Bridging the Gap Podcast

Andy Gillham owns and operates Ludus Consulting LLC (www.ludusconsulting.biz) focusing on performance enhancement for his clients. More specifically, Dr. Gillham works primarily with coaches and athletic administrators on improving systematic coach evaluation and providing targeted coach and program professional development opportunities. His Ph.D. is in Education with a major of sport and exercise psychology from the University of Idaho and has a B.S. in Fitness and a M.S. in Human Performance from University Wisconsin-LaCrosse.  He has been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association since 2003 and is a certified consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Dr. Gillham has helped athletes, coaches, administrators and business executives in Canada and the United States improve their performance.  Dr. Gillham works across competitive levels ranging from youth through professional levels for both coaches and athletes. In addition to his applied work, Dr. Gillham has published 12 peer-reviewed academic journal articles and has been an invited author for 12 more papers. He is also an Editorial Board member for two international coaching journals: International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching and International Sport Coaching Journal where he also serves as Section Editor for Resource Reviews.

Earlynn Lauer, MS, is a doctoral student and graduate teaching associate in the Sport Psychology/Motor Behavior program in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, & Sport Studies at The University of Tennessee. She is a certified tennis instructor through the Professional Tennis Registry, and her research interests focus on working with youth sport psychology professionals and coaches to integrate mental skills training in youth sports. In Fall 2017, she will be starting a position of Assistant Professor in Sport Psychology and Wellness at Western Illinois University. http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/iscj.2016-0078

Dr Jennifer Cumming is a Reader in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of Birmingham (UK) and is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.  She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) after completing a Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in 2010 was awarded the 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Birmingham.  Prior to this, she was received her PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario in 2001 and her MA from the University of Ottawa in 1999.    Dr Cumming’s current research focuses on community-based approaches to developing practical and culturally-tailored interventions for athletes and, more recently, individuals who are traditionally considered ‘harder to reach’.  She is interested in how individuals learn to effectively regulate their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours with mental skills training, and determine the impact of self-regulation (or dysregulation) on performance, health, and well-being.  Whereas sport psychology customarily focuses on mental skills as a regulatory capacity that athletes use in competitive and non-competitive situations, she more broadly uses this knowledge to support health-related quality of life in communities that are more challenging to engage, such as homeless adolescents.    Dr Cumming is the Primary Investigator of large funded study (2014-2020) to co-develop, co-implement, and co-evaluate the Mental Skills Training for Life™ programme as part of community-based participatory action research with a large supported housing service.  She was nominated for the University of Birmingham’s Founders’ Award for Excellence in Policy Advancement in 2015 and Enterprising Birmingham’s Most Innovative Collaboration award in 2017.  Her work has also been recognised as good practice by Public Health England and is being used to inform interventions for preventing and reducing homelessness in the UK.  She has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and is the current co-editor of Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 

“Drive on”: The relationship between psychological variables and effective squad leadership. By Gilson, Todd A.; Dix, Melissa A.; Lochbaum, Marc Military Psychology, Vol 29(1), Jan 2017, 58-67. Abstract The U.S. Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) conducts systematic assessments of cadets’ leadership abilities during field training exercises (FTX) to assess their leadership abilities. While cadets in ROTC programs learn specific tactical operation procedures to augment FTX performances, much less is known about the relationship between psychological variables and squad leadership performance. To this end, 220 cadets completed self-efficacy, psychological flexibility, and grit questionnaires, which were then compared to FTX performance scores. Results underscored that only self-efficacy was significantly related to cadets’ squad leadership ability. Furthermore, prior service in the U.S. Army had no effect on the performance score one attained, highlighting an interesting paradox. Therefore, while self-efficacy can be cultivated through prior experiences, it seems more prudent to educate ROTC cadets on how to apply psychological skills to bolster self-efficacy in preparation for upcoming challenging leadership experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved) http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2016-46137-001 Todd Gilson serves as the Director for University Honors at Northern Illinois University. In this role, Todd oversees an Honors Program with over 1,000 students from all six undergraduate colleges at NIU. Todd's line of research focuses on applying the core sport psychology principles of self-efficacy and leadership development to NCAA collegiate athletes and US Army ROTC cadets, which has resulted in over 30 peer-reviewed publications in such outlets as: Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Military Psychology, and Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Professionally, Todd also serves as the Secretary-Treasurer for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). http://cedu.niu.edu/knpe/about/faculty-and-instructors/gilson-todd.shtml Twitter: @ToddAGilson https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Todd_Gilson2  

Nick Holt is a Professor in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, where he leads the Child & Adolescent Sport & Activity lab. He is interested in psychosocial aspects of youth sport and physical activity participation, and studies issues including parenting, peer interactions, coaching, and free play. He adopted a Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective. He is currently leading a Canada-wide knowledge translation project. Links: PYDSportNET Twitter: @PYDsportNET Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/PYDSportNET/ Website: http://www.positivesport.ca/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVzZY6YC66M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsuckZK78rM  

Dr. Alyson Crozier researches in the area of health, exercise and sport psychology, with a specific interest in group dynamics and social influence. Specifically, she examines how the people that surround us, and ones perceptions of those people, influence ones thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in both sport and exercise settings. One area she is particularly interested in is how social norms (i.e., what behaviour most people engage in & what behaviours others approve of) relate to athlete effort and individual physical activity patterns. Alyson completed her Ph.D. at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada in 2014, and is now a Lecturer at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia.  If you have any further questions about her research, you can contact her at alyson.crozier@unisa.edu.au

Eric M. Martin joined the faculty at Boise State University in 2016. He earned a Ph.D. in Kinesiology with a concentration in Psychosocial Aspects of Sport and Physical Activity from the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University. Through his work at Michigan State, Dr. Martin was involved in a variety of projects that have investigated positive youth development programs, parent attitudes toward sport, and youth perceptions of the sport environment and how these environments impact youth development. Dr. Martin’s primary research interests include the development and consequences of sport passion and how to best structure the youth sport environment to benefit all involved. His research has been published in a variety of journals including The Sport Psychologist, The Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and The International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. In his spare time he enjoys playing and watching sports as well as spending time outdoors with his wife, Kristen, and son, Jamison. https://hs.boisestate.edu/kinesiology/eric-martin/

About Matt Cuccaro, Ed.M. Passionate about personal growth and the development of high performance team cultures, Matt has more than a decade of experience working with athletes, coaches, parents, businesses and educators on the mental aspects of elite performance. As a Performance Consultant with Telos Sport Psychology Coaching, Matt assists the development of individuals and teams from the junior level to the highest professional ranks through workshops, individual meetings, speaking engagements and publications. He currently leads programming at Sea Pines Resort, Smith Stearns Tennis Academy and the Junior Players Golf Academy. For nine years, he served as Director of Mental Training for Junior Sports Corporation (International Junior Golf Academy and Ivan Lendl International Junior Tennis Academy) in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina where numerous All-American student-athletes continue to emerge from the culture created under his guidance. Matt received his Master of Education from Boston University in Counseling/Sport Psychology and continues to be an active member of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology. Follow him on Twitter & Instagram: @MentalCoachMatt Reach him via e-mail: matt@telos-spc.com

Guest: Betsy Shoenfelt Dr. Betsy Shoenfelt, University Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at Western Kentucky University (WKU), is the director of the WKU Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology Graduate Program. She received her Ph.D. in 1983 from LSU in I-O Psychology with minors in Sport Psychology and Statistics. She is a licensed I-O Psychologist, a Certified Consultant and Fellow with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and a member of the USOC Sport Psychology and Mental Skills Registry. Shoenfelt has 30+ years of consulting experience in business, industry, government, education, and sports. In sports, she works with teams and individually with coaches and athletes training mental skills, team building, and enabling performance excellence in volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, swimming, and golf at the intercollegiate, Olympic, and professional levels.   Links:   Website: http://people.wku.edu/betsy.shoenfelt/   Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Betsy_Shoenfelt   Additional link:   http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21520704.2016.1138264?journalCode=uspa20

Guest: Claudia Robazza Claudio Robazza is an Associate Professor of Methods and didactics of motor activities at the Faculty of Movement Sciences, University of Chieti, Italy. He earned a master degree in Physical Education, a master degree in Psychology, and a PhD in Sciences and Techniques of Physical Activities and Sports from the University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France. As a sport psychologist, he has been working with top level athletes of different sports, including golf, archery, modern pentathlon, rugby, and he is currently involved with the Italian shooting team. He has conducted field-based studies in physical education, motor learning, and sport performance domains, and his primary research interest is in the area of performance-related emotions, performance optimization, and motor learning. He has published numerous refereed journal articles, and is the author of several book chapters and books. He is also an associate editor of Psychology of Sport and Exercise, consulting editor of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, advisory board member of Sport Sciences for Health, and co-director of Giornale Italiano di Psicologia dello Sport (Italian Journal of Sport Psychology).   In the 2015, he received the Ema Geron Award from the FEPSAC (European Federation of Sport Psychology) in recognition of his exceptional national contribution to the development of sport and exercise psychology. In the same year, he also received the Diploma of Honour – Bronze Medal from the ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) in appreciation of his exceptional service to the shooting sports.   Links:   Email:  c.robazza@unich.it   Website: http://www.queensu.ca/skhs/faculty-and-staff/faculty/luc-martin   Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claudio_Robazza/publications   Additional link:   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029212000532   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27253427   http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/tsp.2015-0035

Andreas Stenling, PhD Current Position: Researcher, Department of Psychology, Umeå University   Research interests: Leadership and motivational processes in various contexts (e.g., sport, work) Transfer of training Sport injury rehabilitation, prediction, and prevention Physical activity, cognitive function, and mental health across the life span Applications of statistical methods in sport and exercise psychology research   Contact and information: Email: Andreas.stenling@umu.se Personal website: http://www.psy.umu.se/om-institutionen/personal/andreas-stenling Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andreas_Stenling Twitter: @AStenling Article: http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.2016-0084  

Guest: Edson Filho Dr. Filho is a Lecturer is Sport and Exercise Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire. He received a doctoral degree in Sport Psychology from Florida State University (USA) and completed a post-doctoral term in Neuroscience and Psychophysiology at the Behavioral Imaging and Neural Dynamics Center at the University of Chieti (Italy). His research agenda revolves around peak performance experiences, team processes and social neuroscience in sports. Dr. Filho has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters on topics related to performance, sport and exercise psychology. Dr. Filho also has applied experience, having served as a performance enhancement specialist for athletes and performing artists. He is a Certified Consultant by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology and a member of the Sport Psychology registry of the United States Olympic Committee. Dr. Filho’s research and applied work has been recognized through several awards, including the Diversity Award by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology and the Dissertation Award in Sport and Exercise Psychology by the American Psychological Association.   Links:   Website: http://edsonfilho.weebly.com/   Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Edson_Filho   Additional link:   http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21520704.2016.1138266?journalCode=uspa20

  Guest: Luc Martin   My research interests lie in the general area of sport psychology with a particular focus on group dynamics principles. More specifically, I am interested in the psychosocial influences present in sport and physical activity settings, and how individuals’ can be influenced by, but can also influence the groups to which they belong. My current projects involve the investigation of group processes such as cohesion, cliques, social identity, and leadership on both individual and team level outcomes in child/youth and elite sport populations. Generally, the main focus is to develop a better understanding of certain psychosocial factors that can be used to inform interdisciplinary and policy relevant research aimed at enriching the sporting environment. Links:   Email:   luc.martin@queensu.ca   Telephone:   613-533-6000 x79140   Website: http://www.queensu.ca/skhs/faculty-and-staff/faculty/luc-martin   Additional link:   Martin, L. J., Eys, M. A., & Spink, K. S. (2016). The social environment in sport organizations. In C. Wagstaff (Ed.), The Organizational Psychology of Sport: Key Issues and Practical Applications. Abingdon, UK: Routlege.    http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/tsp.2014-0003?journalCode=tsp

Study: Hardiness differentiates military trainees on behavioural persistence and physical performance   Abstract:  Hardiness is a personality trait that drafts courage and motivation during adversity. Research showed that hardiness differentiates elite athletes from their lower rank competitors. In the domain of sport psychology, hardiness also strongly predicts physical performance. Because the military occupation requires resilience and excellence in physical performance, researchers investigated hardiness and behavioural persistence during training. However, in those studies, hardiness’ impact was weak. Besides, military researchers seldom addressed hardiness’ effect on physical performance. We investigated the influence of hardiness on behavioural persistence and physical performance during the military basic training. Participants were 233 trainees involved in a 22-week long basic training. They completed hardiness measures at the beginning of the training and then, two months later, we registered who stayed involved and who had dropped out. The remaining trainees participated in a self-defence exercise and their trainers evaluated their performance. Our analysis indicated that hardiness significantly predicted behavioural persistence: the trainees still involved in the training after two months scored significantly higher on the hardiness scale than those who dropped out (EXP(B) = 1.08; p 

Study: An empirical examination comparing the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment approach and Psychological Skills Training for the mental health and sport performance of female student athletes Abstract: The present study was a randomised controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach compared to traditional Psychological Skills Training (PST) for the mental health and sport performance of female collegiate athletes. Two hypotheses were proposed: (a) participants in the MAC group would demonstrate reduced behavioural issues, emotional distress, and psychological symptoms, and increased athletic performance when compared to those in the PST group; (b) MAC participants would exhibit reduced emotion dysregulation and increased psychological flexibility and dispositional mindfulness, compared to PST participants. Participants included 18 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III female student athletes who were randomly assigned into either the MAC or PST group based upon pre-intervention levels of distress; and were assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at 1-month follow-up. A mixed-model ANOVA analysis revealed that the MAC effectively reduced Substance Use, Hostility, and Emotion Dysregulation over time when compared to the PST group. Several within-group differences also emerged, as MAC participants demonstrated reduced Generalised Anxiety, Eating Concerns, and Psychological Distress, as well as increased psychological flexibility from post-intervention to one-month follow-up. As per coach ratings, MAC participants also evidenced improved sport performance from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Results suggest that the MAC is an effective intervention for the mental health and sport performance needs of female collegiate athletes.   Author: Mike Gross Dr. Mike Gross is a Certified Consultant for the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (CC-AASP) who runs a private practice in Somerset, NJ offering both mental health and performance enhancement services to athletes. Using techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other mindfulness-based approaches, Dr. Gross seeks to help athletes optimize performance both inside and outside of sport. In addition to his private practice work, Dr. Gross is the Coordinator of Sport Psychology and adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). Dr. Gross is also the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology (JCSP).  He can be reached at drmikegross@drmikegross.com   Links:   Article: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1612197X.2016.1250802   Author: http://www.drmikegross.com/

Practitioner: Derrek Falor Certified Consultant for The Association for Applied Sport Psychology (CC-AASP #599) Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology 20 Years College Soccer Coaching Experience across the NCAA D2 and D1 levels (18 years as a head coach) 3 Years as a High School Soccer Coach (2016 Seattle Times Star Coach of the Year) Mental Skills Coach for the Seattle Sounders U23 Team 20 Years working as a performance enhancement consultant Clients include Pro Athletes, College Teams, High School Athletic Departments, High School Teams, Individual Athletes  Links:  http://www.thrivesp.com/about/ Twitter: @DerrekFalor   Crowdfunding for: PLAY ON! Project Details Our project, entitled 'PLAY ON! How can a sport program better the lives of young people with mental illness? ' has been chosen to be part of a mental health grant challenge through Experiment. The funding campaign just launched on January 10. Experiment.com works on an all-or-nothing funding model. We have 30 days to reach our goal of $6,000. Backers won’t be charged unless we reach that goal. We have already raised 34% of our goal in the first week and hope to keep this momentum going!  Interested in being part of this project? You can by: donating directly athttps://experiment.com/sport sharing the link (https://experiment.com/sport) with other friends and colleagues through email, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. checking back often as we we will be posting lab notes on the progress sharing your feedback on the project itself, or letting me know if you are doing similar work so we can chat asking any questions you may have (either directly though e-mail or via the discussion board on Experiment) I really encourage you to check out the tool and think about if any of your work could be funded this way. Experiment is all about creating a community – just think of all the amazing work this listserv could get off the ground if we band together! Side note – I just found out from Dr. Michael Sachs that AASP offers an incentive for us to engage in crowdfunding – check it out: http://www.appliedsportpsych.org/foundation/aasp-f-research-crowdfunding/ Thank you for your valuable time and support!  Be well,  Lauren  Lauren Brooke, M.A.  PhD Candidate School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science Curtin University  l.brooke@postgrad.curtin.edu.au

Study: Preparing to Take the Field: A Temporal Exploration of Stress, Emotion, and Coping in Elite Cricket Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the stress, emotion, and coping (SEC) experiences of elite cricketers leading up to and on the day of their first competitive fixture of the season. Four elite male cricketers (M = 21.25, SD = 1.5) completed Stress and Emotion Diaries (SEDs) for the 7-day period leading up to and on the day of their first competitive fixture of the season. We then interviewed the cricketers to explore the content of the SEDs in more detail. We used semistructured interviews to glean insight into the stressors, cognitions, emotions, coping strategies, and behaviors. Inductive and deductive content data analysis provided a holistic and temporal exploration of the SEC process underpinned by the cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotions (Lazarus, 1999). The results highlighted the ongoing and continuous nature of the SEC process while illustrating the coping strategies the cricketers used leading up to and on the day of competition.   Author: Adam Miles Adam Miles is a PhD candidate in Sport Psychology at the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, New Zealand. His research focuses primarily on the psychosocial effects of participation in sport. In particular, his current research involves developing, implementing, and evaluating the effectiveness of a life skills intervention with elite athletes. He has also investigated issues such as stress, emotion, and coping in elite sport and the mediating effects of self-talk during skilled motor performance. Links:   Study: http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/tsp.2014-0142   Author: http://www.otago.ac.nz/sopeses/staff/postgraduate/adam_miles.html

Guest: Jean Côté   Dr. Jean Côté is professor and Director in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University at Kingston (Canada).  His research interests are in the areas of youth sport, coaching, positive youth development, and sport expertise.  Dr. Côté is regularly invited to present his work to both sport governing organizations and academic conferences throughout the world.  In 2009, Dr. Côté was the recipient of the 4th EW Barker Professorship from the Physical Education and Sport Science deparment at the National Institute of Education in Sinpapore.  He received the Queen’s University Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision for 2013.  Dr. Côté’s recent line of research involves the use of observation techniques to examine the influence of different types of coach-athletes relationships on athletes’ outcomes.  This work aims at the development of an evidence-based Transformational Coaching training workshop to help coaches create optimal sport environment for the development of better people and athletes.    Links:   Twitter: @jeancote46   Website: http://www.queensu.ca/skhs/faculty-and-staff/faculty/jean-cote   Additional link: http://youthsportsoftheamericas.org/

Author: Katrien Fransen   Dr. Katrien Fransen has start up a research line on shared leadership within sports teams at KU Leuven (Belgium). As assistant professor, she is eager to continue this research line and further extend her expertise. While most previous research solely focused on the coach of the team, Prof. Fransen’s research established a broad foundation for the leadership of athletes within the team. She continues this research line by designing an athlete leadership development program and identifying the moderators underlying the effectiveness of shared leadership. Besides her academic track record, she has also built up significant coaching experience. As former assistant-coach of the national youth teams and head coach of the university team, a strong motivation drives her to keep her research closely connected to the needs of the field.   Links: http://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/en/person/00064451 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katrien_Fransen2 Twitter: @KatrienFransen

Nikola Milinkovic has extensive experience in Professional Athletics in the field of High Performance and Sports Psychology, focusing on elite junior, ATP and WTA tennis players across several countries, including the United States, the Netherlands and his home country Serbia. Nikola spent the last ten years Directing Sport Psychology programs in high performance tennis academy settings in both the US (Florida and Connecticut) and the Netherlands. Nikola played ITF and college tennis and is a certified Sport Psychology Consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and is a certified Professional Level Coach through the United States Professional Tennis Registry (USPTR). Nikola has worked extensively with sports organizations in Serbia. He is a visiting consultant at Belgrade Sports Academy and UNICEF Serbia. Nikola additionally extended his psychology work across the United Nations in The Netherlands where he served as a Staff Welfare/Development and Learning and Development Coordinator. Nikola appeared on national television in Serbia and is an international published author. Nikola presented at The US Department of State within the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and across the New England Region at various conferences. Nikola is a recipient of the 2006 Clark University Senior Class Award, given annually to the senior student-athlete of highest impact on his/her sport development, who best exemplifies class, spirit and integrity in athletic endeavors. Nikola earned his BA degree in Psychology and Theater Arts from Clark University and his EdM degree in Counseling with focus on Sport Psychology from Boston University.

