Athletes’ Performance?

By Dr. Barry Shollenberger  |  08/15/2024

Today, at the elite level of sports, an athlete's performance in relation to others is mostly comparable in terms of athletic ability. In the 21st century, the difference between successful players and their less successful competitors is winning the “mental game.” Peak performance enhancement and an athlete's mental health have always been in the forefront of improving players, especially in professional organizations.

The usage of sport psychology has become commonplace at both the individual and team levels. This phenomenon is not new, but it has trended strongly upwards in the last two decades.

The History of Sports Psychologists

The pioneer of sports psychologists is Coleman Griffith, who explored how athletes and their teams could benefit from using psychological techniques in their physical activities in 1925. He is credited with suggesting three ways sport psychology could contribute to the area of athletics and peak performance in sports:

• Demonstrate to young coaches the psychological principles practiced by experienced coaches
• Apply principles discovered in the laboratory to athletics
• Have psychologists bring a scientific approach to the area of athletics

There was a time during this early evolution where even the term “sports psychologists” was met with suspicion and rejection by academia and licensed psychologists because it inferred that these individuals have been trained in mainstream psychology when they mostly had not.

It has taken some time for specific and successful work with the psychological aspects of human movement for these individuals to receive their due respect. Exercise psychology is widely accepted today.

The 1960s saw sport psychology classes being taught in many universities in the U.S. In 1965, the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) held a conference in Rome. After that, the Journal of Sports Psychology was established in 1979.

In 1984, the Oakland Athletics hired H.A. Dorfman, a baseball mental training consultant, to develop and implement a sports psychology program for their major league team and all their minor league affiliate teams. The team building benefits of how psychologists can help athletes was a major breakthrough for many sports team leaders. Today, every professional athletic team and coaches in individual sports utilize some aspect of sports psychologists work to help their athletes improve their physical talents for competition.

Areas of Concentration and Techniques That Sports Psychologists Use to Help Athletes

Sports psychologists traditionally focus on certain areas and use various techniques to assist athletes. Some of these areas include:

• Goal setting
• Stress and performance anxiety
• Psychological skills training

Goal Setting

Goal setting is one of the most frequently used mental tools used by sports psychologists to improve athletic performance. The idea of using goal-setting techniques to improve performance psychology in all areas of life have been utilized for some time.

In 1985, scholars Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham suggested that their Goal Setting Theory (GST) was ideally suited for the sports domain. These researchers saw that setting difficult but attainable goals could lead to higher sports performance.

According to Jeremy Walsh of Xoombi, goals should be written down as a method that leads to focused, calculated physical actions. Today, specific goal setting and the motivation it provides to improve sports performance is ubiquitous among athletes.

Stress and Performance Anxiety

Sports at the elite levels have the potential for high levels of stress and anxiety. Employing a range of psychological strategies can be beneficial in successful management of stress and performance anxiety and improving athletes' overall mental health in high-pressure situations.

Sports psychologists utilize pressure-relieving techniques to combat the negative effects of stress and anxiety. These techniques range from the very simple to the more complicated and complex. Typical tools include:

• Proper nutrition – Eating properly and ensuring adequate hydration can aid athletes in coping with mental health issues.
• Regular sleep – A regular sleep schedule can aid in stress reduction.
• Relaxation techniques – Controlled breathing, muscle stretches and muscle relaxation are effective in negating the negative effects of stress.
• Trigger identification – Recognizing mental triggers, such as those situations that cause discomfort or anxiety, is important. When athletes are aware of them, they can deal with mental health issues more effectively.
• Positive coping strategies – Physical exertion can lead to the release of endorphins, which help in releasing tension.
• Mindfulness – Meditation techniques can help athletes to become more aware of thoughts, feelings and body sensations.

Using one or more of these tools can aid the advanced athlete to perform required motor skills at the highest level without any interference from stress or anxiety. They will prepare the recipient to appropriately self-regulate and adapt to a changing environment.

Psychological Skills Training

A sports psychologist teaches professional athletes to use a variety of mental skills to practice advanced motor tasks away from the playing field or sports laboratory. Some of these techniques include:

• Positive self-talk – Positive self-talk in sports helps you stay in the present and not look too far ahead while making use of positive feelings and successful outcomes.
• Successful visualization – Visualization is a form of mental practice where a competitor imagines that physical skills are performed in a perfect manner. It is sometimes referred to as “focused daydreaming.”
• Deep breathing – Sometimes called “diaphragmatic breathing,” athletic competitors take slow, controlled, and deep inhalation breaths. Upon exhaling, the feeling of calmness and quietness should invoke a relaxed state.
• Progressive (willed) muscle relaxation – The use of progressive muscular relaxation has been utilized since the 1930s, but only recently have sports psychologists adapted the technique for elite athletes. They shorten the traditional version to have their subjects relax in as few as 30 seconds. In this manner, athletic competitors can experience the release of muscle tension and move on to the next phase of their psychological skills training.

