The specialised field of sports psychology has developed rapidly in recent years.
The importance of a sports psychologist as an integral member of the coaching and
health care teams is widely recognised.
Sports psychologists can teach skills to help athletes enhance their learning
process and motor skills, cope with competitive pressures, fine-tune the level
of awareness needed for optimal performance, and stay focused amid the many
distractions of team travel and in the competitive environment. Psychological
training should be an integral part of an athlete’s holistic training process, carried
out in conjunction with other training elements. This is best accomplished by
a collaborative effort among the coach, the sport psychologist, and the athlete;
however, a knowledgeable and interested coach can learn basic psychological skills
and impart them to the athlete, especially during actual practice.