Researcher: Sam Vine   I am an Experimental Psychologist, with a broad range of interests in the area of skill learning, expertise and performance under pressure. I am particularly interested in how visual attention (examined through eye tracking) and other physiological processes mediate motor skill and decision making performance. I apply my research to a range of different domains (e.g., sport, surgery, military, and aviation) and populations (e.g., children, elite performers and patient groups).   Links:   Webpage: www.sshs.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Samuel_Vine YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdDqo5GklpPyNgapykxI0Tw Twitter: @samueljamesvine Eye tracking Consultancy: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/business/consulting/eyetrack/ Virtual Reality Human Factors Training: http://www.cineon.training/

Practitioner: Toby Larson Toby Larson runs a private practice, Fit Mind Training where he works with athletes and performers to develop, enhance or support their mental skills that enable peak performance. Toby has a M.S. in Kinesiology from California State University East Bay and is a Certified Consultant with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Toby's clients include athletes at the elite professional level to the recreational level and high school sports as well. Toby's contact information can be found at www.fitmindtraining.com. 

Study: Psychological Factors in Ultrarunning Abstract: The psychological processes of ultramarathon runners are not well-understood in the current literature. Previous studies have primarily focused on the physical and physiological components of ultrarunning and the few studies exploring the psychological components of ultrarunning have relied predominantly on retrospective inquiry. The purpose of this study was to use a mixed-methods, multimodal approach to examine the psychological aspects of ultrarunning. “Live” in-task quantitative and video data were collected during the course of a 100 mile and 100 km ultramarathon races that spanned 32 hours of data collection. These data were supplemented with an immediate, short postrace interview directly following the runner completing or withdrawing from the race, and then a second, in-depth interview approximately six weeks following race weekend. For the quantitative data collection, single-item, in-task measures assessed runners’ pain, fatigue, affective valence (i.e., a feeling state of “bad” or “good”), energy, attentional focus, confidence to finish, and perceived exertion. Video cameras were also used to visually record changes the runners experienced during the run. Both postrace interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with a phenomenological lens. A total of 11 runners in the 100 mile race and five runners in the 100 km race participated in this study; six runners completed the 100 mile race and four runners completed the 100 km race. Due to the lower number of participants in the 100 km race, inferential statistics were completed only with the 100 mile runners. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to examine the mean in-task ratings of finishers and non-finishers in the 100 mile run. Finishers had significantly higher confidence ratings than non-finishers at mile 65 and at mile 75. A series of repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) assessed changes in in-task measures over the course of the ultramarathon race for the six finishers in the 100 mile race. There was a significant effect of time on the in-task measures of pain, affective valence, fatigue, energy, and exertion, with pain, fatigue, and exertion increasing and affective valence and energy decreasing over the course of the race. The videos taken during the race were used as memory prompts during the runners delayed postrace interview following race weekend. Phenomenological analysis of the interview transcripts revealed eight major chronological phases depicting the psychological aspects of the runners’ race experience: pre-race, the start, chugging along, getting dark, it gets real, final push, the finish, and post-race reflections. There were also two overarching subthemes identified in analysis that went beyond the chronological phases: the natural environment of the race and the social community of ultrarunning. Implications for theory and practice, as well as suggestion for future studies, are identified and explored.   Author: Dolores Christensen Dolores Christensen was born and raised in Northern California. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and political science from Southern Oregon University (Ashland, OR) where she was a member of the women's volleyball team. She then went on to earn her master's degree in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver. Dolores is currently a fifth-year student in the Counseling Psychology PsyD program at Springfield College (Massachusetts) and is completing her internship at the University of California, Davis in the eating disorders emphasis area. Dolores has focused her clinical training on collegiate student-athletes and her dissertation is on the psychology of ultramarathon runners. She enjoys running on mountain trails in her free time. Links:   dchristensen@springfieldcollege.edu

Study: Predicting Sport Experience during Training: The Role of Change-Oriented Feedback in Athletes’ Motivation, Self-Confidence and Needs Satisfaction Fluctuations  Abstract:  Change-oriented feedback (COF) quality is predictive of between-athletes differences in their sport experience (Carpentier & Mageau, 2013). This study extends these findings by investigating how training-to-training variations in COF quality influence athletes’ training experience (within-athlete differences) while controlling for the impact of promotion-oriented feedback (POF). In total, 49 athletes completed a diary after 15 consecutive training sessions to assess COF and POF received during training, as well as situational outcomes. Multivariate multilevel analyses showed that, when controlling for covariates, COF quality during a specific training session is positively linked to athletes’ autonomous motivation, self-confidence and satisfaction of their psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness during the same session. In contrast, COF quantity is negatively linked to athletes’ need for competence. POF quality is a significant positive predictor of athletes’ self-confidence and needs for autonomy and competence. Contributions to the feedback and SDT literature, and for coaches’ training, are discussed.   Author: Joelle Carpentier I am a Social and Sport Psychologist. I am interested in the explicit and implicit impacts of social environments on athletes’ experience, performance and goals pursuit. My current research focuses on the provision of change-oriented feedback (aka negative feedback) by coaches and between teammates. Can change-oriented feedback be autonomy-supportive? Can it lead to positive consequences? Should it be given or avoided? Should teammates give feedback to one another? Obviously, this line of research can also be extended to other learning contexts. I am also interested in people’s implicit perception of autonomy-supportive and controlling environments.   Links:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joelle_Carpentier2  http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.2015-0210  

Study: Sensorimotor Rhythm Neurofeedback Enhances Golf Putting Performance. Abstract:   Sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) activity has been related to automaticity during skilled action execution. However, few studies have bridged the causal link between SMR activity and sports performance. This study investigated the effect of SMR neurofeedback training (SMR NFT) on golf putting performance. We hypothesized that preelite golfers would exhibit enhanced putting performance after SMR NFT. Sixteen preelite golfers were recruited and randomly assigned into either an SMR or a control group. Participants were asked to perform putting while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded, both before and after intervention. Our results showed that the SMR group performed more accurately when putting and exhibited greater SMR power than the control group after 8 intervention sessions. This study concludes that SMR NFT is effective for increasing SMR during action preparation and for enhancing golf putting performance. Moreover, greater SMR activity might be an EEG signature of improved attention processing, which induces superior putting performance.   Author: Ming-Yang Cheng Ming-Yang Cheng is a PhD student in Bielefeld University, Germany and specializes in sport psychophysiology. He grew up in Taiwan and earned his master degree there. Now, he’s conducting a line of research regarding how to fine-tune athletes’ focused attention by using electroencephalography (EEG), so called neurofeedback training. The results are very encouraging. Links:   https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ming-Yang_Cheng https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26866770  

Practitioner: Justin Foster Twitter: @JustinRFoster Justin Foster is a Mental Performance Coach who helps teams, organizations, & individuals cultivate excellence through his teaching, coaching, and writing.     He helps coaches and athletes create a winning culture, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of practice, & perform at their best more consistently in competition.     Justin has his Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology and another in Mental Health Counseling. He been in the field of sport and performance psychology for the past 10 years. He has worked with coaches and athletes ranging from nationally ranked juniors, NCAA Division 1, and NFL prospects preparing for the combine. For the past 6 years Justin has been working with members of the United States military building resilience, enhancing performance, and cultivating adaptive leaders. Justin's goal is to help his clients be at their best when it matters most, regardless of the arena - sports, work, or life.    Links:   http://theexcellingedge.com/

