ABSTRACT
Professional sports teams frequently mention the importance of group cohesion and team dynamics. During difficult periods of a season it is not unusual to find a renewed interest in creating team spirit within a professional football team. Within the highly pressured and volatile environment of professional team sport, the concept of team spirit is a frequently used term. This chapter will describe how a manager, support staff and the sport psychologist can be involved in developing team and individual spirit. Before discussing how this can be achieved it is important to clarify what is meant by this contentious term. Watson and Nesti (2005) claimed that despite being one of the most frequently used terms in sport, especially at high-performance levels, there seems to be little discussion of spirit or spiritual dimensions within the sport psychology literature. We will examine some of the reasons for this apparent omission and suggest why it is important for sport psychologists to become more familiar with this term and acknowledge its importance in their applied work.
