Competition Anxiety

It's natural to be nervous in competitive sport, whether it's an athletics meet or just before a big match. When this nervousness starts to interfere with your performance however, then Sports Psychology provides an ideal way of encountering this destructive anxiety while learning effective techniques to deal with it.
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Confidence

Self-belief is essential in sport - loss of confidence is often as a result of poor performances or injuries, and it's not always easy to "bounce back" from these events. Targeted psychological techniques are an excellent way of confronting these issues, and can be combined with other therapies to help you regain your confidence.
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Motivation

Motivation is a problem for many athletes at some point in their career. It may be that you're not progessing as you would like to, or have suffered an injury. Sports Psychology offers a a number of ways to regain the motivation you may have lost and to build on it for the future.

Focus & Concentration

Being able to focus at times of intense stress (for example, taking a penalty) is vital for success, but this important part of sports performance is not often practiced. By using specific psychological exercises to practice concentrating in a variety of environments, you will soon deal be able to with any future distractions.

Stress & Tension

Tension can occur at any time in a sporting situation, but the most common is just before a competitive event or just after making a mistake or under-performing. Over-tension often leads to mistakes or lowered confidence, and it's important to be able to deal with it immediately to prevent it from affecting your performance. By practicing relaxation techniques, you'll soon be able to stop stress and tension as soon as it starts to appear.

Mental Blocks

Mental blocks are common in sport and especially so after an injury. A rugby player injured in a tackle may for example hesitate before go into a tackle again, or a high jumper may constantly hit a brick wall when attempting a certain height. Using visualisation and other techniques, these mental blocks can be explored until they no longer hinder your performance.

Negative Self-Talk

In any performance arena it is essential that you keep a positive outlook. Negative self-talk (like beating yourself up after making a mistake) often creeps in when things aren't going according to plan, and this has a very unhealthy effect on confidence. As a result your performance worsens, and the self-talk then gets worse, until you're stuck in a rather unhappy cycle. Fortunately there are excellent sports psychology techniques to help you deal with this and return your mind to it's positive state.

See also: Frequently Asked Questions