Mental Skills for Athletes: A Workbook for Competitive Success is a step-by-step guide for developing a toolbox of mental skills. In this user-friendly workbook, Dr. Betsy Shoenfelt compiles materials from over 35 years of experience as a performance psychologist working to achieve competitive excellence, creating the go-to resource for athletes and coaches in any sport and at any level. The book includes succinct, easily understood explanations of key mental skills based on the science of performance excellence. It discusses both cognitive and physical skills to ensure competitive success, covering a range of topics including focus, confidence, resilience, mindfulness, motivation, role clarity, problem solving, team values, and strategic goal setting. Shoenfelt includes over 25 different exercises to ensure the reader can readily apply these skills across a variety of sports and across all levels of competition, from high school to Olympic athletes. Worksheets encourage a hands-on approach and provide structure to guide the appropriate implementation of mental skills for each athlete. Examples of completed worksheets help demonstrate to the reader how to best utilize these resources. This book is essential for early career sport psychology practitioners across the globe, as well as aspiring graduate students. The book is an invaluable resource for coaches and athletes at all levels.

The Complete Guide to Sports Massage, 4th edition is a comprehensive, practical handbook. This is the must-have guide for students of sports therapy and anyone wanting a performance advantage. Featuring updated photography and the latest techniques, this is a comprehensive, practical handbook on a key branch of sports therapy, and covers the core syllabus for levels 3 and 4 Sports Massage diplomas. Sports massage is the skilled manipulation of soft tissue for: the relief and treatment of muscle soreness and pain; the maintenance of muscle balance and improved flexibility; and enhanced rehabilitation from injury. Packed with jargon-free information, this fully updated guide includes step-by-step photography and detailed text explaining the principles and techniques of massage, injury management and post-massage care, as well as practical guidance on working at a sports event.

Many parts of the athlete's body are important for performance, such as strong muscles and bones; healthy lungs and heart; and several sensory systems, including the vision, touch, and joint position senses, and the vestibular system for balance. However, the critical element for athletic performance is, "not what you have but how you use it." The organ that decides "how you use it" is the brain. This book explains how the brain allows the athlete to perform. The book starts with an outline of brain anatomy, which is necessary to understand how the brain functions. The book then outlines many critical aspects of the athlete's brain, including learning motor skills; decision-making; hand preference; visual perception of speed, distance, and direction; balance; emotions and mood. Finally, the book discusses the adverse influence of brain injuries.

Positive Pedagogy is an athlete-centred, inquiry-based approach that transforms the way we understand learning and coaching in sport. This book demonstrates how Positive Pedagogy for sport coaching (PPed) can be successfully employed across a range of sports and levels of performance, while also providing insight into coaches' experiences. Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, the book introduces the key concepts that underpin Positive Pedagogy and offers detailed case studies of Positive Pedagogy in action, with reflections from practising coaches. It also provides more detail and direction for coaches interested in implementing the approach. This new edition moves beyond coaching in individual sports to explain how Positive Pedagogy can be applied to all sport coaching across a wide range of sports, including basketball, baseball, football, rugby, boxing, swimming, track and field athletics, as well as strength and conditioning. Positive Pedagogy for sport coaching both improves performance and promotes positive learning experiences across all ages and abilities. This book is invaluable reading for all sports coaching students as well as any practising coaches or physical education teachers looking to improve or even transform their professional practice.

Ensuring high levels of performance and safety in hot climates is a key consideration for sport scientists and coaches. Maximising Performance in Hot Environments is the first book with a project-based approach to focus solely on exercise in this common climactic condition, providing students and coaches with a clear and concise introduction to working with athletes in the heat. Rigorous in its physiological underpinnings, the book adopts a problem-based learning approach, encouraging students to engage with the science and apply it to practical, real-world scenarios. Posing questions such as "how should athletes be monitored in high temperatures", "what are the ideal conditions for setting a world record in a 10,000m race", and "what special considerations should be made when working with masters athletes", the book covers all key topics, including: The basics of human thermoregulation The effect of high temperatures on performance Heat acclimation and acclimatisation Cooling Hydration Preventing heat-related illness and injury Offering pedagogical features throughout to further enhance student learning, this is a truly innovative and unique resource. It is crucial reading for any student taking classes in environmental physiology, important applied reading for any exercise physiology students, and a vital companion for any sport scientist or coach working with athletes in high temperatures.

