Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is a definitive guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. It goes further than any other book in surveying the full variety of issues that practising sport psychologists will confront in their working lives. It introduces the most important tools and skills that psychologists will need to be truly helpful to their clients, and it also adopts a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychologist, explaining how effective counseling, assessment, and therapeutic models can add important extra dimensions to professional practice. The book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: counseling; assessment; theoretical and therapeutic models; issues for the individual athlete, from injury and overtraining to depression; issues for teams, from conflict resolution to travel; working with special populations; mental skills, such as imagery, goal setting, and concentration. Moving beyond the traditional tracks of clinical psychology and performance enhancement, the authors in this book argue convincingly that psychologists would benefit from attempting to understand athletes’ social and familial contexts, their health, happiness, and interpersonal dynamics in the broadest sense, if they are to serve their clients’ best interests. With contributions from many of the world’s leading sport psychologists, and with clear descriptions of best practice in each chapter, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is essential reading for all serious students and practitioners of sport psychology, counseling, applied sport science, health psychology, and related fields.

Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is a definitive guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. It goes further than any other book in surveying the full variety of issues that practising sport psychologists will confront in their working lives. It introduces the most important tools and skills that psychologists will need to be truly helpful to their clients, and it also adopts a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychologist, explaining how effective counseling, assessment, and therapeutic models can add important extra dimensions to professional practice. The book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: counseling; assessment; theoretical and therapeutic models; issues for the individual athlete, from injury and overtraining to depression; issues for teams, from conflict resolution to travel; working with special populations; mental skills, such as imagery, goal setting, and concentration. Moving beyond the traditional tracks of clinical psychology and performance enhancement, the authors in this book argue convincingly that psychologists would benefit from attempting to understand athletes’ social and familial contexts, their health, happiness, and interpersonal dynamics in the broadest sense, if they are to serve their clients’ best interests. With contributions from many of the world’s leading sport psychologists, and with clear descriptions of best practice in each chapter, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is essential reading for all serious students and practitioners of sport psychology, counseling, applied sport science, health psychology, and related fields.

Contemporary sport psychology is a rapidly developing and theoretically rich discipline, and a sophisticated and challenging profession. The Routledge International Handbook of Sport Psychology offers a comprehensive and authoritative guide to contemporary sport psychology in all its aspects. Written by a team of world-leading researchers and practitioners from five continents, including both established scholars and the best emerging talents, the book traces the contours of the discipline of sport psychology, introducing fundamental theory, discussing key issues in applied practice, and exploring the most important themes, topics and debates across the sport psychology curriculum. Uniquely, the book presents comparative studies of the history and contemporary practice of sport psychology in ten countries, including the US, UK, China, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Israel, helping the reader to understand the cultural and contextual factors that shape international practice in sport psychology. As well as covering in depth the core pillars of sport psychology, from motivation and cognition to group dynamics, the book also includes a full section on cultural sport psychology, a vital but under-explored sub-discipline that is having a profound influence on contemporary theory and practice. With 56 chapters and unparalleled range, depth and currency, the Routledge Handbook of International Sport Psychology is an essential addition to any library with a serious holding in sport psychology.

Applied sport psychology knowledge has advanced rapidly in recent years. Traditionally, literature focused primarily on a narrow range of topics associated with performance enhancement, giving rise to a model of helping labelled psychological skills training. Although the psychological skills training model has considerable value, the literature has broadened to address a greater diversity of athlete and team issues; a greater range of methods; and a greater recognition of the knowledge, skills, and attributes practitioners need to help clients. The first edition of the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology was seminal work, bringing together the full range of knowledge and skills sport psychology practitioners needed to help clients. The second edition continues that vision and draws on the full range of related disciplines, including sport and exercise psychology, clinical psychology, and counselling psychology. This comprehensive range of topics provides professionals what they need to build strong relationships with athletes and enhance clients’ performance, mental health, well-being, happiness, and meaning in life. This new volume is the guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. Adopting a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychology practitioner, it introduces the most effective tools and skills that sport psychology practitioners need to help their clients and explains how effective counselling, assessment, and therapeutic models add necessary dimensions to professional practice. This book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: Counselling Assessment Theoretical and therapeutic models Psychosocial issues presenting in individual athletes Psychosocial issues presenting in teams Inclusion in sport psychology Mental skills interventions

