Sport psychology has improved the success of countless Olympians and professional athletes by incorporating visualization, confidence and focus into regular practice. Understand how psychology can benefit athletic performance with advice from a sport psychologist in this video on horseback riding techniques.
Hi I'm Tonya Johnston. I'm a Sport Psychology Consultant. It's my job to help riders be psychologically prepared and mentally tough. In this segment we're going to talk about sport psychology as the science of success. What are early athletes doing that help them be successful when they compete? In riding, obviously, this is a very mental sport and a physical sport. It's really important to make sure that you're covering all of your bases in your preparation. So sport psychology these days is being seen as something that can really help you in the ring, can help you achieve your goals, can help you achieve peak performance. In studies and research that have been done over the last 20 years, you will find that Olympians use sport psychology techniques almost 98% of the time. They report using at least one sport psychology skill such as visualization or goal setting or focus and concentration skills. When you have athletes performing at that high level using sport psychology techniques, wouldn't it behoove you to use them as well? I think that when I work with people, it's very important to let them know that sport psychology is something you do to enhance your performance. It's not purely something that we're going to use to solve problems, although that may be the case. There are some old stigmas about sport psychology and people thinking, oh I have to have a problem or I have to be very nervous or very afraid in order to go to a Sport Psychology Consultant. These days, that is really not the case. You see more and more people at the highest levels of the sport talking openly about their use of Sport Psychologists or Sport Psychology Consultants. I think that is something to really take advantage of and look at sport psychology as another tool in your toolbox to achieve your personal best.
Specialty: Sports Psychology
