Associate professor G.V. Soldatova¹
Associate professor, PhD N.V. Smirnova^2
1 National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health n.a. P.F. Lesgaft, St. Petersburg
² National Mineral Resources University "Mining University», St. Petersburg

Keywords: psychological follow-up, objectives, methods, general psychological training, special psychological training

Introduction

Sport psychology as a specific branch of psychological science has always been focused on practical application matters since its very origin. A sport psychologist of any qualification level must be able to help solve, in a most timely and efficient manner, every psychological problem or challenge that may prevent the athlete or team from attaining the desired objective(s).

The term “psychological follow-up service” (or “psychological support”, or “psychological training service to athlete”) refers to every aspect of psychological help that may be provided to an athlete.

Notwithstanding the impressive history of studies on these matters, it should be noted that at this juncture sport science lacks more or less commonly accepted and sound grounds for understanding the key design principles of an efficient psychological follow-up service system, albeit there have been quite a few attempts to build up such systems [1-5].

Objective of the study was to analyze the existing psychological follow-up service systems applied in sports and develop, based on the resultant analytical data, a model psychological follow-up service system for athletes.

Study results and discussion. Let us now offer an analysis of the existing psychological follow-up service systems applied in sports. Please note that some of them appear to be quite limited in terms of the objectives of the psychological follow-up service process.

The psychological follow-up service system by A.L. Popov [3] is designed to differentiate a general psychological training of an athlete from a special one. The general psychological training component of this system refers to the long-term training process as such, competitions “in general” and the mental/ socio-psychological/ coordination-focused conditioning objectives plus the self-disciplining ones. The special psychological training component covers the athlete’s training to make him/her fit for a specific event or competitor; specific training process stage objectives; and the situation-specific mental conditioning service objectives. This service list, however, leaves beyond many objectives that need to be addressed by a sport psychologist in actual practice, including, for instance, sport motivation system formation, post-competitive mental rehabilitation objectives etc. Some of these objectives hardly deserve being called so – we mean self-disciplining goal, for instance, that should be rather qualified as one of the tools of athletic activity.

It may be pertinent to remind once again that the main drawback of many other existing psychological follow-up service systems is that they mix up the system objectives and tools applicable by the psychologist.

The service system offered by G.D. Gorbunov [1], for instance, is composed of the following key elements: (1) Psycho-diagnostics service; (2) Psychological-educational and psycho-hygienic recommendations; (3) Psychological training service (classified into the athlete’s training and coach’s training sub-elements); and 4) Situation-specific mental conditioning and behavioural control service to an athlete.

Missing in the above list, however, are the psychological support objectives, i.e. the ones that refer to the psychological training service and situation-specific mental conditioning service elements; and no objective attainment tools are proposed for the psycho-diagnostics service and psychological recommendations.

The service system designed by A.N. Nikolaev [2] supported by the most comprehensive list of the psychological follow-up system objectives appears to be no less free of the same confusion of the sport psychologist’s objectives and tools. The system designer classifies the objectives into the following three groups: (1) Psycho-diagnostics service; (2) General psychological training service; and 3) Special psychological training service objectives. It should be noted, however, that the psycho-diagnostics should be considered rather a tool for a sport psychologist than an objective.

Therefore, the present situation may be corrected if the objectives and tools of the sport psychologist are clearly separated. Objectives may be interpreted as the psychologist’s activity vectors providing frame ways to solve the problems arising in the athlete’s psychological conditioning process. And tools shall mean the arsenal of methods offered by the science of psychology for practical solutions of the identified problems.

N.B. Stambulova [5] was the first to come up with the idea of the objectives and tools being separated in the psychological follow-up service systems applied in sports. Having defined the general objectives of the psychological follow-up service in sports as supporting the athlete in his/her efforts to make the best possible success in sport at the optimal ‘cost' of the sport career; cope with the crises coming up in the sport career; and reap the maximum benefit of the successful sport career for success of his/ her life agenda on the whole, the author still fails to provide a list of specific objectives for the process.

Now if we need the sport psychological follow-up service objectives being logically listed and freed of any kind of “toolkits”, we must clearly spell out the relevant points.

It should be noted first of all that a sport psychological follow-up service system will be based on the general psychological methods being adjusted to the practical sport specifics when the system is applied to some sport discipline. Therefore, it may be beneficial to divide the practical psychological service methodology into the personality study methods (also called psycho-diagnostics) and personality influencing methods.

The personality study methods generally include the following: (1) Monitoring; (2) Questionnaire surveys in different forms – from verbal (like interviews, conversations etc.) to documentary (written polls, tests etc.) forms; (3) Psychological experiments; (4) Projective personality study methods etc.

The personality influencing methods may be listed as follows: (1) Psychological elucidation that may be viewed as the educational dimension of the psychologist’s service; (2) Psychological consulting service geared to work out specific recommendations or do without them; (3) Psychological training service designed to train the person to solve a variety of problems that may occur; and (4) Psycho-therapy viewed as a method of therapeutic influence on the individual psychic setup.

Every of the above influencing methods may be applied both for preventive and corrective purposes. Efforts to prevent negative mindsets in athletes, for instance, may and should be combined with the relevant corrective actions when the occasion requires (e.g. prior to competitions).

The usual confusion of the sport psychological follow-up service objectives and tools is further complicated by one more problem that is due to the fact that the whole spectrum of the psychologist’s objectives in his/her service to an athlete is designed to help the latter only make success in sport. This situation is largely due to the long-lasting common tradition of the national athletic training practices. It is important to bear in mind, however, that an athlete is rather an ordinary human being facing his/her natural human problems that are additionally burdened up by the sport-specific challenges – than only a sport success generating machine. Many specialists tend to believe that the mental cost of successful sport career is often too high or unreasonably high [5].

