Most top athletes agree that psychology plays a key role in sporting performance, but only two out of 20 athletes, including eight professionals and two top amateurs, in a recent American survey had ever consulted a sports psychologist. Asked why people saw sports psychologists, seven said to improve mental approach and six to improve performance. Three cited mental problems and two declared that sport was '50% mental'. Asked if there was a stigma attached to consulting a sports psychologist, 18 said no. They all recognised the potential benefits of sports psychology.

So why didn't they seek help? Five had 'no time'. A further five said that sport was not that important. Ten claimed that money was an issue, even though most of them were investing 10-15 hours a week in sport, plus substantial sums of cash. The report says that, at first sight, the survey, conducted in New York (where one might expect the idea of visiting a 'shrink' to be less problematical than in many other environments!) 'makes no sense'. It adds: 'The resistance at play here is not of a conscious sort. Not one athlete talked about their emotions. They mentioned mental training, focus, concentration, visualisation and improved performance, but no one mentioned any words that would describe their feeling state.

'We conclude that these athletes have an enormous fear of seeing, facing, recognising or experiencing affect of any kind. In retrospect, that should be no surprise. After all, sports are about action and the discharge of emotion through movement rather than through words. Sitting on a chair, or worse lying on a couch, being immobile, and allowing things to come up from the unconscious may, in fact, be terrifying to them. If this is true, it is only after the athlete is utterly despairing, and his or her career is in jeopardy, that they will be willing to enter the psychologist's office.'

The report singles out four factors militating against the use of sports psychology:

Superstitious behaviour and ritual: this may help athletes to overcome anxiety, but relief is often only temporary and minor.

Drug-induced 'performance enhancement': some athletes prone to anxiety, depression, pain or fatigue may turn to illicit drugs rather than a sports psychologist. Athletes claim drugs enhance performance, but often they alleviate anxiety.

Eating disorders: These occur most commonly in sports like skating, wrestling, boxing and gymnastics - sports in which practitioners and coaches appear to show little interest in the use of sports psychology.

Exercise bulimia: athletes may resort to over-training to manage anxiety or poor body image. Exercise bulimia may also be accompanied by steroid abuse.

Why Athletes Resist Sports Psychology.
Thomas Ferraro PhD and Shannon Rush, MA, Long Island Institute of Psychoanalysis.
On Line Journal of Sports Psychology, September 2000