Opinions of Professional Athletes from Different Branches on “Psychological Support

Abstract

In our country, being a sports psychologist is not exactly settled as a status in terms of functioning. In professional teams, works to be done by sports psychologists can be carried out by different branches as well. Psychological support given by experts is a professional field of study. It is necessary for an expert who will work in the field of sports to be trained both in the field of psychology or psychological counseling and sports and psychological counseling in sports. Psychological support in sports is a service which is required to be given in quite a different way from the psychological support other than the one in sports. (Karagözoğlu). Psychological support in sports is a professional field needed for the athletes, trainers, sports administrators and spectators. Not only can the psychological support be given to the individuals or teams, but it can also be given continuously or in training periods to ensure development in specific issues. (Karagözoğlu, p.15). The study to determine the opinions of players from different branches on psychological support was carried out in the survey model and the data acquired were analyzed adopting the content analysis approach. In data acquisition, the opinions of players were determined by asking open-ended questions. After obtaining information from the participants about their branches, genders and how long they had been performing that sport, the following questions were asked:1.Do you apply different techniques other than physical training in order to increase your performance?2.How do you evaluate your anxiety state before and after the competition?3.What is/are the most important factor or factors which you think have affected your success throughout your sports life?4.Do you have a sports psychologist in your team?For the first question, the typical answers given by the athletes are pilates, energy drink, running, cycling, yoga and mental training. It was determined that the ones whose sports ages were under 10 had more frequently written the techniques such as mental training and yoga. For the second question, they gave answers concerning that the anxiety did not affect them adversely. For the third question, it was determined that the phrases “family” and “team mates” were frequently repeated. Predominant answer for the fourth question is “They do not have a sports psychologist.”Starting from these points of views, it can be said that works based on psychological support in teams have not become widespread yet.