Mental Skills for Athletes: A Workbook for Competitive Success is a step-by-step guide for developing a toolbox of mental skills. In this user-friendly workbook, Dr. Betsy Shoenfelt compiles materials from over 35 years of experience as a performance psychologist working to achieve competitive excellence, creating the go-to resource for athletes and coaches in any sport and at any level. The book includes succinct, easily understood explanations of key mental skills based on the science of performance excellence. It discusses both cognitive and physical skills to ensure competitive success, covering a range of topics including focus, confidence, resilience, mindfulness, motivation, role clarity, problem solving, team values, and strategic goal setting. Shoenfelt includes over 25 different exercises to ensure the reader can readily apply these skills across a variety of sports and across all levels of competition, from high school to Olympic athletes. Worksheets encourage a hands-on approach and provide structure to guide the appropriate implementation of mental skills for each athlete. Examples of completed worksheets help demonstrate to the reader how to best utilize these resources. This book is essential for early career sport psychology practitioners across the globe, as well as aspiring graduate students. The book is an invaluable resource for coaches and athletes at all levels.

The psychological health of competitive athletes is of paramount importance to performance, retention, and well-being in sport, and national governing bodies are increasingly concerned with its promotion. Psychosocial Health and Well-being in High-Level Athletes offers students, researchers, and practicing sport psychologists an accessible and rigorous grounding in the manifestations of psychosocial health in athletes, the threats athletes face to their psychosocial health, and the interventions which can be designed to enhance it. Seeking to guide future research and expand professional understanding of psychosocial issues in sport, the book is based on a model of cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual health. It clearly defines these dimensions in a sporting context before discussing pertinent threats-such as career transitions, injuries and abuse-and interventions, including adversarial growth, life-skill interventions, prevention and organization policy, and mindfulness-based interventions. Providing an innovative and integrated perspective on psychosocial health and well-being in competitive sport, this book is essential reading for upper-level students taking any clincial sport psychology modules, and for sport psychologists, coaches, and administrators working with competitive athletes.

Despite the prevalence of behavioral research conducted through genetic studies, there is an absence of literature pertaining to the genetics of motor behavior. Genetics and the Psychology of Motor Performance is the first book to integrate cutting-edge genetic research into the study of the psychological aspects of motor learning and control. The book's central line of enquiry revolves around the extent to which psychological factors central to motor proficiency - including personality, emotion, self-regulation, motivation, and perceptual-cognitive skills - are acquired or inherited. It explains how these factors affect motor performance, distilling the latest research into their genetic underpinnings and, in doing so, assessing the magnitude of the role genetics plays in the stages of motor development, from early proficiency through to expertise. Written by leading experts in the genetics of human performance and exercise psychology, and thoroughly illustrated throughout, Genetics and the Psychology of Motor Performance is a crucial resource for any upper-level student or researcher seeking a deeper understanding of motor learning. It is an important book for anyone studying or working in exercise psychology, motor development, exercise genetics, or exercise physiology more broadly.

This book is the first to combine principles from analytics, complex systems theory, multi-disciplinary diagnostics and sport performance analysis. It considers athletes, teams, and sport organizations in individual and team games as complex systems, and demonstrates how complexity studies can enrich analytics and give us a more sophisticated understanding of the causalities of winning and losing in sports. Part I introduces the basic categories of analytics and their uses in elite sport. Part II presents an original conception of sport analytics both as a complex of different kinds of processes and as a complexity-adapted view of human systems acting in sport performance and management. Part III considers the main principles of complex sport analytics, expanding the prism of complexity to include all levels of a sport organization from athletes, coaches and trainers to top decision makers, and suggests practical applications and simulations for cases of both individual and team sports. This is illuminating reading for any advanced student, researcher or practitioner working in sport analytics, performance analysis, coaching science or sport management.

