Many people are very mistaken, believing that athletes are insensitive chumps who can only wave their legs. Why do they need some kind of psychology there? In fact, athletes need the help of a psychologist no less than representatives of other professions. Psychology in sports plays an important role in shaping the personality of an athlete as a whole, and also helps to cope with feelings in case of unsuccessful performances. Most often, a coach combines directly coaching with the work of a psychologist, helping his students.
Problems of sports psychology
Initially, sports psychology was not distinguished as a separate branch of psychological knowledge, and it can be considered a fairly young industry. Initially, attention was paid to the differences between athletes, their individual characteristics. We also studied the ability of a person to train in stressful situations, to maintain the ability to adequately assess the situation and think soberly in moments of extreme physical and mental stress. Naturally, questions were raised regarding the intensification of training and increasingtheir effectiveness.
Over time, the range of tasks that the psychology of sports was designed to solve has expanded. So, programs began to be actively created and tested, which took into account not only the differences between athletes, but also the specifics of a particular sport. Along with individual work, sports psychology provides for collective training aimed at improving the efficiency of team work. An important place was occupied by techniques and methods of improving not only the physical and mental, but also the ethical, collectivist and emotional-volitional training of athletes. Thus, the psychology of physical culture and sports was designed to form the personality of a victorious fighter. Therefore, great importance was given to the motivation of the athlete, both during competitions and during preparatory training. The future champion was taught to work for a specific result. In addition, the task that the psychology of sports had before itself at that time was the formation of a sense of distance in an athlete, a sense of the speed of an object, a sense of time, and so on. Attention was also paid to teaching a person to think strategically and tactically, to be able to predict events, to listen to his intuition.
Functions of a sports psychologist
Coach quite often, if not always, performs not only coaching work, but also the work of a psychologist. Psychology in sports performs the following functions:
- formation of motivation, focus on results, increase in overalltraining effectiveness;
- psychological preparation of an athlete for competitions;
- creating the conditions necessary for the formation of psychological endurance and the ability to withstand the influence of stressful situations;
- shaping the personality of an athlete to increase the effectiveness of interaction with the team;
- helping an athlete in stressful situations;
- controlling the level of willpower when it is either below or above normal.
Well, psychology is very important in sports! This is no longer in doubt!
