Currently, the global sports experience shows that apart from good physical fitness, individual sports skills in order to achieve high athletic performance an important role plays the so-called ”Psychological factor”. It concerns the different periods of the preparatory phase of the training process, sporting events themselves of various levels.
The main purpose of sports psychology is the study of psychological regularities of formation of the athletes and teams sports skills and qualities necessary for participation in competitions, as well as the development of psychologically based methods of training and preparation for competition Achieving these goals involves the following specific tasks:
- Studies on the effect of sports activity on the psyche of athletes:
a) the psychological analysis of the competition (the general and specific to different sports);
b) identifying the nature of the influence of competition for athletes;
c) determining the requirements for competition in the psyche of the athlete;
d) determining (together with other sports science) the set of moral, volitional, and other psychological qualities necessary for successful performance of athletes in competitions;
e) the psychological analysis of the conditions of training activities and sports life. - The development of psychological conditions for improving the efficiency of athletic training. Sports psychology is designed to reveal the mechanisms and laws that improve sports skills, ways of formation of specialized knowledge and skills, as well as the conditions for successful collective action sports.
All this requires psychologists:
a) The psychological study of existing methods and means of sports training and finding new ones;
b) identifying ways to maximize the opportunities of an athlete, as through the development of mental functions, as well as through the creation of instrumental training methods (ex use of systems with a “biofeedback”);
c) the development of methods of psychological descriptions of individual sports(psychographics), psychological diagnostic methods of athletic ability, social structure and psychological climate of the team;
d) developing scientific methods for modeling competitive environment in training.
- Development of the psychological foundations of precompetitive training athletes. At present, it has radically changed the content and nature of precompetitive training athletes. For a successful performance in the competition it is not enough only the high-level of physical and tactical training. Along with the acquired motor skills and the sensory-motor skills a big significance has the intellectual skills and the skills of collective action. Therefore, in precompetitive preparation an increasing role is played by various mental processes and states. It increases the importance of psychological factors and, consequently, the psychological preparation of athletes to compete. The development of methods and techniques of the training is one of the main functions of the sports psychology.
- The study of socio-psychological phenomena in a sport team. Sports psychology is studying the peculiarities of sports teams and gives a description of the psychological laws governing their activities. The solution to this problem involves:
a) to examine the origins and mechanisms of formation of collective phenomena (feelings, attitudes, traditions, etc.), as well as the development of methods to manage them in order to create a favorable psychological climate for sports teams;
b) to explore the psychological aspects and patterns of interpersonal communication in sports teams and the development of criteria for psychological compatibility of athletes;
c) identification of socio-psychological motives and activities of competitors;
d) to study the influence of the individual trainer and his management style for the success of the activities and the psychology of a sports team.
