College student athletes have long been the most recognized, yet unofficial, special population on college campuses nationwide (Valentine & Taub, 1999). Misconceptions and stereotypical viewpoints have hindered the development of effective counseling interventions and mental training for this population and more so for basketball players. Student athletes are viewed by many as performers who are placed in public arenas to have their successes praised and their failures criticized (Valentine & Taub, 1999).
Ferrante, Etzel, and Lantz (1996) noted that the general view of college athletes is that they are over privileged, pampered, lazy, out-of-control, and primarily motivated to attend school for the sole purpose of participating in intercollegiate athletics. These misconceptions cloud the fact that student athletes experience problems with an epidemiology that is consistent with basketball players on the pro level . However. they are not receiving the potential benefits of counseling services and mental game training.
Recent findings have shown that this is more of an issue than originally estimated (Maniar, Curry, Sommers-Flanagan, & Walsh, 2001). In fact, researchers have shown that student athletes are not only hesitant to seek help from traditional counselors, but they are also reluctant to take advantage of sport psychology services (Brewer, Van Raalte, Petipas, Bachman, & Weinhold, 1998). If you are serious about taking your game to the next level you must get involved in sports psychology for basketball.
In Sports Psychology for Basketball it is important to partner with a Mental Game Coach in order to reach peak performance. A Mental Game Coach helps athletes on their mental game to improve performance, improve practice efficiency and transfer of practice to competition. A Mental Game Coaches will also help athletes improve team cohesion and team performance, along with enhancing team communication skills. Mental Game Coaches will teach mental skills related to confidence, focus, composure, routine, stress management etc. just to name a few and lastly Mental Game Coaches help athletes come back from injury.