Study: Coaching on the Wave: An Integrative Approach to Facilitating Youth Development Abstract:   Central to the ability of successfully utilizing sport as a social intervention to promote youth developmental outcomes is the role of the youth sport leader (YSL). While many YSLs care for the youth-athletes with whom they work, many YSLs do not have a purposeful intent when facilitating sport as a social intervention. One strategy developed to increase the YSL's ability to intentionally facilitate sport towards youth development is the Coaching on the Wave model, which offers a framework for YSLs to apply theory and research into their coaching practices to intentionally promote positive youth outcomes such as life-skill development.   Author: Tarkington Newman Tarkington J. Newman (MSW, University of Michigan; MS, The Ohio State University) is a fourth year doctoral student in the College of Social Work.  He is currently serving as a Graduate Research/Teaching Associate for Dr. Anderson-Butcher in The LiFEsports Initiative.  Prior to his work as a Graduate Associate, he was awarded a Graduate Enrichment Fellowship through The Ohio State University.  Tarkington’s research interests lie within sport-based positive youth development among high-risk urban minority youth.  Specifically, his focus is on the role of the youth sport leader and their ability to facilitate and transfer life skill development.  Tarkington has co-authored several publications in peer-reviewed journals such as: Research on Social Work Practice, Psychology of Sport & Exercise, and Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.  Additionally, Tarkington co-developed the experiential-based Coaching on the Wave model, which has been presented at conferences such as Experiential Education Annual International Conference and International Adventure Therapy Conference.  Tarkington has also taught a variety of undergraduate courses in both social work and sport science departments such as: Engagement & Interview Skills, Prevention and Youth Development though Sport, Recreation and Play; Contemporary Issues in Sport, and Coaching the Young Athlete.  In addition to his academic work, he was trained as a school social worker, where he specialized in adventure therapy and crisis intervention.  He has also spent the last decade coaching track & field at the high school and collegiate club levels.   Links:   Author:   http://csw.osu.edu/degrees-programs/phd/meet-our-doctoral-students/newman-tarkington/   Study: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21520704.2015.1073203?journalCode=uspa20

Practitioner: Sam Maniar Sam Maniar Ph.D. is the founder of the Center for Peak Performance. He has worked with thousands of professional, Olympic, college, and high school athletes, including the Cleveland Browns, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Washington State Cougars.   Dr. Maniar uses performance psychology and his extensive experience as a foundation to help individuals, teams, companies, and groups pursue their potential. His varied background gives him a true understanding of what it takes to succeed, both in sport and the business world. He is a licensed psychologist in the state of Ohio, and his work has been featured in numerous publications, such as The New York Times, ESPN.com, Fox News, NCAA Times, and ILovetoWatchYouPlay.com.   Links:   http://www.centerforpeakperformance.com/   Follow him @sam_maniar.   Quotes: “It was more correcting myths, like they believed they needed to stay focused for three hours. Well no, you really only need to stay focused for 20 seconds at a time.” “What would happen is, I would always work with, for whatever reason, every year there was one or two veterans on offense and defense...that would want to do everything in their power to be successful, so one of the things they would do is meet with me.” ‘What I am looking at (pre-draft analysis) is two levels of risk. Risk on the field, and off the field.” “Part of risk on the field could be their capacity to learn, part of it might be what type of a teammate are they, how do they take feedback from coaches, are they aware of their limitations and strengths.”

Article: Psychological Momentum During and Across Sports Matches: Evidence for Interconnected Time Scales Abstract: This study on psychological momentum (PM) in sports provides the first experimental test of an interconnection between short-term PM (during a match) and long-term PM (across a series of matches). Twenty-two competitive athletes were striving to win a prize during a rowing-ergometer tournament, consisting of manipulated races. As hypothesized, athletes who had developed long-term positive PM after two successful races were less sensitive to a negative momentum scenario in the third race, compared with athletes who had developed long-term negative PM after two unsuccessful races. More specifically, the exerted efforts, perceptions of momentum, and self-efficacy were higher for participants who had developed long-term positive PM, and their perceptions of momentum and self-efficacy decreased less rapidly. These results illustrate a typical complex dynamical systems property, namely interconnected time scales, and provide deeper insights into the dynamical nature of PM. Author: J.R. (Ruud) den Hartigh Dr. Ruud Den Hartigh is currently assistant professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Groningen (Netherlands), where he is also the coordinator of the international Master’s program Talent Development & Creativity.  In April 2015, he defended his PhD thesis (awarded by the collaborating universities of Montpellier (France) and Groningen with the distinction cum laude) on the study of complex processes of human performance. In general, Ruud’s research focuses on providing an understanding of the “laws” of emergence and adaptation of psychological and performance patterns, mostly in sports. Typical examples of questions he is working on are: ‘How can we understand the complex development of talent?’, and  ‘How do periods of positive and negative psychological momentum develop?’ Links: Author:  http://www.rug.nl/staff/j.r.den.hartigh/ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruud_Den_Hartigh Checkout the new MSc. program Ruud and his colleagues have started:  http://www.stairwaytotalent.nl/ Study: http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.2015-0162   Youtube video where Ruud discusses the current study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lewB1-WeN9M Quotes: “It’s not always the case that if you have momentum it is guaranteed success, and if you have negative momentum it is a guarantee that you will lose.” “I think that it (momentum) does shape your feelings of confidence, your efforts that you exert during a match.” “The way athletes respond to setbacks during a match is related to, I would even say embedded in the momentum process that has developed during the tournament.” “The idea that athletes’ responses are actually shaped by the process, is surprisingly often omitted.” “Examining the process can actually give you answers to the question of when and how athletes psychological states and performance actually change.” “Do not omit the process, rather, focus on the process.” ‘If you want to understand when and how the psychological states and performance of an athlete changes, the answer probably lies in

Practitioner: Lauren Tashman Lauren S. Tashman, PhD, CC-AASP is an Assistant Professor in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (SEPP), the Coordinator of Sport Psychology Services, and the Coordinator of the Master's SEPP program at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida.  In addition to teaching, supervising, and providing mental performance services to athletics at Barry, she has a private practice in which she provides CC-AASP mentoring and mental performance coaching to individual performers and groups/teams. She is currently also the Mental Performance Coach for Softball Canada's Senior Women's National Team. Her educational background includes a Bachelor's in Psychology from The College of New Jersey as well as a Master's and PhD in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Sport Psychology from Florida State University.  During her PhD, she also obtained a certification in Program Evaluation, taught an undergraduate Educational Psychology course, and was a Graduate Research Assistant in the Learning System Institute's Human Performance Lab, led by Drs. K. Anders Ericsson, David Eccles, and Paul Ward. Most recently, she co-edited two books with J. Gualberto Cremades investigating global perspectives on applied practice and training/supervision titled, "Becoming a Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology Practitioner: a Global Perspective" and "Global Practices and Training in Applied Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology: a Case Study Approach."   Links:  http://www.getting-u-inspired.com/about-lauren.html email: lauren.tashman@gmail.com Twitter: @DrTSportPsych www.getting-u-inspired.com Check out Inspire Performance Consulting on Facebook   Quotes:   “In the process of driving better habits of thinking, I also believe that in the moment you need to just go with whatever you have.”   “In a team sense, or how you influence other people I really truly believe that you are either a positive or negative, there is no such thing as a grey area, there is no such thing as in between.”   “My approach has always been try to build really good relationships, do good work with the people that want it and then let it progress overtime.”   “In today’s world where information is everywhere and everyone’s fingertips, I want my students to be better than what someone can get in a book or online.”

Study: Self Talk: Review and Sport Specific Model Abstract:  Self-talk is a key component of the sport psychology canon. Although self-talk has been widely endorsed by athletes and coaches as a performance enhancement strategy, a comprehensive model of self-talk in sport that might be used to guide systematic research has yet to be developed. This purpose of this paper is to: (a) review theory and research related to self-talk in sport; and (b) present a sport-specific model that builds upon existing theory and research, and addresses key questions related to self-talk. The paper begins with a definition of self-talk, developed with consideration of the discursive nature of inner speech and dual process theories. Extant self-talk models related to self-talk in sport are reviewed and serve as a foundation for a sport-specific model of self-talk. Components of the model (i.e., self-talk, System 1, System 2, behaviour, contextual factors, personal factors) are presented, the reciprocal relationships among model components are explored, and implications of the sport-specific model of self-talk are discussed.   Author: Judy L. Van Raalte, PhD, is a certified consultant for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and listed in the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry. She has presented at conferences in 18 countries and published over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the NCAA, and the International Tennis Federation. Van Raalte served as president of the American Psychological Association's Society of Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology (APA Division 47) and vice president of the International Society of Sport Psychology. She is a fellow of APA and AASP. Research Interests Self-talk Body image Professional issues in sport and exercise psychology     Links:   http://springfield.edu/directory/judy-l-van-raalte   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029215000874     Quotes:   “If we already know everything that we know, then why would we talk to ourselves?”   “When you ask people after the fact, they tend to be pretty poor at remembering what they were thinking, or what their experiences were.”   “So people who think they are not really great, and say I’m not really great, and then are told to think ‘No your awesome’, sometimes get stuck in thinking and actually feel worse, and up performing worse.”   “You don’t have to act on every thought you have.  It just might be part of the process and normal because sport can be frustrating.”   “How much self-talk is too much?” “So what I think is new is looking at all the relationships between these factors and then opening things up to really consider peoples own private experiences with system one self talk.”

