Chapter 1 Introducing sport and exercise psychology:
discipline and profession I think a lot of the game is how you feel upstairs and that’s confidence. It generates your persona, your aura, your whole body language. And that comes out on the table. If you’re giving off signs, it shakes the other person. (Ken Doherty, 1997 world snooker champion and runner-up in 2003, cited in Watterson, 1997, p. 8) Eighty per cent of this game is about confidence. It’s in the mind. (Glenn Hoddle, manager of Tottenham Hotspur football team and former manager of England, cited in Lacey, 1998, p. 24) The key to my game in recent times has been my attitude.
(Darren Clarke, Ryder Cup player, cited in C. Smith, 1998, P.1 Darts is in the mind and you need to be under pressure to throw your best. (Phil “The Power” Taylor, ten-times world champion darts player, cited in Kervin, 2001, p. S6) The myth has to be dispelled that you are mad to go to a psychologist. You have to get the best out of your mind to get the best out of your body. (David James, West Ham and England goalkeeper, cited in Winter, 2002a, p. S3)
Introduction
As the above quotations show, many prominent athletes and coaches believe that although sport is played with the body, it is won in the mind (see Figure 1.1). If this belief is correct, then psychologists should be able to help sports competitors to enhance their athletic performance by providing them with practical advice on how to do their best when it matters most. Influenced by the potential benefits of such advice, increasing numbers of athletes and teams are turning to sport psychologists in an effort to gain a winning edge over their rivals.
Although this trend is apparent in virtually all competitive games, it is especially evident in mentally demanding individual sports such as golf. Not surprisingly, therefore, world-class golfers such as Ernie Els (Davies, 2002), Pádraig Harrington (Gilleece, 2002), Retief Goosen (Hannigan, 2001a), Phil Mickelson (Browne, 2000), Alison Nicholas (St John, 1997) and Colin Montgomerie (Fleming, 2003) have acknowledged the contribution of sport psychologists to their success in recent years. Indeed, according to D.Davies (2003), Davis Love III, who won the 2003 Players’ Championship at Sawgrass, consults not one but three sport psychologists on a regular basis! It would be wrong, however, to assume that athlete—psychologist consultations are always about performance enhancement. Thus Keefe (2003) suggested that one reason why so many professional golfers hire psychologists is simply that they “need to tell their story to someone” (p. 73) who has little direct involvement in their lives.