Improving Athletes' Self-Confidence and Breaking Though Mental Barriers

Self-confidence is essential for any successful athletic competitor. Counseling to help athletic competitors to trust their own judgement is a powerful tool used by a sports psychologist to enhance the belief that motor skills can be performed successfully. The technique aids in eliminating self-defeating thoughts and goes hand-in-hand with improving self-confidence.

There are perceived sources of self-confidence like performance outcomes, expectations of others, and talent, but these exist outside the control of an athlete. The results of positive self-confidence include realistic expectations of actions, the ability to communicate effectively, and the mental toughness to handle criticism. 

Mental health concerns can severely limit the ability of elite athletes to perform their required motor tasks. It is best not to deal with these psychological interruptions forcefully. Dr. Sacco of the Cleveland Clinic recommends that to “push through” these barriers is a mistake.

Rather, a comprehensive plan should be tailored to specifically address a mental problem and utilize appropriate cues for each step of the process of psychological rehabilitation. A good example is tennis players running in place after a bad shot to remind themselves to keep their feet moving during a point.

Helping Athletes to Return to Competition Following Injuries

Nothing disrupts the success of highly skilled athletic competitors more than a major injury, either during the season or in the off-season. The first thought by many athletes is their entire career may come to an end.

The sports psychologist takes the lead in completing the athlete’s journey back to competition by helping that athlete to utilize appropriate mental skills after physical rehabilitation is completed, and the athlete is declared fit to return to their sport. Many times, a program is designed after the self-referral from an athlete.

According to the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, there are some specific psychological rehabilitation skills that focus on helping an athlete to return from injury. Both athletic competitors and coaches should understand how to use these skills.

Major injuries should first be treated by sports medicine professionals such as team doctors and trainers. They can diagnose the physical nature of an injury using modern scanning techniques, prescribe the appropriate physical response, and recommend necessary remedies.

These remedies might include surgery, rest, rehabilitation, and a training or exercise program. Setting a specific time period to return to competition should also be a consideration.

Athletic competitors returning from injuries must typically convince the sports psychologist that they:

• Have the necessary confidence to play with or without minor pain
• Are prepared to return to competition giving 100% effort
• Will not focus or concentrate on the injury during competition
• Believe that the injured part can withstand the physical rigors of play

This process is basic to allowing athletic competitors to continue playing their sports, even after suffering catastrophic injuries. Without the sports psychologist, many of these players would not continue to compete and would have had to abandon their sport.

Sport-Specific Nature of Benefits Attained by the Sports Psychologist

Not all athletic competitors, even some at the elite level, can benefit equally from interaction with a sports psychologist. While all peak performance of athletes comes from using improved mental approaches, the players in high skill activities will benefit more.

For instance, an offensive tackle in the game of football will have many of the same psychological issues as a quarterback, but different physical demands negate much of the mental health concerns. These general comparisons illustrate this difference:

Sports, in general, also contain varying degrees of benefit from a sports psychologist:

Sports Psychologists Make a Difference to All Athletes

Elite athletic competitors have typically reached their levels of physical competency because of superior athletic skills, sport-specific motivation and coaching, and a measure of well-being in mental affairs that separates them from their peers. When their performance begins to erode or their previous successes diminish, many competitors turn to someone who can help them return to their former levels of proficiency.

These “mental coaches” were not available to athletic competitors 100 years ago but are now commonplace in both individual and team sports at the elite levels. Many famous athletes can compete today because they were aided by a sports psychologist to overcome psychological barriers, either in their regular routine or in a return from physical injuries.  

Their family members and the entire sports world owes these individuals a special thanks. They have provided sports fans with the chance to watch outstanding athletes who are sound physically and psychologically.

Sports Management Degrees at American Military University

For adult learners interested in sports psychology and other sports-related topics, American Military University (AMU) offers two degrees:

• An online bachelor’s degree in sports management
• An online master’s degree in sports management

Courses in these degree programs cover a wide range of topics, including sports psychology, sports management, sports marketing, ethics in sports, and ticket sales management. Other courses include sports law, sports finance, and sports promotion and public relations.

AMU’s courses are taught by experienced instructors with considerable knowledge of the sports industry. In addition, these degree programs have received specialized accreditation from the Commission on Sports Management Accreditation (COSMA). This accreditation ensures that the courses offered in the bachelor’s and master’s in sports management have been carefully examined and held to high academic standards.