ABSTRACT
The use of psychological training can be an important component of an athlete’s overall development. However, it should be a long-term process worked into the athlete’s developmental program along with sport skill and fitness training. Involvement in sport provides times of elation, progress, and mastery as well as times of frustration, boredom, and self-doubt. Sport motivation evolves from the interaction of biological and environmental processes. Five psychological and social motivations are used to account for variations in sport behaviors and sport experiences. Athletes developing down the right-hand side of the chart will show largely positive psychological and social adjustments, whereas athletes developing toward the left-hand side will show more problematic adjustment. Athletes and their mentors are increasingly turning to professional psychologists and others in the quest for a competitive edge. P. D. Tomporowski, and N. R. Ellis argued that a theory-based parametric approach is needed to test the effects of exercise on cognitive processes.
