Meet the scientists!

The best thing about being a sport psychologist is that one day is never the same as the next, especially as I am self employed so I get to choose what I do. The kinds of things I do are:

1. Continuing to learn about being a psychologist

I don’t think I will ever stop learning! To find out everything I can about sport psychology I read science papers and books, I talk to other psychologists, and go on training courses. Even when I am on holiday, I usually take sport books with me – like the autobiographies of athletes. Right now I am reading about Roy Keane, the footballer.

2. Research

Because psychology is a science, I also do scientific research and write scientific articles. One of my main subject areas is performance enhancing drugs in sport and I have researched what athletes think about taking performance enhancing drugs. I also write articles about how psychology can help people to be healthier and do more exercise.

3. Practical psychology (applied psychology)

This is the real nuts and bolts of my work and where I get most pleasure and satisfaction. I work with athletes and sports people of all ages (the youngest is 10 years old, the oldest is 53 years old) to help them be better at sport or to cope with other problems. Some of the things I help athletes with is when they are nervous about a big competition, or when they are depressed after getting a bad injury that stops them doing sport. I also work with people who want to get healthier by doing more exercise and eating better food. These people sometimes need help to stop bad habits, and get new good habits. Sometimes they also need to feel more confidence, especially if they are overweight and feel a bit shy or embarrassed going to the gym or doing sports. I have had several great experiences so far, including working at a weight loss camp, working in South Africa with poor children, and working in Canada at the Toronto Marathon.

Here is a picture of a primary school classroom in South Africa where I worked (we used balloons to play a game to help everyone feel relaxed):

Here is a school rugby team I worked with:

And here is a list of some ‘confidence words’ we wrote down when we were talking about what confidence is. Most of the words are in English, but some are in an African language, called Xhosa.

4. Teaching and communicating about psychology

I don’t work in a university or school, but I give talks about sport psychology at sports clubs or gyms, and visit schools and universities to speak to students, and I also write articles on my blog and for other websites. I like this bit of my job a lot, because I think psychology is so interesting and I would love other people to think so too. That’s why I was so pleased to be selected for “I’m a Scientist”.

Last week was interesting because I was in Canada working at the Toronto Marathon. So that day I was up at 5am, to get the coach to the start line for 6am, and then I was speaking to runners right up to the start at 7.30am. Then I got into a car and drove around a strange city, to catch up with runners towards the middle or end of the marathon (I had to wear my own running gear as sometimes I ran alongside the runners). My day ended around 5pm, after I went to the medical tent to see if anyone needed help there.

The week before, I was working with a lady who used to ride and jump horses, but she had an operation on her back, and was feeling too scared to get on or off her horse, as she was worried it would hurt her back. So I worked at her stables, where her four horses were, and we spent a few hours teaching her ways to cope with feeling scared, and practicing it while she got on and off her smallest pony. Next time we meet we will try moving onto the next biggest horse, until she feels confident to get onto her favourite (and biggest) horse.

This is one of the horses wearing a very strange zebra blanket!

I think it is really important that all sports are fair and no one cheats – so that every athlete has as much chance as the next to do well, as long as they have the skills and have practiced enough. One way some athletes cheat is by taking “performance enhancing drugs” that make them bigger or faster or give them more energy. These drugs are also not very good for you, and some athletes who take performance enhancing drugs get really ill, or even die because of it.

From my research into performance enhancing drugs, I know that sometimes athletes feel pressured to take drugs, either by peer-pressure, or because they pressure themselves to do well. I will use what I found in my research, and what other psychologists have found in their research, to give psychology lessons that I hope will help young athletes to see themselves as people who don’t cheat, and don’t want to get ill from taking drugs.