Applying Sport Psychology: Can Anyone Call Themselves a Psychologist?
Mental training can be a minefield of having to consolidate lots of information with many different approaches. I specialise in Sport Psychology and I’d like to tell you a little more about my discipline, how you might go about finding a practitioner and what to look for.
What does a sport psychologist do?
A sport psychologist is a professional who works with amateur and professional athletes to improve their mental and emotional well-being, and ultimately, their performance. This may include helping athletes develop mental strategies and techniques to enhance their focus, motivation, and confidence, as well as addressing any mental health issues that may be hindering their performance.
In shooting terms, a sport psychologist will help a shooter to minimise misses due to psychological error whilst reinforcing technical skill delivery.
Additionally, Sport Psychologists may work with coaches and other team staff to develop team-wide mental training programs and strategies. The key here is that everyone who needs to be is on the same page and any conflicting information, plans or goals are removed from the equation.
How do you know that someone is qualified to call themselves a psychologist?
You may be surprised that it isn’t too difficult to find people who misuse the term psychologist claiming to be able to use the title without having the appropriate qualifications to do so. This impacts on the profession but more significantly it is potentially detrimental to the end user.
So let me tell you a little more about the situation in the UK. Please check your own country regulations as there is not a universal psychology qualification standard.
In the UK there are now more routes to qualification via the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES). Without delving too deeply into this, typically this will consist of a relevant undergraduate degree (3 years full-time), a Masters (1 year full-time) and then a period of 2-5 years of supervised practice. Successful trainees will subsequently be able to register as a Practitioner Psychologist with the HCPC (Health & Care Professions Council) and then be able to use the protected title of Sport and Exercise Psychologist.
So as you can see, simply getting qualified and gaining some early year experience requires much dedication and commitment to the discipline. It’s about life-long learning and commitment to improving professional practice.
It doesn’t mean that Sport Psychologists or Sport Psychologists in training are the only people that can work from a mental training perspective. There are technical coaches who are highly skilled in preparing shooters mentally for competition and able to pass on their years of experience. However, in my experience, shooter, coach and psychologist working in collaboration is a very effective combination.
There are practitioners from other modes of training and with other titles that state that they can provide mental training. As with anything, explore what makes them ‘qualified’ to help you progress. It’s not just about certification. What is their experience, what is their method, can they articulate it, what is their record of success?
If they are claiming to be qualified in a particular mode of practice make sure you get a full explanation of what their training route was, what depth of learning it required, and who regulates their profession. Psychologists don’t have a monopoly on mental skills training but be aware that in unregulated professions it can often be as easy as undertaking a weekend course to gain a certification.
If you’re looking for a Sport Psychologist near you in the UK you can check the HCPC register here
What does this mean for you?
It can seem hard to get information that is consolidated in one place about how to train mentally. Specifically about how to take yourself from point A to point B and to overcome the ups and downs that this encompasses. Quite often, a google search about mental training will bring up goal-setting, visualisation, relaxation techniques etc but Sport Psychology is so much more than that.
There is lots of information online about how athlete X,Y, Z found success but you think differently, behave differently, experience the world differently. You need to know how to navigate this and to think about, “How does this apply to me and how do I use it?”.
Having someone that can guide you on your mental training journey can be hugely valuable. By investing in working on mindset you can actually save a fortune in time and money. How many shots are you taking where your mind is getting in the way but you keep making a technical fix? How long has it been this way? How long will you choose to let it continue?
I have seen top shooters that have actively worked on mindset later in their careers that has led to a positive change of fortunes. I mostly see improvements in consistency of process and subsequently consistency of performance when people decide to engage in working on mindset. Many shooters stumble upon a way of managing their thoughts and emotions after years of experience.
Why take the long route?
Wouldn’t it make more sense just to approach mindset as you would technical skill? To treat your mindset as something that can be strengthened and developed?
I’d obviously recommend that you find a practitioner with experience of working in sport shooting but that might not always be possible.
