Introduction

One of the fascinating aspects of practising sports or engaging in physical exercise is that we can immediately experience ‘psychology’. We engage in social interaction with our sports team members or our exercise group, and we feel how this interaction affects how we perform as a team or how motivated we are to go and exercise again next week. We experience how each successful basketball free throw or how each extra weight lifted leads to greater self-confidence and a good feeling, but we also experience how worries or a lack of concentration lead to performance failure, or how a lack of motivation keeps us from exercising more often. We also perceive general well-being and our good health after a game of football or exercise session but we also feel the rising tension in our body before the competition or the knot in the stomach when our neighbour again outlasts us on the treadmill.