Introduction

For a great many readers of this book, it is likely that sport psychology must be something of an enigma, part of the discipline of psychology yet also apart from it. With this in mind, we would like to begin with two very basic questions. First off, what is sport psychology and second, what is it for? Taking these questions one at a time, we would like to think that by the time you finish Chapter 9 you will have some grasp of the content and concerns of sport psychology – what it is. Put most simply, sport psychology can be any example of psychological knowledge, principles or methods as applied to the world of sport. As for who it is for then we immediately hit more troubled waters. According to two eminent sport psychologists there is little doubt as to who sport psychology is for, and who it is not for: ‘Sport psychology is not for psychologists … Psychology is for sport and its participants’ (Bunker and Maguire, 1985: 3).