Sport psychologists working with athletes, teams and sports performers are only as effective as their professional techniques and competencies will allow. This is the first book to offer a detailed and critical appraisal of the conceptual foundations of contemporary professional practice in sport psychology. The book presents a series of reviews of the most up-to-date academic and professional literature on professional practice, exploring issues that all psychologists face when working with clients in sport, and offers important evidence-based recommendations for best practice. Key topics covered include:

• models of practice and service delivery
• counselling and clinical intervention
• working with teams
• working with young performers
• providing life skills training
• managing career transitions
• working with special populations
• enhancing coach-athlete relations.

With contributions from leading sport psychology consultants in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and continental Europe, this is a comprehensive and thought-provoking resource that bridges the gap between research and application. It is vital reading for all advanced students, researchers and professionals working in sport psychology.

Contemporary Advances in Sport Psychology brings together leading international researchers to showcase some of the most important emerging topics in contemporary sport psychology. Each chapter offers a comprehensive review of current knowledge and research on a cutting-edge theme, followed by in-depth discussion of conceptual and methodological issues, and then outlines potential avenues for further research. The book covers themes including: Contemporary personality perspectives Choking models of stress and performance Coping in sport Relational-efficacy beliefs Self-determination theory Transformational leadership Organizational psychology in sport Quantitative and qualitative methods in sport psychology The review format provides the perfect entry point for all researchers, advanced students or practitioners looking to engage with the latest research themes in contemporary sport psychology, offering a greater depth of discussion than the typical journal article. Informing knowledge generation, applied research and professional practice, Contemporary Advances in Sport Psychology is an essential addition to any sport science library.

• What are the challenges and potential pitfalls of real research?
• What decision-making process is followed by successful researchers?

The Research Process in Sport, Exercise and Health fills an important gap in the research methods literature. Conventional research methods textbooks focus on theory and descriptions of hypothetical techniques, while the peer-reviewed research literature is mainly concerned with discussion of data and the significance of results. In this book, a team of successful researchers from across the full range of sub-disciplines in sport, exercise and health discuss real pieces of research, describing the processes they went through, the decisions that they made, the problems they encountered and the things they would have done differently. As a result, the book goes further than any other in bringing the research process to life, helping students identify potential issues and problems with their own research right at the beginning of the process.

The book covers the whole span of the research process, including:

• identifying the research problem
• justifying the research question
• choosing an appropriate method
• data collection and analysis
• identifying a study s contribution to knowledge and/or applied practice
• disseminating results.

Featuring real-world studies from sport psychology, biomechanics, sports coaching, ethics in sport, sports marketing, health studies, sport sociology, performance analysis, and strength and conditioning, the book is an essential companion for research methods courses or dissertations on any sport or exercise degree programme.

Advances in Applied Sport Psychology aims to bridge the gap between research and practice in contemporary sport psychology. Now available in paperback, the book draws together reviews of cutting edge research in key areas of applied sport psychology, assesses the implications of this research for current practice, and explores future avenues of research within each thematic area.

This book surveys the scientific literature underpinning the most important skills and techniques employed in contemporary sport psychology, examining key topics such as:

• imagery
• goal setting
• self-talk
• stress management
• team building
• efficacy management
• attention control
• emotion regulation
• mental toughness.

Representing the most up-to-date review of current scientific research, theory and practice in sport psychology, this book is a vital resource for all advanced students, researchers and practitioners working with athletes and sports performers.

Advances in Applied Sport Psychology aims to bridge the gap between research and practice in contemporary sport psychology. Now available in paperback, the book draws together reviews of cutting edge research in key areas of applied sport psychology, assesses the implications of this research for current practice, and explores future avenues of research within each thematic area.

This book surveys the scientific literature underpinning the most important skills and techniques employed in contemporary sport psychology, examining key topics such as:

• imagery
• goal setting
• self-talk
• stress management
• team building
• efficacy management
• attention control
• emotion regulation
• mental toughness.

Representing the most up-to-date review of current scientific research, theory and practice in sport psychology, this book is a vital resource for all advanced students, researchers and practitioners working with athletes and sports performers.

