Attitudes towards sport psychology has traditionally been studied from the athletes’
perspective as receivers of mental or psychological skills training (PST) (Zakrajsek and Zizzi, 2007; Martin et al., 2012; Zakrajsek et al., 2011; Camiré and Trudel, 2013). This is not surprising as they are the ones that need to adopt such skills to improve performance.
However, getting an understanding of coaches and leaders knowledge and opinions of PST is important to most successfully implement PST programs (Freitas et al., 2013). Reasons for why coaches’ attitudes towards this subject is viewed as important is that coaches can have a big influence on players’ perception of sport psychology and mental training (Martin et al., 2012; Smedley, 2013; Michel, 2013; Halerman et al., 2020; Freitas et al., 2013). Using their influence among the players, coaches can encourage players to participate in PST, as well as reaching out to a sport psychology consultant (SPC) if needed. Coaches attitudes and opinions can eventually become cultural norms in the team, and the acceptance will overcome potential stigmas (Halerman et al., 2020).
3.1.1 Athlete challenges
Having a PST programme can be beneficial for young athletes, as it can help them grow personally and it can provide them with the mental toughness they need to thrive in their sport (Camiré and Trudel, 2013; Freitas et al., 2013). However, athletes that also are students face not only challenges connected to sports. Student-athletes face challenges, demands and expectations at school and in their sport, as well as from friends and family, which can be
too much for someone. If they experience it as too much, it can lead to mental health issues as unhealthy anxiety and depression (Halerman et al., 2020). Halerman and colleagues (2020) also reports that student athletes use counselling and psychological services at a lower rate than non-athlete students do. This might be an issue as student-athletes arguably face more challenges and pressure than what non-athletes do. Additionally, coaches reported that they have limited knowledge of mental health issues (Halerman et al., 2020).
However, coaches did believe that they were good at notifying if something was wrong amongst athletes. When they notice that something is wrong or different with athletes, they would check in on the athlete, teammates, or other coaches and staff that were close to the athlete. They also argued that they were willing to refer players to a SPC if the problem was too much for them to handle (Halerman et al., 2020). To be more prepared for this potential challenge, one consultant in Chase´s (2011) article on PST suggested that PST programs should be combined with counselling to work with mental health, as well as increasing performance. Performance enhancement techniques and consulting services can enhance athletes’ well-being as well as dealing with stress and anxiety both professionally and life in general (Chase, 2011; Camiré and Trudel, 2013).
It is therefore important to address coaches’ attitudes towards psychology as they have a big influence on players, they are some of the people that spends the most time with them, and are most likely responsible, or have the biggest influence on the mental development amongst the players.
3.1.2 Sport Psychology Attitudes Revised Coaches – SPARC-2
Researchers has relied much on the framework known as Sport Psychology Attitudes-Revised (SPA-R), developed from Martin and colleagues (2002) to understand athletes’
attitudes towards sport psychology. However, the increased interest in coaches’ attitudes towards sport psychology led researcher to adopt a new framework. To study coaches’
attitudes towards sport psychology, Zakrajsek and Zizzi (2007) developed the SPA-R framework into the Sport Psychology Attitudes Revised Coaches (SPA-RC), later further developed and referred to as SPARC-2 (Halerman et al., 2020).
Figure 3.1 SPARC-2 framework (Halerman et al., 2020).
The SPARC-2 is a questionnaire that addresses four different items; Stigma Tolerance, Confidence in Sport Psychology Consultants (SPC), Personal Openness, and Cultural Preference (Zakrajsek and Zizzi, 2007; Halerman et al., 2020). The questionnaire´s four items consists of 26 underlying subscales, which should give researcher a good understanding of coaches’ attitudes towards sports psychology services (Halerman et al., 2020; Zakrajsek and Zizzi, 2007).
This framework has been used to identify coaches’ attitudes towards sport psychology services (SPS) and consultants, especially in quantitative studies (Martin et al., 2012;
Smedley, 2013; Michel, 2013; Zakrajsek et al., 2011; Zakrajsek and Zizzi, 2007, 2008). It has however also been used in a qualitative study (Halerman et al., 2020). This suggests that the framework with its questions, can be useful when exploring the Aker academy coaches’
attitudes towards sport psychology, SPS´s and SPC´s, at least in some aspects such as stigma tolerance and personal openness.
