Sport Psychology: Training and Supervision

Abstract

Scholarly discussion of training and supervision in the subdiscipline of sport psychology is a relatively recent development. Academic sport psychology's roots in physical education departments, and the emphasis on psychological skill acquisition (e.g., goal setting, relaxation, imagery), led to more educational, rather than psychotherapeutic, models of training. In 1983, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) established guidelines for registering three different types of sport psychologists (i.e., research, educational, and clinical sport psychologists) and described in broad terms what training was required for each classification. These guidelines were an attempt by the USOC to be inclusive of individuals trained in physical education (more recently, exercise science) and psychology departments. Training models for academic and applied sport psychology in North America, the UK, and Australia differ substantially and are described. Debate over the supervision of applied sport psychology practice is less than a decade old. The first published papers dedicated primarily to a discussion of supervision appeared in the early 1990s. Theory-based models of supervision and how those models could be applied to the education and training of sport psychology practitioners were presented. Consensus on the training and supervision of sport psychology service providers, however, has not been reached. Currently, these topics are the subject of much discussion and lively debate in the journals and at professional meetings.