Fatigue is a condition spanning the breadth of human functioning in health and disease and is a central concern in sport and exercise. Even so we are yet to fully understand its causes. One reason for this lack of understanding is that we seldom consider fatigue from an evolutionary perspective - as an adaptation that provided reproductive success. This ground-breaking book outlines the evidence that fatigue is a result of adaptations distinctive to humans. It argues that humans developed adaptations which led to enhanced fatigue resistance compared with other mammals and discusses the implications in the context of exercise, health and performance. Highly illustrated throughout, it covers topics such as defining and measuring fatigue, the emotional aspect of fatigue, how thermoregulation affects the human capacity to resist fatigue, and fatigue in disease. Human Fatigue is essential reading for all exercise scientists as well as graduate and undergraduate students in the broad field of physiology and exercise physiology.

Fundamental Biomechanics of Sport and Exercise is an engaging and comprehensive introductory textbook that explains biomechanical concepts from first principles, showing clearly how the science relates to real sport and exercise situations. The book is divided into two parts. The first provides a clear and detailed introduction to the structure and function of the human musculoskeletal system and its structural adaptations, essential for a thorough understanding of human movement. The second part focuses on the biomechanics of movement, describing the forces that act on the human body and the effects of those forces on the movement of the body. Every chapter includes numerous applied examples from sport and exercise, helping the student to understand how mechanical concepts describe both simple and complex movements, from running and jumping to pole-vaulting or kicking a football. In addition, innovative worksheets for field and laboratory work are included that contain clear objectives, a description of method, data recording sheets, plus a set of exemplary data and worked analysis. Alongside these useful features are definitions of key terms plus review questions to aid student learning, with detailed solutions provided for all numerical questions. No other textbook offers such a clear, easy-to-understand introduction to the fundamentals of biomechanics. This is an essential textbook for any biomechanics course taken as part of degree programme in sport and exercise science, kinesiology, physical therapy, sports coaching or athletic training.

Recognition of concussion as a serious injury, informed by neurological and physiological research, is now commonplace in sport. However, research on the psychology of concussive injury-its psychological implications and outcomes, and psychological interventions for prevention and recovery-has largely been overlooked. This is the first book to explicitly and authoritatively set out the psychological aspects of sport-related concussion from a multidisciplinary and global perspective The book attempts to offer a global understanding of the injury by presenting an historical overview; exploring the psychological implications of sport-related concussion and the influence of gender and sociocultural context on concussive injury and recovery; setting out practical guidance on working with special populations suffering from concussive injuries; and discussing the theoretical and methodological considerations for research on concussion and future directions for this research. Written by a group of leading international experts and offering a hitherto underdeveloped perspective on this crucial area of sports injury research, this book is crucial reading for any upper-level student, researcher, sport scientist, coach, or allied health professional working on sport-related concussion. It is also valuable reading for students and researchers interested in the psychosocial processes that impact injury and recovery or general professional practice in sport psychology.

In recent times, the ASEP (American Society of Exercise Physiologists) leaders have developed and implemented academic standards to promote professionalism in academic programs throughout the U.S. The effort represents a significant change in the scope and the monitoring of the exercise physiologists' accountability. Through these new standards, all academic exercise physiologists are challenged by ASEP to accept responsibility for promoting the professionalization and self-regulation that will lead to lead to improved client and patient care when prescribing exercise medicine. Accreditation helps to reduce unnecessary variation within and between academic programs. Moreover, given the collaborative improvement in academic programs and faculty responsibility to the undergraduate students, the quality of their educational care will be significantly improved. Academic exercise physiologists must take responsibility for where exercise physiology is today and take responsibility to the evolving state of exercise physiology and student market-driven career opportunities in exercise medicine. Advancing the Profession of Exercise Physiology provides understanding and guidance on the importance and the significance of academic leadership in promoting the profession of exercise physiology as a healthcare profession that is founded on professionalism, accreditation, ethical practice, and entrepreneurial skills. This new volume examines the ethical need for professionalism in exercise physiology, which is, in turn, imperative for future growth and sustainability.

