Sports Medicine and Fitness

Track 12: Sports Psychology and Athlete Counseling

Sport psychology means applying parts of psychology to sports and athletes. One of the main ways that sports psychologists use is to help athletes meet their goals. The group of people where this sports psychologists help are professional athletes. They can help non-professional athletes as well. Sports psychologists mainly focus on problems the athlete has on the field but they can also help athletes with problems that they have off the field. Sport psychology is an interdisciplinary science that draws on knowledge from many related fields including biomechanics, physiology, kinesiology and psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors.