Department of Exercise Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2W6.
Behav Modif. 2010 Sep;34(5):386-402. doi: 10.1177/0145445510383525.
The popularity of sport psychology, both as an academic discipline and an applied practice, has grown substantially over the past two decades. Few within the realm of competitive athletics would argue with the importance of being mentally prepared prior to an athletic competition as well as the need to maintain that particular mindset during a competitive contest. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that many athletes, coaches, and sporting administrators are still quite reluctant to seek out the services of a qualified sport psychologist, even if they believe it could help. One of the primary reasons for this hesitation appears to be a lack of understanding about the process and the mechanisms by which these mental skills affect performance. Unlike the "harder sciences" of sport physiology and biochemistry where athletes can see the tangible results in themselves or other athletes (e.g., he or she lifted weights, developed larger muscles, and is now stronger/faster as a result), the unfamiliar and often esoteric nature of sport psychology appears to be impeding a large number of athletes from soliciting these important services. As such, the purpose of this article is to provide the reader with a simple framework depicting how mental skills training translates into improved within-competition performance. This framework is intended to help bridge the general "understanding gap" that is currently being reported by a large number of athletes and coaches, while also helping sport psychology practitioners sell their valuable services to individual athletes and teams.
在过去的二十年中，运动心理学无论是作为一门学科还是一种应用实践，都得到了极大的普及。在竞技体育领域，很少有人会质疑在体育比赛前进行心理准备的重要性，以及在竞技比赛中保持这种特殊心态的必要性。然而，最近的研究表明，许多运动员、教练和体育管理人员仍然非常不愿意寻求合格的运动心理学家的服务，即使他们认为这可能有所帮助。这种犹豫的一个主要原因似乎是对这些心理技能影响表现的过程和机制缺乏了解。与运动生理学和生物化学等“硬科学”不同，运动员可以在自己或其他运动员身上看到明显的结果（例如，他或她举重、肌肉增大，现在更强壮/更快），运动心理学的陌生和深奥性质似乎阻碍了大量运动员寻求这些重要服务。因此，本文的目的是为读者提供一个简单的框架，描述心理技能训练如何转化为比赛中的表现提升。这个框架旨在帮助弥合目前许多运动员和教练报告的普遍“理解差距”，同时也帮助运动心理学从业者向个别运动员和团队推销他们有价值的服务。
