In our society today it seems like sports rule the land. Everywhere we look, there is some kind of sporting event going on or being televised. Almost everyone could be considered a fan of at least one sport. Some people follow sports like a religion. With such an increased focus on sports, the athlete’s performances are put under a microscope. This puts more pressure on athletes to give a winning performance. No longer do athletes play for fun, they play to win. This isn’t happening just on the professional level; it is happening on all levels of sport. From little league to backyard football, the goal is to win at all cost. With this increase pressure, athletes are looking for more and more ways to better their performance. One such way, which is now gaining popularity, is Sports Psychology. Though this isn’t a new field, its popularity is just beginning to take off. There is still a lot of skepticism about the validity or worth while of the practices used. The following is a review of a number of articles that outline different studies done that show how athletes can improve their performances. The articles were found using a database search of Ps

Another study also used basketball free throws as the basis for its study. Craig Wrisberg and Mark Anshel did this study. It looks at the effectiveness of applying cognitive techniques to improve performance of shooting free throws. (Wrisberg, Anshel, 1989, p. 95) Participants in the study were asked to shoot a number of free throws to provide a baseline for the study. Over the next three days, the athletes were giving instruction in between shooting sessions. They were introduced to mental imagery as a way to help with their shooting. The results showed a significant improvement in shot percentages of the players. (Wrisberg, Anshel, 1989, p. 99)

ychInfo. Keywords such as increased performance, psychological practices, and sports were used to narrow the search.

Over the years there have been many different definitions offered as to what Sport Psychology is. One of the best ways to look at it is to ask what does a psychologist do? A psychologist does a variety of things. They provide psychological assessment, crisis intervention, and psychological service. Just to name a few broad areas. All of these are areas that can also be useful to an athlete. A lot of the tools used by a sport psychologist are adapted directly from clinical psychology. Concepts such as Freud’s Psychodynamics, Caltel’s Personality Test, and The Piagetial Cognitive Theory are widely used. (Sloubanov, 1999) All of these are critical tools used by a sport psychologist to assist an athlete with his or her problem. Sport psychology involves preparing the mind of an athlete, just as one prepares the body. Spo

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Approximate Word count = 1090
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)