Sports psychology: a matter of magic?

In the world of physical activity and sports, psychology is a discipline that still has a long way to go. There is much confusion about what the role of psychology is and what benefits it brings.

In my opinion, despite the progress that sports psychology has made today, its importance has not yet been understood.

There are people who see psychology as a fundamental part, others believe that it only works individually with athletes, others that it should be dedicated only high performance or that only serves for the training phases, there are those who do not "believe" in it, those who think that it only serves to work on motivation etc.

• Related article: "10 reasons to put a sports psychologist in your life"

The psychology of sport and its scope

There are different ways of thinking, something logical considering that people's thinking differs a lot from one another. However, sometimes it is too similar.

Within these views on sports psychology, there seems to be one that, in my opinion, is unfortunately shared by many professionals (or not so much) in the world of sports. I have observed this in comments, questions that people have asked me, requests for help, etc., both from people who value our work in this area as something important, as well as others who do not have as much faith in their utility.

Either because of an extra confidence or a lack of knowledge, or a reaction caused by frustration derived from a competitive situation, many times the coaches and athletes come in our search when "already (almost) all the fish is sold "to see if we are able to solve a situation that they have been trying for a long time, or not, in a few hours.

I would like to know what kind of magic psychologists think we can do to think that we can give it a 180 turn degrees to their situation, dedicating a tenth of the time that they have spent an entire season, without to get it. Because a reality is that, many times, our work is counted on when there is no other option, from "extinguishing fires", forgetting preventive work. And those times, they usually coincide with situations that are already difficult to save.

The worst thing about all this is that in the end, in most cases, the situation does not change as enough, reinforcing the idea that the sports psychology professional should not dedicate to sports and should be limited to being in a clinical consultation, following the medical model, most popular in our sector.

I dedicate this article to commenting on this situation, without wanting to convince myself of the importance of my work, with the only intention to help understand that psychologists do not have a miracle pill that changes things from night to night. the morning.

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There are no shortcuts: change takes effort

Like any physical or technical-tactical conditioning training, psychological training requires time, work and dedication. If a runner seeks to increase his endurance, he will not achieve it in two workouts, but will require constant work through which you will obtain a series of improvements over time until you reach the desired performance. In the same way, if this runner wanted to optimize the management of concentration and relaxation prior to competition, a day or two of practice would not be enough to acquire that skill.

As with training, it is the same with the work of the sports psychologist. Like a coach who is new to a team, he needs to gain the trust of the group, get them to believe in his work and follow him in his purposes; a sports psychologist needs to know the people he is going to work with and, fundamentally, earn their trust them to work and develop his proposals, convinced that this will help them achieve their objectives.

Any job well done, in the long term, depends on the same factors: time, dedication, perseverance; there are no miracles. Success in achieving the objectives is preceded by the combination of an interdisciplinary training that covers the physical, technical-tactical and mental fields; and the training will be of higher quality, to the extent that each of its aspects is carried out by a professional in that field.

Luckily, not everything is so black. Day by day the importance of our work in the world of sports and physical activity is more recognized and we are acquiring greater relevance as another important figure within the sports field. I contemplate reality with hope, trusting that with work and perseverance we will be able to make our way, knocking down this and other myths that are created around us and giving way to a reality in which we are valued as a professional more. It takes time.