The true story of how a group of talented volleyball players learned to put their egos aside, became a team, and changed the sport of volleyball forever. In the early 1980s, a golden generation of volleyball players joined the U.S. men's national team. With the Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 1984, the pressure was on to build a winning program around these exceptional athletes. But could a group of individuals put aside their egos and play as a true team to achieve Olympic gold in their home country? In If Gold Is Our Destiny: How a Team of Mavericks Came Together for Olympic Glory, Sean P. Murray shares the incredible story of how a group of free-spirited players and their demanding coach captured the heart of a nation and became one of the greatest indoor volleyball teams of all time. As the team struggled leading up to the Olympics, head coach Doug Beal mandated a highly controversial three-week Outward Bound hike across one hundred miles in the Canyonlands and Abajo Mountains in Utah. Murray details all the internal strife and heartwarming triumphs from this unprecedented trip, as players and coaches learned to cooperate and trust one another. He reveals how the team used this newfound trust to implement an innovative approach to volleyball that changed not only their success on the court but the sport itself on a global scale. Featuring original interviews with players, coaches, and staff, along with a foreword by three-time gold medal champion Karch Kiraly, If Gold Is Our Destiny delivers an inside look at what it takes for a group of talented individuals to overcome their differences, build a culture of excellence, and become the best in the world.

Discover the untapped power of the human mind

How do champions like Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic and Usain Bolt suppress their fear of failure and find the belief to win? How did Michael Phelps and Jessica Ennis-Hill visualise their own future? What exactly is 'The Zone'? And how do you get there?

Drawing on over one hundred exclusive interviews with the world's elite stars of sports ranging from boxing to rugby union, Formula One to the Paralympics, Clyde Brolin sets out to discover the secrets of true success and show how they can be used by all of us in our own lives, whoever we are.

Unternehmen und Organisationen befinden sich in einem tiefgreifenden Wandel und haben es schwer, qualitativ gutes Personal zu rekrutieren und die Mitarbeitenden langfristig und emotional an das Unternehmen zu binden. Die Konkurrenzsituation auf dem Arbeitsmarkt hat sich stark verandert. Dieser Wandel bringt nicht nur Risiken, sondern auch Chancen mit sich. Die Bedeutung und die Wichtigkeit von Teams setzen sich nicht nur im Sport, sondern auch in der Wirtschaft immer starker durch. Marco Meier liefert zu den Bereichen Teamgeist und Zusammenhalt, Rahmenbedingungen und Regeneration, Ziele und messbare Erfolge sowie Flexibilitat wertvolle Hinweise und praktische Handlungsempfehlungen fur Unternehmen und Organisationen, um neues und aktuelles Personal emotional und langfristig an sich zu binden. Der Autor: Der Sportmanager (B.A.) und Wirtschaftspsychologe (M.A.) Marco Meier ist langjahriger Fussballtrainer von Herren- und Jugendmannschaften im Amateur- und Leistungsbereich. Er hat sich in den Bereichen Coaching, Training und Beratung fur Sportler, Privatpersonen und Unternehmen selbststandig gemacht. Er ist ausserdem Lehrbeauftragter an den Fakultaten Sportmanagement und Wirtschaftspsychologie der Hochschule fur angewandtes Management (HAM) in Ismaning.

Individual Motivation within Groups: Social Loafing and Motivation Gains in Work, Academic, and Sports Teams explores the state of our scientific understanding of when and why individuals are most and least likely to work hard as members of groups and work teams. This book addresses key psychological phenomena such as social loafing, social dilemmas, social facilitation, and ostracism, with each chapter creating connections to related topics such as leadership, performance in learning groups, isolated teams, and more. This volume provides a summary of the field's history, synthesizes related research, and, using the Collective Effort Model and other key motivational theories, looks at the current level of understanding of both motivation losses and gains in groups. Individual Motivation within Groups is a vital resource for social, organizational, and applied psychologists as well as academics and researchers in these fields and related areas such as leadership and team performance.

