Psychology and sport

 How psychology links to sport-

Both topics go hand in hand often one affects the other and one can bring down the other. 

Psychology is the study of the human mind, going from mental illness to traits of a person. 

An example of how psychology of a person can link to your sporting performance is depression. Those who suffer with depression often then also suffer with lack of motivation and self confidence. Self confidence is how you believe you will perform in a certain situation. With the lack of self confidence you will believe that you will perform poorly therefore not wanting to participate in the first place. 

Another example is your self esteem levels, self esteem is how you think about yourself. Those who struggle with self esteem might not want to go to the gym because they believe they shouldn’t be there or will be embarrassed by what their body looks like and their performance levels. There is also the opposite of this those with really high self esteem will come across as really confident and might push themselves  to levels they cannot achieve and therefore get injured. 

Psychology also affects elite athletes those who have been at the height of their career and get injured can sometimes never reach the level they were once at due to them losing all confidence and feeling like they might get injured once again. 

Many elite athletes are very open about seeking psychologist help during tough times in their career, this could be to get insight into what’s going on in their mind or find interventions to calm themselves down/ be able to focus on the right things. 

Psychology is crucial within sport, a positive mental health allows positive physical health.

However it’s also very normal to struggle with what’s going on inside your head. Lots of people deal with difficult things, just remember you are not alone and things can get better.

Au revoir 

Zoe