The psychology of sport is how psychological factors influence athletic performance and how physical activity improves well-being and mental health. Throughout this project, we have zoomed in on four main sports: netball, snowboarding, running and horse riding, meaning we cover solo sports, team sports, extreme sports and sports with animals. However many of these skills can be used across a range of sports..

Netball requires the ability to stay calm under intense pressure while making quick decisions, with the timer running out, trying to get the final intercept or shoot the last goal. In addition, it requires strong connections with your team to apply tight pressure and communicate to get the ball down court. Lastly, it requires determination to keep pushing for every 15 minute quarter even when you are tired from the constant sprints and stopping and starting. There are many psychological benefits with netball as it strengthens mental resilience and can create confidence and a sense of belonging as you are in a team. It is proven that defensive positions excel in maintaining and handling pressure as well as resilience whilst attacking positions tend to have a higher level of confidence and composure

Horse riding requires much patience and a strong connection with the animal. It has been proven that horses can sense human emotion. The way a rider feels and reacts to those feelings can cause the horse’s behaviour to shift therefor as a rider, you have to be confident or the horse will struggle to trust you and may not listen. If you are confident and have trust in yourself, the horse is far more likely to do as asked because it sees you as a confident leader. Horses are herd, prey animals and in the wild there is usually a dominant animal that other horses rely on to make decisions, in a captive environment the human must fill in that spot with confidence or the horse won’t trust you and will begin to make decisions for itself. The confidence used in horse riding has proved to make riders more confident in social situationsAswell as confidence other emotions have to maintained; horse riding is a fun sport but it can also be frustrating depending on the kind of horse. Difficult horses van be very frustrating to work with if they don’t listen and are naughty and all you can do is get back in the saddle, discipline them and hope they listen. But there is a fine line between disciplining a horse and losing your temper. This teaches riders to have control over their emotions and makes them more disciplined in other life scenarios. 

Running requires a strong drive to keep putting one foot in front of the other. As well as this, stamina is just as much a mental game as it is physical as the mind tells your body to slow down at only half of your physical limit, stamina does not just require physical training but lots of mental training that can only be achieved by practice. Running is very good for your mental health as it can lower cortisol, reducing stress. Running allows you to get outside to allow your mind to be away from screens and enjoy nature. Lastly it can improve self-esteem as it always feels good to know you just completed a 5k or the pride of finishing a marathon or setting a new personal best.

Snowboarding is a very fast and unpredictable sport; due to the weather the slope can change drastically in very little time. This can be very unnerving as generally humans like to know exactly what’s coming. so snowboarding needs confidence and the will to do it even though it is dangerous. It also requires a lot of determination especially when learning. Snowboarding can be a very difficult and tiresome sport to learn and it goes against most human’s natural instincts.

In conclusion, all sports don’t just require physical skills but also mental resilience. Sport isn’t just about physically out running your opponents but also outsmarting them. As well as this sports and physical exercise release endorphins which have been proven to boost your mood and make u feel happy. So sports don’t just make you fitter they also are a great way to improve your mental health. 

• Florence