Sports Psychologist
Kal Bielawski
Description
Sport psychologists work with athletes and teams involved in a sport from the amateur to professional level. They aim to help them deal psychologically with the demands of the sport, and to improve their personal development and performance.
Typical Work Activities
- assessing needs and abilities, and monitoring sport performance and behavior
- implementing strategies to help the client overcome difficulties
- working with a multidisciplinary team including other psychologists, nutritionists, GPs, coaches and physiologists
- conducting and applying research in sport or exercise psychology
Education
1. Earn a Bachelors Degree
2. Earn a Masters
3. Earn PHD or PsyD
-May be required to obtain AASP certificate
3 Facts
1. Sports psychologists are not bound to work with only professional athletes, and within this growing field, psychology graduates and professionals can look forward to a broader range of employment opportunities.
2. Yogi Berra, the legendary baseball great, was known to once say, "Baseball is 90% mental"
3. The first sports psychology lab was made in 1920 in Berlin
Pay
They can earn $60,000 to$80,000 a year; the highest salaries can exceed $100,000 annually.
Sport psychology - inside the mind of champion athletes: Martin Hagger at TEDxPerth
Setting
- Sports psychologist work with high level athletes daily. Many of them dealing with severe injuries. Keeping a high level athlete not playing a sport they love can negatively affect them mentally. It's the psychologist job to make sure they keep them calm and walk them through the steps it takes to get better, and that they can do it.