Sport psychology

Sport psychology is a specialization within psychology that seeks to understand psychological/mental factors that affect performance in sports, physical activity and exercise and apply these to enhance individual and team performance. Most researchers and practitioners focus on sport and/or exercise activities.

The principles and theories may be applied to any human movement or performance tasks (i.e., playing a musical instrument, acting in a play, public speaking, motor skills).

There are over 100 graduate programs in sport psychology available world-wide. Usually, experts recommend that students be trained in both kinesiology (i.e., sport & exercise sciences, physical education) and psychology/counselling.