One of the hardest things in the world to do is run a successful professional sports franchise. From finding some of the best athletes in the world, to getting those athletes to play together, to finding good coaches, making sure the franchise can perform at its highest potential is by no means easy. Although these franchises consist of specific types of personnel for physiological growth, skill development, and coaching development, most lack a specific mentor for the psychological growth of both coaches and players. In most cases the responsibility for the regulation and improvement on psychological growth is dispersed between players and the executive staff, but why not look to someone that specializes in the study of human behavior and performance? These specialists are known as sports psychologists. Therefore, every professional sports franchise should have a sports psychologist on staff to help motivate and improve the performance of their teams.
Sports psychologist Dr. Rick Perea said that research indicates that many sporting administrators are reluctant to seek out a qualified sport psychologist due to the lack of understanding of the practices, the view that sports psychology is clinically based (meaning that they see athletes being asked to tell their innermost feelings and emotions on a "shrinks" couch) and the youth of the overall discipline itself (1). These common misunderstanding are what causes professional sports franchises to avoid using these qualified sports psychologists which could be very helpful. However, a simple solution to the problem would be informing these franchises of how these psychologists work and how they help in real world situations. A good place to start would be to explain what sports psychology is and what the goals of sports psychologists are. .
Sports psychology can be defined as, "the scientific study of people and their behavior in sport and exercise contexts and the practical application of that knowledge" (Gould & Weinberg, 4).