Description
Welcome to the latest issue of the Sport & Exercise Psychology Review. As I write this piece on a dark winter’s evening and recall the events of 2014, I am reminded of the quote: God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. My “December roses” are not just a quotidian collage of stories and images from major sporting events (Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup); they are much more than that, they are moments of personal triumph, largely hidden from us, by those inspired to be active in hope for themselves and in the memory of others. These two provinces of sport and exercise make a diptych, with psychology acting as the hinge. Within the SEPR we reflect the interests and key questions facing sport and exercise psychologists as well as offering a forum for discussion. Within this issue we begin with three articles: an exploration of the roles and influences of Olympic athletes’ entourages in athletes’ preparation for careers transitions out of sport, a cognitive-behavioural intervention for yips in golf and an investigation into athletes’ intrusive visual imagery. These research articles mirror those issues that arise in sport psychology practice with practitioners supporting each client differently but with an underlying commonality. And it is this commonality, or most valuable advice, that is shared in the following article: A lesson learned in time: Advice shared by experienced sport psychologists. These contributors shared a decidedly valuable lesson about sport psychology application that they learned through their years of practice. We talk one-on-one with with Professor Andrew Lane from the University of Wolverhampton who enjoys a distinguished career as a researcher and practitioner in sport and exercise psychology. Brian Hemmings welcomes us in to hear about a typical week in his life as a sport psychologist private practice. Two early career sport and exercise psychologists use an autoethnographcial focus to describe the challenges they faced in each key role on the British Psychological Society’s Qualification in Sport and Exercise Psychology (QSEP). They discuss the turning points in which they felt they became more self-aware as applied practitioners. In our section on “It’s good to talk”, David Todd shared one of his consulting mistakes and then heard the opinions of two respected colleagues, Mark Nesti and Martin Eubank. In our students’ section, we have articles from two female sport and exercise psychologists discussing. The first article asks whether the gender of a sport psychology consultant still affects how they are viewed by potential clients and the second article explores how being female has shaped the sport psychology consultant’s professional practice and the unique ethical dilemmas that were presented. We also include a range of reviews on recent conferences, workshops and published books. To conclude, I am forever grateful to all the contributors who, through their striving and creativity, make the Sport & Exercise Psychology Review a resource to educate, inspire and guide those who enjoy sport and exercise psychology. These contributors also help us to remain at the coalface – working at an active rather than theoretical level in our field – which in my own experience, I find necessary to work well in private practice. And this conviction is borne out of the many accounts I have read recently published sports books (e.g., Roy Keane & Ian Poulter) that refer to psychology and its contribution to sport.| Period | 1 Mar 2015 |
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| Type of journal | Journal |