Practitioner: Donald Christensen Don grew up playing golf with his family, and began to play more competitively as time went on. In high school he won four state titles in Washington State. His skills helped him get a scholarship to play golf at Stanford University (pre-Tiger he added in). He cites being exposed to some mental coaching as youngster (i.e. reading The Inner Game of Tennis) as the spark the interest that would influence his career choice. After finishing at Stanford Don attended the University of Washington where he obtained his PHD in Clinical Psychology. During his time at UW and following Don worked with various athletic teams at the school and teams in the community. He currently works for Shoreline Community College, where he has been a professor of psychology since 2004. Additionally he works part time as a consultant for athletes in the local Seattle area. Links:   Author: https://www.shoreline.edu/dchris/donchris/   Quotes: “What I typically tell people is, if you wanted to have six pack abs could you do that in a day? Unless you are going to a plastic surgeon, that’s not going to happen. The same thing is true with mental skills…if you devote the right effort over a sustained period of time, they grow and they change.”   “Mental skills are very much like physical muscles, if you train them properly they will change.” “By their nature, habits kind of, at least initially, operate outside of our awareness. So with this mental work…you are hopefully bringing awareness to those habits and modifying them to allow them to serve you.” “The first stage is control by others, the second stage is control by yourself, and then the last stage is automatic.” “The argument is the best execution of those actions comes when you move into the final stage and it’s automatic.” “If you are relying upon reminders to yourself to do something, particularly when pressure comes it’s not a recipe for successful behavior. It’s not a recipe for high performance, in fact you will probably underperform.” “I like the notion of a sports psychologist as a facilitator as opposed to expert. I mean ya, we have some training and some knowledge that people may not have, but I like this idea of people becoming their own coach.” “I usually joke with athlete, I tell them that I hope you mess up majorly while you work with me because what we will do in the aftermath is we will review it.” “When we fail, when we struggle, when things don’t go well, we often don’t want to revisit those moments.” “What if it’s not failure, what if it’s feedback?” “When we get excessively anxious, we are actually impairing the pre-frontal cortex. You can actually see it being inhibited, and that’s one major piece of the brain we are going to rely upon to that kind of mental talk yourself through it work. So we are handicapping the very part of our nervous system that we would need to be able to use to pull off that kind of execution. I think better to learn that skill beyond that, so that again its automatic, it’s habitual. Such that, when that part of the brain is impaired it really doesn’t matter because you are using a different aspect of yourself to do what you are doing.” “The brain goes to what’s familiar. That’s where it wants to return. Is that good thing or a bad thing? It depends on what’s familiar.”

Study: Stereotype Fit Effects for Golf Putting Non-Experts   Abstract:   Research has connected stereotype threat and regulatory fit by showing improved performance for individuals with negative stereotypes when they focused on minimizing potential losses. In the current study, non-Black participants, who were nonexperts at golf putting, were told that a golf putting task was diagnostic of natural athletic ability (i.e., negative stereotype) or sports intelligence (i.e., positive stereotype). Participants tried to maximize earned points or minimize lost points assigned after every putt, which was calculated based on the distance to a target. Results showed better performance for participants experiencing a fit between their global task stereotype and the task goal, and that regulatory fit allowed for increased attention on the strategies beneficial for task performance. Interestingly, we found that performance of individuals high in working memory capacity suffered greatly when those individuals experienced a regulatory mismatch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)   Author: Lisa Grimm Dr. Lisa Grimm grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and developed an interest in psychology while at Grinnell College (B.A., 2001). After Grinnell, she attended The University of Texas at Austin where she received an M.A., and then a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology (2007). Dr. Grimm remained at The University of Texas as a Lecturer and Post-doctoral Fellow until she started as an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at The College of New Jersey in the fall of 2009. She is now an Associate Professor. Please see Dr. Grimm’s website for more information: http://grimm.pages.tcnj.edu/.  For this project, she collaborated with former TCNJ student, Benjamin Lewis, who was instrumental to the success of the study.  More information about her amazing students and research lab can be found on her lab website: http://misclab.pages.tcnj.edu/.   Links:   Author: http://grimm.pages.tcnj.edu/   http://misclab.pages.tcnj.edu/.   Study: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2015-45477-001/   Quotes:   “People generally walk around with like a chronic motivational state.”   “If you are in a regulatory fit, you are more able to flexibly switch the kinds of strategies that you are using.” “People need to be aware of the outside pressures that end up changing the underlying motivation.”   “Part of that mental toughness is recognizing when you need to adapt. It’s kind of the toughness to realize that you have to change course.”

Bio: Matt Belair is a speaker, author, podcaster, athlete and mental trainer with experience in the fields of mental fortitude, Zen, the pursuit of inner peace and positive living, martial arts, marketing, snowboarding, and travel to neuro-linguistic programming, meditation, sport psychology, life coaching, and conscious living. Matt has travelled the world and put himself in the fire to test his knowledge and his limits. He spent time in Nepal studying meditation with Buddhist monks and survived a near death experience while trekking Everest. Travelled the world as a professional snowboard coach, trained mixed martial arts with pro fighters in Thailand. He has learned the secrets to becoming an effective and powerful leader, speaker and trainer under the guidance of mentor Michel Losier, the best selling author of the Law of Attraction, and spent time in China training with 34th Generation Shaolin Monks, just to name some of his incredible experiences. In this podcast he discusses his approach to working with athletes and offers advice to anyone that wishes to explore and develop their potential.   Links: https://zenathlete.com/ http://www.mattbelair.com/ Quotes: “Whats the secret? The secret is bloody hard work.” “That’s how you create your reality, one day at a time.” “Mastery is simplicity.” ‘Mastery is so basic, it is just the right basics.”

Study: Reappraising Threat: How to Optimize Performance Under Pressure Abstract: Competitive situations often hinge on one pressurized moment. In these situations, individuals' psychophysiological states determine performance, with a challenge state associated with better performance than a threat state. But what can be done if an individual experiences a threat state? This study examined one potential solution: arousal reappraisal. Fifty participants received either arousal reappraisal or control instructions before performing a pressurized, single-trial, motor task. Although both groups initially displayed cardiovascular responses consistent with a threat state, the reappraisal group displayed a cardiovascular response more reflective of a challenge state (relatively higher cardiac output and/or lower total peripheral resistance) after the reappraisal manipulation. Furthermore, despite performing similarly at baseline, the reappraisal group outperformed the control group during the pressurized task. The results demonstrate that encouraging individuals to interpret heightened physiological arousal as a tool that can help maximize performance can result in more adaptive cardiovascular responses and motor performance under pressure.   Author: Lee Moore Dr. Lee Moore is a lecturer in Sport and Exercise psychology at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. His two main areas of expertise include the effect of gaze training interventions on the acquisition and refinement of motor skills and how pre-competition psychophysiological states influence motor skill performance. His work has led him to working with several professional organizations including the Rugby Football Union, Professional Games Match Officials Limited and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. He has some very exciting upcoming work involving the relationship between psychophysiological states and concepts such as resilience, mental toughness and hardiness. He is also a huge fan of Universal Studios.   Links:   Author: http://www.glos.ac.uk/faculties-and-schools/sport-and-exercise/staff-profiles/pages/s2113142-lee-moore.aspx   Article: http://journals.humankinetics.com/jsep-back-issues/jsep-volume-37-issue-3-june/reappraising-threat-how-to-optimize-performance-under-pressure   Quotes:   “This is one of the first studies to show that arousal re-appraisal can also have a beneficial effect on motor performance, on the accuracy of motor and sporting skills.”   “We tend to view increases in physiological arousal…as something that will harm our performance…and is associated with feeling anxious. It is actually just our body preparing itself to perform a task and to perform it well.”  

Bio: Brian Lomax is an expert in training mental toughness and competitive skills to highly motivated athletes looking to become their best.  His students have enjoyed success at local, collegiate and national levels in a variety of sports including tennis, golf, football, volleyball, basketball, softball, luge, and figure skating.  He directs the mental skills training programs for several of the best junior tennis academies in New England, and works with a number of Division 1 college sports teams. Brian received his Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri and completed his undergraduate study at Vanderbilt University.  He achieved a certificate as a Mental Toughness Specialist from the Human Performance Institute and is a certified tennis professional by the USPTA.  On the competitive side, Brian has been a highly ranked tennis player throughout his adult career both nationally and in New England with a career best ranking of #2 in the US in Men’s 35 and over singles in 2006.  He continues to compete at a high level and believes that this experience helps him identify with his students. Links: www.performancextra.com/brian-lomax/ Quotes from Episode: “The important thing is to win this match, it’s not to get upset about a mistake that I cannot change.” “There is a notion these days that being a perfectionist is a good thing” ‘That’s what was the major change, focusing on the process, but also figuring out what it (process) was.” “One of the reasons we call mental toughness, you know toughness, is it forces you to make tough choices and one of them is looking at yourself as the reason why things happen.” “If you are blaming things that are outside of your control, then they can never change, and then you can never change.” “If that’s how you feel and think when you’re playing at your best, well why aren’t you working on getting yourself to feel that way?”

Study: Introducing Sport Psychology Interventions: Self-Control Implications Abstract: Evidence from sequential-task studies demonstrate that if the first task requires self-control, then performance on the second task is compromised (Hagger, Wood, Stiff, & Chatzisarantis, 2010). In a novel extension of previous sequential-task research, the first self-control task in the current study was a sport psychology intervention, paradoxically proposed to be associated with improved performance. Eighteen participants (9 males, 9 females; mean age = 21.6 years, SD = 1.6), none of whom had previously performed the experimental task or motor imagery, were randomly assigned to an imagery condition or a control condition. After the collection of pretest data, participants completed the same 5-week physical training program designed to enhance swimming tumble-turn performance. Results indicated that performance improved significantly among participants from both conditions with no significant intervention effect. Hence, in contrast to expected findings from application of the imagery literature, there was no additive effect after an intervention. We suggest practitioners should be cognizant of the potential effects of sequential tasks, and future research is needed to investigate this line of research.   Author: Tracey Devonport Dr Tracey Devonport is registered as a Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council. Other certifications include; Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society, accredited with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) for scientific support (Psychology) and a Chartered Scientist. Tracey was made a Fellow of BASES in 2015.   Tracey's research interests primarily lie around stress, coping, and emotion regulation. In particular she is interested in applied research with a focus on intervention development and delivery. Other research interest areas include emotional intelligence, emotional eating, self-control, self-efficacy and body image. She has authored more than 45 peer refereed journal articles, three books and 13 book chapters.   Tracey has worked as an applied sport psychology consultant for more than 20 years. She has worked predominantly with junior national athletes in sports such as Tennis, Swimming, Badminton, Judo and Netball.   Links:   Author: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/about-us/our-schools-and-institutes/faculty-of-education-health-and-wellbeing/staff-directory/tracey-devonport/   Article: http://journals.humankinetics.com/tsp-current-issue/tsp-volume-30-issue-1-march/introducing-sport-psychology-interventions-self-control-implications   Quotes:   “In terms of imagery, you don’t write a script and go there you are, job done. It is a consistently evolving process really, so that you are moving along with their learning.”   “If you are just learning to use imagery, don’t use imagery and then follow it by a new skill you are trying to learn.”   “There is so much research out there that suggests that imagery doesn’t help with a novel skill. This could come down to self-control because you are asking people to use imagery which is going to be novel to them, and then you’re asking to them to perform a novel physical skill. That is two repeated acts of self-control. Use imagery independent of the physical scale”   ‘If you want to do really well on a task, plan your day. Don’t try and delimit acts of self-control leading up to that really important task.”   ‘Every time you make a decision, quite often it is an act of self-control.”   ‘Think of self-control like a muscle, so if you use it you are going to tire it.”

