Sports psychology is a branch of psychology that helps the athlete to achieve the objectives that are proposed in a healthy way , that is, the person has to be mentally and psychologically prepared to be able to pursue the goals that he has proposed in sport . At Bekia we provide you with more information about this psychological branch.

Without work and effort, sports psychology is not effective

Sports psychology studies how and why athletes behave the way they do , and tries to find out what the limits of each of them are in order to overcome them and achieve better results in sports practice.

It is also in charge of investigating the influence between physical activity and participation in sport and psychophysical well-being, health and personal development. Sports psychologists work with the athlete and take into account a number of variables to speed up progress.

The variables of sports psychology

Next we are going to expose the variables that are taken into account through sports psychology to improve the psychophysical conditions of the athlete. In the first place, concentration is essential so that the person who plays sports can achieve their goals without anything or anyone being able to take their attention away from what they are doing and distract them. With this, the athlete will achieve the highest possible performance.

The sports psychologist must make the athlete see that any stimulus can cause him to lose concentration, and that would ruin all the work that he has been doing for a certain time. This is also related to attention, another of the variables of sports psychology. Attention must be focused 100% on the activity that is being carried out.

Intrinsic motivation is fundamental, it is the central axis of a person’s work and effort . Effort will be a consequence of motivation, because the more motivated the athlete is, the more effort and effort they will put into an activity, so the better results they will get.

The athlete must be a self-confident person , he must think that he is capable of doing whatever he sets out to do and overcoming any obstacle that comes his way. For this reason, self-confidence is another of the variables taken into account in this psychological branch, and will allow the athlete to believe that they can achieve their goals successfully.

The job of a sports psychologist

We must bear in mind that the athlete can go through several moments of pressure before an important sporting event or a highly demanding training. For this reason, the job of a sports psychologist is to make the athlete control and manage that pressure so that the work and effort to be carried out does not become a problem .

The intervention of the sports psychologist is effective if he uses the following tools: self-knowledge, that is, learning about oneself and knowing oneself . The athlete must know what his limitations are and what he is really capable of doing , which, in turn, makes the sports psychologist use another tool called visualization, that is, it helps the athlete to visualize the goals and objectives you want to pursue and do your best to achieve your goals.

The relaxation is also very important, because then the athlete can make it go away the pressure we have mentioned above. Maintaining attention and not losing focus is essential when doing a sport . For this reason, athletes have to learn to relax so that problems do not appear that can remain in the long term.

So, if you are an athlete, you should go to a sports psychologist at the moment when you think that some psychological aspect is limiting your progress and your performance. Do not forget that it cannot be just anyone, but a trained and certified specialist .