3.1.3 Coaches Characteristics
It is previously reported that older coaches with more experience and higher education are more positive to sport psychology services than their counterparts (Michel, 2013; Smedley, 2013; Martin et al., 2012). Older coaches with more education, and more years of coaching experience were more open to SPS´s. They were less likely to stigmatize and more confident in consultation than younger coaches with less experience (Martin et al., 2012; Michel, 2013). A possible explanation to this is that younger coaches are less experienced and less secure in their jobs, and might not be aware of how little they know about sport psychology (Martin et al., 2012). Results from studies using the tool SPARC-2, indicated that previous experience with sport psychology was the most persistent element influencing coaches’
attitudes, expectations, and usage of sport psychology skills and services. Coaches with previous experience with sport psychology was more open to it, less likely to stigmatize it, and have more realistic expectations to results and processes than coaches with no previous experience (Martin et al., 2012). Previous experience with sport psychology and sport psychology consultants will have an impact on coaches’ perceptions of its effectiveness and their expectations. Positive experiences will lead to better perceptions of sport psychology services, while negative experiences lead to worse expectations. Coaches with positive experience will more likely engage in continuous sport psychology services (Michel, 2013).
Situational characteristics such as type of sport also has an impact. If it is a contact sport or non-contact sport, team sport vs individual sport, the level of competitions, and sport subculture, are all factors that can impact participants’ attitudes, beliefs and receptivity to sport psychology services. For example, contact sports that has a masculine subculture might not be very receptive of such services (Martin et al., 2012). It is argued that workshops that teach coaches psychological skill training techniques increase interest and motivation to engage with sport psychology. However, after a few weeks the interest might drop off if techniques are not implemented in a structured training programme (Michel, 2013).
3.1.4 Performance enhancement vs. counselling
Evidence from previous research shows that coaches generally view SP and SPC as essential and important (Halerman et al., 2020; Freitas et al., 2013; Smedley, 2013; Michel, 2013).
Some coaches even argue that it is on the same level of importance as strength and
conditioning (Halerman et al., 2020). However, coaches seem to be more positive towards sport psychology if it leads to better performances using techniques such as imagery, goal-setting, and self-talk, rather than focusing on personal matters through counselling (Michel, 2013; Camiré and Trudel, 2013; Freitas et al., 2013). It is interesting how coaches view SP as a tool to maximize personal potential, enhance performance, and coach more effectively (Halerman et al., 2020). This might of course be due to the footballs nature of constant pressure on succeeding in the short term and winning (Kelly, 2008; Arnulf, 2011), but as an academy is supposed to develop players and not just focus on winning, it might be important to focus on players’ mental health through for example counselling and not only on performance enhancement techniques (Chase, 2011).
3.1.5 Expectations to SPC and SPS
Coaches reported that they view themselves as important when it comes to carrying out a PST programme (Freitas et al., 2013). However, they also reported that they do not feel confident enough on their current knowledge to conduct regular PST programs (Freitas et al., 2013; Camiré and Trudel, 2013). This suggests that coaches might need help from SPC´s to either integrate a PST programme, or teach them about SP so they can feel more confident to conduct such a programme. Therefore, it is a good thing that coaches acknowledge SPC´s role and view them as important (Halerman et al., 2020; Freitas et al., 2013). According to Camiré and Trudel (2013), empirical evidence even suggests that coaches prefer to receive help or assistant from a consultant when learning and implementing psychological skills in their sport organization. Getting help from consultants might solve the most mentioned barrier to carry out a PST programme, namely lack of knowledge. Learning from a professional will help the coaches get awareness of psychological skills and performance enhancement techniques, as well as help with counselling. Consultants can either teach coaches how to conduct counselling, or they might be hired by the club (or sport organization) to be responsible for counselling.
Even though coaches seem to have positive perceptions of SPC´s, they do have some expectations towards them. Being supportive, reliable and competent within their field are characteristics that are often mentioned by coaches when asked what they expect from SPC´s (Halerman et al., 2020; Camiré and Trudel, 2013). Coaches would also prefer if the consultant had sport-related knowledge, as it would be easier to connect (Freitas et al., 2013).
When implementing a PST programme, the coaches needs support from the SPC as they often lack knowledge of how to implement the programme on their own. That is why it is important that the consultant is reliable, so the coach and the consultant can trust each other during their cooperation. For the PST programme to be successful, the coaches and consultant needs to be on the same page. It would help if they agree on the methodology and overall goals before they carry out the programme (Halerman et al., 2020). It also seems as coaches want to continuously be provided with material and strategies during the PST programme. When discussing material and articles, the coaches preferred summaries rather than full articles, as they felt they did not have time to read the articles thoroughly (Camiré and Trudel, 2013). Along with material and strategies on SP, Camiré and Trudel (2013) noticed that coaches wanted feedback from consultants during the programme, as they wanted to learn as much as possible while carrying out the programme.