Study: Does Grit Influence Sport-Specific Engagement and Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise in Elite Youth Soccer? Abstract: We examined whether soccer players who score low and high on the personality trait grit can be differentiated based on their sport-specific engagement and perceptual-cognitive expertise. Findings revealed that grittier players accumulated significantly more time in sport-specific activities including competition, training, play, and indirect involvement. Moreover, there was a significant main effect for performance on the perceptual-cognitive skills tests across groups, with grittier players performing better than less gritty players on the assessments of decision making and situational probability. The findings are the first to demonstrate a potential link between grit, sport-specific engagement, and perceptual-cognitive expertise.   Author: Paul Larkin Paul Larkin is a post-doctoral researcher and tertiary educator with extensive experience and knowledge in conducting research projects and developing tertiary level educational content both face-to-face and online. As a tertiary educator for over 7 years, Paul has extensive experience of e-learning strategies, developing and delivering course content using a variety of pedagogical methods to promote the learners engagement in the content. Recently Paul has been involved with a government funded research project, with a key aim to monitor and evaluate Football Federation Australia’s National Curriculum for Player Development.   Links:   Author: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-larkin-8814b418   Article: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2015.1085922   Quotes:   “How does (grit) change moving down the talent spectrum?”   “If you do demonstrate kind of grit and tendencies where you have a passion towards long term goals, your hopefully more likely to invest time engaging toward that goal, which hopefully you will be quite successful at.”   “A lot of players will try and play what the coaches call FIFA ball”

Study: Adversarial Growth in Olympic Swimmers: Constructive Reality or Illusory Self-Deception? Abstract: Efforts to regulate emotions can influence others, and interpersonal emotion regulation within teams may affect athletes’ own affective and motivational outcomes. We examined adolescent athletes’ (N = 451, Nteams = 38) self- and interpersonal emotion regulation, as well as associations with peer climate, sport enjoyment, and sport commitment within a multilevel model of emotion regulation in teams. Results of multilevel Bayesian structural equation modeling showed that athletes’ self-worsening emotion regulation strategies were negatively associated with enjoyment, while other-improving emotion regulation strategies were positively associated enjoyment and commitment. The team-level interpersonal emotion regulation climate and peer motivational climates were also associated with enjoyment and commitment. Team-level factors moderated some of the relationships between athletes’ emotion regulation with enjoyment and commitment. These findings extend previous research by examining interpersonal emotion regulation within teams using a multilevel approach, and they demonstrate the importance of person- and team-level factors for athletes’ enjoyment and commitment. Author: Karen Howells Karen is a Lecturer in Sport and Fitness at The Open University. Previously she worked as a lecturer in psychology and sport psychology in a number of face-to-face universities and further and higher education colleges.  Karen joined the Open University in 2015 having completed her PhD at Loughbrough University. The title of her PhD thesis was ‘A Qualitative Exploration of Adversarial Growth in Elite Swimmers’. Karen's research arising from her doctorate has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented at national and international conferences. Karen’s specialist area is sport and performance psychology. She is a Chartered Sport Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).  She regularly provides sport and performance psychology support to athletes from a wide range of individual and team sports competing at a variety of levels.  She has also delivered non-technical skills to teams within the Oil and Gas Industry and is an ex-Royal Air Force Officer.   Links:   Author: http://www.open.ac.uk/people/klh536   Article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27392387   Quotes:   “Post traumatic growth occurs when an individual is shattered by their experiences, but in their recovery go beyond their pre-trauma functioning”   “I am not sure the growth is real (post traumatic). If feels to me like people are talking about growth, when actually there is nothing there.”   “Real growth has some kind of change in outlook on life, a philosophical change, real fundamental differences in how people view life.”   “The illusory side of growth is more about self-deception; People deceiving themselves into thinking something positive has come from their experiences.”   “These individuals are identifying positive outcomes, but they are not real.”   “Ideally, I’d like to say we can grow from our experiences, but that’s not to say we always grow, or we have to grow.”   “Resiliency and growth in some ways are contradictory.”

Study: Can You Have Your Vigorous Exercise and Enjoy It Too? Ramping Intensity Down Increases Postexercise, Remembered, and Forecasted Pleasure Abstract: There is a paucity of methods for improving the affective experience of exercise. We tested a novel method based on discoveries about the relation between exercise intensity and pleasure, and lessons from behavioral economics. We examined the effect of reversing the slope of pleasure during exercise from negative to positive on pleasure and enjoyment, remembered pleasure, and forecasted pleasure. Forty-six adults were randomly assigned to a 15-min bout of recumbent cycling of either increasing intensity (0%-120% of Watts corresponding to the ventilatory threshold) or decreasing intensity (120%-0%). Ramping intensity down, thereby eliciting a positive slope of pleasure during exercise, improved postexercise pleasure and enjoyment, remembered pleasure, and forecasted pleasure. The slope of pleasure accounted for 35%-46% of the variance in remembered and forecasted pleasure from 15 min to 7 days postexercise. Ramping intensity down makes it possible to combine exposure to vigorous and moderate intensities with a pleasant affective experience.   Author: Zachary Zenko Dr. Zachary Zenko recently earned his Ph.D. in Kinesiology from the Department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University. His undergraduate degree is in Health and Physical Education with a major in Human Performance from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His Master of Science degree is in Health and Physical Activity from the University of Pittsburgh. Zachary combines the field of behavioral economics with exercise psychology in an effort to promote physical activity and exercise behavior. Much of his research focuses on the affective responses to exercise, the measurement of implicit exercise associations, and exercise decision making. Zachary will soon join the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University as a post-doctoral associate.   Links:   Author: https://twitter.com/zackzenko   Article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298427636_Can_You_Have_Your_Vigorous_Exercise_and_Enjoy_It_Too_Ramping_Intensity_Down_Increases_Postexercise_Remembered_and_Forecasted_Pleasure   Quotes:   “It’s important for most people, and listeners to understand that exercise does not need to feel unpleasant or very intense for it to be beneficial.”   “I can’t tell you how many times I hear that advice being given out with new exercisers. People say oh for, let’s say a month or two, this will be unpleasant but there is nothing you can do about it. Once you get over that hump though, then hopefully you will start to enjoy it or it will feel good for you. Umm……..that’s not necessary.

Study: Think aloud: An examination of distance runners’ thought processes Abstract: Distance running is popular throughout the USA, and to date it has received much attention in the sport psychology literature. One limitation, however, is the retrospective nature of most current research. Subsequently, the present study examined real-time thought processes of runners recorded during a long-distance run. The think-aloud protocol was used with 10 participants ranging in age from 29 to 52 years old (M = 41.3 years, SD = 7.3). Qualitative analysis of the data identified meaning units, which were grouped into major themes. A final thematic structure revealed three major themes that characterized the participant's thought processes: Pace and Distance, Pain and Discomfort, and Environment. Taken together, the present results extend previous research on running and provide a number of suggestions for sport psychology consultants working with runners.   Author: Duncan Simpson Dr. Duncan Simpson serves as an Assistant Professor in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology and is the Coordinator of the Undergraduate Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology Program. He received his MS degree in Exercise Science from Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK and his PhD in Sport & Exercise Psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His teaching experience includes various undergraduate and graduate courses in: applied sport psychology, psycho-social aspects of sport, exercise psychology, psychology of coaching, qualitative research methods and professional practice. In addition to classes taught at Barry University, he has taught at Ithaca College, NY; The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; The University of Leeds (UK) and Leeds Metropolitan University (UK). Dr. Simpson is an active researcher and his primary research interests include: psychology of endurance sports; performance enhancement through season-long interventions; exploring the experiences of athletes training for competition; stress and coping among elite adolescent athletes; competitive state anxiety in elite adolescents; talent identification and development in physical education, and the acquisition of expertise in sport.   Links:   Author: https://www.barry.edu/hpls/faculty/simpson.html             http://simpsonperformanceconsulting.com/ Article:            http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1612197X.2015.1069877?journalCode=rijs20#.V4hOqbgrLIU     “In the first mile or two for every runner we heard a lot of negative thoughts. Across the board everyone was struggling with some sort of pain or discomfort when they started the run.”   “That old saying, never judge a run on its first mile is really true.”   “Recognize the difference between discomfort and pain. Basically, almost every time you go for a run you are going to feel some form of discomfort. It’s part of the experience of running.”   “I think there is a lesson for athletes that discomfort is sometimes part of the process, and for runners it’s a really important part of the process.”

