Covers both theoretical and practical aspects of sports psychology. The first section is devoted to an examination of the relationship between competitive stress and performance, identifying areas that have attracted significant research. It also discusses recent models of stress and performance as well as laboratory-based research, including examination of the differential effects of multidimensional anxiety components, the application of catastrophe theory and reversal theory to stress in sport. The second section focuses on stress management and self-regulation in sport. It discusses goal-setting as a motivation and self-confidence enhancer, anxiety reduction techniques for particular symptoms and the possible mediating role of cognitions in sport performance. Mental training programs for coping with stress and the reasons behind the success of performance routines are also considered. A final section discusses future research directions.
Stress, Well-Being, and Performance in Sport provides the first comprehensive and contemporary overview of stress in sport and its implications on performance and well-being. It explores how athletes’, coaches', and support staffs' performance can be enhanced while simultaneously optimizing their well-being in contemporary sport. Divided into four sections following the stress process, Stress, Well-Being, and Performance in Sport covers key topics including: Appraising and coping with stress in sport Responses to and outcomes of stress in sport Moderators of the stress process in sport Stress management to promote thriving in sport Bringing together theory and practice, each chapter discusses conceptual and theoretical issues, current research, and innovative practical implications. Written by scholars around the globe, Stress, Well-being, and Performance in Sport offers an international perspective. It is important reading for students of sport psychology as well as coaches, athletes, and support staff.
Balancing training, stress, and recovery is essential for achieving optimal performance. The performance of professional athletes can be severely compromised by overtraining, injuries, prolonged periods of competition, or even life events outside their sporting lives. The current recovery-stress state depends on preceding stress and recovery activities, but through simultaneous assessment of stress and recovery, a differentiated picture can be provided. This manual includes two measurement instruments to gauge individual recovery, enabling both athletes and coaches to better understand the often-unconscious processes that impinge upon peak performance, and to monitor the physical, mental, emotional, mental, and overall recovery-stress state before and after training. The Acute Recovery and Stress Scale (ARSS) and the Short Recovery and Stress Scale (SRSS) are instruments that systematically enlighten the recovery-stress states of athletes. Through utilization of the ARSS and the SRSS, athletes and coaches can better understand the importance of daily activities, including how they can relate to stress/recovery and the direct impact on athletic performance. In addition to the instruments themselves, both of which are simple and easy to use, the manual also discusses their development, their basis in theory, and case studies showcasing their usage. The ARSS and the SRSS provide important information regarding the current recovery-stress state during the process of training, and are essential tools for coaches, sport scientists, sport psychologists, and athletes alike.
The book is designed to provide a flowing description of the physiology of heat stress, the illnesses associated with heat exposure, recommendations on optimising health and performance, and an examination of Olympic sports played in potentially hot environmental conditions. In the first section the book examines how heat stress effects performance by outlining the basics of thermoregulation and how these responses impact on cardiovascular, central nervous system, and skeletal muscle function. It also outlines the pathophysiology and treatment of exertional heat illness, as well as the role of hydration status during exercise in the heat. Thereafter, countermeasures (e.g. cooling and heat acclimation) are covered and an explanation as to how they may aid in decreasing the incidence of heat illness and minimise the impairment in performance is provided. A novel and particular feature of the book is its inclusion of sport-specific chapters in which the influence of heat stress on performance and health is described, as well as strategies and policies adopted by the governing bodies in trying to offset the deleterious role of thermal strain. Given the breadth and scope of the sections, the book will be a reference guide for clinicians, practitioners, coaches, athletes, researchers, and students.
Over the past 16 years, new theories and models have emerged in the stress and anxiety knowledge base regarding the unique forms associated with performance. Existing theories have been applied in creative and helpful ways to better explicate relationships between stress and anxiety with performance. Recently, more sophisticated statistical strategies have been applied to data collected with performers, and additional, safe and expedient strategies for managing stress and anxiety have surfaced. Despite these new advances, the field has been lacking an up-to-date and practical text for undergraduate and graduate students in performing or performance-mentoring programs. Managing Performance Stress examines psychological and psychophysiological models and theories that explain causes of anxiety and stress. An easy-to-use reference work for athletes, musicians, dancers and actors as well as those who devise and conduct their training programs, the book presents exercises, coaching devices, and strategies for conquering stress and anxiety. It is an invaluable resource for those who are performers, will be performers, or who are preparing to mentor, coach or teach performers. The principles enunciated in Managing Performance Stress apply equally to the musician holding an oboe and the athlete holding a baseball bat. The issues explored and the theories, principles, models, hypotheses discussed all bear upon and clarify arousal, stress and anxiety related to artistic and sport performance, irrespective of its kind.
This volume in the Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science series presents a concise summary of the science and practice of psychology in the context of sport. Psychological aspects central to sport performance such as motivation, cognition, stress, confidence, and mental preparation are examined and interventions designed to enhance individual and team performance are reviewed. Reflecting the breadth of the field, issues such as sport injury prevention and rehabilitation, athlete psychopathology, child and adolescent development, sport career termination, and the practice of sport psychology are also addressed. Published under the auspices of the Medical Commission of the International Olympic Committee, Sport Psychology shows howthe performance and the overall well-being of athletes can be improved by highlighting research findings and their practical application. With contributions from internationally renowned experts and useful case studies in each chapter, this handbook is an essential resource for medical doctors who serve athletes and sports teams and an invaluable reference for all students of sport psychology.
