Sports in media such as movies and tv series tend to highlight aspects including commitment and time management.
But did you know that there is a science behind it all?
Sports psychology is the study of how psychological factors influence athletes’ performance and mental well-being while maximizing their potential. This includes focusing on several mental health-related aspects including: attention, mental toughness, goal-setting, motivation, and confidence. The scope of sports psychology can be much wider as it may also include mental health conditions such as eating disorders or depression athletes might struggle with. It’s important to note that sports psychology can help influence any person participating in sports whether it’s your everyday person with a sports hobby or top Olympians. You can also witness the life of an athlete and how sports psychology influences it through common movies, such as Safety.
Summary of the movie
Safety (2020) presents the true story of former Clemson University student Ray McElrathbey. It focuses on his journey to maintain a sports scholarship while having to juggle a number of challenging circumstances. Ray’s mother struggles with addiction which takes a toll on the family’s mental and financial well-being. Ray then is led to take full responsibility for his 11-year-old brother, Fahmarr, alongside juggling his social and academic life.
Sports psychology elements in the movie:
Ray had to manage his challenging family situation, including his mother’s addiction and take responsibility for his younger brother. Addiction not only affects the addict himself but it takes a toll on the rest of his or her family members. As conflicts and stressors arise, family members often struggle to be both supportive of the addict and not engage in behaviours that allow the addiction to continue. To know more about how to support a family member battling addiction, you can head to our video by Dr Yasmine Anwer. Ray also needed to provide a safe and reliable home for his brother. Ray resided in his college dorms, his father had left them a while back, and his mother was staying in a rehabilitation centre, which leaves his brother on his own. Tackling these life circumstances required mental toughness which involves the ability to quickly rebound from the setbacks in his life, maintain calmness under pressure, and react to situations as positively as possible.
Ray needed to be motivated throughout the whole movie for him to maintain his performance regarding his sports performance, academics, and family responsibilities. Sports psychology works on improving athletes’ performance by working on their motivation levels, both their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors and rewards such as trophies or social recognition. Intrinsic motivation arises from one’s own internal rewards such as a sense of pride from or desire to achieve a goal.
In the movie, Ray had two main goals: keeping his sports scholarship and winning his hearing at the NCAA. Ray would need to visualise how he would achieve these two goals and break them down into steps. Mental visualisation is also important for athletes to execute their techniques and practice their game plan. To keep his sports scholarship he needed to manage his time between practice and academics and to win the hearing we see him preparing for his speech and visualising how the process would go. Sports psychologists could help players implement SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time framed) goals into their goal-setting process.
Aspects of teamwork are seen throughout the movie as Ray’s teammates come together to help him keep his brother in his dorm so he can have a place to stay. When Ray’s coach discovered his brother’s situation, a slight punishment was given where Ray had to run laps to make up for hiding his brother all this time. Not only that, but the whole team decided to run alongside Ray as an act of solidarity without being asked to!
Throughout the movie, Ray had to effectively manage his time between his academic, family responsibilities, and his sports practice. We see him first struggle to maintain that balance when he’s late to obtain his school books before the deadline and when he’s late to his psychology test and is forced to miss it. He also needs to attend practice sessions on time as well as make enough time to study. He also first struggles to maintain his social life amidst all his responsibilities, as there were constant arguments with his (fictional) girlfriend, Kaycee, regarding not spending enough time with each other. Managing to raise his younger brother was also a struggle, and this is evident in several scenes such as one where Ray forgets to pack his brother’s school lunch bag.
Sports Psychology:
Aside from the aspects of sports psychology that were seen in the movie, there are other aspects sports psychologists use to help athletes improve their performance and manage their mental health.
Sports psychologists teach athletes how to monitor their own self-talk. Self-talk is our inner voice and the internal monologue we use to talk to ourselves, even when we do it unconsciously. Self-talk is a .. contributing factor that affects a person’s performance in their everyday activities, including athletes’ performances in their sport. Athletes learn to recognise their internal conversations and how their own self-beliefs influence them. They then begin to develop more healthy self-talk which positively impacts their self-esteem and performance.
While it’s completely normal and natural to feel upset over losses and mistakes, it can sometimes negatively impact an athlete’s performance and everyday mood. An athlete then learns to let go of the destructive thoughts associated with loss. Then a reshift in focus is used to learn from mistakes without dwelling on them and to objectively evaluate their past performance(s).
Self-regulation involves having the ability (control) to understand your behaviors while being able to manage them and the reactions you have towards them. Like anyone in life, athletes may find themselves derailing from the behaviours that they need to maintain in order to achieve their goals, such as procrastinating practice or indulging in unhealthy habits. Sports psychologists in this case help athletes by tackling the four main areas of self-regulation: standards, monitoring, strength or willpower, and motivation.
Athletes often need to endure high-stress situations either on the field, during practice, or in their daily lives. Managing these challenges requires them to practice emotional regulation which focuses on the ability to effectively manage and/or respond to a distressing emotional experience. Athletes often perform at their best when they are in a certain emotional state or situation that can quickly shift their emotions if they cannot manage how they feel and simply react. One can go into a game feeling confident in their abilities, score a point and start to feel more optimistic, and then miss a point or get tackled by an opposing team member and feel devastated. These twists and turns heavily impact a player’s overall performance and learning how to deal with them can lead them to significantly improve their chances of winning. Sports psychologists can use several tools to help athletes develop emotional regulation such as breathing exercises or cue words.
For athletes to perform at their best, it’s important to help them foster confidence in their abilities and help build self-efficacy. Sports psychologists can help athletes grow their confidence levels by looking at their previous successes, pinpointing what they did right and what made them feel most confident. Sports psychologists may also help athletes develop constructive thought patterns that would help them maintain a good level of self-confidence.
Types of Sports Psychologists
Did you know that there are several types of sports psychologists, depending on their field and specialty?
Educational sports psychologists
These sports psychologists teach athletes a number of skills to help them improve their overall performance. these skills include: imagery or visualisation, goal-setting, or self-talk.
Clinical sports psychologists
Clinical sports psychologists mainly work with athletes who struggle with mental health conditions or disorders such as depression or anxiety. They use a variety of psychotherapy tools to help athletes enhance their mental well-being as well as their performance.
Exercise psychologists
Exercise psychologists focus on creating a habit of working out and exercising. They use techniques that are similar to the previous types of sports psychologists such as goal-setting, practising mindfulness, and motivational techniques.
To wrap up
There is a science behind those high-intensity scenes from your favourite sports movies and they aren’t just for entertainment purposes. A lot of the time, athletes and coaches cannot afford to take a break in the pursuit of winning. Having what it takes to mentally endure the challenges of being an athlete is just as important as being able to play the sport itself and that is where sports psychology goes into the equation. Anyone can benefit from sports psychology, whether you’re into day-to-day fitness training or professional basketball playing.
