Sports Psychology Articles
Mastery Oriented Climate
The mastery approach to coaching is a cognitive-behavioral intervention designed to promote a mastery-involving motivational climate, shown in previous research to be related to lower anxiety in athletes. We tested the effects of this intervention on motivational climate and on changes in male and female athletes’ cognitive and somatic performance anxiety over the course of a basketball season. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that the athletes in the intervention condition perceived their coaches as being more mastery-involving on the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports when compared to athletes in an untreated control condition. Relative to athletes who played for untrained coaches, those who played for the trained coaches exhibited decreases on all subscales of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 and on total anxiety score from preseason to late season. Control group athletes reported increases in anxiety over the season. The intervention had equally positive effects on boys and girls teams.
ACT Case Study
This papers presents a case study describing the use of acceptance commitment therapy and its perceived efficacy with a 15-year old male athlete. Following a case conceptualization, presenting needs are identified associated with feelings of guilt and unhelpful ruminations in life-domains unrelated to performance and an outline of an acceptance commitment therapy (ACT) intervention is provided. Finally, reflections on the perceived efficacy of this intervention are provided.
REBT With Athletes
The use of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in sport psychology has received scant research atten- tion. Therefore, little is known about how REBT can be adopted by sport psychology practitioners. This paper principally outlines how practitioners can use REBT on a one-to-one basis to reduce irrational beliefs in athletes. Guidance is offered on the introduction of REBT to applied contexts, the REBT process through which an athlete is guided, and offers an assessment of the effectiveness of REBT with athletes. It is hoped that this paper will encourage other practitioners to adopt REBT in their work and to report their experiences.
