As the field of sport psychology has matured, so a greater appreciation for a diversity of training models, research methodologies, and therapeutic approaches, opposed to the dominant models of objective testing, has developed. The Athlete Apperception Technique (AAT) sets out a sport-specific projective test for practitioners working in sport and exercise service delivery or counselling work with athletes and coaches. This innovative book includes a basic primer on projective methods and the psychoanalytic theory behind them; a history of projective, storytelling instruments in clinical psychology; the development of the image set for the AAT; some examples of interpreting AAT image stories; instructions for the administration of the AAT; a scoring guide for the stories produced; and in-depth descriptions of the stimulus properties of each image in the AAT, along with all images presented as full-page illustrations. The AAT will help sport practitioners identify and assess personality features, relationships, anxieties, achievement, motivation, and perfectionism, and augment the recent shift in orientation for service delivery to athletes and provide a more in-depth understanding of athletes’ characters. The AAT is useful supplementary reading for students of sport psychology and a novel tool for any practicing sport psychologist.

Personality tests can be categorised according to a range of schemas including: objective or projective tests, idiographic, or nomothetic approaches. Projective tests differ from objective tests in several ways. They are less obvious in their intent, are less structured, and rely almost exclusively on clinical interpretation. The growth of sport psychology has largely coincided with an era dominated by objective testing. With the increasing maturation of the field of sport psychology, there appears to be a greater appreciation for diversity of training models, research methodologies, and therapeutic approaches other than the cognitive-behavioural model. The timing is right to develop a sport-specific projective test. This dissertation focuses on the processes followed to develop the Athlete Apperception Technique (AAT). The AAT may help sport practitioners identify and assess personality features, relationships, anxieties, achievement motivation, and perfectionism. The significance of this research is the development of a projective assessment tool specifically for sport.

Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is a definitive guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. It goes further than any other book in surveying the full variety of issues that practising sport psychologists will confront in their working lives. It introduces the most important tools and skills that psychologists will need to be truly helpful to their clients, and it also adopts a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychologist, explaining how effective counseling, assessment, and therapeutic models can add important extra dimensions to professional practice. The book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: counseling; assessment; theoretical and therapeutic models; issues for the individual athlete, from injury and overtraining to depression; issues for teams, from conflict resolution to travel; working with special populations; mental skills, such as imagery, goal setting, and concentration. Moving beyond the traditional tracks of clinical psychology and performance enhancement, the authors in this book argue convincingly that psychologists would benefit from attempting to understand athletes’ social and familial contexts, their health, happiness, and interpersonal dynamics in the broadest sense, if they are to serve their clients’ best interests. With contributions from many of the world’s leading sport psychologists, and with clear descriptions of best practice in each chapter, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is essential reading for all serious students and practitioners of sport psychology, counseling, applied sport science, health psychology, and related fields.

Applied sport psychology knowledge has advanced rapidly in recent years. Traditionally, literature focused primarily on a narrow range of topics associated with performance enhancement, giving rise to a model of helping labelled psychological skills training. Although the psychological skills training model has considerable value, the literature has broadened to address a greater diversity of athlete and team issues; a greater range of methods; and a greater recognition of the knowledge, skills, and attributes practitioners need to help clients. The first edition of the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology was seminal work, bringing together the full range of knowledge and skills sport psychology practitioners needed to help clients. The second edition continues that vision and draws on the full range of related disciplines, including sport and exercise psychology, clinical psychology, and counselling psychology. This comprehensive range of topics provides professionals what they need to build strong relationships with athletes and enhance clients’ performance, mental health, well-being, happiness, and meaning in life. This new volume is the guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. Adopting a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychology practitioner, it introduces the most effective tools and skills that sport psychology practitioners need to help their clients and explains how effective counselling, assessment, and therapeutic models add necessary dimensions to professional practice. This book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: Counselling Assessment Theoretical and therapeutic models Psychosocial issues presenting in individual athletes Psychosocial issues presenting in teams Inclusion in sport psychology Mental skills interventions

Applied sport, exercise, and performance psychology practice has diversified considerably over the years, as consultants have explored various theoretical models to guide them in helping their clients. Applied Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology: Current Approaches to Helping Clients provides in-depth and critical coverage, from a global perspective, of the common approaches practitioners now use with clients. Chapters are supplemented with case studies showing the approaches in action. The text explores topics such as: Cognitive behavioural approaches Psychodynamics approaches Family systems therapy approaches Mindfulness approaches Practitioner training and development Cultural considerations in practice Evidence-based practice This text is a vital resource for students in applied sport psychology courses, sport and exercise science courses, and psychology and counselling courses. It is also an invaluable read for practicing applied sport, exercise, and performance psychologists, as well as coaches and parents with some background in psychology.

Sport Psychology: The Basics provides an accessible introduction to the fundamental ideas at the heart of Sport Psychology today. It examines the links between sport participants’ behaviours, their personality and their environment to identify the factors which affect performance. Exploring theory and practice, it uses case studies to illustrate how key areas of theory are applied within a sport psychologist’s practice, answering such questions as: What is sport psychology and what do sport psychologists do? What factors affect sporting performance? Which psychological characteristics are associated with achievement in sport? How can performance be improved by using theory? With a glossary of key terms, suggestions for further study and ideas for improving performance, Sport Psychology: The Basics is an ideal introduction for students of sport and coaches who would like to know more about how sport psychologists address questions about human behaviour in sport.

Modelling and simulation techniques are of central importance to conducting research in sport and exercise science, informing data collection and helping to analyze patterns of movement and physical performance. Modelling and Simulation in Sport and Exercise is the first book to offer an instructive reference for modelling and simulation methods for researchers and sport and exercise scientists. Based around a series of research cases, describing core theories in applied, practical settings, the book draws on examples of modelling and simulation in ball games, biomechanical analysis, physiological testing and monitoring, predictive analysis and sports engineering and product design. Each research case presents a central problem, discusses different modelling approaches that could be used to deal with the issue, analysis of results and a reflection on the methodology and an exercise for students to put the techniques discussed into practice. This is an important reference for any active researcher or upper-level student in sport and exercise science with an interest in mathematical modelling, computer science or simulation techniques.