Does Sport Psychology do Harm to Athletes?

How much of sport psychology needs to be kept in the hands of the lettered and certified few? Those who hide behind the white coat syndrome and use complicated words to describe simple skills and strategies. They become the gatekeepers of those who can work in the area. Although they pronounce on the importance of the needs of the client, in reality it seems that many are protecting their personal patch. An examination of the core topics which are usually included in sport psychology will produce a list which looks something like this:
Psychological skills training; arousal, imagery, self-confidence, goal setting, and concentration.
 
There are many other topics which will fall within one of these main areas. Where is the rocket science? Where are the dangerous things which will do irreparable damage to the client? There are none.

Every topic included in sport psychology can and should be taught to the athletes by their coaches. One reply will be heard from sport psychologists who either come from and/or subscribe to the counselling model of sport psychology. They will say that there is need to focus on the psychological needs of the athlete. To help them develop a balanced approach to sport and life. And, most importantly, to be there to counsel the athlete when they need support and a way of working out personal issues and problems. This is the medical model of fixing something when it is broken.That all sounds reasonable and logical. So much so that there are a number of national teams who have counsellors as their sport psychologists. But the decision is not logical when you examine what the role of such a person should be.

This examination has to start with the goal of the athlete and the team. There is only one goal in competition and that it to strive to win. If either of the opponents do not do their best to win then the activity cannot be called a competition. The teams, or individual athletes, have entered into an agreement; they have both accepted the principle that they will do everything in their power, and within the rules, to win and at the same time play to prevent the other from winning. To win the athlete must have superior skills and the ability to perform them better than the opponent in any particular competition. How can, or should, sport psychology contribute to this performance? The answer lies in applied or educational sport psychology and a focus on performance.

The first task is to put 'traditional' psychology to the side. To remove  any consideration of personal problems which require the services of a counsellor.  These can be dealt with away from the sporting venue, in the counsellor's rooms.  Therefore the terms mental skills and educational sport psychology would serve the  purpose better. Rather than trying to fix something those of us who have worked in  the area of educational sport psychology focus on helping others to get better at what  they can already do. The performance of skill, and playing of a game, involves the whole athlete. Athletes  cannot leave their brain in the locker roomÑalthough some coaches would be  excused for thinking such a thing on occasions. Therefore, they need to learn from a  young age the skills and strategies required to achieve control over their mind as well  as their body. Every athlete I have worked with has had all of the mental skills  necessary to be successful. The one thing athletes often need is someone to help them  recognise the skills and to learn which will be the most useful in a specific situation.

Athletes in the past have had the mental skills required to be successful from the gladiators, to the jousting knights, and the players of the earliest versions of football  and cricket. It is sobering to think that many of the players, whom many would list as the best ever in their sport, played before sport science was fashionable. What role do sport scientists play? Why are they involved? If you have been an observer of sports teams, national teams tend to show trends and you will have seen a proliferation of people wihin such teams who perform a wide variety of tasks. The sport psychologist is often one of these. Some teams have almost as many support staff as those who will be competing. If sport scientists have done their job they do not need to travel with the athlete, they do not need to make the athlete dependent on them.

The athlete should have all the skills and the strategies to meet the challenges of the competition. The athlete is the one who puts their body on the line, they do the work. So why do sport scientists, and in our case, the sport psychologist(s) have to be present? We should be part of the invisible behind the scenes team. Our satisfaction comes from the success of others. If we have to be seen and be in the limelight then we should question our motivation for being involved and the effectiveness of what we have done with the athlete leading to the competition.

Sport psychology does no harm. It is the practitioners. The ones who do not teach athletes the basic and simple skills and strategies associated with successful elite performance. The ones who do not let them get on and do it. Working with athletes is analogous to raising children. We teach them, support them, encourage them, but eventually we have to let them go into the world and make their own way. Athletes, like children, need to be able to receive accolades and prizes without interference from the sport scientists. How much greater is our pleasure when we know they did it their way!
 
Lewis J O McGill
6 March 2009.