What is sport psychology?

Hello friends!

Sport psychology is one of the specialties that are available to psychology graduates. In this text, we are going to talk about all the areas of activity of the sport psychologist, thus defining what sports psychology is, based on the CFP (Federal Council of Psychology).

According to the Federal Council of Psychology, the sports psychologist or psychologist acts, studies and works in the following areas:

1) The role of the sports psychologist is focused both on high-performance sports, helping athletes, coaches and technical committees to make use of psychological principles to achieve an optimal level of mental health, maximizing performance and optimizing performance, and on the identification of principles and behavior patterns of adults and children participating in physical activities.

2) Study, identify and understand psychological theories and techniques that can be applied to the context of sport and physical exercise, both at the individual level – the athlete or individual practitioner – and at the group level – sports teams or practitioners of physical activity. Its performance is both diagnostic, developing and applying instruments to determine the individual and collective profile, motor and cognitive capacity focused on sports, and intervention, acting directly in the transformation of behavior patterns that interfere in the practice of regular and/or competitive physical activity. .

3) Carry out studies and research individually or in a multidisciplinary team, observing the context of competitive and non-competitive sports activity, in order to know elements of the athlete’s behavior, coaching staff, managers and fans; performs individual or group sessions, using psychotherapeutic techniques appropriate to the situation, with the aim of preparing the performance of the activity from a psychological point of view;

4) Develops and participates in programs and studies of educational, leisure and rehabilitation sports activities, guiding the implementation of non-competitive sports of a prophylactic and recreational nature, to achieve the well-being and quality of life of individuals;

5) Develops actions for the planned and systematic improvement of individual psychic capacities aimed at optimizing the performance of high-performance athletes as well as technical committees and managers;

6) Participates, in a multidisciplinary team, in the preparation of work strategies aimed at improving and adjusting the practitioner to the proposed objectives, proceeding with the examination of his psychological characteristics;

7) Participates, along with the multidisciplinary team, in the observation and monitoring of athletes and sports teams, aiming at studying the psychological variables that interfere with the performance of their specific activities such as training and competitions.

8) Guides parents or guardians on issues related to the choice of sports modality and the consequent participation in training and competitions, as well as the development of a professional career, and the implications of this choice in the child’s development cycle.

9) It contributes to the understanding and transformation of the relationships between educators and technicians with students and athletes in the teaching and learning process, and in the inter and intrapersonal relationships that occur in sports environments.

10) Collaborates for adherence and participation in physical activity programs for the population in general or those with special needs.

Conclusion

During my degree in psychology, I studied very little about sport psychology. I think that this situation (of little content during graduation) with regard to this area is still frequent in Brazil. The absence of specific disciplines, internships or research in the area means that few professionals seek to specialize and, conversely, there are few job opportunities.

Sport in our country is thought of as a hobby, recreation, fun. Therefore, no one would think of hiring a sports psychologist along with personal training to improve their performance. And, based on this information, we will see that sports psychology is all centered on high-performance athletes. We see psychologists on well-known football teams, training gymnasts, swimmers, tennis players, and so on.

If sport in Brazil is not so highly valued and we have few Olympic medals, we will soon have the dimension of the niche market (practically minimal) for sports psychology. Of course, those who work in the area or colleges that offer graduate degrees will say that the opportunities are good. They probably are in terms of salary and working conditions, however, until today I haven’t met a professional colleague who works with sports psychology.

Therefore, I would say that it is a small market, difficult to enter but that can be extremely promising, both due to the lack of specialized professionals and the investment that is made in high-performance sports.

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