Understanding and developing expertise is an important concern for any researcher or practitioner working in elite or high performance sport. Whether it's identifying talented young athletes or developing methods for integrating cutting-edge sport science into daily coaching practice, scientists, coaches and researchers all need to understand the skills, characteristics, and knowledge that distinguish the expert performer in sport. The Routledge Handbook of Sport Expertise is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of current research and practice in the emerging field of sports expertise. Adopting a multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted approach, the book offers in-depth discussion of methodological and philosophical issues in sport expertise, as well as the characteristics that describe sporting ‘experts’ and how they can be facilitated and developed. Exploring research, theory and practice, the book also examines how scientists and practitioners can work together to improve the delivery of applied sport science. With contributions from many of the world’s leading researchers in expertise and skill acquisition in sport, the Routledge Handbook of Sport Expertise is important reading for any advanced student, researcher, coach or sport science support officer looking to better understand this cutting-edge topic.

Defining, delineating and driving elite performance -- The principles of elite coaching : blending knowledge, experience and novelty -- Being the personal coach -- Being the national coach in an Olympic sport -- Coaching a national team in professional football -- doing it week in, week out -- Coaching in action/adventure sports : a novel challenge -- Specialist coaching : coaching quarterbacks in NFL, college and high school -- Developing the players of tomorrow -- physiology : working in endurance -- Strength et conditioning in the elite team sport environment -- Performance analysis : working in football -- Working with psychology in professional football -- Keeping them on the pitch -- Medical practice with elites athletes -- Effective performance support : an integrated view -- Interdisciplinary performance development in elite sport : applied sport science -- Using data in football -- Research and innovation : seeking and securing competitive advantage -- Culture, leadership and management with elites -- Developing elites : academy systems -- Supporting performance : a national institute perspective -- The performance director's role -- Leading a national system -- Managing a professional football club -- Managing impressions and relationships when speaking to the sports media -- Fitting within the social milieu -- Vive la difference : perspectives on the challenges of being a woman in high level sport -- Developing coaches and players around the globe -- The coach nomad -- The transition to elite performance : societal contrasts in the same sport -- The new kids on the block -- Staying at the top in Olympic rowing for 25 years -- Playing home and away and away and away -- Life and sport : making it happen and progressing while you play -- Driving the performance system : does research help? -- Working in the jungle : how should elite sport practitioners operate and be developed? -- Creating long-term high performing teams.

Clinical sport psychology is a rapidly growing field that brings together research and clinical interventions from both clinical psychology and sport and performance psychology. Complementary to sports medicine and clinical sport psychiatry, clinical sport psychology addresses the mental health needs and psychological well-being of athletes, coaches, and other members of the sport community. It offers scientifically informed conceptualizations of psychological distress as it manifests in sport settings, as well as empirically supported clinical interventions tailored to the needs of sport populations. This volume addresses the latest research findings regarding mental health among athletes and other sport professionals, including epidemiological research concerning depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and conduct and interpersonal problems. In addition, it explores the unique etiology of mental health problems among athletes, including psychological sequelae of injury and trauma, as well as concise practice guidelines for conceptualizing and treating psychological distress in sport populations. Strategies for thorough yet efficient psychological assessment of athletes, coaches, and other sport professionals are also provided. A compendium of relevant empirical research and clinical best practices for assessment and treatment, this handbook charts the course that clinical sport psychology has taken since its inception as a distinct clinical specialty and highlights future directions for this rapidly growing practice domain. It offers essential reading for psychologists and other mental health professionals who provide clinical services in sport and performance settings.