An Overview and Critique of NCAA Policy Regarding the Use of Sport Psychology Consultants at the Division I Level

Over the past 20 years the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division-I (NCAA) has restricted the activities of sport psychology consultants (SPCs) working with student-athletes, particularly at the Division I (D-I) level. In some cases, the restrictions have been based on the assumption that what SPCs do is actually “coaching.” Thus, if SPCs are permitted to interact with student-athletes during practices and competitions they must be considered as “countable” coaches. In this paper, we briefly discuss the history of NCAA rules governing the activities of SPCs, provide excerpts from the sport psychology literature and the NCAA D-I Manual that illustrate how the specialized work of SPCs is different from that of coaches, suggest reasons why allowing student-athletes and coaches access to SPCs during practices and competitions would be beneficial to both groups, and propose ways NCAA legislation might be amended to allow SPCs to work with student-athletes in a manner similar to the ways other athletic department support personnel (e.g., athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches) are permitted to do

Warm-up effects in the learning of discrete motor skills

Three experiments were conducted to determine the influence of warming-up activities on performance and on learning in two discrete motor tasks. During initial trials on the criterion task, Ss were given various types of warming-up activities having an activity-set that was either the same as or different from the criterion task. Test trials followed in which all groups practiced the criterion task only. No significant differences in performance on the criterion task were found regardless of the appropriateness of the warming-up activity during initial trials. The results suggested that warming-up properties are not a factor in original learning of discrete motor skills.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22014/1/0000429.pd

NCAA Division I Athletes\u27 Perceptions of Psychological Skills and Attitudes Toward Seeking Sport Psychology Consultation

Statistically significant differences on the basis of race and gender were found for stigma tolerance, one of three dimensions of athlete attitude variance toward seeking sport psychology consultation