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Sport Psychology conference abstracts available
Just to let anyone interested in sport psychology know, I'm running a conference in Melbourne from 21st-23rd January 2009, and I have the details on a website. The reason I'm letting you know is that the Abstracts are up there for viewing on this page, but you can navigate to other pages to see what else is up there.Michelle Pain (Melbourne, Australia)
Sport Psychologst
Put a sport psychologist in your pocket
Musings about careers in sport psychology
I used to be on various state and national sport psychology committees when I was a postgrad student and it continued as my life progressed as a newly married wife (and then as a mum with young kids)...but I stepped out for while (which reminds me a little bit of Laurence Oates' parting words on 16th March 1912 to Robert Falcon Scott [of 'Scott of the Antarctic' fame] and his few remaining crew after a failed attempt to race Ernest Shackleton to the South Pole, where Oates voluntarily left the tent during a blizzard and never returned, saying "I'm just going out for a while and I may be gone for some time') except of course I always intended to return to sport psych after my kids were a bit bigger, and now they are and I'm finally getting back into it a bit by running a sport psych conference in January '08, and in again in '09.I've always been grateful for the career I've had. It's taken a few twists and turns, but mostly it's worked out well. Because I've been out of it for a while (in an 'active committee member' way, and I no longer lecture in sport psychology at university), I'm not really sure how my colleagues have fared in more recent times.
In the olden days (I'm talking 1980s and the early 1990s), most sport psychs in Australia worked in academia and did their sport psych practice on the side. This was really before sport became 'professional', and few athletes were making a living playing sport. As more money came into (primarily men's) sport, some of my male colleagues decided to become more active in their sport psychology practice. They aligned themselves with sporting teams or organisations. Over here in Australia, the options were (a) the Australian Institute of Sport, or later, one of the State Institutes of Sport, (b) the Australian cricket team, or (c) one of the 12 - now expanded to 16 - AFL football clubs. Not a lot has changed. Sporting teams in minor sports all would love to use a sport psych, but few are prepared to (or have the money to) pay for it. Mostly they use postgrads who do it for the 2 years of supervised experience they do in order to achieve membership of the College of Sport Psychologists (part of The Australian Psychological Society).
As you may realise, being known as a sport psych for a main sport carries a few kudos which those sports were keen to leverage against, so they'd allow one to work many hours for little pay in the knowledge that it was a great job to put on one's CV. It's probably the same world wide, I suspect. The downside was that if a coach suddenly found themselves under 'scoreboard pressure' (ie they weren't winning many), the sport psych was an easy scapegoat, and some talented colleagues found that they were changing teams every couple of years.
I'm talking primarily about male colleagues here, because in those days there was the belief that "unless you'd played the game at the highest level - or at least had a male appendage - you couldn't possibly know much about what it's like to play" and so women (without the necessary appendage) were barred. This misogynist view hasn't changed a great deal. Although women can work with male athletes, they generally aren't allowed to "muck around with blokes' heads", and a female colleague who did work with an AFL team was removed after a season on the grounds that "all the players wanted to 'do' her". Hmm, I'm getting off my original track...
What I wanted to say was that plenty of good sport psychs have turned to 'the dark side' (organisational psychology) purely to make an income. Maybe they always wanted to do org psych - after all, working with teams, coping with pressure, leadership etc etc - these are things that we sport psychs do already. But I miss my buddies - who were great sport psychs and really great people to get to know - who are no longer in the same field because they needed to earn a wage.
Although I've done the best I can to make a career in sport psych (and at times I have felt thwarted because I'm not male), I'm really glad I'm still here. It offends my feminist sensibilities to say this, but as a female, I'm really glad I haven't had to be the main breadwinner for our family (otherwise I'd still be lecturing and still dreaming of killing my boss who wanted us all to study chicken brains). Thanks to the role my husband has taken, I've done stuff I've really wanted to do (like be a Mum to my kids, and I may have even played a small role in my eldest getting the most out of himself as a gymnast), and my sport psych career has fitted in around all this. When the sport psych conference rolls around in January, I'm going to be sure to ask my colleagues 'how are you going?'. I'm really interested to know how the landscape has changed in the 8 years since I've been 'missing in action'.
