The Role of Sports Psychology in Enhancing Athletic Performance

"I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything"

- Michael Phelps

Introduction

Whether you’re a novice or an expert skier, the slopes can be a dangerous place. Combine that with the demands of competition, and the pressure can be phenomenal.

Despite being at the top of her game, in the lead-up to the 2018 Olympics, American World Cup Alpine Skier Mikaela Shiffrin was experiencing extreme anxiety – and yet no one knew because she was winning every race.

Despite performing well, this couldn’t go on. Each time she was about to enter the start gate, she was ready to throw up.

What she did next was vital to her career and her well-being. Shiffrin reached out to sports psychologist Lauren Loberg. Together, they worked through the roots of her anxiety–her fear of letting others down–and, crucially, how to reconnect with her love for the sport. She shifted from focusing on winning competitions to having fun.

Sometime later, Loberg received a text from Shiffrin in competition saying, “I’m really having fun,” and she knew she was going on to ski well.

And she did. Despite multiple race postponements due to bad weather, she went on to win an Olympic silver and gold.

Loberg’s aim, she said, was to “remind Mikaela Shiffrin what made her Mikaela Shiffrin” – it worked.

Firstly, what is sports psychology?

Surprisingly, many advances in sports psychology share their roots with the US space program and nuclear arms race following the Cold War.

University of Toronto’s Chris Gee says that over several decades, researchers began to receive large amounts of funding and a push to identify how to create high performers.

The discipline has developed considerably in the years since, and the highest-performing and earning teams have all invested in employing sports psychologists.

Yet, athletes can remain wary. Research shows that some “members of the athletic community equate sports psychologists with other mental health practitioners (i.e., psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors),” says Gee. And this misconception has led to a stigma around their use – with some suggesting they are for problem athletes.

But that’s not it. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), sports psychology involves experts using their understanding of psychology to help all athletes perform their best and maintain good mental health.

Ok, but what does the sports psychologist do?

Research by the University of Tennessee and the University of North Texas in 2016 and 2018 confirmed that coaches increasingly encourage their athletes to seek support from sports psychologists, particularly for injury rehabilitation, managing anxiety and emotions, improving coping techniques, and building confidence.

As Andrea Wieland, the associate athletic director for sports performance at Penn Athletics, says of her work with student-athletes, “[p]art of our mission is to help them win championships, but we also want them to leave here as better people that contribute to the world. If they win championships but leave as terrible people, we have epically failed.”

Gee describes the role of the sports psychologist as broad, potentially including any, or all, of the following research and practice elements:

    • Helping athletes achieve their best performances – more of the time.
    • Focusing on improving their mental wellness.
    • Exploring how sports participation impacts personal growth, particularly in young athletes.
    • Researching how sport affects social interactions and relationships – and how to improve them.
    • Looking at broader issues in sport settings and organizations. What is and isn’t working?
    • Teaching athletes techniques to improve performance, like managing anxiety or boosting confidence.
    • Educating individuals, teams, and coaches to recognize the benefits of sports psychology.
    • Developing specific approaches for individual athletes and groups.
    • Helping athletes overcome mental barriers to performance, such as stress or lack of motivation.
    • Making sports psychology more accessible and understandable to athletes and coaches.

     

    Next, we look at how these elements are put into action when the sports psychologist works with individuals and teams.

How can sports psychologists help my high school and college athlete?

Having worked with athletes at all levels, sports psychologist John Kremer notes that a common misconception is that sports psychology is only for the elite.

Yet, that isn’t the case. Our high school and college athletes also deserve to have their potential realized.

According to Kremer, the tools, strategies, and work performed with such athletes help them “mold a performance landscape characterized less by peaks and valleys and more by high, broad plains of routine and regular good performances.”

To do so, they work on the following:

Building a Winning Mind

To win repeatedly, the athlete must be clear on their sense of purpose and aware of where they are and what they can be. They need a mental toolkit to support a sporting journey that will continue to motivate them.

Mental toughness is key from the outset.

