ABSTRACT
Many prominent athletes and coaches believe that although sport is played with the body, it is won in the mind. If mental processes are crucial for athletic success, psychologists should be able to help sports competitors to enhance their athletic performance by providing them with practical advice on how to do their best when it matters most. Advice on sport psychology has not always received a universal welcome from the athletic community- especially in British soccer. Motivation, communication skills, and an ability to anticipate opponents' moves would seem to be vital for soccer players, snooker performers appear to depend more on cognitive skills like concentration, decision making and the ability to recover mentally from errors. In formal recognition of the increasing importance of physical activity to sport science researchers, the title of the Journal of Sport Psychology was changed to the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology in 1988.
