The book Psychology of sport unifies not only the experience of a psychologist interested in the field but also of an athlete (rugby player, rugby instructor), parent of a performance athlete (swimmer) and has as its message (explicit and implicit) the idea that a talented and dedicated athlete reaches to the performance through talent and good management by a few specialists (for example, coach, trainer) of his evolutionary resources, but great performance is achieved only through the joint efforts of them with those of: the athlete's family, teaching staff, colleagues (in in the case of student or student athletes), the entourage, the sports doctor, the nutritionist, the physiotherapist, the physiotherapist, the masseur, the manufacturers of sports equipment and apparatus, other specialists according to the evolution/development of sports science, related fields and, of course, a sports psychologist.
In order to enter the gallery of elites and achieve high performance, the athlete needs, in addition to physical and technical training, psychological training in all areas of his mental functioning (from the cognitive to the motivational-affective) training that can be ensured through information / psychoeducation regarding the mental functioning of all specialists who manage their performance potential.
Based on this opinion, the book Psychology of sport s designed as a synthesis/systematization of essential information regarding the main psychological aspects that define the practice of sport and is addressed not only to young psychologists in Romania (more and more attracted to the field of psychology sports but whose professionalization is still at the beginning and in the process of stabilization, including at the level of academic training) but also to the other specialists (mentioned above) engaged in the process of training athletes to reach their maximum potential in their field of professionalization and last but not least, the athletes themselves interested in understanding their own professional and existential conditions.
The aim of the book is to provide a comprehensive picture of the issue of sports psychology (from a theoretical and practical-applicative point of view) so that psychology students, sports psychologists, other specialists who work with athletes can better understand the field of sports psychology and can manage interventions with maximum efficiency.
Currently, the contributions to the development of knowledge and practice in the field of sports psychology are impressive (in volume and subject matter). A simple search in the databases of large university and public libraries indicates the appearance, in the last half century, in the Romanian language, of numerous publications under the title of "sport/sports psychology", focused on the specific psychological aspects related to sports activity. A large part of them are course materials published by the publishing houses of some faculties (public or private). These books address a wide variety of themes and problems, some being treated slightly redundantly, others sporadically and risking being neglected in their practical application.
This volume systematizes both information provided by these sources in the Romanian language as well as information provided by international specialized literature (traditional/pioneering and current - the latest appearances and contributions) and analyzes/presents each theme/construct under the following aspects:
a) current understandings of the concept in general psychology;
b) particularities (specific) of the concept in the field of sports;
c) methods and tools for evaluation/measurement of the construct used in the field of sports;
d) psychological interventions specific to sport to optimize/facilitate the development and/or valorization of the mental activity reflected by the construct/concept.
The purpose of this book, the approach scheme above, the duty to respect good practices, the current requirements and rules regarding the use of bibliographic sources, but also personal gratitude towards the special contributions of the "pioneers" in the field of sports psychology to the development of the field, imposed taking over a considerable volume of information as it was formulated by the authors (more recently or many years ago), i.e. by direct citation, with reference to the original source.
The more time passes, the more the opinions and recommendations of specialists (psychologists, coaches, exegetes, etc.) risk either becoming commonplace, part of common, popular knowledge, or fading into the professional consciousness of current practitioners, which is unfair to by the promoters of these opinions and recommendations and unproductive for the specialists who take them over.
The author expresses his hope that the approach presented by this volume will contribute to the development of scientific thinking in sports psychology, which will lead to an increase in the quality of psychological services in the field of sports and, implicitly, to an increase in the chances of athletes to evolve, according to their real potential, from performance at high performance.
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