Olympians

Mental Moment-female Olympic testing

Written by on July 26, 2012

caster semenya

OK I got some feedback about my blog on the IOC’s new policy for testing female athletes hormone level. This person was looking for me to say something solid about it and take a stand; versus reciting the article and asking what you thought about it. So here goes! If this were a ‘man’s’ issue would it be an issue? We would not be having this conversation. Lets look at this from the psychological perspective. Women started off marginalized in sports. Lets look at some research. For centuries women didn’t participate in sports due to medical fears of sterility. Boys … Continued

Mental Moment-anatomists vs identifiers

Written by on July 19, 2012

london2012

There are more female Olympians who are looking masculine. Because of that did you know that the IOC has devloped a new policy around ‘sex’ at the London Olympic Games? I am only going to give you the cliff notes from Alice Dreger’s article: The Olympic Struggle Over Sex because I want to give you the opportunity to read it for yourself. There are two schools of thought around ‘sex’ in the Olympic Games. The anatomists think we should base our sex division in sports on some sort of biological feature (in this case: how much androgens a woman’s body makes, but also how much her cells respond), even … Continued

The importance of parental support for Olympic success

Written by on May 7, 2012

Michael Phelps

Exactly 1 month ago I wrote a blog called Olympic & professional athletes natural ability. In that blog I wrote the following: In my experience with many Olympic and professional athletes although they still have an ingrained natural ability and continued family support, in their early 30′s things begin to change mentally. Where these athletes have had a lot of family support to support their natural abilities, this begins to change in their mid to late 20′s. They start to individuate from their families and lose some of their support at least the way they’ve known it. In the process of … Continued

Research on psychological preparation for Olympians

Written by on May 2, 2012

archery

It is true that many more Olympic athletes seem to be striving for greater excellence through the use of psychological preparation. I see it in my own practice. They seem to be beginning to understand that although they are already great because they are Olympians they can be better athletes and Olympians through mental training. Here is some research backing up the importance of mental training. Medalists and non medalists In the research article Psychological preparation for the Olympic Games (Gould & Maynard; Journal of Sports Sciences, November 2009; 27(13): 1393–1408) it discusses some past and present research on Olympians using versus  not using … Continued