Study: Appraisal in a Team Context: Perceptions of Cohesion Predict Competition Importance and Prospects for Coping Abstract: Athletes' precompetitive appraisal is important because it determines emotions, which may impact performance. When part of a team, athletes make their appraisal within a social context, and in this study we examined whether perceived team cohesion, as a characteristic of this context, related to appraisal. We asked 386 male and female intercollegiate team-sport athletes to respond to measures of cohesion and precompetitive appraisal before an in-season game. For males and females, across all teams, (a) an appraisal of increased competition importance was predicted by perceptions of higher task cohesion (individual level), better previous team performance, and a weaker opponent (team level) and (b) an appraisal of more positive prospects for coping with competitive demands was predicted by higher individual attractions to the group (individual level). Consequently, athletes who perceive their team as more cohesive likely appraise the pending competition as a challenge, which would benefit both emotions and performance.   Author: Svenja Wolf Dr. Svenja A. Wolf is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Social Psychology Program at the University of Amsterdam. In her work, Svenja focuses on two prominent attributes of almost any performance context, emotions and groups, and investigates how these two factors interact. At the moment, Svenja and her collaborators are fascinated by the idea of collective emotions or emotional convergence in sport and other performance teams and explore why teams converge emotionally, which environmental and personal factors impact this convergence, and, crucially, how collective emotions relate to team performance, group climate, and member adherence. Having competed both in individual and team sports, Svenja has experienced both the supportive and pressure inducing effects of a team firsthand and investigated these effects in a more structured fashion when obtaining her Doctorate in Sport Science (area Sport and Exercise Psychology) at the German Sport University Cologne. In this podcast, Svenja shares some insight from her past and current research as well as from her work as an applied sport psychology consultant.    Links:   Paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26524095   Author: http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/organisation/staff-members/content/w/o/s.a.wolf/s.a.wolf.html   Quotes:   “The more unified teammates were in regards to goals, and the more they felt the team environment was a place for them to play well, the more important they viewed an upcoming competition.”   “If I feel I have friends on the team, and I feel I can lean on these others, then I feel like I have more resources to deal with the upcoming competition.”

Study: “Athletes” and “exercisers”: Understanding identity, motivation, and physical activity participation in former college athletes. Abstract: Self-identity influences physical activity participation, and individuals who are motivated by self-determined and volitional reasons are more likely to maintain their exercise behavior. The present study incorporates tenets of identity theory and self-determination theory to investigate the relationships among identity, motivation, and physical activity in former college athletes. Former Division I student-athletes (N = 282) completed an online survey consisting of the Exercise Identity Scale, the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, the Behavioral Regulation for Exercise Questionnaire, the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire, and demographic items. Exercise identity and athletic identity were both positively related to physical activity and significantly interacted in their prediction of physical activity participation. Motivation, and specifically identified regulation, appears to have a mediating effect on the relationship between exercise identity and physical activity. The findings of this study add to our understanding of former college athletes’ physical activity behavior within an identity and self-determination theory framework.    Author: Erin Reifsteck Dr. Erin Reifsteck is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and M.S. and Ph.D. in kinesiology with a sport and exercise psychology concentration. Erin is a former NCAA Division I student-athlete, having played field hockey at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania. Drawing on her research and experience as a former athlete, Erin led the development of Moving On!, a physical activity and health transition program for student-athletes, which she discusses in this interview. Prior to joining the kinesiology department at UNCG, Erin completed her post-doctoral fellowship with the Institute to Promote Athlete Health and Wellness.   Links:             Article:   http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/spy/5/1/25/   Moving On!:   http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/moving-physical-activity-transition-program-student-athletes   https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/RES_Moving_On!_Slides_20160209.pdf   Author: ejreifst@uncg.edu   Quotes:   “There is this misconception out there that athletes by nature of being athletes know how to be active, have always been active, and therefore will always be active, but the evidence suggests that is not the case.”   “Student athletes who had developed or maintained a broader active identity, so seeing themselves as physically active people, not just specifically maybe a basketball player, that those were the people that were more likely to be physically active.”   “Having that higher exercise identity was also related to greater self-determined motivation.”   “Results suggest that…Identity and motivation could be impactful components of interventions that we might develop to try to foster physical activity in former student athletes.”   “Knowing that identity and motivation are key factors in influencing people’s behaviors and what they do or don’t do in life, that’s a key take a way point to understand regardless of what setting you are in.”

Author: Dr. Blair Evans Dr. Michael Blair Evans is an assistant professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University, Masters of Arts in Kinesiology and Physical Activity from University of Lethbridge and his Bachelor of Arts in Sport Psychology at Laurentian University. His research interests include how personal relationships influence the experiences of athletes and exercisers, group dynamics, and youth sport. With several studies published already, Dr. Evans is expanding his research interests and following several specific lines of research that he discusses during the show.   Links:   Author: http://hhd.psu.edu/kines/directory/Bio.aspx?id=EvansBlair   Articles mentioned in the interview:   Bruner, M. W., Eys, M. A., Evans, M. B., & Wilson, K. (2015). Interdependence and Social Identity in Youth Sport Teams. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 27, 351-358.   http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2015.1010661   Evans, M. B., McGuckin, M., Gainforth, H., Bruner, M. W., & Côté, J. (2015). Informing programs to improve interpersonal coach behaviours: A systematic review using the RE-AIM framework. British Journal of Sport Medicine, 49, 871-877.   http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/13/871.abstract?sid=74624d71-9f50-40f5-af11-5c32b029bc79     Evans, M. B., & Eys, M. A. (2015). Collective goals and shared tasks: Interdependence structure and perceptions of individual sport team environments. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 25, e139–e148.   http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.12235/abstract   Evans, M. B., Eys, M. A., & Bruner, M. W. (2012). Seeing the ‘we’ in ‘me’ sports: The need to consider individual sport team environments. Canadian Psychology, 53, 301-308.   http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&id=4FEC9C9C-072E-02AB-0949-371D2297124B&resultID=1&page=1&dbTab=pa&search=true       “I think there is huge potential to start teach coaches about more elements of team dynamics that extend beyond maybe norms and maybe motivational climate and enter into things like roles of members, interdependence and how you socialize people into groups and create that positive group environment.”  

Study: A qualitative study of perfectionism among self-identified perfectionists in sport and the performing arts Abstract: When adopting any measure of perfectionism to examine the characteristic in sport or the performing arts, researchers make assumptions regarding its core features and, sometimes, its effects. So to avoid doing so, in the current study we employed qualitative methods to examine the accounts of self-identified perfectionists. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to explore the opinions and perceptions of high-level, self-identified perfectionists from sport, dance, and music. In particular, we sought to obtain detailed information regarding (a) participants’ perceptions of the main features of being a perfectionist and (b) how they perceived being a perfectionist to influence their lives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 international/ professional athletes, dancers, and musicians. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and themes within the transcripts. Three overarching themes were identified: drive, accomplishment, and strain. Being a perfectionist was characterized by the participants as having ever-increasing standards, obsessiveness, rigid and dichotomous thinking, and dissatisfaction. The participants also described how being a perfectionist influenced their lives by, on the one hand, providing greater capacity for success in their respective domains but, on the other hand, contributing to varying degrees of personal and interpersonal difficulties. The accounts suggest that, in the main, the content of current models and measures adequately capture the features of being a perfectionist in sport and performing arts. However, a greater focus on obsessiveness, dissatisfaction, and intra- versus interpersonal dimensions of perfectionism would provide further insight into the lives of perfectionists in these domains.   Author: Andrew Hill Dr. Andy Hill is the Head of Programme for Taught Master’s degrees in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at York St. John University. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Sport Studies (BSc) at De Montfort University and a PhD in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire. He primarily teaches Sport and Exercise Psychology and Research Methods with an emphasis in motivational processes, personality and individual differences. Growing up a big sports fan and  keen participant in various sports, Andy can turn on any sports event and get lost in the drama and spectacle of watching athletes perform. He thinks sport is an excellent context in which to view human behavior.   Links:   Author: http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/health--life-sciences/faculty-of-hls/staff-contact-details/sport-staff/andy-hill-profile/andy-hill-research.aspx   Study: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/spy-spy0000041.pdf   Book: The Psychology of Perfectionism in Sport, Exercise and Dance   https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Perfectionism-in-Sport-Dance-and-Exercise/Hill/p/book/9781138958692   Quotes from the Episode:   “On one hand, perfectionism is a kind of powerful motivational force. It makes them train harder, train longer, it provides them a greater capacity for success. But the flip side to this, is they all reported to varying degrees some elements of difficulty coping with their perfectionism.”   “If they (perfectionists) can’t do it perfectly, they don’t do it at all.”   “Any successes are tainted or any successes are in context of this dark cloud that hangs over them.”   “There is nothing wrong with having exceptionally high standards, it’s essential for most domains, including sport, exercise and dance. But what is not essential is for every single little failure you experience that you engage in debilitating self-criticism to the point at which you are unable to persevere and return to the task.”

Study: As Iron Sharpens Iron? Athletes’ Perspectives of Positional Competition Abstract: The study explored the competition between teammates for playing time (i.e., positional competition) within university team sports from the athletes’ perspective. Sixteen Canadian interuniversity team sport athletes (11 women, 5 men) participated in semistructured interviews. Results revealed that positional competition (a) occurs between players in the same position, (b) is necessary to determine playing time, (c) is an ongoing, omni-present process, and (d) happens under the awareness of the coach. Furthermore, various inputs (by the individual athlete, team, coach), processes (performance-related, information-related), and outcomes (individual, collective) became apparent. Positional competition is a group process that occurs across multiple competitive situations (e.g., practices, games). Future research is needed to clearly define and operationalize it as its own construct.   Author: Sebastian Harenberg Originally from Germany, he attended both his undergrad and master’s program in Physical Education to become a high school teacher at Göttingen University. He then ventured over to Canada to obtain his PHD from University of Regina in Kinesiology and Health Studies. He completed his PhD in 2014 and has since been working a research scientist for a local health region. On the applied side, Sebastian has played soccer his entire life and other sports such as hockey. Additionally, he has coaching experience at the University of Regina where he coaches women soccer He is currently in transition as he recently accepted a job at Ithaca College in upstate New York.   Links:   Author: sebastianharenberg@gmail.com   Article: http://journals.humankinetics.com/tsp-current-issue/tsp-volume-30-issue-1-march/as-iron-sharpens-iron-athletes-perspectives-of-positional-competition   Quotes from the episode:   “How do coaches keep their bench players, and the players that are sitting in the stands motivated to perform. To me this has become a guiding question that really stuck with me.”   “The players described the competition for playing time not as something that is in a particular situation, so not as something that starts and ends.”    “A lot depends on the coaches, and how the coach structures positional competition. Athletes want to have information on where they stand and how they can improve.”   “When you have a constant information flow, and a constant mechanism of how you can transfer this information to your athletes (feedback on where they stand in a positional battle and why) that is when you see some really effective results."