I'd be interested to hear from you as to the types of pressures you have to make a career in sport psychology in your country. Are they similar to the ones I mention? Are women's sports getting more of a look-in? It's not really happening here in Australia yet (or maybe it has happened in the last 8 years and I haven't been there to see it, but unfortunately I doubt it very much). I see technology perhaps oppening up more opportunities to people, regardless of their gender, and maybe this is where the future is heading? What do you reckon?
Cheers,
Michelle
Michelle Pain (Melbourne, Australia)
Sport Psychologst
Put a sport psychologist in your pocket
Old dog learns new tricks!
The title of this blog isn't going to earn me a multitude of 'hits', but I wanted to share (briefly) my experience with you. Thanks to Rob and Keith's patience and knowledge, I've discovered some amazing things about me personally (eg. hesitance at trying new things) and I've crashed through some major mental barriers.It's only by being willing to really explore iStadia a bit that I've come to some (albeit limited, but increasing) understanding of what's out there in terms of internet knowledge on iStadia's website. Originally, I was a bit reluctant to 'network' because I don't have a lot of time to devote to 'chit chat' (I know I'll NEVER want to be on Facebook, for instance), but there were a few things that turned my thinking around. (I'll still never be on Facebook though).
I'd previously met Rob at a conference last year (so I knew he was a top bloke) and I was happy to continue to meet up with him in an electronic form (given we live a couple of continents/time zones away it's unlikely we'll meet up face to face). It was this really that got me thinking, "I bet there are other nice people out there too" (you have to understand what a social 'stick in the mud' type of person I am) and I thought "Why not meet up with people I've never met before, but whom I know have the same sort of interests as me? That's a good use of time because we already are passionate about sport." So, now I've launched into networking and I'm looking forward to getting to know many of you better.
Rob introduced me to Keith, and between the two of them - what knowledge! I've had a good look through the archives of blogs and articles, and there are some great tips and hints out there ready to be used. (Sorry, probably many of you already know this, but it's still new to me. I've been an inactive member for 12 months and it's only now I'm starting to find my way about.This is meant to encourage those of you were were a bit inactive like me.) Regular and irregular contributions from others are read with enthusiasm, even if they're on topics I don't know much about (I guess that's the point of 'gaining knowledge'.) I really look forward to seeing new blogs and articles because I like not having to wait for journal articles to be edited and published. I like new ideas. I've always valued the idea of 'critical mass' in the issue of momentum, and the more we network and toss around ideas, the more likely our profession is to advance.
[That reminds me - I'm going to get off the track a little bit here - I was having a discussion with someone about the most crucial developments of sport psychology and I came up with this list (not necessarily in order of significance) of my 'favourite' developments:
- Nideffer's (1976,1996) The Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) inventory
- Apter's (1981) Reversal theory
- Hardy's (1990) Catastrophe modelling
As a result of upgrading my membership, I saw how PayPal worked. I've recently developed a product that I'm selling from my website, so I thought "hmmm, if Keith and Rob reckon it's OK to use, that's good enough rcommendation for me" (well, actually, I did a bit of my own research too so they don't have quite that much power, but it did get me thinking!).
I'm a person who's never bought anything on eBay before, so PayPal was pretty new to me, but it was easy enough. I've even managed to add the scripting onto an html widget to make the logo come up on my website! It sure was a 'hey presto' moment for me - you've no idea how proud of myself I am! :)
I truly marvel at technology. I'm really pleased I live in this era. Here's to pushing the boundaries...
Cheers,
Michelle Pain (Melbourne, Australia)
Sport Psychologst
Put a sport psychologist in your pocket
Resources for new sport psychologists
When I started out in sport psychology a long time ago, the best advice I had given to me was to create materials that could be easily adapted to give to a team (or group of students) in a 30-60 minute presentation. Have diagrams available in an electronic form that you could print up at a moment's notice, and stick them on your usb and keep it with you at all times. Make sure you include relevant examples, and using props if possible, makes the talks memorable.The types of talks I've got up my sleeve include presentations on Leadership; Anger Management; Decision-Making; Team Building; Fear of Failure; Career Planning; Goal Setting; Mental Toughness; Success in Sport; and, Emotional Control. Here are ways I use my two most popular presentations (which probably account for 80-90% of the presentations I do).
For the goal setting talk, I run through the Lifetime goal setting plan (ie split up into sections to demonstrate long and short term planning over 5+ years, 2-3 years, next 6 months), the Spider-web profile (to show how important it is to choose goals with a defined purpose), and then the Achievement Management Plan (to demonstrate micro-management).
