This year in Salt Lake City a record number of Olympic athletes enlisted the help of sport psychologists to gain a mental edge. The increase was a result of statements made from Olympic athletes who competed in Nagano; when asked what would make them compete better most athletes responded with "more sport psycholo gy."

What is sports psychology? Simply stated it is the study of the psychological factors that influence and are influenced by participation and performance in sport, exercise, and physical activity. In addition, it is the application of the knowledge gained through this study to everyday settings. Sport psychology professionals are interested in how participation in sport, exercise, and physical act ivity may enhance personal development and well-being throughout the life span.

Most coaches recognize the importance of sport psychology. However, ask yourself the following questions: (1) during the season, how long do you spend in physical practice? (2) during the season how long do you spend practicing psychological skills? (3) how important do you think psychological skills are to performance and success? If you are like some coaches and athlete s you will find that you consider psychological skills to be very important, yet you dont take the time to practice them! This is unfortunate because it is the psychological factors that account for the day to day changes in performance. Physical skills dont change that quickly!

By now most coaches should be aware that it is a myth to think that sport psychology is only for elite athletes. Many of the popular Olympic athletes started their mental training w hen they were much younger.

Coaches can be wonderful catalysts for developing psychological skills in athletes. In this issue, we have put together information that is geared towards helping coaches incorporate sport psychology into their professional practice. Many of the links are generic, while others are sport specific. One piece of advice for all coaches -- Be Patient -- Just like physical skills, mental skills take time to develop.

Why is sport psychology important anyway? In this article, Karlene Sugarman outlines why coaches and athletes should be interested in mental training. Her basic premise is that it is necessary to train both the mind and body for peak performances. Skeptical about the mind-body link? Well, have you ever had a bad dream? Usually, you will wake up and your heart is racing, you are sweating and very agitated, even though all you were doing was sleeping. But, in your mind there was something bad going on and your body was reacting to it. Convinced now? We hope so!

What kinds of psychological characteristics are important? There are a number of them but the most important are being confident, being focused and being relaxed. Here are a few ar ticles related to each of these desirable characteristics.

Being Confident:

What is confidence? It is an athletes' belief in their ability that they can be successful. Confidence can be influenced by people who carry authority in an athlete's life such as coaches, family, friends and even other competitors. These people can positively or negatively influence athletes' perceptions of their experiences and can, th erefore, change their level of self confidence. Coaches know that a big part of their job is to develop self confidence in their athletes.

Here are sites that give tips on how to build self-confidence:

Mind Tools

Mental Equipment

Being Focused:

Focusing involves being aware of only those things around you that are important and excluding everything else. When athletes are focused, irrelevant or distracting thoughts cannot interfere with their performance. Some of the things that can distract and upset athletes prior to, or during, a game situation include parents or other spectators yelling from the stands, bad calls by officials, other players not giving 100%, and fights on and off the playing field. These things can distract athletes from their game, lower their self-confidence, and put them in a bad mood. It is essential that coaches find out when athletes are most likely to get distracted, and what things are most likely to upset them.

How can you get your athlete focused? Click here!

Mind Tools also has a page on improving focus.

Being relaxed:

"Relax!" "Relax!" That’s what coaches say to do, right? But how is this possible with the bases loaded, the game on the line and you at bat; or, the game tied in overtime with you going out to kick a field goal? One way to help athletes during these stre ssful times is to use breathing techniques. Click here to read more and learn techniques to help your athletes relax! I love this page which gives you samples of relaxation techniques.

W e could have put all kinds of links in this section, but we decided to limit to sites that we think are exceptional (and free!). Enjoy.

Dr. Patrick Cohn will send you a weekly newsletter on how sport psychology can improve your golf game! Click here to sign up.

Tennis anyone? Here's a great link for spo rt psychology and tennis.

On the run? There are a number of articles in their training section pertaining to sport psychology. This would be excellent reading for track and cross country coaches!