In recent times, the ASEP (American Society of Exercise Physiologists) leaders have developed and implemented academic standards to promote professionalism in academic programs throughout the U.S. The effort represents a significant change in the scope and the monitoring of the exercise physiologists' accountability. Through these new standards, all academic exercise physiologists are challenged by ASEP to accept responsibility for promoting the professionalization and self-regulation that will lead to lead to improved client and patient care when prescribing exercise medicine. Accreditation helps to reduce unnecessary variation within and between academic programs. Moreover, given the collaborative improvement in academic programs and faculty responsibility to the undergraduate students, the quality of their educational care will be significantly improved. Academic exercise physiologists must take responsibility for where exercise physiology is today and take responsibility to the evolving state of exercise physiology and student market-driven career opportunities in exercise medicine. Advancing the Profession of Exercise Physiology provides understanding and guidance on the importance and the significance of academic leadership in promoting the profession of exercise physiology as a healthcare profession that is founded on professionalism, accreditation, ethical practice, and entrepreneurial skills. This new volume examines the ethical need for professionalism in exercise physiology, which is, in turn, imperative for future growth and sustainability.

Exercise dependence or addiction has been described as a 'positive addiction', but it can have links with damaging dysfunctional and excessive behaviours, including eating disorders. Clinical and sport psychologists now acknowledge the condition and report that it can be found in recreational exercisers and competitive athletes. This is the first text to provide a comprehensive guide to exercise dependence. The text contains case studies and reviews research into exercise dependence in both 'exercise' and 'sports' contexts. The authors examine the condition in the widest sense, exploring different types of exercise dependence, risk factors associated with the condition, the experiences and motivational characteristics of sufferers, links with eating disorders, and a number of approaches to counselling. This text will be of significant interest to psychologists working in sport, health and clinical practice, as well as to athletes and sports coaches, particularly those involved in endurance sports associated with higher incidences of exercise dependence.

For the last 25 years, a constraints-based framework has helped to inform the way that many sport scientists seek to understand performance, learning design and the development of expertise and talent in sport. The Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design provides students and practitioners with the theoretical knowledge required to implement constraints-led approaches in their work. Seeking to bridge the divide between theory and practice, the book sets out an 'environment design framework', including practical tools and guidance for the application of the framework in coaching and skill acquisition settings. It includes chapters on constraints-led approaches in golf, athletics and hockey, and provides applied reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of motor learning, skill acquisition and developing sport expertise. Providing a thorough grounding in the theory behind constraints-led approaches to skill acquisition, and a foundational cornerstone in the Routledge Studies in Constraints-Based Methodologies in Sport series, this is a vital pedagogical resource for students and practising sports coaches, physical education teachers and sport scientists alike.

The ability to anticipate and make accurate decisions in a timely manner is fundamental to high-level performance in sport. This is the first book to identify the underlying science behind anticipation and decision making in sport, enhancing our scientific understanding of these phenomena and helping practitioners to develop interventions to facilitate the more rapid acquisition of the perceptual-cognitive skills that underpin these judgements. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach - encompassing research from psychology, biomechanics, neuroscience, physiology, computing science, and performance analysis - the book is divided into three sections. The first section provides a comprehensive analysis of the processes and mechanisms underpinning anticipation and skilled perception in sport. In the second section, the focus shifts towards exploring the science of decision making in sport. The final section is more applied, outlining how the key skills that impact on anticipation and decision making may be facilitated through various training interventions. With chapters written by leading experts from a vast range of countries and continents, no other book offers such a synthesis of the historical development of the field, contemporary research, and future areas for investigation in anticipation and decision making in sport. This is a fascinating and important text for students and researchers in sport psychology, skill acquisition, expert performance, motor learning, motor behaviour, and coaching science, as well as practicing coaches from any sport.

This book explores the global developments in sport leadership and practice. Drawing on the vast and ever-growing leadership literature, the book examines advances in leadership theory and practice in the context of the challenges faced by those working in global sport management positions. It explores the various dimensions of leadership, with a particular focus on the development of leadership theory. It also looks at the operational and contextual elements of leadership in a global sport environment and finally reflects on the status quo, and explores future challenges and research opportunities for leadership and global sport management.