Study: Interdependence and Social Identity in Youth Sport Teams Abstract: The degree to which team members believe that they rely on one another to perform successfully and achieve collective outcomes may relate to perceptions about the extent that they integrate the group within their own identity. This study examined the relationship between interdependence and social identity among 422 high school team sport athletes. Youth completed measures of task and outcome interdependence, as well as social identity. Multilevel analyses revealed that higher perceptions of outcome interdependence at an individual and team level predicted greater social identity. Results highlight the role of outcome interdependence on athletes’ perceptions of social identity in sport teams.   Author: Mark Bruner Dr. Mark Bruner is an associate professor at Nipissing University in Ontario Canada. Mark grew up playing sports in high school and then football and water polo at McMaster University while obtaining a degree in kinesiology. Following his undergraduate degree Mark travelled to Australia to obtain his teaching degree while playing ice hockey. After his time in Australia he returned to Canada to teach high school and coach basketball and football. He soon fostered an interest in sport psychology due to the influence of several friends and notable mentors. Form his many experiences being involved with teams, his research interests followed suit and he was soon examining group dynamics. He now finds himself at Nipissing University with his wife, where his program will be proudly accepting their first cohort of masters students this year. Links:   Author: http://www.nipissingu.ca/about-us/people/Pages/Mark-Bruner.aspx   Study: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2015.1010661

Study: Mean Girls: Adolescent Female Athletes and Peer Conflict in Sport Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent female athletes’ experiences with peer conflict. In-depth, semistructured interviews (N = 15) were conducted with female athletes participating in high school/club-level sport. Inductive and deductive content analysis was then completed, and 4 distinct themes emerged regarding interpersonal conflict in the sport domain: causes of sport peer conflict, manifestations of sport peer conflict, outcomes of sport peer conflict, and attempts to reduce conflict. Findings imply that sport peer relationships can result in conflict behaviors that are both consistent with developmental literature and distinctive within the adolescent sport domain.   Author: Julie Partridge Julie Partridge is an associate professor and faculty athletics representative at Southern Illinois University. She obtained her PHD in Social Psychological Kinesiology from the University of Northern Colorado, her Master’s degree from the University of North Carolina and undergraduate degree from Kansas State University. Her research interests include social influence, emotions (specifically shame and embarrassment in sport) and fan behavior.   Links:   Author: http://ehs.siu.edu/kinesiology/faculty_staff/faculty/patridge_julie.php   Paper: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10413200.2015.1076088?journalCode=uasp20

Author: Mustafa Sarkar Dr. Mustafa Sarkar is a Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Nottigham Trent University. Dr Sarkar is also a member of the Sport, Health, and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) research group. His research focuses on the psychology of sporting excellence and its application to other high performance domains (e.g., business). His work addresses how high achievers thrive on pressure and deliver sustained success. Specific research areas include psychological and team resilience, growth and thriving, sport psychology consultancy. Studies: Study 1: What Doesn’t Kill Me: Adversity-Related Experiences are Vital in the Development of Superior Olympic Performance Study 2: Resilience training in the workplace from 2003 to 2014: A systematic review Abstract:  Study 1: Objectives: Recent research suggests that experiencing some adversity can have beneficial outcomes for human growth and development. The purpose of this paper was to explore the adversities that the world's best athletes encounter and the perceived role that these experiences play in their psychological and performance development. Design: A qualitative design was employed because detailed information of rich quality was required to better understand adversity-related experiences in the world's best athletes. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Olympic gold medalists from a variety of sports. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The findings indicate that the participants encountered a range of sport- and non-sport adversities that they considered were essential for winning their gold medals, including repeated non-selection, significant sporting failure, serious injury, political unrest, and the death of a family member. The participants described the role that these experiences played in their psychological and performance development, specifically focusing on their resultant trauma, motivation, and learning. Conclusions: Adversity-related experiences were deemed to be vital in the psychological and performance development of Olympic champions. In the future, researchers should conduct more in-depth comparative studies of Olympic athletes’ adversity- and growth-related experiences, and draw on existing and alternative theoretical explanations of the growth-performance relationship. For professional practitioners, adversity-related experiences offer potential developmental opportunities if they are carefully and purposely harnessed.   Study 2: Over a decade of research attests to the importance of resilience in the workplace for employee well-being and performance. Yet, surprisingly, there has been no attempt to synthesize the evidence for the efficacy of resilience training in this context. The purpose of this study, therefore is to provide a systematic review of work-based resilience training interventions. Our review identified 14 studies that investigated the impact of resilience training on personal resilience and four broad categories of dependent variables: (1) mental health and subjective well-being outcomes, (2) psychosocial outcomes, (3) physical/biological outcomes, and (4) performance outcomes. Findings indicated that resilience training can improve personal resilience and is a useful means of developing mental health and subjective well-being in employees. We also found that resilience training has a number of wider benefits that include enhanced psychosocial functioning and improved performance. Due to the lack of coherence in design and implementation, we cannot draw any firm conclusions about the most effective content and format of resilience training. Therefore, going forward, it is vital that future research uses comparative designs to assess the utility of different training regimes, explores whether some people might benefit more/less from resilience training, and demonstrates consistency in terms of how resilience is defined, conceptualized, developed, and assessed. Practitioner points: Despite conceptual and theoretical support for resilience training, the empirical evidence is tentative, with the exception of a large effect for mental health and subjective well-being outcomes. Most programmes utilize a cognitive-behavioural approach to developing resilience .At this stage, there is no definitive evidence for the most effective training content or format, but it would appear wise to include an element of one-to-one training and support based on individual needs.       Links:   Author: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/staff_profiles/staff_directory/531b528a-8938-4bbb-a5d3-b14f5f494c8f-0/26/profile.aspx?deptcode=SST&deptTitle=School%20of%20Science%20and%20Technology&page=15   Papers:   http://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440(14)00121-2/abstract   http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joop.12120/abstract   “Negative emotions can be useful, it’s just about how individuals go about reflecting on them.”  “Certain Situations that are inevitably going to happen in someone’s life, how do we get athlete’s to react better to them when they do happen.”

Study: See Hear: Psychological Effects of Music and Music-Video During Treadmill Running Abstract: Background: There is a paucity of work addressing the distractive, affect-enhancing, and motivational influences of music and video in combination during exercise. Purpose: We examined the effects of music and music-and-video on a range of psychological and psychophysical variables during treadmill running at intensities above and below ventilatory threshold (VT). Methods: Participants (N = 24) exercised at 10 % of maximal capacity below VT and 10 % above under music-only, music-and-video, and control conditions. Results: There was a condition × intensity × time interaction for perceived activation and state motivation, and an intensity × time interaction for state attention, perceived exertion (RPE), and affective valence. The music-and-video condition elicited the highest levels of dissociation, lowest RPE, and most positive affective responses regardless of exercise intensity. Conclusions: Attentional manipulations influence psychological and psychophysical variables at exercise intensities above and below VT, and this effect is enhanced by the combined presentation of auditory and visual stimuli.   Author: Jasmin Hutchinson Dr. Jasmin Hutchinson is an associate professor at Springfield University. She received her undergraduate degree (BSc in sport science, physical education, and social science) from Loughborough University, UK, a master’s degree in exercise science from Eastern Illinois University, and a PhD in sport psychology from Florida State University. Early on in her academic career she found an interest in the dual psychology/physiology relationship and has stuck with that passion ever since. She also has participated in marathons and is a fan of techno music … which Is awesome!   Links:   Author:   http://springfield.edu/academic-programs/exercise-science-and-sport-studies-department/jasmin-hutchinson-phd   Study:   http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12160-014-9647-2

Study: Swimming Upstream: Former Diversity Committee Chairs’ Perceptions of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology’s Commitment to Organizational Diversity Abstract: Commitment to diversity within the field of sport psychology is a crucial yet underrepresented research topic. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of individuals who have been instrumental in trying to effect diversity change within the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Seven of 10 former AASP Diversity Committee chairs were interviewed about their experiences as chairs. Three main themes resulted: (a) the overall experience of being diversity chair, (b) perceived challenges to implementation of initiatives, and (c) perceived current state of affairs related to diversity. Future directions for research and application are given, including a recommendation that AASP create a specific diversity action plan, establishing a clear description of what diversity means within AASP. Moving beyond demographic or visual categories (e.g., skin color, sexual identity, ability status), a broader definition that encompasses the values, beliefs, and practices of a variety of intersectional identities is required through careful consideration and discussion.   Author: Emily Roper Dr. Emily Roper is an associate professor at Sam Houston State University. She obtained her master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology from the University of Toronto and doctoral degree in cultural studies with an emphasis in sport and exercise psychology from the university of Tennessee. Her journey into sport psychology began her junior year of undergrad when she stumbled upon and article about goal setting and tennis performance. From that point on she followed her interest in the blending of psychology and sport. Her current research interests include representations of physically active females in children’s and young adult literature and concerns for safety among women exercising/recreating outdoors and the newly emerging field of cultural sport psychology.   Links:   Author: http://www.shsu.edu/academics/health-sciences/about-the-college/faculty/kinesiology/roper.html   Article: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2014.940090