Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Psychology of sports - find the main characteristics of a relatively new discipline

Psychology of sports is an essential part of the lives of those who perform sports, especially of those who train for accomplishment in their particular area. Psychology of sports focuses particularly on sportsman's state of mind and how it might shape their physical abilities, in addition, psychology of sports applies special tactics to increase self-control both physically and mentally for an optimum sport performance.

Sport actions have been intensively promoted particularly by mass-media means for its long-term advantages, consequently, several sports activities have encountered tremendous waves of worldwide recognition. Its evolution has taken place due to the next factors: elderly people, young adults and children may prefer a certain sport to practice at their own pace; sport performance sets human standards pretty higher; sports activities support non-discriminatory rivalry.

These days, acknowledgment within a certain discipline, any sportsman has to deal with significant obstacles and to make sacrifices, therefore, psychology of sports, an essential sphere of psychology studies psychological reactions that are related to contest conditions. Sports activities and performance are truly demanding and psychological reactions within this circumstances need special attention therefore psychology of sports specialists strive to expand particular psychological approaches that may have a positive impact on particular individuals' performance.

According to Wikipedia, the first ever sport psychologist seems to have been a North American born in Asia and named Norman Triplett. He was born in 1861 and he laid the foundation of sports psychology when he found that cyclists cycle faster when they are in group rather than when they cycle alone.

In 1965, psychology of sports was formally acknowledged as the International Society of Sport Psychology was created and later on, in the 70s, formal study of this discipline was introduced in academic syllabus. Following the ascending path set by affiliated sub-disciplines of the main branch, psychology has reached incredible competence standards as it has easily confirmed its proficiency for the core dynamic professional categories within this large field of interest.

The many years of research done on the psychology of sports changed this section from a simple discussion issue in the early '60s to an entirely respectable psychological area that combine psychology of performance in sports with the manner and effects of home and individual train.