Sports Psychology For Dummies - Leif H. Smith

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      Sports psychology is a relatively new field, but it’s one of the fastest-growing areas in sports performance. Professional sports are big money, and teams want a return on their investment in their players. So it should come as no surprise that every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL team employs someone trained in sports psychology to assist them with helping players work through mental blocks, slumps, anxiety and depression issues, and general decreases in performance.

      We wrote this book because we want to share the information that we teach to elite athletes and teams with the general public. Sports psychologists can be expensive, and most athletes who are just looking for a way to get the edge in their sports participation can’t afford to fork over thousands of dollars. With this book, you don’t have to — you hold in your hands the same information we share with our clients, for a tiny fraction of the cost.

      In the past ten years, we have seen the greatest demand for our services from the middle school and high school student athlete populations. This is great news, because it means that parents understand how important the mental side of sports is, and you can learn from this book many of the mental skills used by some of the best athletes in the world!

      This book is packed full of information that can help athletes get more out of their physical talent. We’ve filled this book with techniques and skills that we teach to professional and Olympic athletes — skills that you can apply in your own training immediately, starting today.

      Most sports psychology books provide good stories and education on sports psychology concepts, but they don’t take the next step and cover actual techniques and strategies that athletes can use. In this book, we do exactly that.

      Plus, this book is organized for busy athletes who are on the go and don’t have a lot of time to waste. The information is easy to access and written in plain English, without any psychobabble to bog you down. All you need is a thirst for knowledge and a willingness to work hard to reach your goals — we bring the rest.

       When we want to share a story from our practice as sports psychologists, we refer to ourselves by our first names, so you can tell which of us is telling you the story. For example, we may say, “Leif was working with a professional hockey team …” or “Todd’s client was a young tennis phenom… .” When you see the names Leif and Todd, just remember that’s us.

       Whenever we define a new term, we put it in italics, and define it shortly thereafter, often in parentheses.

      To make the content more accessible, we divided it into five parts:

       Part 1, Getting the Winning Edge: Sports Psychology Fundamentals: This part introduces the important basic principles of sports psychology. We start by telling you how to build your mental toughness, an essential skill for any competitive athlete. Then we turn to goal setting, because you’re more likely to get somewhere you want to be if you know where you’re going. We show you how to monitor your motivation and boost it when you need to. Finally, we give you the information you need to increase your confidence, because without confidence in your own skills and abilities, it doesn’t matter how talented you are or how hard you’ve worked.

       Part 2, Your Mental Toolkit for Success: In this part, we dig into some key concepts that you need to know in your pursuit of competitive greatness. This part is basically the applied mental drills that you can use in your everyday life, including focus, imagery, routines, being mindful, and dealing with pressure.

       Part 3, Hot Topics in Sports Psychology: This part begins by exploring common mental health issues everyone, including athletes, are facing in today’s fast-paced and pressure-filled world. It covers what high school athletes need to know about the college recruiting process. It also explores the path to becoming a sports psychologist, as well as how to use mental tools in everyday life.

       Part 4, The Sports Psychology-Savvy Coach: This part is all for coaches, including how they can use sports psychology drills and concepts in practices and competitions. Coaches can help their players and team be more successful through this applied section on sports psychology. If you are a coach, this section is written specifically for you!

       Part 5, The Part of Tens: This part explains how you can apply sports psychology principles and concepts to become a better competitor, no matter the sport. It also discusses how parents can become better at parenting young athletes. The book ends with a chapter on how you can become a better leader as an athlete and lead your team and fellow athletes to victory.

      In writing this book, we made some assumptions about you. One or more of the following should apply to you:

       You’re an athlete with particular goals that you’d like to achieve, and you think that the mental aspect of your training and performance can benefit from further understanding and practice. You’re willing to work hard to achieve your goals.

       You’re a coach and you want to use sports psychology to help your athletes achieve their goals. You recognize that training isn’t just physical.

       You’re a parent of an athlete, and you want to support your kid’s athletic career in all the right ways.

      Chapter 17 covers all you need to know if you’re considering a career in sports psychology, so if that describes you, we’ve got you covered as well!

      Like all For Dummies books, this book’s margins are sprinkled with icons to help direct your attention to certain concepts, definitions, and interesting information. Here’s a key to what they mean:

      

This icon directs you to techniques that world-class athletes use to improve their performance.

      

This book is a reference book, which means you don’t have to commit it to memory — you can come back to it when you need it. But when you see this icon, you’re sure to find information that we think is so crucial that you need to remember it.

      

This icon alerts you to stories or examples of some of our work with athletes from all walks of life.

      

This icon is for people who can’t get enough of sports psychology principles. You can skip reading these paragraphs without consequence — but if you really want the inside scoop, read on!

When you see this icon, you can be sure we’re alerting you to a danger or pitfall of some sort

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