Mental Skills Training for Sport and Health

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone who engages in, or is interested in, sport and physical activity.

It will be of particular interest and use to current or aspiring sport and exercise psychology practitioners, sports coaches, students, and professionals.

This course can be used as professional development training for a number of different disciplines, including sport psychology, health psychology, cognitive psychology, sports coaching, and personal training.

What topics will you cover?

On this course we will be covering three key mental skills training techniques:

Mental practice including how the PETTLEP model can inform the delivery of motor imagery/action observation interventions.

Self-talk, including the concepts of valence, overtness, motivational interpretation, and function.

Goal setting, including the different SMART principles and types of goal.

For each skill, case studies from sport, exercise, and clinical settings will be used to illustrate to learners how each of these skills can be relevant in practical settings.

Learners will also have the opportunity to demonstrate and apply their knowledge of each mental skill training technique in a variety of tasks throughout the course.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to…

Explain three core psychological attributes (motivation, confidence, anxiety) that influence exercise participation and sport performance.

Describe three core Mental Skills Training techniques (imagery and action observation, self-talk, goal-setting) that are frequently used in sport and exercise psychology.

Explore the relationship between Mental Skills Training and exercise participation/sports performance through the demonstration of applied case studies and scientific research.

Discuss the application of Mental Skills Training techniques to different populations, including elite and recreational athletes, and clinical groups.