Description
Welcome to the latest issue of the Sport & Exercise Psychology Review. As I write this piece, the Ashes are firmly underway, Chris Froome holds a stolid lead in the Tour de France and the Open at St Andrews is in full swing (pardon the pun). Beyond the ropes of these senescent events, we see fans entranced by the opulent desire for success and the psychology that underpins it. At every level of sport and physical activity from cycling to swimming, people are breaking their own estimable records, striving for longer and constantly fortifying a healthy mind in a healthy body. But as the philosopher, Soren Kierkeguard, claimed: ‘Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards’. We, as sport and exercise psychologists, lead and follow in this quest to understand the sporting life. Within this issue of the SEPR, we present original articles, applied and pedagogical reflections and begin with four original articles: First, we read an exploratory study of the experiences of the pre- and post-retirement period of female elite artistic gymnasts. Next, we examine the participation football coaches’ philosophies from development to expression. Then we turn toward athletes’ perceptions about the availability of social support during within-career transitions. And finally, we are presented with a guide for eye tracking in sport for new and aspiring researchers. We have two hebdomadal accounts of the lives of two sport psychologists. First, we read about the experiences of James Lambdon, a sport and exercise psychologist in training, and then from Sarah Cecil, a highly experienced sport and exercise psychologist working in the English Institute of Sport. Bruce Grimley explores the concept of neurolinguistic programming with a reply from David Tod. We talk one-to-one with Dr. Richard Cox, a sport psychologist with a rich history in applied sport psychology practice. Our student contributions explore a student’s findings on a sport psychology placement and effective relationship management as a survival skill for PhD students. We have a reply from Tadhg MacIntyre, Jessie Barr and Clodagh Butler to Amada Martindale, Dave Collins and Hugh Richards original discussion: Is elite sport good for you? Amada, Dave and Hugh also replied to this response. Jessie Barr and Clare Murphy offer a student perspective on the conceptual understanding of META processes in the expertise domain. We have workshop reviews from James Lambdon, Sarah Carvell, Claire Rossato and Itay Basevitch. The issue is concluded with a book review by Will McConn on Doing Exercise Psychology by Mark Andersen and Stephanie Hanrahan. The mix of research and applied contributions in the Sport & Exercise Psychology Review continues to stimulate the curiosity of our readership. We are most grateful to the contributors for choosing the SEPR as an outlet for their written work and now we await eagerly the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology Conference in Leeds in December. As I circumambulated the Old Course for the last time at the Open 2015, I felt the verisimilitude of our profession lies equally on the field as it does in the laboratory. The manifold duties of a sport and exercise psychologist means that we are encouraged to seek and find answers through our research and applied practice or take heed of the old Latin proverb: Ex nihilo nihil fit. Out of nothing you’ll get nothing.| Period | 1 Sept 2015 |
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| Type of journal | Journal |