This book offers a conceptual and practical guide to the systematic review process and its application to sport, exercise, and physical activity research. It begins by describing what systematic reviews are and why they assist scientists and practitioners. Providing step-by-step instructions the author leads readers through the process, including generation of suitable review questions; development and implementation of search strategies; data extraction and analysis; theoretical interpretation; and result dissemination. Conducting Systematic Reviews in Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity clarifies several common misunderstandings including the difference between qualitative systematic reviews and meta-analyses . Each chapter begins with a set of learning objectives focused on practical application, illustrated with examples from reviews published within the sport, exercise, and physical activity fields. Once a reader has completed all the learning activities along the way, they will have designed a systematic review and have written a protocol ready for registration. The book ends with a collection of advice from internationally regarded scientists with substantial experience in systematic reviews.

Mental health within elite sport has traditionally been ignored, but recent research has shown that competitive sport can at times seriously undermine mental health and that athletes are exposed to specific stressors that hinder their mental health optimisation. Mental Health and Well-being Interventions in Sport provides an indispensable guide for researchers and practitioners wanting to understand and implement sport-based intervention processes. This important book adopts an evidenced based approach, discussing the context of the intervention, its design and implementation, and its evaluation and legacy. With cases on depression, eating disorders, and athletic burnout, the book is designed to provide practitioners, policy makers and researchers with a cutting-edge overview of the key issues involved in this burgeoning area, while also including cases on how sport itself has been used as a method to improve mental health. Written for newcomers and established practitioners alike, the text is an essential read for researchers and practitioners in better understanding the sport setting-based intervention processes through presenting current research, theory and practice, applicable in a variety of sports settings and contexts.

Achievement Motivation: Perspectives, Influences and Outcomes aims to examine the definition and measurement of achievement motivation in sport. A systematic search of the literature was undertaken to identify relevant self-report scales, and each scale is critiqued by describing its general properties, factor structure, evidence of reliability and validity, and potential applications. Next, the authors examine competition, which is a state and trait variable related to achievement motivation, and the relationship it has to behavioural, physiological, and affective outcomes during virtual reality-based sport and exercise. The concluding study sets out to determine the relationship between the level of anxiety and student learning motivation, the relationship between student anxiety levels and student learning achievement, the relationship between learning motivation and student learning achievement, and the relationship between the level of anxiety and student learning motivation simultaneously on student learning achievement.

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The drive to be #1 in a professional field or on a playing field is a powerful source of motivation for many people. Others place a higher priority on becoming a better person. "Embracing Your Potential" explains how to achieve excellence and balance in both the performance and personal domains of life.

Author Terry Orlick labels these two domains as the ""Gold"" and ""Green"" zones. The Gold Zone includes the visible, tangible achievement markers, such as career advancement, win-loss records, and financial status. The Green Zone involves relationships and intellectual, spiritual, and cultural pursuits. Orlick argues that ""going for the Gold"" need not-and should not-require sacrificing the growth and development of the Green, and that the two zones can be nurtured simultaneously.

Both inspirational and practical, "Embracing Your Potential" shares insights and quotes from elite athletes, performers, and people in highly demanding jobs. It also features 30 exercises that can help readers make meaningful, lasting changes to boost their performance and enrich their lives.

"Embracing Your Potential" applies to people from all walks of life that want to excel and yet enjoy every day in the process.

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Neuropsychologists are increasingly involved in the assessment and management of sports-related concussion. This is the only book to provide practical guidelines for evaluating mild head injury and making crucial return-to-play decisions for athletes at all levels, from schoolchildren to high school, college, and professional players. Essential basic knowledge is presented and exemplary concussion management programs are described in depth. Coverage encompasses the most sophisticated, evidence-based neurocognitive techniques, including computerized test batteries for pre- and postconcussion assessment. With special attention to ethical and professional issues, the book provides keys to successful collaboration with physicians, coaches and trainers, and patients and their families.

In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the IOC began to test for gender--a shift that allowed the organization to control the very idea of womanhood. Ranging from Cold War tensions to gender anxiety to controversies around doping, Lindsay Parks Pieper explores sex testing in sport from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Pieper examines how the IOC in particular insisted on a misguided binary notion of gender that privileged Western norms. Testing evolved into a tool to identify--and eliminate--athletes the IOC deemed too strong, too fast, or too successful. Pieper shows how this system punished gifted women while hindering the development of women's athletics for decades. She also reveals how the flawed notions behind testing--ideas often sexist, racist, or ridiculous--degraded the very idea of female athleticism.

