Sport psychology is about understanding the role of psychological factors in individual and team performance and well-being in sport settings.

Maybe you recognise some of the following examples:

• Feeling nervous before a match or race. During the match you notice your thoughts getting carried away when making a mistake and you find it hard to focus. and start losing confidence.

• It is your first marathon and you have no idea what to expect and are a little scared of what’s to come. You completely forget about your race plan and set off way too fast and run out of steam quickly.

• You notice that you perform better in training than competition and get frustrated about this

• You have worked hard during training sessions but feel that it the hard work is not paying off.

A popular approach in sport psychology, and psychology in general, is that what we think influences how we feel and what we do. Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour are related.

You may be doing a training session and are asked to do some exercises that you have not done before. If you think ‘This is tough, I can’t do this’ (thoughts), you may feel deflated (feelings) and stop trying (behaviour). My take on this is that we can try to influence and use our thoughts, either through actively changing them or through trying to pay close attention to them and to observe them.

It is also important to remember that sport performance is an interaction of physical, physiological (sleep, hydration), technical, tactical, psychological, and environmental factors. In my work I take this into consideration and I will explore with you how these interactions work for you.

For everyone in sport and exercise!

I have worked with people running a marathon for the first time to world-class athletes. People at all levels of sports can experience nerves before a match or race, or may need guidance in (re)finding the motivation and drive to get out for a workout.

Through understanding the needs of each individual or organisation we can find a way for sport psychology to work for you.