Handbook Of Sports Psychology- A Comprehensive Manual Of Mental Training

This handbook is a revision of the 'Trends in Sport Psychology' published in 1994, but to be specific the contents of present publication is substantially more.

The material in this book is the peer reviewed proceedings and publications of international scientific consensus. As research progressed in the larger field of mental training in sport, other components of mental training were identified as having important predictive power in explaining behaviour. Two of these components — Biofeedback and Relaxation Training — appear to be particularly relevant to sports.

Another important consideration was the knowledge that personality and paper pencil tests are often misused by the individuals who do not understand the theoretical rationale underlying the questionnaire. The author feels that the reliability and validity of these tests are sometimes questionable as they do not represent a systematic and rigorous approach to test sport specific variable.

This handbook contains 19 individual chapters organised around the major theme of sport psychology relating to the study of human behaviour in the context of sport and physical activities.

In the behavioral sciences, we do not have precise instruments analogous to the telescope or the microscope. Psychological tests, sometimes, are not valid in every sports situations. Many Sports Psychologists have collaborated to achieve common goals and to discover new methods, which have resulted in the development and validation of many useful assessment tools. This book has been written by a Sports Psychologist working in the field of Psycho- diagnostics & Psychophysiology evaluation. The norms given are on the basis of evaluation of sports person of various ages and of varied disciplines. These norms are only indicative and can be used for training purposes. Complete statistical analysis provides opportunities for exploration and experimentation, the methods and the materials, which will provide the direction and insight into the demands of competitive Sports.

Consequently the author has decided to give description of a few of the computerized / electronic gadgets which can be used for making sport specific profiles. Age wise norms are also given.