#sportspsychologyblog

Anorexia in men – in sports, performers and any man

Dr Victor Thompson

Sep 18, 2019
4 min

Anorexia in men – in sports, performers and any man

The Telegraph newspaper had published an article on British actor Christopher Eccleston’s disclosure of his struggles with anorexia Being interviewed for this article got me thinking about writing a post on this often-hidden issue in men. So, here are my thoughts on how it develops and why it is such an important problem to help. What is anorexia? In short, anorexia – or to give it it’s full title anorexia nervosa – is an obsessive and distorted repulsion of being big/fat, p

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Mental tips for the marathon - Virgin Money London Marathon, or any marathon

Dr Victor Thompson

Apr 23, 2019
2 min

Mental tips for the marathon - Virgin Money London Marathon, or any marathon

With the London Marathon in a few days time, I thought that it might be time to give you a couple of sports psychology tips for the marathon. There are more mental tips and psychological techniques that you can apply, but these two will give you a great foundation to the event. Tip 1: Go to the movies in your mind To help you feel more confident, use imagery or visualisation, to rehearse the marathon day, working out how you'll be, what you'll do, and what will give you a gre

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The mental challenges of systemic fatigue - the Mark Cavendish Epstein-Barr example

Dr Victor Thompson

Dec 11, 2018
2 min

The mental challenges of systemic fatigue - the Mark Cavendish Epstein-Barr example

In sport injuries happen. They are tough things to cope with. Mark Cavendish has had many injuries as a professional cyclist . Those of us who have seen him race at races such as the Tour de France, can probably remember some of those dramatic crashes. Seeing images of him later with deep grazes, bruises or broken bones. Most injuries in sport are caused by forceful impacts or when we have pushed our body too far, when something inside goes snap. Cavendish's interview on BBC

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Lessons from the England Football Team and the World Cup

Dr Victor Thompson

Jul 12, 2018
1 min

Lessons from the England Football Team and the World Cup

Isn’t it great that the nation is disappointed with losing our in the World Cup semi-final with Croatia? How did this happen? What can we learn from the England team’s performance at the World Cup? Gather the best people to help you – the support staff of coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists … and maybe even a psychologist Build good relationships and cohesion between you and your teammates and support staff Create a plan for how you will improve weaknesses (penalties any

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Performance drop-offs and cliffs in sport: The example of Sergio Garcia in the 2018 US Masters Golf

Dr Victor Thompson

Apr 6, 2018
3 min

Performance drop-offs and cliffs in sport: The example of Sergio Garcia in the 2018 US Masters Golf

According to the BBC: ‘Defending Masters champion Sergio Garcia has an absolute nightmare as the 15th at Augusta, ending up in the water five times before carding a disastrous 13 to equal the worst score hole in the tournament’s history and finish his round with a nine-over-par 81.’ (You can watch a summary of Sergio’s 15th hole here) Every day sports people go out there to do their best, whether in training, practice or competition. Some days things go great for them, some d

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The Sports Psychology skill of imagery or visualisation: What is it and how it can help your sports

Dr Victor Thompson

Apr 5, 2018
2 min

The Sports Psychology skill of imagery or visualisation: What is it and how it can help your sports

Imagery, or visualisation, can help an athlete in a number of ways. It’s something that not all sports people utilise, but at the top levels in sport, it is a commonly used psychological skill. Here I explain about what imagery is and why you might want to learn to effectively apply it to your sport. Imagery isn’t a new psychological skill. Here’s what the golf great Jack Nicklaus has said about his use of imagery: “Before every shot I go to the movies inside my head. Here is

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What can a sports psychologist offer to motorsports?

Dr Victor Thompson

Sep 8, 2017
1 min

What can a sports psychologist offer to motorsports?

What can a sports psychologist offer to motorsports? A day at the Silverstone motor racing circuit, working with a driver and team, got me thinking about what role a Sports Psychologist can have in motorsport. With a driver, their engineer, other engineers within the team, team manager, tyre staff, trainer and more, is there room, or should there be room for a Sports Psychologist? Maybe the answer is found in the following questions: Could the driver manage the pressure, stre

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Justin Gatlin is an excellent example to us athletes (really)...

Dr Victor Thompson

Aug 6, 2017
2 min

Justin Gatlin is an excellent example to us athletes (really)...

Justin Gatlin, USA sprinter, won the 100m World Championship yesterday. He is perhaps the ultimate bad boy of athletics of this era - having served bans for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, not once, but twice. This win was even more significant for viewers and lovers or sport, because he beat Usain Bolt, in Bolt's last race. Gatlin came out onto the track for the final to loud booing from the audience. Bolt came out to the biggest cheers. The other sprinters

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