Supporting Individual Development (Psychology)

By Dan Trafford

Abstract

It is now widely accepted that to achieve excellence or to become an elite athlete is a complex and all-round process that appears to be dependent on a mixture of both intrinsic and environmental factors. Therefore, being able to fully understand the performance pathway that a young athlete must navigate and knowing the vital performance skills that they will need is an area of knowledge that most coaches seek out.

This chapter discusses a key element of this holistic approach is the psychological factors that play an essential role in the process of producing elite athletes and it is this part of the players’ development. The chapter then discusses different ways in which coaches can implement successful strategies within their practices to nurture the psychological factors, which are deemed as being essential in obtaining the level of elite performance.