The present compilation marks the fifth consecutive year that Athletic Insight has teamed with Nova Science on the development of a compendium of writings from the journal. This year's contributions feature a series of international scholars from Canada, the United States, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Norway, and Israel. Upon review of these submissions, one also finds an interesting turn on the part of the journal -- that over half of the submissions are from outside of North America. More broadly speaking, submissions were received from five continents, excluding the Arctic and Antarctica. Dissect the submissions further and you will recognise several senior authors within these submissions, including Ronnie Lidor, Craig Wrisberg, Diane Gill, David Lavallee, Theodore Butryn, Tatiana Ryba, and several more. Personally, I am quite excited by the series of authors and diversity in topic matter found in this compendium. I dare say that this year's compendium is the strongest offered by Athletic Insight to date. On behalf of the publisher and the editorial staff, I hope you enjoy the chapters that follow. What follows is a brief review of the contributions found in this compendium and then the accepted publications from 2013. Robert Schinke, Ed.D., Editor of Athletic Insight Canada Research Chair in Multicultural Sport and Physical Activity.

This book provides a forum for discussion of topics that are relevant to the field of sport psychology. The subjects covered will include theory, research, and practice of sport psychology, as well as social issues related to the field of athletics. Some topics discussed include the assimilation and delivery of acceptance-based behavioural interventions in sport psychology; peer review processes and implications for sport and exercise psychology; understanding exercise and the self through critical self-awareness and aesthetic self-stylisation; internet usage patterns and ethical concerns in exercise psychology; mental techniques and preparation strategies used by Olympic Gold medallists; the psychological components of elite cycling; student athlete's transition to high achievement sport; performance enhancement and stress reduction using biofeedback; measuring motivation for physical activity; and demographic characteristics and motivational patterns of masters level competitive cyclists.

This edition, similar to last year's, feature the accepted publications to Athletic Insight, released in 2010. This book focuses on topics such as mental toughness, perfectionism, team dynamics, team building, moral behavior, stress, athletic transitions, attentional focus, environmental influences on performance, coach-athlete relations, athlete affect, and social-physique factors. The targeted populations for the aforementioned topics are comprised of professional athletes, elite amateur athletes, youth sport athletes, and those engaging in physical activity.

Sports medicine is an area of health and special services that apply medical and scientific knowledge to prevent, recognise, manage, and rehabilitate injuries related to sport, exercise, or recreational activity. This book examines research in the study of sports medicine, as well as training tools used to increase endurance and improve performance in athletics. Topics discussed include wrestling with herpes; steroids in interscholastic athletics; the importance of parent physical activity levels in children's health; biomechanics of martial arts; bioenergetical assessment and training control in cyclic sports and the reasons why college athletes continue to play through pain during competition.

This book provides an examination of professional and legal sports today with a focus on the congressional response to selected work stoppages in professional sports; the manufacturing, licensing and marketing of team and league-logoed and trademarked clothing and merchandise; and the issue of tax preferences for collegiate sports.

To perform better in any situation - in your career, hobbies, relationships, or in any facet of your life - it is critical to develop psychological skills, which, just like physical abilities, can be taught, learned, and practiced. Both as individuals and as groups, we can tone these psychological skills and use them to heighten awareness, foster talents and technical abilities, and reach peak performance. Mental preparedness and psychological awareness are the keys to thriving in any environment. Few understand the importance of psychological skills better than the internationally recognized professor Michael Bar-Eli. As both a sports and organizational psychologist for more than 35 years, Bar-Eli has not only researched the science of performance but has also worked directly with elite athletes, coaches, and teams to help them improve their success on the court or field. Boost! takes the lessons he's learned from sports psychology and translates them for leaders and managers at any stage in their career. With prescriptive advice, Bar-Eli illustrates how anyone can apply these lessons to better support and inspire co-workers and employees and create a sustainable, successful working environment and business. Boost! breaks down the complex behavioral science of getting ahead. Through original scientific research, unique case studies, and anecdotes from the world of sports and beyond, Bar-Eli explains the psychological underpinnings of human behavior and how we can harness this knowledge to perform at our highest levels, succeeding in our careers and personal lives.

Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise, Fourth Edition, reflects the latest developments in the field of sport and exercise psychology and presents various applications in a range of physical activity settings. The text emphasizes practical theory, which allows students pursuing careers in teaching, coaching, consulting, exercise instruction and leadership, sports medicine, rehabilitation, and athletic training environments to enhance physical activity experiences for all based on the best available knowledge. With emphasis on practical application, readers can incorporate sport and exercise psychology into both their professional and personal experiences. Authors Diane L. Gill, Lavon Williams, and Erin J. Reifsteck highlight key theoretical work and research to provide guidelines for using sport and exercise psychology in professional practice and personal physical activities. The fourth edition of Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise includes reorganized, revised content and relevant, up-to-date research to emphasize the areas of change and growth in the field in recent years. Specific updates to this edition include the following: * Part IV on emotion is now expanded to include two in-depth chapters-one focusing on emotion and performance and one on physical activity and mental health-as well as a third chapter on stress management * Part III on the popular topic of motivation is reorganized to emphasize contemporary research and connections to professional practice. * The chapter on aggression and social development now includes more current research on prosocial and antisocial behavior as well as an expanded section on positive youth development. * In-class and out-of-class lab activities replace case studies to provide scenario-based, experiential activities for a more applied learning experience. * Updated end-of-chapter summaries, review questions, and recommended readings reinforce key concepts and encourage further study. * Application Point sidebars have been updated to cover a wide variety of professions in order to connect the content with real-world application. * A newly added image bank helps instructors prepare class lectures. Content is organized into five parts representing major topics that are found in sport and exercise psychology curriculums. Part I provides an orientation, with chapters covering the scope, historical development, and current approaches to sport and exercise psychology. Part II focuses on the individual, with chapters on personality, attention and cognitive skills, and self-perceptions. Part III covers the broad topic of motivation, addressing the why question of physical activity behavior. Part IV looks at emotion, including the relationship between physical activity and emotion as well as stress management. Part V considers social processes in chapters on social influence, social development, and group dynamics, as well as cultural diversity. With more in-depth coverage than introductory-level texts, Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise, Fourth Edition, brings sport and exercise psychology to life for students as they prepare for their professional lives. Emphasis is placed on sport and exercise psychology concepts as they apply to three key areas off kinesiology professions: physical education teaching, coaching, and consulting; exercise instruction and fitness leadership; and sports medicine, rehabilitation, and athletic training. By focusing on these professional settings, readers will understand how psychology concepts are integral to real-world situations outside of the classroom.

"Measurement in Sport and Exercise Psychology" provides a complete analysis of the tools and methods used in sport and exercise psychology research. Each chapter of this accessible text presents key measurement variables and concepts, including their definitions; an evaluation of the measurement constructs and tools available; and an explanation of any controversies in each topic. The text includes access to an online resource that presents 14 measurement instruments in their entirety. This resource also contains additional web links to many other measurement instruments.

Drawing on their experience as leading researchers in the field, editors Tenenbaum, Eklund, and Kamata have selected a team of recognized scholars to bring both breadth and depth to this essential resource. By thoroughly examining each measurement tool, "Measurement in Sport and Exercise Psychology" assists readers in determining strengths and limitations of each tool and discovering which tools are best suited to their research projects. Readers will also gain critical knowledge to expand the field by recognizing opportunities for new methods of measurement and evaluation.

The text begins with a historical review of measurement in sport and exercise psychology followed by a comprehensive description of theories and measurement issues. It provides detailed information regarding ethical and cultural issues inherent in the selection of specific testing protocols as well as issues in interpreting meta-analysis. This is followed by discussion of the commonly used constructs and inventories in three areas: cognition, perception, and motivation measurement; emotion (affect) and coping measurement; and social and behavioral measurement.

Recommendations for researchers and practitioners included at the end of each chapter provide starting points for considering ways to incorporate chapter content into research projects and professional practice. Tables located at the end of each chapter summarize key information for quick reference and provide online sources, when available, so that readers can access each measurement tool. Original source information is provided for those tools not available online.

"Measurement in Sport and Exercise Psychology" assists readers in evaluating the effectiveness of specific measurement tools. As the most complete and up-to-date directory of tools and inventories in the field of sport and exercise, this text offers a thorough explanation of considerations, controversies, recommendations, and locations for accessing these measurement tools.

