Why Sport Psychology?
Why Sport Psychology. First things first let me introduce myself, my name is Lyle Kirkham and I am from Birmingham England. I have recently graduated Staffordshire University studying Sport and Exercise Psychology. I am starting my masters this coming September.
My interest and passion is for sports including Golf and Cricket, which brought me into contact with Mario.
I own one of his products ‘Pocketbook for the mental game of golf’. Using the professional platform LinkedIn we quickly established common ideas, philosophies and future goals leading to cooperation. I’m going to publish articles about psychological theories and principles.
All that in relation to the effect they can have on our golfing behaviour and performance.
It will be informative and engaging to the reader.
Why Sport Psychology?
Sport has always been a massive part of my life. Since I remember almost all of my activities involved sports. From socializing on the local playing fields with my friends in the week. That lead to competitively playing cricket and golf at the weekends. Even at that age, admittedly I had no knowledge of mechanical processes.
Most of those processes underpin our behaviours and emotions.
I was still intrigued at how our responses to specific situations seemed to be dictated by the surrounding environment.
Sigmund Freud and Albert Ellis
It wasn’t until I was 16 in my first year of A-levels that I got to experience Psychology for the first time and more specifically being educated about sport psychology, I have never looked back since.
Theorists such as Sigmund Freud and Albert Ellis just seemed to captivate my mind with their beliefs and research.
There was something about making a hypothesis then being able to create and conduct a study which researched that hypothesis which made sense to me.
Perfect combination
Being able to combine my passion for sport with a keen interest for psychology was the perfect combination for me. Therefore I decided to undertake a sport and exercise psychology degree at university.
During my 3 year tenure I have actively looked to get involved with research projects.
This allowed me to gain vital experience leading to my final year project. For example – being involved in the development of a new measure for irrational beliefs. As well as conducting personality profiling at a local county cricket club. All of that have allowed me to gain great insights into life as a sport psychologist.
Best thing about sport psychology
The best thing about sport psychology is that you can physically see these theories. Theories occurre in everyday life and even more evident in sport. Eg. Rory McIlroy’s meltdown at the 2010 masters to England’s penalty taking history. It was all psychological and Golf is no exception.
Golf is all about being able to execute your skills in a controlled, confident manner.
Managing your thoughts, dealing distractions and expressing behaviors enables positive performances. I am very much looking forward to teaming up with Mario and starting a new chapter within golf psychology. Watch this space because big things are on the horizon!
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I appreciate the time given. If you have any questions or queries please find my contact details below, I loved to hear from you.
In the words of Mario…
Ciao Lyle