Era of Paper Pencil to Advances in the Use of Technology by Sport Psychologists and Athletes -For Performance Enhancement

Jayashree Acharya

Dean

National Sports University, Imphal, Manipur

(Professor, Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior, MP)

With the issues of mental health, violence and activism in sports on the rise, more athletes and teams are seeking the expertise of sport psychologists. At present, sports psychology in India is at a new stage of development, which is attributed to the acceptance of the notion that psychological characteristics influence the athletic performance. Indian sports psychology is basically aimed at the development of optimal methods and techniques facilitating the improvement of sport performance and detecting adverse tendencies in athletes. The research areas where extensive work is completed in Indian sports psychology is: Personality, Anxiety, Stress, team cohesion etc. Further, on experimental side a little advances in technology where, the time perception, attention, visual attention in field settings, anticipation, mental training and motor imagery have been conducted by various pockets. Each of these topics highlights the recent advances of sports psychology in India with an overview of the key studies providing their specific findings and interpretation in terms of contemporary scientific views.

As we all are aware that technological advancements have affected all areas of human existence, including sport performance. In sports, small performance gains can be the difference between winning and losing, ultimately affecting contracts and earnings. Consequently, the use of technology, which often comes with the promise to improve feedback quality and enhance performance, has become invaluable to coaches and athletes. In the area of sports psychology, basically that used to be paper- pencil tests, counselling followed by a few experimental work etc. At present in addition, higher level athletes and coaches use various technologies along with their training that adds to their psychological aspect or training the mind or developing the mental strength that is required in high performance sport. As it’s well known that “Physically you might be in excellent shape but it’s your mind that matters, as there’s a fine line between winning & losing”.

In recent years, advances have been made in biofeedback, virtual reality, reaction time trainers, eye tracker, VTS Sports, neurotracker and a host of other software applications and gadgets designed to enhance human performance by enhancing various psychological abilities. For instance, wearable technology can be used to monitor the users’ vital signs to facilitate real-time injury/trauma survival predictions and improve treatment response times. Since the advent and incorporation of GPS locators, head-mounted devices, wearable health monitors, assistive devices, and various physical training tools to extend the limits of performance capacities, monitor changes, and produce data for analysis.

Overall, the presentation encompasses both the theoretical methodological aspects of Indian sports psychology and the examples of specific studies providing an opportunity to look forward to future lines of research (Quantitative & Qualitative) in addition to the existing work that is under progress. It’s not only theoretical base but has applied aspect for both coaches & sport psychologists for performance enhancement among athletes.