Sport Psychology in Improving Athletic Performance

Sport psychology is a science in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sports setting to enhance performance. While sport psychology cannot replace physical and technical training or increase an athlete's physical potential, it can their improve ability to remain in control under pressure, increase consistency, and help athletes to perform at their highest ability level (USA Swimming 1). A neurologist noticed, "When people are just beginning to learn a new task, many different areas of their brains are active simultaneously...But as people become more proficient at a task, their brain activity becomes more singularly focused on the brain circuits directly involved in producing the movements" (Allman 2). Sport psychology is a rapidly growing technique with many athletes, proven by the increase from one sport psychologist on the U.S. Olympic team in 1988 to over one hundred by 1996. Richard Suinn, the first sport psychologist on the Olympic sports medicine team, said that sport psychology focuses on the mental skills of "stress management, self-regulation, visualization, goal setting, concentration, focus, and even relaxation" (Tolson 2). Sport psychology effectively uses ritualistic behavior to improve athletic performance at both the amateur and elite levels.