This study was designed to examine psychological characteristics and their development in Olympic champions. Ten U.S. Olympic champions (winners of 32 Olympic medals) were interviewed, as were one of their coaches (n = 10), and a parent, guardian, or significant other (n = 10). A battery of psychological inventories was also administered to the athletes. It was found that the athletes were characterized by: (a) the ability to cope with and control anxiety; (b) confidence; (c) mental toughness/resiliency; (d) sport intelligence; (e) the ability to focus and block out distractions; (f) competitiveness; (g) a hard-work ethic; (h) the ability to set and achieve goals; (i) coachability; (j) high levels of dispositional hope; (k) optimism; and (l) adaptive perfectionism. Results also revealed that a number of individuals and institutions influenced the athletes' psychological development including the community, family, the individual himself or herself, non-sport personnel, sport environment personnel, and the sport process. Coach and family influences were particularly important. Ways in which these sources influenced the athletes were both direct, like teaching or emphasizing certain psychological lessons, and indirect, involving modeling or unintentionally creating certain psychological environments. Psychological characteristic findings verified current sport psychological research on psychological characteristics associated with peak performance (Williams & Krane, 2001). They also suggest that adaptive perfectionism, dispositional hope, and high levels of optimism are new variables to consider. Results are also discussed relative to Bloom's (1985), Côtè's (1999) and Csikzentmihalyi, Rathunde, Whalen, andWong's (1993) talent development research. Practical implications focus on implementing parenting and coaching practices related to the development of psychological characteristics associated with athletic success.When people think of the psychology of excellence, images of outstanding athletic performances often come to mind. Legendary athletes like

No abstract

Background:Early sport specialization is not a requirement for success at the highest levels of competition and is believed to be unhealthy physically and mentally for young athletes. It also discourages unstructured free play, which has many benefits.Purpose:To review the available evidence on early sports specialization and identify areas where scientific data are lacking.Study Design:Think tank, roundtable discussion.Results:The primary outcome of this think tank was that there is no evidence that young children will benefit from early sport specialization in the majority of sports. They are subject to overuse injury and burnout from concentrated activity. Early multisport participation will not deter young athletes from long-term competitive athletic success.Conclusion:Youth advocates, parents, clinicians, and coaches need to work together with the sport governing bodies to ensure healthy environments for play and competition that do not create long-term health issues yet support athletic competition at the highest level desired.

This study examined how outstanding high school football coaches developed life skills in their players. In-depth phone interviews were conducted with 10 outstanding coaches ranging in age from 47 to 68 years (M = 54). Coaches averaged 31 years of coaching experience, and were highly successful (76.6% winning percentage). Hierarchical content analysis of the data revealed that two general dimensions or categories of strategies emerged: (a) general coaching; and (b) player development strategies. Within the general coaching strategies dimension, higherorder themes focused on working with players and strategies for dealing with other parties. In the player development strategies general dimension was the higher-order theme set of teaching life skills. Results highlighted that it was clear these coaches did not view the coaching of life skills as separate from their general coaching strategies for performance enhancement and while highly motivated to win, personal development of their players was a top priority.Many of the world's greatest coaches are not only committed to teaching their players how to excel in the athletic venue, but in life as well. It is ironic, then, that the scientific community has not studied the life-skill-building strategies used by outstanding coaches more actively. This is surprising as Coleman Griffith (1926), the father of North American sport 16 Downloaded by [134.117.10.200] at 15:30 15 March 2015 COACHING LIFE SKILLS 17psychology, emphasized that a sport psychology educator's primary function is to observe the most successful and experienced athletes and coaches, record the psychological strategies and principles they employ, and utilize those principles to educate less successful and experienced athletes and coaches.While a number of researchers have examined performance-enhancement strategies employed by highly successful athletes (e.g.

This study was designed to examine if mental skills and strategies such as high confidence, commitment, and the use of cooperative routines, as well as previously unexamined physical, social, and environmental factors affect Olympic performance. Athletes and coaches from 8 Atlanta US Olympic teams were interviewed. Four teams met/exceeded performance expectations and 4 teams failed to perform up to performance predictions. Focus group interviews were conducted with 2 to 4 athletes from each team. Individual interviews were conducted with 1 or 2 coaches from each team. Each interview was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by three trained investigators using hierarchical content analyses. Differences existed between teams that met/exceeded performance expectations and teams that failed. Teams that met/exceeded expectations participated in resident training programs, experienced crowd and family or friend support, utilized mental preparation, and were highly focused and committed. Teams that failed to meet expectations experienced planning and team cohesion problems, lacked experience, faced travel problems, experienced coaching problems, and encountered problems related to focus and commitment. Results indicated that achievement of peak performance at the Olympic Games is a complex and delicate process influenced by a variety of psychological, physical, social, and organizational factors.