What do sport and exercise psychologists do?
It is relatively rare for individuals to practice in both sport and exercise psychology; typically, though some exceptions exist, they specialise in one or the other. Sport psychologists work with sports participants across a range of both team and individual sports and from amateur to elite levels of competition. The aim is predominately to help athletes prepare psychologically for competition and to deal with the psychological demands of both competition and training. Examples of the work they carry out include counselling referees to deal with the stressful and demanding aspects of their role, advising coaches on how to build cohesion within their squad of athletes and helping athletes to deal with the psychological and emotional consequences of sustaining an injury. An exercise psychologist is primarily concerned with the application of psychology to increase exercise participation and motivational levels in the general public. Examples of the work they do include optimising the be
