psychology sport

So here it is – the resource that all coaches and athletes have been waiting for: a simple and straightforward book that tells you how to apply some of the best mental training techniques to enhance performance in sport. That’s the way Shane Murphy, editor of The Sport Psych Handbook, sees the contribution of this new text.

On reading the preface I was struck by the enthusiasm and passion that was being used to try and convince readers that yet another applied sport psychology text is needed. Murphy correctly suggests that sport psychology, as a discipline, has been somewhat ‘shrouded in mystery’, while the dissemination of useful knowledge has been slow.

In many ways, this problem arises from the way research is reported, since good, practical findings are often published in inaccessible academic journals.

But do we really need another applied sport psychology textbook? Mark Andersen, one of the books contributors, has acknowledged in the past that there is no shortage of books on this topic. So, as a critic, I was looking for something new, or at least an updated approach. As I flicked through the contents page I was pleased to see chapters on anger (often neglected) and eating disorders (ever-more closely linked with sport) as well as the more familiar topics of anxiety, concentration and imagery.

The international collection of sport psychologists (although mainly Americans) who contributed to the 17 chapters of the book gave every cause for optimism. The 350-page handbook is divided into five parts: motivation is the main theme of part one, Inner Drive; part two considers Emotion and Mental Control, while part three, Interactive Skills, goes beyond the individual perspective to look at team-work. Part four examines Potential Pitfalls, such as the psychology of injury, eating disorders and substance abuse. The final part, The Educated Consumer, homes in on the role of the sport psychologist and what makes for a successful interaction between psychologist and athlete.

The book appears to be aimed at providing an educational resource for athletes and coaches who are serious about mental training. Many chapters, such as the opening three, are easy to read, using good hypothetical examples to illustrate the points being made. From this perspective the book is a success, and coaches and athletes wanting to gain insight into the links between psychological factors and performance will, on the whole, find it accessible, informative and interesting to read. By contrast with many other applied texts, the book has a useful, theoretical underpinning, but is perhaps short of ‘hands-on’ material.

One problem of having leading authorities write isolated chapters is that the book tends to be subjective in tone and lacking in overall coherence. For example, being a pragmatic person, like many coaches, I didn’t relate well to Jim Loehr’s chapter on leadership, in which he emphasises spiritual factors and energy. Much more informative and practical material has been written on this topic.

I was also left wondering just how ‘useable’ some of the material was. While the book succeeds as an educational aid, I was not convinced that the average coach or athlete would find it easy to apply the lessons to their own situations.

Not all chapters provide clear guidelines on how to implement mental training and I suspect that some contributors were keen to sell the idea of psychological skills training, while stopping short of delivering the product. I feel that a little more advice on how to apply and learn new psychological skills would have been beneficial. And I’m not talking here about specialised issues like substance misuse and eating disorders, which require skilled handling, but the application of techniques that coaches could use with their athletes, such as refocusing strategies or developing mental plans.

This leads me to the issue of balance. I found the final three chapters interesting because they dealt with some of the current issues faced by sport psychologists and potential clients – such as the need for recognised standards, qualifications and working within boundaries of competence. However, I felt that this material should have been condensed and placed at the beginning of the book to provide some context for the subsequent chapters.

By contrast, coaches and athletes might have been better served by a more substantial chapter on concentration than the minimal 13 pages that were devoted to this key area.

The book claims to offer new and up-to-date information. However, some of the chapters, such as Shane Murphy’s on imagery, could have been taken from any previous applied text, with only two out of 30 referenced sources published in the 21st century! I was also disappointed that a leading applied model (‘An applied model of imagery use in sport’, by Martin, Moritz & Hall, 1999) was not included in this chapter, as it would have provided clear guidelines for turning theory into practice.

Some of my criticisms are probably harsh, since I am judging a new entrant into an already saturated market. Essentially it’s a very good book if what you want is to learn more about sport psychology. On the whole, though, The Sport Psych Handbook sits neatly alongside a number of other good applied texts without rising above them.

Lee Crust

‘The Sport Psych Handbook’, edited by Shane Murphy, is published by Human Kinetics, £19.95

Also published recently:

• Strength Band Training, by Phil Page and Todd Ellenbecker, Human Kinetics, £11.95. More than 100 exercises for using resistive bands and tubing to maximise strength, speed and power in every major muscle group. Aided by nice, large, precisely-posed photographs.
• Biomechanics of Sport and Exercise, second dition, by Peter M McGinnis, Human Kinetics, £42. Designed largely for students of kinesiology, exercise science and physical education, this is a user-friendly, illustrated guide which may also be of interest to scientifically-literate coaches and sport therapists.