For a long time I have wanted to put together a book about sodal and evaluation anxiety. Sodal-evaluation anxiety seemed to be a stressful part of so many people's everyday experience. It also seemed to be apart of so many of the clinical problems that I worked with. Common terms that fit under this rubric include fears of rejection, humiliation, critidsm, embarrassment, ridicule, failure, and abandonment. Examples of sodal and evaluation anxiety include shyness; sodal inhibition; sodal timidity; public speaking anxiety; feelings of self-consdousness and awkwardness in sodal situations; test anxiety; perfor mance anxiety in sports, theater, dance, or music; shame; guilt; separation anx iety; sodal withdrawal; procrastination; and fear of job interviews or job evalua tions, of asking someone out, of not making a good impression, or of appearing stupid, foolish, or physically unattractive. In its extreme form, sodal anxiety is a behavior disorder in its own right sodal phobia. This involves not only feelings of anxiety but also avoidance and withdrawal from sodal situations in which scrutiny and negative evaluation are antidpated. Sodal-evaluation anxiety also plays a role in other clinical disorders. For example, people with agoraphobia are afraid of having a panic attack in public in part because they fear making a spectacle of themselves. Moreover, even their dominant terrors of going crazy or having a heart attack seem to reflect a central concern with sodal abandonment and isolation.
"THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a must read for anyone involved in or simply interested in sports. It tells the real story of what I went through and how countless athletes of all levels are still going through now.....unnecessarily. When no one else could, they helped me to recognize how my throwing problems came directly from sports traumas that were stuck in my brain. And then Grand and Goldberg had the knowhow to release it with the miracle of Brainspotting." Mackey Sasser Former catcher for NY Mets "THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a MUST READ for athletes, their parents and coaches, as well as for all psychotherapists and performance experts. In case you didn't know it, THE YIPS has a clearly explainable relationship to past trauma. All one has to do is take a detailed history of the life of an athlete from his/her earliest childhood, relate that to his/her history of physical injuries and throw in a dollop of shame and criticism from parents and coaches and the reason for the yips emerges with crystal clarity. These facts are clearly illustrated in this compelling, fascinating and ground-breaking book by Drs. Grand and Goldberg. Brain-based principles of body-based memory, neurosensitization and cue-related anxiety from the trauma literature clearly prove that the yips come from post-traumatic stress syndrome. And Brainspotting has shown to be dramatically effective in mitigating, and even healing, this vexing syndrome." Robert Scaer, MD Author of THE BODY BEARS THE BURDEN and THE TRAUMA SPECTRUM THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS: Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good is the ground-breaking book that will change the face of sports performance forever. This book introduces the breakthrough concept of STSD (Sport Traumatic Stress Disorder). Grand and Goldberg have discovered that STSDs are the cause of most significant performance problems. Performance blocks and anxiety, including the yips, stem from accumulated sports traumas including sports injuries, failures and humiliations. The authors also introduce the Brainspotting Sports Performance System (BSPS) which quickly finds, releases and resolves the sports traumas held in your brain and body. An easy read, THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is filled with engaging, informative, inspiring stories. These case examples illustrate how professional, elite, collegiate and junior athletes have been freed for good from this silent "epidemic" of performance blocks and anxiety including: the yips, "Steve Blass disease," "Mackey Sasser syndrome," protracted slumps, balking, choking and freezing. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS provides the answers and the cure for athletes, their coaches and parents about "Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good " Grand and Goldberg also show how their BSPS can take all athletes to levels they could only heretofore dream of www.thisisyourbrainonsports.com
This ground-breaking book is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of how organizational psychology can be used to understand and improve performance in elite sport. Using recent theoretical advances from this burgeoning area of research, each chapter offers key conceptual issues and practical insights across a range of topics. The book is structured into four constituent parts, Attitudes and emotions in sports organizations Stress and well-being in sports organizations Behaviors in sports organizations Environments in sports organizations Covering key areas such as attitudes to employment, conflict and change management, leadership, and relationships with the mass media, the book shines a spotlight on how organizational issues play a fundamental role in the experience of individuals and teams. In an era of ever-increasing professionalism in sport, the book provides an invaluable new perspective on performance at the elite level. Including contributions from an international range of academics and practitioners, it will be essential reading for any student or practitioners within sport and exercise psychology.
Sport, Recovery and Performance is a unique multi-disciplinary collection which examines both the psychological and physiological dimensions to recovery from sport. Including contributions from medicine, neuroscience, psychology and sport science, the book expertly explores the implications for applied and strategic interventions to both retain and stabilize performance, and promote health and well-being. Including chapters written by its leading experts, the book represents an important milestone in this evolving field of study. It covers issues around measuring recovery, the impact of overtraining on sleep and mental health, and addresses topics such as the impact of travel on performance. The book informs not only how managing recovery can improve performance, but also offers insights in how recovery can sustain athletes’ physical and mental health. Citing research from a range of individual and team sports, as well as extreme situations and the workplace, this is an important book that will be widely read across the sport sciences.
