IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL PREPARATION FOR TOP ATHLETES
Keywords:
mental preparation, elite sport, sport psychologyAbstract
Despite popular belief about the usefulness of psychology in sport and the
importance of psychological training, there are misconceptions that mental
training is useful only for the athletes with severe psychological problems.
Athletes in serious crises make up a small part of the sport population (in the
US is estimated to be only 10%). The problem of the psychological
preparation of athletes as part of training is of great interest, especially now
when sports results are extremely high. Psychological preparation can acquire
new meanings and perspectives and can be a challenge for the optimization of
athletic performance. Another misconception is that the psychological training
is meant just for the elite athletes. Psychological skills are necessary to dispose
of all athletes of all levels and modes of sports. And finally, probably the
biggest misconception is that psychological preparation of athletes gives
results immediately. No one can dispute the fact that state of mind has a lot to
do with sport performance. Actually, what sport phychology does for the
athlete is to teach them to identify the factors that lead to good performance
and those that lead to poor performance. However, if their problems are
actually outside the sport backgrounds and if they are more reflected in the
field of sport than created in the sport invironment, a special treatment method
of clinical psychology is required, not sport psychology.
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