Sports Psychology

Brianb8802

I was listening to The Last Word last night on Today FM, and Professor Aidan Moran from UCD was on talking about concentration (Link about 17mins into it). He also touched on what motivates people who played sports.

This really got me thinking, I play rugby and over the last two years I feel my performance is very varied, mostly got to do with my motivation at the time (I think anyway). I can play an absolute stormer one week and not play like that again for several months until I'm motivated the same (Usually trying to impress new coach or the like).

I tried to research a bit about it tonight but there seems to be literally thousands of books mentioned on the net. So was hoping someone here could point me in the direction of a good book on Sports Psychology to help me keep my performance more balanced.

Thanks

The Black Oil

Maybe drop Prof. Moran an email or look at his publication list then check your college/local library.

http://www.ucd.ie/psychology/staff/AidanMoran.htm

Brianb8802

Looks like Prof Moran has a book on sports psychology.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Sport-Practical-Psychology/dp/0415395585

Reviews say its quite good so I've my copy ordered.

taztastic

I'm using a book by David Pargman "Managing Performance Stress: Models and Methods". It focuses on sports performance and many of the psychological factors affecting it including anxiety, concentration, attention, fatigue and cognitive style. I am a psychologist but would have thought it should be reasonably easy to understand for someone without that background.