On the self-regulation of sport practice: Moving the narrative from theory and assessment toward practice

Abstract

This paper reviews theoretical developments specific to applied research around the “psychology of practice” in skill acquisition settings, which we argue is under-considered in applied sport psychology. Centered upon the Self-Regulation of Sport Practice Survey (SRSP), we explain how self-regulated learning conceptually underpins this survey and review recent data supporting its empirical validation for gauging athletes’ psychological processes in relation to sport practice. This paper alternates between a review of applied research on self-regulated sport practice and new data analyses to: (a) show how scores on the SRSP combine to determine an expert practice advantage and (b) illustrate the large scope of self-organized or athlete-led time to which SRSP processes may apply. At this stage, the SRSP has been established as a reliable and valid tool in the empirical, theoretical domain. In order to move the narrative from theory and assessment toward applied practice, we present evidence to propose that it has relevance as a dialogue tool for fostering meaningful discussions between athletes and sport psychology consultants. We review initial case study insights on how the SRSP could be located in consultation in professional practice, propose initial considerations for its practical use and invite practitioners to examine its utility in applied settings.

Validation of the GAEU-1 Acale to Assess the Learning Management of University Students

“…When performing the confirmatory factor analysis of the present scale (GAEU-1), an adequate adjustment of the proposed model was obtained, which presents a contribution to our proposal of three and four first-order factors and the second-order model. These results are related to previous research, such as the reports by Sáez-Delgado et al [25], Silva Moreira et al [24], Young et al [14], Garrido-Hornos [22], and Zhang and Li [23], who have found instruments that measure similar variables with goodness-of-fit similar to the one described in the present article. The findings previously described, both from previous research and the one presented in this paper, make sense with the proposal of Hair et al [29] and Kline [30], who state that in confirmatory factor analyses, CFI values should be equal to 0.90 and RMSEA less than 0.70 to be acceptable.…”

“…Other research has found that there is a relationship between the socio-cognitive functions of autonomous learning and self-regulation within sports practice. It has also been reported that women present higher levels of self-learning processes as opposed to men [14,15]. On the other hand, Díaz Mujica et al [16] have found that the use of audio-visual multimedia resources can contribute significantly to developing autonomous and regulated learning in university students.…”

Personality Traits vs. Sports Classes of Polish Representatives in Junior Sports Acrobatics

“…The human personality is formed by the environment, and sports are part of this environment [27]. Therefore, it is important to recognize the influence of the specifics of the sports activity undertaken on the formation of athletes' personalities [28,29].…”

Self-regulation, stress appraisal, and esport action performance

“…In highly competitive environments such as sport, research suggests that an athlete’s capacity for self-regulation positively influences both their development ( McCardle et al, 2018 ; Young et al, 2023 ) and performance ( Jonker et al, 2010b ). McCardle et al (2018) conducted a survey of 482 athletes’ self-regulated learning in practice, revealed that both junior and senior athletes competing at an international level exhibited significantly higher levels of self-regulation compared to their counterparts participating at the national, provincial, and local levels.…”

“…Sporting success requires constant cognitive, behavioral and emotional regulation, over a long period of time both during practice and in competitive settings (Crocker et al, 2015). To excel in competitive contexts, athletes must possess the ability to self-regulate their behaviors through meticulous planning, control, and adaptation (Jonker et al, 2010a;Young et al, 2023). In the realm of esports, research has revealed that esports athletes 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1265778 (e'athletes; Bubna et al, 2023) who exhibit strong self-regulation skills are more likely to achieve success (Trotter et al, 2021).…”