Therefore, rated high among the priority objectives of the psychologist’s service to an athlete should be the athlete’s mental setup monitoring and optimizing objective. Regardless of how irrelevant to the purely sport activity this objective may seem, it is always of serious indirect influence on the sport result for the simple reason that a mentally strong person is better prepared for the highest sport accomplishments than the one who has ‘dried out’ by his/her draining struggle for success.

On the whole, the existing paradigm of the sport psychologist’s service needs to be revised to make it more humanistic. The traditional psychological follow-up service in sports (commonly applied term) should be replaced by the personality-focused psychological follow-up service to athlete designed for the variety of humanistic objectives (natural for psychology as such) being attained.

Based on the above considerations, we would offer the following list of the sport psychological follow-up service objectives. (It might make sense in this case making resort to the most popular classification of the sport psychological training service into the general and special ones).

The general sport psychological follow-up service objectives may be listed as follows:

1) Psychological testing for selection and vocational guidance;

2) Support provided to the coach and athlete in every component of the athletic training process, including the physical, technical and tactical ones;

3) Forming a favourable interpersonal relationship with the teammates and coaches;

4) Motivation system design and support to motivate athletes for progress in the sport;

5) Psychological conditioning service to athletes to get fit for competitions and training loads with regard to their individual mental mindsets and traits; and

6) Creating and maintaining the state of mental comfort in athletes.

The above list leaves aside the frequently mentioned objective that is to facilitate the sport-specific personal qualities development in the trainee, for the following reasons. First, personal quality formation is rather an educational service objective than a psychological one. Second, the key role in the process is played by the sport discipline as such for it is the sport that naturally engages gifted individuals having the relevant psychological types and reinforces them later on. Third, next to nobody of practical psychologists may keep in a permanent close contact with the subject athlete for many years, whilst such long contact is imperative for the personal quality correcting efforts being successful enough – for the reason that personal qualities are normally very stable.

We also left aside one more objective that is the positive attitude to sport formation in the athlete – for the reason that this objective is largely attained in the sport motivation development process; moreover, there are no special implementation tools for this process as far as we know.

The special sport psychological follow-up service objectives may be listed as follows:

1) Psychological qualification tests for competitions – based on the mental fitness test rates;

2) Psychological conditioning for a special competition or, when the occasion requires, training session;

3) Athlete’s mental condition control in the competitive/ training process; and

4) Psychological aid in the post-competitive (or post-training) rehabilitation process to help both renew the lost mental/ physical powers (restore the workability) and mitigate emotional stresses caused by the result (particularly in case of defeat).

The above objectives may be variable to a degree with account of the sport-discipline-specific content of and requirements to the athletic activity level (naturally different for children’s/ adolescent sports; elite sports; and professional sports) and sport career stage (beginner stage; first success stage; career climax; and the career finalization stage).

If one may get a feeling that the proposed system appears to be fairly speculative and theoretical (like any other in fact), we would argue in the following way. As things now stand, one of the reasons for the professional psychological service being in low demand by the sport community is that the would-be clients have remotest if any idea about the potential benefits of the psychological service. An ability to clearly, professionally and understandably familiarize the client with the scope of professional competences and benefits of the service – is an imperative asset of any psychologist on the whole and sport psychologist in particular for the simple reason that, as has been said before, there is next to no demand for such services in the sport community and, consequently, even the best psychologist has to conquer his “place under the sun”. For doing that, the psychologist must have a crystal clear and systemic notion of the key objectives of his service. In such context, the psychological follow-up system service to athletes acquires clearly visible practical application dimension.

Conclusion

Our analysis of the existing psychological follow-up service systems applied in sports demonstrates the critical need in the following: clear separation of the service objectives and tools; breaking up the service into two sectors, namely the general psychological training service and the special one; and the general service paradigm needs to be made more humanistic – that means that more emphasis must be made rather on the athlete’s personality and mental comfort than his/her sport accomplishments.

References

1. Gorbunov G.D. Psikhopedagogika sporta (Sport psychopedagogics) / G.D. Gorbunov. – 3rd ed., rev. – Moscow: Sovetskiy sport, 2007. – 296 p.
2. Nikolaev A.N. Konspekt lektsiy: sotsial'naya i sportivnaya psikhologiya (Lectures: social and sport psychology) / A.N. Nikolaev. – St. Petersburg: SPb State Acad. Phys. Cult. n.a. P.F. Lesgaft, 2001. – 33 p.
3. Popov A.L. Sportivnaya psikhologiya: ucheb. posobie dlya sportivnykh vuzov (Sport Psychology: teaching aid for sport universities) / A.L. Popov. – Moscow: MPSI, Flinta, 1998. – 152 p.
4. Sivitskiy V.G. Sistema psikhologicheskogo soprovozhdeniya sportivnoy deyatel'nosti (System of psychological followup of sport activity) / V.G. Sivitskiy // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. – 2006. – № 6. P. 40-43.
5. Stambulova N.B. Psikhologiya sportivnoy kar'ery: ucheb. posobie (Sport career psychology: study guide) / N.B. Stambulova. – St. Petersburg: Tsentr kar'ery, 1999. – 367 p.

Corresponding author: panfilio@spmi.ru

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the existing psychological follow-up service systems applied in sports, we developed a system that separates objectives of the follow-up service process and its tools. It is the general and special psychological training services to an athlete with the relevant practical objectives that are viewed as main components of a psychological follow-up service system. Different methods of psycho-diagnostics and individualized psychological conditioning service are offered as main tools of the psychological follow-up service system.