Dr. Sylvain Laborde of the German Sports University is researching how to develop emotional intelligence training specifically for athletes. "They understood after the first session that they could really get something out of this," Laborde said of working with an initially reluctant rugby team.
Emotional intelligence - how one perceives, understands, and manages emotions - can give athletes better coping strategies, more motivation, and the potential to be a team leader. Even on the recreational side of things, emotional intelligence is associated with the difference between inactivity and a healthy engagement with exercise. The good news is, you can train it.
Dr. Blair Evans, whose work on group dynamics and competitive suffering (i.e. failure) we've highlighted twice in "This Month in Journals", chats about the process of doing sports psychology research. Evans' experience skiing in college informs almost all of his research, and he told us what he thinks makes skiing special from a psychological standpoint.
In the second half of our "ask a psychologist" segment, we talk to Dartmouth sports psychologist Dr. Mark Hiatt about the pressure and stress that comes with qualifying for big races, and what happens once you do. Hiatt expands on suggestions for how to manage expectations, relax, and get in a positive and productive mindset.
Coaches can't help with everything. We talked to Dr. Mark Hiatt, a sports psychologist at Dartmouth College, for how to deal with some common situations: what if your team is taking up too much time and eating into your life? How do you compete against your teammates? What if you hate your coach? His answers, which we hope will help you.