An alternative would be someone who has experience in other sports where it’s required to repeat a skill over and over again. Something like golf, darts, snooker, archery etc. Many of the psychological methods from these sports should transfer to shooting as long as the psychologist is prepared to acknowledge the nuances of the sport and the specifics of the discipline (shotgun shooting is as different to pistol shooting as golf is to rifle for example!).
Why should you work on mindset?
Consistency is the goal. Once you have an ability to be aware of what your brain will throw at you in competition then it becomes possible to expect and subsequently accept this. You can develop a mental model that allows you to manage your response to your personal narrative when you are set to perform.
But once you have clarity on a mental model that works to you, so what! What do you then turn your attention to?
For my approach, in shooting sports, it becomes about delivering your process in the presence of discomfort rather than making the goal to remove the psychological discomfort from performance. Your routine helps to manage your direction of attention and to remain focused upon the core components of the task at hand. I delve deep into mental models and routine but come to a point whereby the output is incredibly simple and repeatable.
Technical quality plus a repeatable mental process leads to performance consistency… The holy grail of shooting sports!!
When we don’t address mindset what I observe are repeated technical fixes to mistakes that are simply psychological in nature. Shooters then get caught up in a viscous cycle of ‘solutioneering’, identifying the wrong problems and even applying great solutions… But to the wrong problems!!! No wonder things don’t improve.
They normally compound and get worse!
The bottom line is, if you don’t work on mindset, it will take you longer to really reach your potential and your mind will keep getting in the way of consistent technical skill delivery.
What does a session look like - what are they going to ask me?! (Is it therapy?!)
I’ve learnt the best place to run sessions is on range (with frequent coffee breaks in between of course!). Everyone is more at ease, the shooting breaks up the discussions and I get to see first hand what the shooter does.
It’s not therapy. Well not in the traditional sense, even if it feels therapeutic!
It is a performance focused discussion that explores opportunities for development. My intention is for it to feel like a conversation. We are talking about the individual’s specialist subject after-all: Them!
I don’t delve deep into personal histories but it’s helpful to understand individual backgrounds, what got them started in shooting, and helpful or unhelpful perceptions they might have around possibilities, progression and performance and more.
Over the first couple of sessions I’d create a few working hypothesis in my mind, check them with the client and get clarity on where we can work together. I’d be able to start to explain how we might move closer to someone’s goals and to develop a longer term plan in collaboration with them.
It’s also important to note that whilst people tend to come to me with a perceived problem my immediate focus is upon individual strengths and how to really dial these up. I often find that the ‘problem’s start to take care of themselves when we start with what shooters can do rather than what they can’t yet.
The plan should account for the ups and downs of this type of work. There is great progress to be made but as with anything new there are times when change is hard. Old habits creep back in. This is normal. If someone has thought a certain way for so many years then an overnight change is unrealistic.
But please believe me when I say that change is possible!
I undertake a process of building psychological fundamentals such as a mental model and psychological routine. This is tailored to the shooters needs and then we test it. In fact we try to break it, in a supportive way, to promote confidence in what we have created.
We are trying to create a process that will maintain under the pressure of competition. This means that the first time that we test it probably shouldn’t be in the biggest competition of the year!!
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated more remote working options and this has been no different for me. A willingness for people to do more work online now has meant that I’ve been able to take the vast majority of my face to face approach and apply it virtually.
I even video-call into on range training sessions so I can still make shooter observations.
It’s also given more flexibility as to when to meet as we no longer have to be in the same location to work together. I have to be a little more astute to the non-verbal aspects of communication when online but over time and once I’ve got to know someone well this is less of an issue.
As an extension of the possibilities of working together online I created my online programme and community for sport shooters. The benefits of working for so many years in shooting has helped me to articulate my approach into a way that I can share universally in a way that shooters can tailor to themselves.
My intention is to make the ‘how’ of psychology more accessible to shooting sports and combining it with the ongoing support that community offers.
What’s the deal with confidentiality in one to one work?