Managers in child-centred settings need to be able to draw on a wide range of personal and professional skills to ensure that they are providing the best possible service. Now in its third edition, Essential Skills for Managers of Child-Centred Settings looks at how you can develop the key leadership skills needed to manage people to achieve excellent settings for children. The authors outline ten 'essential skills' for leading and supporting those around you in your child-centred settings and offer sound advice so you can build your personal and professional skills and become a confident and assertive manager. With a balance of both accessible theory and practical application from a wide range of settings, this book explains management theory and will help you to develop the skills to: become a confident leader set clear aims and objectives for your setting manage your time effectively make decisions and implement change build and develop a team reflect on and develop practice deal with difficult situations and people. This book also contains case studies and 'real-life' scenarios from managers undertaking training with the authors which will ensure you provide an excellent service in your setting. No manager or leader should be without this user-friendly guide!

first book to consider the relationship between sport psychology provision and Christianity from a welfare and performance perspective. holistic and Inter-disciplinary approach international group of contributors cover a wide range of topics

In June 2018 Leeds United made an appointment that shocked the footballing world. Despite being stuck in the second tier of English football and tagged the Championship's perennial chokers, they attracted one of the most revered coaches in world football. What followed captivated the hearts and minds of Leeds United's legion of passionate supporters worldwide. Marcelo Bielsa has crafted a team in his image, a team that plays in an almost bewildering attacking style with fluidity across the pitch. Leeds have become synonymous with exciting, attacking, vertical football and this style has seen them promoted back to the Premier League. Professional football analyst Lee Scott explains how, breaking down the tactics that have made Leeds so successful during Bielsa's time. He shows just how they occupy spaces and overload defences; how they press and cut off passing lanes to deny the opposition space to attack in the defensive phase; and more than that, he delves into Bielsa's mindset, to explain what makes the Argentine mastermind tick.

Often football coaches find that to keep their players motivated and engaged, they must create new practices every week. But when there are those particular practices that the players enjoy playing again and again which also provide the ideal environment for them to develop, why not use them more than once? Essential Practices for Player Development will provide the reader with 10 core football practice sessions that the players will find both enjoyable and challenging and that the coach will find develops key areas of the game. There are 9 adaptations provided with each core practice, making 100 practices in total. Every practice is linked to one key area of the game that is identified as being essential to player development. To support practice delivery, the book additionally covers key aspects of session planning so that the most effective learning environment can be produced for the players. Also included is information on long-term player development, recognizing and supporting individual player needs, interventions, and player challenges. This book is not only a resource for football coaches just starting out on their coaching journey, but it is also for more experienced coaches looking to adapt their practice sessions. All practices provided can be used exclusively to create training curriculum for a full season, meaning there is no need for a coach to create a new session every week. The sessions can also be used to form the foundations of the curriculum, leaving room for a coach to add in those favorite practices. Essential Practices for Player Development is a book coaches will refer back to time and again.

Elite athletes lead a particular way of life, which creates significant learning and shapes their selves. This is the first sociological-pedagogical text to conceptualise athlete learning in elite sport and across athletic careers. It outlines theories of learning and argues for a cultural perspective capturing contextual influence, temporal changes, individual dispositions, and subjectivity. Presented in three parts-landscaping elite sport and theorising athlete learning; showcasing athletes' learning in elite sport; and informing research and practice-the book features nine international, multi-contextual, and multi-experience case studies of athlete careers, experiences, and learning across individual and team sports such as boxing, rugby, basketball, hockey, and gymnastics. This is fascinating reading for students, researchers, and practitioners in sport organisations, sports coaching, coach education, and sport sociology and pedagogy.

Research shapes our understanding of practice in powerful and important ways, in sports coaching as in any other discipline. This innovative study explores the philosophical foundations of sport coaching research, examining the often implicit links between research process and practice, descriptions and prescriptions. Arguing that the assumptions of traditional single-disciplinary accounts, such as those based in psychology or sociology, risk over-simplifying our understanding of coaching, this book presents an alternative framework for sports coaching research based on critical realism. The result is an embedded, relational and emergent conception of coaching practice that opens new ways of thinking about coaching knowledge. Drawing on new empirical case study research, it demonstrates vividly how a critical realist-informed approach can provide a more realistic and accountable knowledge to coaching stakeholders. This knowledge promises to have important implications for coaching, and coach education and development practices. Sport Coaching Research and Practice: Ontology, Interdisciplinarity and Critical Realism is fascinating reading for any student or researcher working in sports coaching, sport pedagogy, physical education, the philosophy or sociology of sport, or research methodology in sport and exercise.