Together with their sports psychologist, they will work on building and maintaining each of the 4Cs that make up a winning mindset:

  • Confidence: Consistent performance at a high level requires self-belief. It helps to revisit the athlete’s past successes and recognize how far they have come.
  • Commitment: Goals and intentions direct the athlete’s behavior, while motivation maintains and sustains it.
  • Control: The athlete must learn to ‘own’ the situation or at least many aspects of it.
  • Challenge: They will benefit from framing challenges as exciting opportunities for growth.

As mental toughness researcher and expert Peter Clough describes it, “[a] mentally tough person interprets challenges as opportunities and believes they can maintain control in their life.”

Finding the right focus

While goal setting is vital to motivating and energizing our athletes' performances in training and competition, so too is being in the moment.

The batter expecting a fastball from the pitcher or the runner in their last few strides in a 1500-meter race must focus on what is right in front of them.

Winning performances require powerful concentration.

The sports psychologist works with the athlete to learn how to clear their mind of distracting thoughts.

Take athletic legend Michael Johnson. “I have learned to cut out all unnecessary thoughts … … I concentrate on the tangible – on the track, on the race, on the blocks, on the things I have to do. The crowd fades away and the athletes disappear…” he says.

Yet, this skill doesn’t come naturally. It requires the guidance of an expert and plenty of practice.

Building the right mental approach requires self-awareness.

The sports psychologist works with the athlete to self-reflect honestly and openly on who they are and what they bring to the sport.

Kremer describes one such model students can use to examine their personal motivation.

Athletes ask themselves:

Effort: How hard am I prepared to work?

Performance: What am I doing in training and competition?

Outcome: What am I getting out of what I’m doing?

Satisfaction: How do I feel about the process?

Working with the sports psychologist, the athlete learns to recognize that the amount of effort they are willing to put in impacts their performance. Combined with skill acquisition, self-awareness ultimately leads to satisfying outcomes they genuinely value.

For example, a young swimmer working with a sports psychologist discovers–through self-reflection–that they are skimping on technique drills. Acknowledging this, they put in more effort, improve their times, and feel happier in their sport.

Final Thoughts

We’ve only considered a sample of how the sports psychologist can help our athletes – they can offer so much more.

Yet, in essence, the sports psychologist is there to help the athlete learn and develop a winning mind.

After all, as ex-Olympian rower Annie Vernon says, once you get to a certain level, “everyone has the physical tools – it’s the mental tools that separate the good from the great.”

References

American Psychological Association. (2008). Sport psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/sports#:~:text=Sport%20psychology%20is%20a%20proficiency,with%20sports%20settings%20and%20organizations.

Clough, P., Strycharczyk, D., & Perry, J. L. (2021). Developing mental toughness: Strategies to improve performance, resilience and well-being in individuals and organizations. Kogan Page. 

Gee, C. J. (2010). How Does Sport Psychology Actually Improve Athletic Performance? A Framework to Facilitate Athletes’ and Coaches’ Understanding. Behavior Modification, 34(5), 386–402.

Johnson, G. (2021). Sports psychologist talks athletes and Mental Health. Penn Today. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/sports-psychologist-talks-athletes-and-mental-health

Kremer, J., Moran, A. P., & Kearney, C. J. (2019). Pure sport: Practical sport psychology. London: Routledge.

Makepeace, T., Young, B. W., & Rathwell, S. (2021). Masters Athletes’ Views on Sport Psychology for Performance Enhancement and Sport Lifestyle Adherence. The Sport Psychologist, 35(3), 200–212.

Peter, J. (2018, February 11). Olympic Ski Star Mikaela Shiffrin felt like she’d throw up before races. USA Today. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/winter-olympics-2018/2018/02/11/olympic-ski-star-mikaela-shiffrin-felt-like-she-throw-up-before-races/327120002/

Vernon, A. (2020). Mind games: Determination, doubt and lucky socks: An insider's guide to the psychology of elite athletes. London: Bloomsbury.

Zakrajsek, R. A., Martin, S. B., &  Wrisberg, C. A. (2016). National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Certified Athletic Trainers’ perceptions of the benefits of sport psychology services. Journal of Athletic Training, 51(5), 398–405.

Zakrajsek, R. A., Fisher, L. A., & Martin, S. B. (2018). Certified Athletic Trainers’ Experiences With and Perceptions of Sport