With the Spider web profile, I have the team nominate the qualities they judge to be important for the team (or in AFL football, we would do that in groups where the forwards, midfield and backs might have their own key performance indicators) and then they nominate where they are at on the 'spokes' ranked 1-10 (10 being the best). Once they've written down how they think they perform on the KPIs, the group then get to dissect each player's contributions - some frank discussions have often resulted there, but the feedback I've received is that players prefer to earn the respect of their team mates than anyone else, and now know exactly what they've got to do to impress them!
Probably my most requested talk is on looking at strategies a person can use to get themselves in the right mental state to perform to their best. In this talk, I touch on the Inverted U (to show how basic it is, but it's the one everyone knows), and spend a little time on Catastrophe theory, before moving on to describe Telic and Paratelic states (Reversal theory). They love this part because they can see exactly how to make adjustments themselves (ie altering heart rate via music or exercise or visualisation, or cognitively restructuring to re-interpret the situation to make it appear more - or less - stressful).
I always make sure people walk away with a diagram or a summary of key points on paper I've provided, so they can listen to me speaking rather than working with their heads down taking notes.
When you start seeing clients, I've found it really helpful to have a tool on hand to help reveal the client's mental strengths and weaknesses. I've always liked Jim Loehr's Psychological Performance Inventory, because the client gets to draw up their own profile and have input into why they might've answered in a particular way (and you get to see whether they believe the profile is the way they see it too). This 'self reveal' aspect is important - it's not just something we've plugged into a computer and generated seemingly at random. Because of the 'face validity', it leads to some interesting discussions about 'why', 'when' and 'how' the areas identified as 'weaker' on the profile came about, and it gives some pointers as to the priority of working on different aspects of behaviour. Together, you can negotiate which areas you want to work on first (because there's usually more than one).
Last year, I ran a conference in Melbourne where, at the end, we discussed types of resources that were easy to get one's hands on and I said I'd put the suggestions up on the website. I'm running another conference from 21-23rd January 2009 if anyone's planning on being in Melbourne around that time for the Australian Open (Tennis), or come down from Sydney if you've been following the Test cricket. It's the Australia Day long weekend (24th -26th Jaunuary) the founding of our country as an English colony, so there'll be celebrations going on all over the city.
For a long while, I've been investigating how sport psychs provide services to clients when and where they need it. The internet has been a great resource for players away from support they might receive at home, but it was listening to free Podcasts that really got me thinking. As sport psychs, we talk all the time about visualisation and using key words and images, and I had the idea of combining these into short 'movies' (words, not pictures, set to music that are less than 2 minutes each) that go onto iPods or other hand held devices (eg mobile phones, PSPs etc).
I've seen players get beaten before they even step onto the track because their head isn't in the right frame of mind. I figure that if we can give them 'the right voice to listen to', that will help them. So very recently, I've developed Pocket Sport Psychology - take a look at the 'confidence' demo on the website to see what I've done, and I also developed general psychology and health psychology tracks (because our clients, being human beings, often have more than one issue).
My background was in track and field athletics, but when I started developing my skills as a practitioner, I chose to be involved in a different sport - 'a prophet is never accepted in their home town'. I worked for free with a team for two years, honing my skills working with actual people. They were thrilled to get someone with skill, and I was thankful I didn't scar too many for life! No seriously, it was a terrific grounding that gave me confidence to become more pro-active in my practice later. Don't expect to work for fee (especially in the early days).
I'd also recommend aligning yourself with someone a different range of experiences than yourself. It doesn't have to be a formal mentorship arrangement, but I know I can count on a number of people to give me great feedback on my ideas. I have been lucky enough to have terrific friendships with my mentors, and I consider it to be a two way relationship.
Lastly, 'put in' to your profession. We're still pretty new, and we can't afford to disparage one another. Each of us has strengths and weaknesses, and we need to find ways to work together. Be on committees. The networking is invaluable, but listening, contributing to, and acting upon good ideas moves us forward. If the workload is left to one or two people, they get burned out pretty quickly. If we all 'do our bit' the job isn't onerous. The idea is to leave the profession in a better state than when you started. We're in a 'helping profession' - let's not neglect our colleagues.
Michelle Pain (Melbourne, Australia)
http://web.mac.com/michellepain/
Put a sport psychologist in your pocket
http://www.pocketsportpsychology.com
