Psychology in Professional Sports and the Performing Arts by Schinke Robert J.; Hackfort Dieter;

Author:Schinke, Robert J.; Hackfort, Dieter;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

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As mentioned earlier, my work in MMA started as a result of a call I received from a fighter wanting to do some work. This is relatively uncommon, especially when you’re starting out, since opportunities rarely land in your lap. Therefore, you have to be willing to be proactive and seek out opportunities. I think with the increasing understanding of the role psychology plays in performance, this is now becoming slightly easier, and within MMA there is certainly far more focus on the psychological side. This is evident even just from an increasing number of fight-specific magazine articles dedicated to the psychological side of fighting, and equally there are now more autobiographies out there from MMA fighters where the mental side of the sport is often highlighted.

That said, be aware that there is still a perception (certainly within the UK) to some extent that a psychologist is there to help athletes “fix problems”. Whilst working with those athletes who might be struggling is naturally a part of the role, this really is just a part of the role. A lot of the time, a much larger aspect is working with athletes in order to enhance performance, such as athletes who are already doing well but are wanting to push their performance to the next level or enable themselves to perform at a certain level more consistently. Within the MMA world, this might include fighters who are taking on their first semi-pro fight or their first professional fight or fighters who have started their professional career successfully and want to be able to maintain those performance levels.

Our job therefore is to sell this notion – to educate and explain the performance enhancement benefits. I have never come across an athlete or coach who didn’t believe that the psychological side of performance was significant, and when it comes to competition, highly significant. However, I have come across athletes and coaches who, despite this belief, don’t invest in working on the mental aspect of their performance. In fairness, this hasn’t been my personal experience with MMA; however, I imagine that it very well could be. Consequently, when putting yourself out there in a bid to gain work, you will experience knockbacks, but the challenge is to be more motivated as a result of this, not less. So avoid expecting athletes and coaches to ‘get it’, because I am telling you now, not all of them will. Yes, you get it, and it might be obvious to you, but it won’t always be to them.

My advice therefore is to be really clear on what you can offer, what impact you believe you can have and how you will go about achieving this goal. This is particularly significant within the MMA world since all the fighters I have come across are very performance driven. Of course, all of this is a lot easier to establish with the more experience you get, but I still believe you can do this from day one. The ‘how’ part

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