Stuart Carrington
St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK
It could be argued that, traditionally, sport psychology was seen only through a negative lens (e.g., ‘for people with a problem’) at best, or a pseudoscientific gimmick at worst. The latter was never the case, as supported by Norman Triplett’s psychological experiment into audience effects on cyclists in the late 1800’s. The former contains traces of truth, partly due to the negative bias of sport psychology as it attempted to justify itself as a sports science discipline. However, the significance of psychology in sport is now fully appreciated, so much so that the subject appeals to all agents invested in sport and not just sport psychology practitioners.
One such agent that is likely to hold interest in this subject, but perhaps feel they are not as well-equipped as they would like to be to understand and apply sport psychology, is coaches. The book, Psychology in Sports Coaching: Theory and Practice, is a compilation of not only significant cognitive training strategies that are centred around improving performance and well-being, but also the procedure of sport psychology application. This is of great value to the coach, as often their application of sport psychology may be done on an ad-hoc basis without rigorous rationale or systematic practice.
A particularly excellent feature of this part of the book is the literature review around social support preferences of athletes, which is both revealing and invaluable to coaches who wish to maximise the experience, motivation and performance of their athletes.
Psychology in Sport Coaching: Theory and Practice addresses this by sequencing the process of applied sport psychology from diagnosis to application. The book is split into six parts to assist the coach in delivering effective psychological interventions to promote performance and well-being. Refreshingly, this approach is (mainly) couched within positive psychology, encouraging the benefits of psychology. The first part is reminiscent of Anderson’s ‘Doing Sport Psychology’ (2000), in that it develops the reader’s understanding of what sport psychology is (and isn’t) and how it should be approached (and how it shouldn’t) but is framed for the sports coach and not the sports psychologist. Coaches will find this undoubtedly useful, as whether the primary aim of sport psychology is athlete well-being or enhanced performance has long been debated. Again, the author adopts the position shared by positive psychologists in that concepts of well-being and enhanced performance are correlated. The second and third parts of the book develop the foundations laid by the opening chapters, providing the reader with guidance around screening processes and preliminary assessments. Once again, this is a particularly welcome inclusion as the psychological aspects of the TTPP (Technical, Tactical, Physical and Psychological) model of player development is often overlooked, with a lack of guidance or information around how to evaluate psychological needs a likely cause for this oversight.
The methods used to evaluate psychological needs (performance profiling and intake interviews) are reflective of the constructivist approach to coaching, a theme that runs throughout the book. For example, when developing the performance profile, it is the athlete that identifies contrast and emergent poles, as well as considering similarities they share with elite performers to construct their ideal profile. Coaches will appreciate this detail that goes beyond the nuts and bolts of creating a performance profile and is a real strength of the book.
The strength in detail and evidence-driven recommendations for practice is reflected in the fourth part of the book, which is centred on coaching athletes of special populations and is of tremendous value for the sports coach. In particular, the sections on coaching children and adolescents are outstanding. Leaning on robust theoretical underpinning such as self-determination theory, there is a significant amount of guidance for the coach regarding their behaviours in practice and during competition to encourage increased motivation in their athletes. These suggestions are supported by empirical support alongside descriptive statistics surrounding drop-out rates, justifying not only the suggested practices but also the entire text due to concepts that coaches may not have previously considered as important. For example, the recommendations suggested for helping adults learn mirrors previous research (e.g., French and Raven, 1959; Rylander, 2016) regarding the use of power to enhance efficiency in coaching. Importantly, the dynamic nature of coaching is also considered, thereby avoiding a didactic approach to applying sports psychology in coaching environments by encouraging the coach to construct their own practice based on evidence.
The value of reflexivity in coaching is reinforced in the penultimate part of the book that looks at the importance of social aspects of coaching. Once more, an evidence-driven approach is adopted, with strong theoretical support for recommendations. For example, the COMPASS and TARGET models are dissected and applied regarding the promotion of effective coach-athlete relationships and creating motivational climates respectively. A particularly excellent feature of this part of the book is the literature review around social support preferences of athletes, which is both revealing and invaluable to coaches who wish to maximise the experience, motivation and performance of their athletes. This is complemented further with the final part of the book that identifies several strategies for mental skills training in athletes. While this features some traditional ‘canon’ of sports psychology (e.g., imagery training), which can be somewhat repetitive for those familiar with such concepts, there is also a full complement of more contemporary approaches and areas of research that are relevant for sports coaches. In particular, the sections on challenge-threat states and mindfulness will be well-received by sports coaches and sport psychologists alike.
Throughout the book there are case studies and revision questions, promoting learning and retention as well as relevant situations for coaches to apply the theory to. Combined, this feature demonstrates the central goal of the book, which is to promote best practice amongst sports coaches. I believe that the short, structured sections (meaning the book can be consumed in a few sittings or as a reference point) are reflective of this goal which is undoubtedly achieved. The one area of frustration for me was that the ABCDE model to negate pessimism in athletes did not refer to rational-emotive behaviour therapy (although I appreciate my bias here!), particularly as the methods recommended to coaches to action the model also align to this approach. However, this is no doubt a book that belongs on the shelves of all sports coaches. The concepts found in traditional sport psychology texts are made highly relevant to coaches of athletes at all ages and levels, and demonstrates the value of coaches embracing psychology to adopt a more holistic approach regarding the development of their participants.
Copyright © Stuart Carrington 2023