The practical application of this knowledge is what sports psychologists use to reach two main objectives. One objective is being able to understand the effects of psychological factors on physical performance and the second is being able to understand the effects of physical activity participation on psychological development, health, and well-being. Once these two objectives have been understood, psychologists can help athletes achieve maximum participation, personal satisfaction, development through participation, and ultimately maximum performance. However, Gould & Weinberg explain that within the process of reaching these goals, the psychologist must adjust and approach the athlete with consideration of the athlete's personality and culture of the athlete's sport (13). This means that a psychologist would approach a basketball player different than a gymnastics player, or approach an athlete that grew up on a farm in Texas differently than an athlete that grew up in downtown Detroit. Therefore in most cases, clients are typically more comfortable working with a psychologist that doesn't come off as a stereotypical clinical psychologist or one that practices clinical psychology. To go along with this education, there is different evidence to support the work of sports psychologists. .
An example can be found in the movie based on a true story called Remember the Titans. The movie is about the struggles found in a newly appointed African-American coach, Hermone Boone, and his high school team on their first season as a racially integrated unit. Boone's ability to create a brotherhood within a group of young men that live in a segregated society may be seen as a miracle to the viewers of the movie, but to sports psychologist, Boone used psychological approaches to making his team into a coherent whole that performed at peak levels. He was able to regroup his players and get them to come to terms that they would become a biracial team or they would have to quit.