Sport psychologists working with athletes, teams and sports performers are only as effective as their professional techniques and competencies will allow. This is the first book to offer a detailed and critical appraisal of the conceptual foundations of contemporary professional practice in sport psychology. The book presents a series of reviews of the most up-to-date academic and professional literature on professional practice, exploring issues that all psychologists face when working with clients in sport and offers important evidence-based recommendations for best practice. Key topics covered include: models of practice and service delivery counselling and clinical intervention working with teams working with young performers providing life skills training managing career transitions working with special populations enhancing coach-athlete relations. With contributions from leading sport psychology consultants in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and continental Europe, this is a comprehensive and thought-provoking resource that bridges the gap between research and application. It is vital reading for all advanced students, researchers and professionals working in sport psychology.

• What are the challenges and potential pitfalls of real research?
• What decision-making process is followed by successful researchers?

The Research Process in Sport, Exercise and Health fills an important gap in the research methods literature. Conventional research methods textbooks focus on theory and descriptions of hypothetical techniques, while the peer-reviewed research literature is mainly concerned with discussion of data and the significance of results. In this book, a team of successful researchers from across the full range of sub-disciplines in sport, exercise and health discuss real pieces of research, describing the processes they went through, the decisions that they made, the problems they encountered and the things they would have done differently. As a result, the book goes further than any other in bringing the research process to life, helping students identify potential issues and problems with their own research right at the beginning of the process.

The book covers the whole span of the research process, including:

• identifying the research problem
• justifying the research question
• choosing an appropriate method
• data collection and analysis
• identifying a study s contribution to knowledge and/or applied practice
• disseminating results.

Featuring real-world studies from sport psychology, biomechanics, sports coaching, ethics in sport, sports marketing, health studies, sport sociology, performance analysis, and strength and conditioning, the book is an essential companion for research methods courses or dissertations on any sport or exercise degree programme.

Contemporary Advances in Sport Psychology brings together leading international researchers to showcase some of the most important emerging topics in contemporary sport psychology. Each chapter offers a comprehensive review of current knowledge and research on a cutting-edge theme, followed by in-depth discussion of conceptual and methodological issues, and then outlines potential avenues for further research. The book covers themes including: Contemporary personality perspectives Choking models of stress and performance Coping in sport Relational-efficacy beliefs Self-determination theory Transformational leadership Organizational psychology in sport Quantitative and qualitative methods in sport psychology The review format provides the perfect entry point for all researchers, advanced students or practitioners looking to engage with the latest research themes in contemporary sport psychology, offering a greater depth of discussion than the typical journal article. Informing knowledge generation, applied research and professional practice, Contemporary Advances in Sport Psychology is an essential addition to any sport science library.

Sport Psychology research has developed and expanded considerably over the last decade or two. Its accelerating volume of research output embraces a wide variety of topics having both academic and practical impact, and relating to other areas of Sports Science and also the broader overall discipline of "mainstream" psychology. In this busy and developing arena, the healthy and productive evolution of a research topic requires the periodic summarisation, reflection, and feedback that is the domain of the literature review. A review acts as the primary catalyst for a topic's emerging organisation, reorganisation and structure, and generates perspectives and pointers for further study directions; it establishes reference points and foundations for continued progress. By its very nature it tends to be a larger publication than a typical focused research paper. The pathways to publication of Sport Psychology research are often severely congested. For example, in 2004, four of the main refereed outlets for original research in Sport Psychology: The Sport Psychologist, the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and the Psychology of Sport and Exercise received over 400 submissions (private communications). Inevitably the space that established journals can afford to grant to review articles is limited, both in terms of the article size and the frequency with which topics can be visited. Although reviews that appear in books usually enjoy a larger and more appropriate space allocation, they typically have not carried the hallmark of external independent peer review that journal publication provides. This collection presents a number of contemporary reviews of significant and popular topics from some prominent researchers within each area. An important and distinctive feature of this volume is that all the chapters have been subjected to peer-review by expert referees, a process usually reserved solely for journal publications. This book offers up-to-date literature reviews with a distinctive conceptual, theoretical, and practical focus.

This book provides a review and discussion of the recent move towards the positive aspects and consequences of competitive anxiety. Following a description of competitive stress-related terminologies, conceptual and psychometric developments are considered including the notion of directional anxiety interpretations. The commentary then focuses on the theories and models that outline the potential positive aspects of anxiety in relation to athletic performance. Applied implications and future research directions are also discussed together with a number of explicatory statements regarding the nature of the precompetitive stress experience in sport.