When it comes to SPS´s, coaches argued the necessity of services being available based on the unique schedule of football. The programme needs to be available all year around, while coaches has the ability to dictate time and place for services (Halerman et al., 2020). It also needs to provide value, coaches argued that they needed to see results. They claimed that the programme should be used to evaluate players, maintaining stability, giving their teams an advantage or setting themselves apart (Halerman et al., 2020). This is why selling the programme is an important key for the consultants. The better they communicate the programme and the long-term objectives, the more likely the whole organization will dive into the programme and commit (Chase, 2011). Communication and having the whole coaching staff on board seems to be some of the most important keys to successfully implement a PST programme. First of all, the consultants need to communicate what coaches can expect from such a programme. This is because many coaches do not know what to expect from such programs, or they have too high expectation (Chase, 2011).
It is also important to address what the consultant expects from the coaches in terms of participation in the programme and its sessions. Participating in the sessions can be important for four reasons: (1) if a coach participates, he/she would get the same information as the players, (2) it gives the coach knowledge of mental skill training that he/she can use later when the consultant is not there, (3) it enhances the credibility of the programme, and (4) from the support from the coach, the connection between the players and the consultant will improve (Chase, 2011). When coaches reflected over characteristics, attributes and
skills that they thought they needed to possess on their own, they mentioned specific techniques and other psychological attributes such as self-talk skills (technique) as well as honesty, responsibility, intelligence, passion, and ability to deal with players (attributes) (Freitas et al., 2013).
3.1.6 Challenges to implement PST programs
Consultants and coaches that do want to implement PST programs might face different sorts of challenges. The biggest and most important may be getting players on board. Athletes may fear they will be viewed as “head cases”, and that something is wrong with them if they work with a SPC and SP (Gould and Damarjian, 1998; Freitas et al., 2013; Martin et al., 2012; Michel, 2013). This can be connected to historical stigmas towards SP as both coaches and athletes traditionally had negative attitudes towards SP (Martin et al., 2012). Consultants has reported facing such stigmas as they fight the stereotypical “shrink” image to be fully accepted in sport (Gould and Damarjian, 1998; Freitas et al., 2013; Smedley, 2013).
However, coaches can help to overcome such stigmas, as the coaches can influence the willingness to integrate sport psychology services and mental skills into the daily operations, and the players training days. Research shows that the coach-athlete relationship is extremely powerful, meaning the coaches can have a big influence on players’ attitudes and expectations towards sport psychology services and mental training (Martin et al., 2012).
Labelling psychological help as “mental skill training”, and consultants as “mental skill coaches” or “performance enhancement consultants” rather than using psychology in the terms may increase the chance for athletes to seek help from sport psychology professionals without fear of judgement (Martin et al., 2012). Addressing the potential benefits of sport psychology may also help to overcome such stigmas (Smedley, 2013; Halerman et al., 2020).
The most discussed roadblock to implementing PST programs is the lack of knowledge on the subject amongst coaches (Freitas et al., 2013; Halerman et al., 2020; Camiré and Trudel, 2013; Smedley, 2013; Gould and Damarjian, 1998). Halerman and colleagues (2020) reported that coaches felt that there is a lack of knowledge among coaches and players of what sport psychology really is, and even though coaches view PST as important, many coaches did not know how to implement it. This was also the case of SPC´s, as not all coaches know what a SPC do and how they operate as well as where they work. Many of
the coaches’ beliefs about SP even turned out to be untrue, and were misperceptions (Halerman et al., 2020). The lack of knowledge can be a big challenge when implementing PST programs, as Camiré and Trudel (2013) noticed that there was a lack of openness when they helped coaches implement PST programme. This was however related to some coaches’ initial willingness to participate, and as they eventually increased their knowledge during the project, they were more positive.
Time and resources are also regularly mentioned as potential roadblocks for PST programme implementation. Time constrains and budget restrictions are often determined by administrators or athletic directors, and the restrictions can have a negative impact on usage of sport psychology services (Smedley, 2013; Freitas et al., 2013; Halerman et al., 2020).
Even tough effects of sport psychology are known and favoured, lack of funding is a big reason why some sport organizations do not invest in sport psychology services (Smedley, 2013). This might lead coaches to feel that there is a lack of availability of sport psychology services as factors such as time and money plays a vital role. Some of these services might not be feasible, and it might be a lack of services in the area. In terms of time, youth coaches often have limited time with their athletes and may prioritize technique and skill development rather than mental skill training (Smedley, 2013). It can be challenging for the coaches to balance professional, personal and coaching obligations and finding time to participate in SP projects (Camiré and Trudel, 2013). Flexibility among sport psychology consultants is also a concern among coaches (Halerman et al., 2020).