When I worked with English Institute of Sport as a Senior Psychologist our principle regarding confidentiality was that all discussions were performance conversations. Therefore, with consent, they could be openly discussed with key members of the athlete’s team. It reduced the risk of silo working and kept all of the support team, especially the coach, on the same page. So I continue that principle now in my freelance work.
If a shooter has a team around them I encourage them to share with their team about our work and to bring them in where possible but this is all with full consent. If there’s no team then this isn’t an issue of course and the work stays between myself and the client.
The primary time where I would have to share outside of the team would be if I perceived that the shooter was at risk, to self or others, but this would be a carefully, and sensitively, managed conversation the shooter in the first instance.
Personally, I tend not to share very little information about my ongoing work with individuals on social media. Of course I have a selection of testimonials from shooters that have provided them that I am grateful for. Social proof is an essential aspect of any service based business and has been since the beginning of time, long before social media! But jumping on every success that my clients have doesn’t sit hugely comfortably with me.
So my clients and I quietly go about our business, we celebrate success and work through the more difficult moments together (and there are many of the road to success!) without any concern about the world watching in.
In summary…
A sport psychologist can help shooters improve their performance and well-being by teaching mental skills and strategies to overcome challenges such as a response to pressure in competition. It can also lead to the development of skills that are helpful in other areas of life and can enhance mental and emotional well-being.
Different psychologists will take different approaches so it’s important to find out from the outset how they define their method and how it resonates with you. Performance Psychology is not just about goal-setting, visualisation and relaxation techniques but searching online it would appear that this is all that matters!
In short, a sport psychologist can help athletes maximise their potential and reach their goals by developing ways to minimise the impact of thoughts and emotions upon performance. This change takes time but with focused learning that's designed to be specific to the Individual then change that felt previously impossible becomes highly achievable.
And to finish up, the big question…How long does change take?!
Well this requires the classic ‘it depends’ answer!
Firstly, you need to have some idea of the change you are looking for. A Sport Psychologist can help you really define what the ‘problem’ really is that you’re trying to solve. If you’ve thought a certain way for a long period of time then it’s not going to change overnight.
But you don’t have to have ‘a problem’ to work with a Sport Psychologist. Generally the primary focus will be on performance. Would working on your mindset help you to become a better shooter in competition scenarios? I imagine yes is the answer for many shooters even if they are already in a strong starting place. The mental game can always be worked on.
During my time with British Shooting I would work on an ongoing basis with shooters with incredibly bespoke support. This would be in training and at competition and would be the gold standard in terms of the depth of support that I could provide.
But that’s not realistic, or necessary, for everybody.
So now I work in 2 ways with people as a Sport Psychologist.
Blocks of one to one bespoke support from 3 months to one year. This is much more in depth and mostly online. I’ll video call into on range sessions, have weekly calls, tie-in with the shooter’s support team, and create a solid plan. The goal by the end of our agreement would be that the shooter has absolute clarity on their mental model and various routines (pre-comp, competition, pre/post-shot etc).
The aim is for independence from me.
We’d then have an ongoing, lighter touch working relationship to keep on top of things. This is primarily for shooters that see shooting more as their vocation and who commit a serious amount of time to their sport.
I only ever work with a handful of shooters at any one time in this way so my focus isn’t spread thinly. There’s normally a waiting list and you can make an initial application here.
Secondly, my Mental Training Community and my flagship 4R Performance Method Programme.
I wanted to bring my approach to the wider community to help more people with mental training. I’ve included everything I’d teach in my one to one work and then deep dive into subjects, answer questions with video responses, live group calls, interviews with experts and much more. Because change takes time I now give everyone 12 months access to everything.
What I hear from my members is that they start to experience a different way of thinking and an ability to demonstrate it within 3 months. Then it’s about making change stick. I’m aiming to build a community full of mental training masters!
The progress of my members suggests that they are getting closer to their goals with not just the support of me but the other shooters and coaches within the community.
You can join my programme and community and read about our member’s experiences here >
So I hope this dive into what sport psychologists do and how to find one is helpful for you.
If you’ve got any further questions about any of this please drop me an email at paul@sportshootingpsychologist.com