Successful sport psychology professionals have benefitted from stimulating conversations, challenging questions, support, camaraderie, guidance, and advice offered by their graduate school classmates. Peer relationships are vital and valued aspects of professional development, with many of the relationships formed during school, serving as the closest confidences and strongest friendships throughout careers and lifetimes. Yet, the voices and experiences of fellow graduate students are sparsely reported in the sport psychology literature, and profoundly silent in textbooks. The Peer Guide to Applied Sport Psychology for Consultants in Training provides a platform for the influential voices of peers, with whom graduate students relate and connect on a visceral level. Mimicking the environment of a thriving classroom, each chapter within the Peer Guide is primarily authored by graduate students, or in some cases recent graduates, with an academic mentor serving a secondary role. The chapter topics were selected by the editors—all of whom are experienced graduate instructors and have taught and mentored many young professionals—as areas where graduate students are commonly challenged, and correspondingly, where peer support and guidance are most valued. These topics include developing a theoretical orientation to performance excellence, utilizing science to guide practice, ethics, getting the most from supervision, initial experiences in consultation, working with both individuals and groups, and multicultural considerations. The chapters are written in a personal, relatable tone and provide science and practice, challenge and comfort, humor and vulnerability, and insights and anecdotes that are particularly meaningful and accessible coming from peers. A unique addition to the sport psychology literature, this volume is a key resource for developing and established consultants alike.

The Science of Gymnastics provides the most comprehensive and accessible introduction available to the fundamental physiological, biomechanical and psychological principles underpinning performance in artistic gymnastics. The second edition introduces three new sections: applied coaching, motor learning and injury prevention and safety, and features contributions from leading international sport scientists and gymnastics coaches and instructors. With case studies and review questions included in each chapter, the book examines every key aspect of gymnastic training and performance, including: physiological assessment diet and nutrition energetics kinetics and kinematics spatial orientation and motor control career transitions mental skills training and perception injury assessment and prevention, with clinical cases advanced case studies in rotations, vault approach and elastic technologies in gymnastics. A fully dedicated website provides a complete set of lecture material, including ready-to-use animated slides related to each chapter, and the answers to all review questions in the book. The book represents an important link between scientific theory and performance. As such, The Science of Gymnastics is essential reading for any student, researcher or coach with an interest in gymnastics, and useful applied reading for any student of sport science or sports coaching.

Building Consulting Skills in Sport and Performance Psychology is an international compilation of case studies that introduces students and early career professionals to pertinent issues within a variety of performance environments. With contributions from prominent international practitioners, the book offers case studies from a variety of performance environments including sport, performing arts, and high-risk occupations. Each chapter presents a case study and provides exploratory questions relating to ethical considerations, intervention planning, and awareness of diverse themes of race, culture, gender, immigration status, and disability, among others. These reflection questions encourage students to acknowledge the individual circumstances of all performers and to recognize their own unique background and how this impacts their attitudes, beliefs, and connection to potential clients. The text promotes honest self-reflection regarding consulting strengths and potential areas for improvement, and a companion book will be coming soon which looks at possible solutions for each case. The book will be essential reading for supervisors, mentors, students, and professionals engaged in providing consulting services in distinct performance environments. It encourages its readers to use careful self-reflection to integrate theory and practice and refine their own consulting philosophies.

See You at the Top By: Michael R. Willson This is a true story about Dr. Jack Rodgers, Michael R. Willson, and their alliance at the Odessa College to create the Odessa College Men’s Gymnastics program. As the president of Odessa College, Dr. Rodgers decided to drop the men’s college football from the sports program at the college. To put Dr. Rodgers’ decision in perspective, the city of Odessa is the city where the movie Friday Night Lights was filmed. Friday Night Lights is all about Texas high school football—how intense it is; how many Texas state high school championships have come from the city of Odessa, Texas; how many top college recruits have come from the area. Dr. Rodgers’ decision to replace the Odessa college football programs, and to replace it with men’s college gymnastics, was a bold and significant move in the middle of Texas high school football country. And with Willson as head coach, the gambit paid off—with Odessa ranking among the best in their class in college gymnastics from the team’s beginning in 1966.

Learn how to train for maximum gains with Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training. Guided by the expertise of Tudor O. Bompa, the pioneer of periodization training, and leading periodization researcher G. Gregory Haff, you’ll learn how to vary the intensity and volume of training to optimize the body’s ability to recover and rebuild—resulting in better performance and less risk of injury. Translated into nine languages, Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training has become one of the major resources on periodization for sport scientists, coaches, and athletes throughout the world. Since the introduction of this groundbreaking training theory by Tudor O. Bompa in 1963, periodization has become the basis of every serious athlete’s training. Now in its fifth edition, Bompa’s classic text combines the concepts central to periodization and training theory with contemporary advances in sport science, physiology, and coaching. No other text discusses planning and periodization in such detail or with so many specific, practical examples from a variety of sports. With the fifth edition of Periodization, you can learn the principles, objectives, and components of a successful long-term training program and how to plan the right program to achieve your performance goals. Periodization also contains proven strategies for optimal peaking and specifics on training for better motor ability, working capacity, skill effectiveness, and psychological adaptability. Better organized and easier to read, the fifth edition of this definitive text presents the latest refinements to periodization theory: • New research on rest and restoration, specifically countermeasures used in facilitating recovery plus practical suggestions for implementation • How the use of sequential training and delayed training effects can produce optimal performance at major competitions • A comprehensive discussion, grounded in scientific data, on applying various methods of peaking to ensure optimal performance for competition • New information on how concepts such as conjugated sequencing and summated microcycle structures can maximize strength gains and direct training • Expanded information on the development of sport performance characteristics, including speed training and sport-specific endurance Chapter summaries will help you review and reference major concepts throughout the text. Plan and document each training program with ease using the duplication-ready annual and four-year training plan charts included in the appendix. When it comes to designing programs for optimal training, Tudor Bompa’s expertise is unmatched. The fifth edition of Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training presents the latest refinements to Bompa’s periodization theory to help you create training programs that enhance sport skills and ensure peak performance.

In Stability, Sport, and Performance Movement, renowned physiotherapist and performance consultant Joanne Elphinston teaches that sporting technique is rooted in movement efficiency, stability, symmetry, and balance. These elements work together to ensure that physical restrictions and inefficient muscle recruitment patterns don’t inhibit technical movement goals. The right muscles firing at the right time, and in the right sequence, can help athletes achieve their full physical potential. Elphinston provides clear explanations using applied sports examples, shows how to evaluate movement accurately, and provides a detailed method for improving performance. Filled with Performance Movement guides readers through an approach that has been used with international-level athletes in every sport. A major focus is on injury prevention. Athletes sustain injuries and want to know why they have them and how to prevent them. Sports medicine professionals need to know how to relate their rehabilitation back to sports-specific movement, and coaches need to understand the relationship between injury prevention and performance. This practical guide presents new ways to understand stability as it pertains to injury prevention in sport, bridging the gap between sports science and sports medicine.