A 50-item questionnaire measuring athletes’ attitudes toward seeking a sport psychology consultant (ATSSPCQ) was initially developed and then administered to 48 African American and 177 Caucasian student-athletes at a NCAA Division I university. Principal components factor analyses were conducted to extract initial factors and then varimax orthogonal rotation was performed. The analyses produced three dimensions of athlete attitude that accounted for 35% of the variance: stigma tolerance, confidence in a SPC/recognition of need, and interpersonal openness/willingness to try a SPC. A MANOVA and follow-up discriminant function analyses were then performed to identify the factors that maximized differences between gender and race. Significant differences in stigma tolerance were found for both gender and race. SPCs were stigmatized more by male athletes than by female athletes and more by African American athletes than by Caucasian athletes. No other significant effects were obtained.

In the current study NCAA Division I student-athletes (n = 2,440) completed a Web-based survey assessing their willingness to seek mental skills training, perceptions of the potential benefits of mental training for their team, and support of possible roles for a sport psychology consultant at their institution. Multiple chi-square tests revealed significant (p < .001) dependence of respondents’ ratings on gender, sport type (individual vs. team), prior experience with a sport psychology consultant, and perceived effectiveness of prior experience (low, moderate, high). Generally, females were more receptive than males, individual and team sport athletes were interested in different types of mental skills, athletes with prior consulting experience were more open than those with none, and athletes with highly effective prior experience were more receptive than those with less effective experience. These findings extend previous research examining collegiate student-athletes’ attitudes toward sport psychology consulting and provide several important insights for consultants conducting mental skills training for NCAA Division I level athletes.

Laboratory research in motor learning has consistently demonstrated higher retention and/or transfer when practice occurs under conditions of high contextual variety (e.g., Lee & Magill, 1983; Newell & Shapiro, 1976; Shea & Morgan, 1979;). In the present study, an attempt was made to determine whether a contextual variety effect could be demonstrated in a standard physical education instructional setting. During practice trials on the long and short badminton serves, male and female subjects performed under either blocked (i.e., all trials of one serve followed by all trials of the other) or varied (i.e., alternating trials of long and short serves) conditions. Retention and transfer tests (i.e., using the service area opposite that employed during the practice phase) were administered at the end of the badminton unit. Although little difference was observed in the performance of the two groups during practice, alternating-trial subjects demonstrated significantly higher retention of the short serve and significantly higher transfer of both serves than blocked-trial subjects. The performance of male and female subjects was not differentially influenced by practice structure conditions. It was concluded that a practice schedule that requires performers to change their plan of action from trial to trial may facilitate the retention and transfer of motor skills in applied instructional settings.

In this study NCAA Division I coaches (n = 815) completed a Web-based survey assessing their willingness to encourage athletes to see a sport psychology consultant (SPC), their support of possible roles for a SPC at their institution and, for coaches with current access to a SPC at their institutions, their willingness to seek mental training services for a variety of purposes. The results indicated that coaches were more willing to encourage their athletes to see a SPC for performance issues than for personal concerns and were more supportive of making mental training services available to athletes and including a SPC among athletic department staff than allowing a SPC to be present at practices and competitions. Coaches with current access to a SPC were primarily interested in mental training for performance enhancement purposes and were more willing to seek the services if they had more frequent contact with the SPC and perceived the SPC to be effective. These findings extend previous research on athletes’ and coaches’ receptivity to mental training and provide several important insights for SPCs working with athletic personnel at the NCAA Division I level.

The purpose of this study was to systematically examine the practice behaviors of Pat Summitt, the winningest collegiate basketball coach in NCAA Division I history. Throughout the 2004–05 season, Summitt’s verbal and nonverbal behaviors were video recorded during six practices. A total of 3,296 behaviors were observed and coded using the Arizona State University Observation Instrument (Lacy & Darst, 1984). Results indicated that 55% (n = 1810) of Summitt’s behaviors were directed toward the team, whereas 45% (n = 1,486) were directed toward individual players. The most frequent behavior was instruction (48%, n = 1,586) followed by praise (14.5%, n = 478) and hustle (10.7%, n = 351). Contrary to predictions, no differences were found in the quantity or quality of the coaching behaviors that Summitt directed toward high and low expectancy players.