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From couch to coach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

F. Carranza*
Affiliation:
The Gordon Hospital, Bloomburg Street, London SW1V 2RH
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Abstract

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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2003

The Football Association (FA) launched its strategy “Psychology for Football” at the Pride Park Stadium, Derby, on 7 November 2002. The meeting was a call to football professionals to endorse the use of sports psychologists.

Psychologists have received a cautious reception from sports professionals (Reference Martin, Wrisberg and BeitelMartin et al, 1997). Countries like Australia and the USA have been using psychologists in sports for decades. In the UK, developments have been slower, with important changes, such as the accreditation of the British Association of Sports and Exercise Sciences, happening in the late 80s.

The involvement of psychiatrists in sports has been more anonymous, as psychiatry not only carries a stigma but is also the antithesis of Mens sana in corpore sano (Reference CarranzaCarranza, 1999). Society perpetuates the problem by seeing sportsmen as highly-skilled entities, rather than primarily as human beings with strengths and weaknesses. Because of this, sports professionals in need of psychiatric help usually approach services as a last resort, during the final stages of their problem.

The FA strategy should be made extensive to other sports and, ideally, implemented at all levels. It would also be desirable to consider the inclusion in the strategy of professionals such as psychiatrists, who could play not only a therapeutic (Reference BegelBegel, 1992) but, equally important, a preventative role. Psychiatry can also complement psychology providing clinical input, or working together in a wider strategy towards changing behaviour in the public, and attitudes related to sport in society in general.

References

Begel, D. (1992) An overview of sport psychiatry. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 606614.Google ScholarPubMed
Carranza, F. (1999) Attitudes of Sportsmen to Psychiatry. Hamburg: Congress of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Martin, S. B., Wrisberg, C. A., Beitel, P. A. et al (1997) NCAA Division I athletes' attitudes toward seeking sport psychology consultation: the development of an objective instrument. The Sport Psychologist, 11, 201218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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