Over the past 20 years, the psychologist’s role in sports has been increasing significantly and much more publicly.  Wimbledon tennis champion Andy Murray publicly acknowledged the help he received from working with a psychologist. His coach, a former world champion as well, had worked with the same psychologist some years earlier.

I personally have worked with a number of professional athletes. However, the bulk of my practice in Boca Raton, Florida is in helping young athletes looking to improve their mental and emotional skills so they can get on their high school team, a college athletic scholarship or a career in professional sports.

As a trained psychologist, my evaluations go beyond assessing basic mental skills but look at the whole person and all the issues/ pressures the individual is coping with both on and off the field. The athlete who “chokes” under pressure during a game may experience the same reaction taking an important test or speaking up in class.

By combining a safe, comfortable and supportive atmosphere, with practical mental and emotional skills training and when needed, counseling and therapy, young athletes develop life skills that can serve them long after their athletic careers are over.

In my role as a psychologist, I also sometimes educate parents and coaches to better understand and more effectively interact with adolescents whose behaviors and moods can be quite challenging at times.

Having been an athlete and competed in both individual and team sports, I understand the “thrill of the victory and the agony of defeat” and relate to my clients as both a psychologist and an athlete.

I am often asked how long or how many sessions do I work with clients. I prefer to base the decision on the needs and preferences of my clients rather than a fixed number of meetings. Commonly, we meet once a week and as they progress we lengthen out the frequency of this visits. If our work is successful, they have the tools to work independently of me and perhaps come in for brief consults from time to time as the need arises.

Reducing anxiety in sports is largely about managing expectations. In my work as a sport psychology consultant I work with a large number of high level junior tennis players. Almost all young athletes I work see have the goal of  playing with less anxiety.

In many cases the tennis athlete is far more anxious when competing against a weaker player than a stronger player. In playing a weaker player the expectation is “I am better. I should win easily. If I don’t put this opponent away quickly, others will think I am not very good”. This added pressure sets the player up for increased muscle tension, decreased concentration and a greater chance for mistakes and poor play. In fact the worry cycle might begin if he/she losses a few points or games. The fear of losing to a “weaker” player comes to the forefront and increases with every lost point.

In contrast, when playing a stronger player, anxiety is less because the thinking is, “I am not supposed to win. She is the ranked player. No one is going to think less about me if I lose.” As a result, the player plays more relaxed and with a greater sense of freedom. They often perform at their best and may, at times, pull off an upset win.

Another method to reduce anxiety in sports is training the athlete to monitor and modify their breathing. By learning to breathe, slowly and deeply through the belly, the athlete can take the edge off of negative emotions and anxiety and anger and maintain a steadier composure in the face of adversity.

Combining strategies from cognitive therapy with behavioral methods provides the athlete with specific tools they can use to reduce anxiety in sports and perform closer and more consistently to their true potential.

Sports Psychology for athletes has become increasingly popular over the past number of years as professional athletes increasingly attribute their success, comebacks and ability to overcome obstacles to their work with sports psychologists. In fact, there is a popular television drama series that features a sports psychologist who consults with football players, tennis players, coaches and managers. While the television sports psychologist role is exaggerated and over the line in some cases, it is true that many of the problems athletes demonstrate on the field are often a reflection of problems they are having in their lives off the field.

While sports psychologists teach mental and emotional skills that can be helpful for athletes to perform better in their respective sport and these skills can also be applied to their personal lives, often times, it is the personal counseling over a period of weeks and months that often makes the most difference in the long term success of the athlete.

A quick consultation or brief session or two can be helpful in the same way a band aid or a field adjustment by a personal trainer to attend to a strained muscle can provide a temporary fix. However, the long term solution usually requires both a more comprehensive evaluation and a more in depth treatment.

In my sports psychology practice in Boca Raton,Florida, because of the many tennis and golf academies, I tend to see many of these types of young athletes. They are referred by coaches and brought in by their parents and almost always come in for “performance related” concerns. I have found that often times these performance issues affect them in many areas of their lives. For example, a tennis player who gets very anxious before a match to the point of throwing up, responds in a similar way before taking a test in school or giving a presentation in front of the class. While teaching the athlete how to relax would be a part of the treatment package, other components would include helping the athlete understand the connection between his or her thoughts and feelings and teaching cognitive coping skills to create healthier attitudes and beliefs.

By understanding and working on the “big picture”, young athletes can learn to perform to the best of their abilities and develop into emotionally healthy adults.

Dr. Robert Heller is a psychologist and sports psychology consultant based in Boca Raton, Fl and author of the mental conditioning CD-ROM program TENNISMIND.

(Previously published in “Tennis Enthusiast”

Sports psychology for parents is an important component for helping kids perform at their best. I often get questions from parents of young athletes wanting to know how they can positively contribute to their child’s athletic development and if they are doing anything that might be causing problems.

In my sports psychology practice, I usually meet with the parents and young athlete separately and together. It is not unusual to get differing stories as to what the problems are and what causes them.

In most cases, sports psychology for parents involves a few sessions of helping them better understand how I will evaluate and work with their child along with educating them about some specific things they might want to do more of or less of. In some situations one or both parents may be inadvertently causing or contributing to their child’s problem. One parent thought he was helping his kid reach his goal to become a star tennis player on his high school team. After a full day of school and 2-3 hours of practice, he would come home at which point he father would insist that he serve 300 tennis balls before dinner! The kid got burnt out and quit the tennis team. Some parental behaviors are more subtle, like grimacing whenever the player makes a mistake. Sometimes parents fail to intervene when they should, like a child throwing a tantrum on the court or throwing a racket in anger or disgust.

Many of these issues can be addressed in a short amount of time. Occasionally, family counseling is needed and in cases where the parents are unwilling or unable to change, I work individually with the young athlete to teach coping skills to be able to better manage those people and situations he may not be able to control.

Dr. Robert Heller is a psychologist and sport psychology consultant based in Boca Raton, Florida. He is the author of numerous self improvement guides and the widely used mental conditioning CD-ROM training program, TENNISMIND.

(Previously published in “Tennis Enthusiast”)