What makes a great sport psychologist? Is there an ideal style or approach? What do you need to consider when working with a client? In this practical guide, Richard Keegan presents a user-friendly model of the sport psychologist's consulting processes and offers a framework for understanding best practice. Whether you are a trainee or a qualified sport psychologist, this book will help you to deliver a consistent, transparent, effective and ethical service at all levels of sport. Being a Sport Psychologist: - Provides a clear and coherent model which accommodates different styles, philosophies and experience levels; - Contains worksheets to help you record, evaluate, understand and reflect; - Offers a range of useful case studies and examples; - Is the first book to describe the process of being a sport psychologist from beginning to end.

In his quest to define 'sporting greatness', double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee has spent nearly 4 years interviewing and training with some of the greatest minds in sport to discover what it takes to become - and remain - a champion. Featuring: Ian Botham * Mark Cavendish * Alastair Cook * Alex Danson * Richard Dunwoody * Donna Fraser * Chris Froome * Anna Hemmings * Denis Irwin * Michael Johnson * Kilian Jornet * Stuart Lancaster * AP McCoy * Ronnie O'Sullivan * Michael Owen * Adam Peaty * Ian Poulter * Paula Radcliffe * Ian Thorpe * Mark Webber * Shane Williams From an early age Alistair Brownlee has been obsessed with being the very best, and not just improving his sporting performance across his three specialist triathlon disciplines of swimming, cycling and running, but also understanding how a winner becomes a dominant champion. Winning gold in consecutive Olympic Games has only strengthened this need and desire. Over the last 4 years Alistair has been on a journey to learn from the best, talking to elite figures across multiple sports as well as leading thinkers and scientists, to understand what enabled these remarkable individuals to rise to the very top, and to push the limits of human capability in their relentless pursuit of perfection. Alistair uses these fascinating interviews, along with extensive research, to explore a range of sports and environments - athletics, cycling, football, rugby, horseracing, hockey, cricket, golf, motor racing, snooker, swimming and ultra-running - to reveal how talent alone is never enough and how hard work, pain, pressure, stress, risk, focus, sacrifice, innovation, reinvention, passion, ruthlessness, luck, failure and even a lockdown can all play a crucial part in honing a winning mentality and achieving sustained success.

- 'An excellent book that will be of great benefit to those who feel lost and overwhelmed. Don Macpherson has a gift for guiding us gently back to the path.' DAMON HILL OBE, 1996 Formula One Champion - 'I guarantee this book can help everyone in some shape or form.' ANTHONY WATSON, England Rugby International Are you a worrier? Do stress and anxiety cloud your mind? Do you ever really sleep properly? For the first time, in this book, renowned mind coach Don Macpherson will share his ten simple tools to help you turn down the volume on the negative chatter in your head and take back control of your life. With more than 25 years' experience in his field, his techniques have turned around the performances of countless elite sports stars from the worlds of Formula One, rugby union and tennis. Don will show you how to find your inner confidence, be more assertive and change your life for the better. *Includes FREE audio download* 'Don has the ability to understand and navigate what can be a minefield of distractions and issues.' PAT CASH, 1987 Wimbledon Champion 'Anyone can benefit from Don's wisdom - especially right now.' CLYDE BROLIN, author of In the Zone __________ WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: ***** 'Essential reading, showing us how to take back control of our minds and our lives.' ***** 'Brilliant book that makes sense of our nonsensical human minds!' ***** 'You've changed my life, Don... I'm thankful for your book.'

In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the IOC began to test for gender--a shift that allowed the organization to control the very idea of womanhood. Ranging from Cold War tensions to gender anxiety to controversies around doping, Lindsay Parks Pieper explores sex testing in sport from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Pieper examines how the IOC in particular insisted on a misguided binary notion of gender that privileged Western norms. Testing evolved into a tool to identify--and eliminate--athletes the IOC deemed too strong, too fast, or too successful. Pieper shows how this system punished gifted women while hindering the development of women's athletics for decades. She also reveals how the flawed notions behind testing--ideas often sexist, racist, or ridiculous--degraded the very idea of female athleticism.