Introduction

The importance of sports psychology for athletic performance is well-researched. But fortunately, it doesn’t stop there. Sports psychology and mental health are equally important topics of discussion for parents, coaches, and athletes themselves. At the end of the day, promoting and preserving mental well-being amongst athletes should not be less important than enhancing performance. While we covered how sports psychology can boost performance , we did not give enough attention to how this discipline can promote balance and good mental health in athletes. For this reason, we will dedicate this entire article to show you how sports psychology can improve mental health in athletics.

The importance of sports psychology in mental health

Since the sports environment is a very stressful one, knowing how to look after your mental health is just as important as enhancing your sports performance. As you already know, it’s very difficult for someone to enjoy the privilege of being an elite athlete when struggling with a mental health issue. That’s why good mental health is the foundation of any athletic achievement.

If you’re struggling with a mental health issue, sports psychology might have some good answers for you. You can draw some really good information to help yourself with concepts related to:

• anxiety and stress
• burnout
• overwhelm
• perfectionism
• loneliness & isolation

The main thing to keep in mind is that sports psychology isn’t just for healthy athletes who are looking to get better in their sports. It’s also a highly relevant discipline for those who need to put themselves back on their feet after a difficult or stressful time.

Mental health issues faced by athletes

Even if athletes are resilient and physically strong, they are just as mentally vulnerable as anyone else. In fact, they might be even more vulnerable — especially when they’re at the beginning of their athletic careers. That’s why all schools should invest in athlete mental coaching and mental health resources. The more tools and resources a student-athlete can rely on, the more resilient they will be.

One of the basics of sports psychology is understanding the mental health risk factors in athletes. While being an athlete can be fun, exciting, and highly fulfilling, it does come with some downsides. It involves intense training sessions, difficult traveling schedules, and the pressure to manage multiple aspects of one’s life, such as education, family, social life, and other commitments. According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the most common mental health challenges faced by athletes are eating disorders, depression and suicide, stress and anxiety, overtraining, sleep disorders, and attention disorders.

Sports psychology and mental health: common solutions

• Collaboration with athletics administrators on psychological care issues within the athletics department
• Referral to other medical services. The sports psychologist recognizes when their scope of practice is limited for a mental health issue an athlete may present. In this case, they will identify a specific referral that can address a more complex psychological issue and advise the student-athlete to get in contact with them.

Benefits of sports psychology counseling for athletes’ mental health

When it comes to sports psychology counseling, this can serve two different purposes:

1. Treatment of existing mental health issues
2. Performance enhancement

In the following paragraphs, we will outline how sports psychology techniques work for either of these scenarios.

Counseling for performance

However, counseling does not always aim to fix or correct something in the athlete’s mind. In many cases, it simply aims to enhance the mental skills they already have. This way, counseling takes a performance-oriented focus and merely supports the athlete in mastering their mental games and internal blocks that keep them from advancing.

There are many ways in which sports psychology enhances performance. Here are some examples:

Promoting emotional regulation

Even athletes who have no mental health history can struggle with intense emotions. In sports, they have to tolerate moments of frustration, stress, disappointment, and even intense excitement. Unfortunately, this type of skill is not yet promoted in schools or training sessions. This is where performance-oriented counseling comes in. It provides athletes with the training and awareness they need to contain strong emotions.  

In sports psychology, relaxation techniques are very popular. Some of them include meditation, visualization, breathing exercises, and progressive muscle relaxation. All these sports psychology techniques can be used by student-athletes who want to navigate moments of intense emotions. To go through a difficult emotion, an athlete first needs to soothe themselves — and this is possible with relaxation techniques.

Goal setting

Without clear goals, athletes might not grow to their maximum potential. A trained sports psychology is capable of supporting athletes in setting the right goals for their careers. If an athlete chooses the wrong goal, they might become defeated or lose their self-confidence. But with the right guidance from a sports psychologist, they will ensure that all the goals they choose are tailored to their personalities, natural skills and talent, and their long-term vision. This is where sports psychology and performance become more closely related. With the right insights into how the brain functions, athletes can plan to advance their performance in a way that suits them. As a result, they become even more confident and successful once they achieve one small goal after another.