SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY IS A NEW UPCOMING FIELD AND IN THIS PRESENTATION AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO EDUCATE COACHES AND ATHLETES ABOUT INJURY AND ITS RECOVERY PROCESS

1. Dr. SONIA KAPUR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
MYAS-GNDU DEPARTMENT OF
SPORTS SCIENCES AND
MEDICINE GURU NANAK DEV
UNIVERSITY

2.  Sports injuries have profound negative
consequences on the physical health of
sports participants.
 They also have the potential to cause a great
deal of psychological disturbances through
anger , depression , anxiety , tension , fear
and decreased self esteem

3.  Personality factors: Personality factors that
might have an effect upon how the athlete
responds to a stressful athletic situation include
hardiness, competitive trait anxiety and
intrinsic motivation.
 History of stressors: It includes stressful life
events and previous injury. The more life stress
the athlete experiences , the great is the
incidence and severity of athletic injury.
Previous injury includes how athlete adjust
with it

4.  Coping resources : It includes
 coping behaviours :behaviour that assist an
individual in dealing with a stressful
situation.
 Social support : when there is a negative
social support ,a strong association is present
between stress and injury.
 Stress management techniques : reduce risk
of injury.

6. Personality
factors
History of
stressors
Coping
resources
Stressful
situation
Psychological
skill
interventions
injuryPerception
of threat
Stress response
Increased
state anxiety
Attention/
distraction
Muscle
tension

7.  Attentional disruption (Williams &Andersons
, 1991): stress disrupts an athlete’s attention by
reducing peripheral attention. For e.g. a football
quarterback under great stress is prone to injury
because he does not see a defender rushing in
from his off side.
 Increased muscle tension (Smith et
al.,2000) : high stress increase muscle tension
that interfere with normal coordination and
increases the chances of injury. E.g. a highly
stressed gymnast player experience more muscle
tension than is desirable and fall from beam
injuring himself.

8.  Emotional responses:
Five-stage grief response process (hardy &
crace , 1990)
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

9.  Other reactions :
Identity loss
Identity loss
Fear
and
anxiety
Lack of
confide-
nce
Perform
-ance
decrem-
ents

10.  Identity loss : feels loss of pesonal identity as
they can not participate .
 Fear and anxiety :fear and worry about re-
injury , replacement in team , whether they
will recover.
 Lack of confidence : due to deteriorated
physical status ,inability to practice and
compete.
 Performance decrements :lowered
confidence and missed practice time.

11. Injury-relevant
information(focus on info
related to pain and extent of
injury)
Emotional upheaval and
reactive behaviour(feels
isolated,disconnection,disbeli-
ef,self pitty)
Positive outlook and
coping(good
attitude,optimistic,initiate
positive coping efforts)
injury
think
feel
do

12.  Feelings of anger and confusion
 Obsession with the question of when one can
return to play
 Denial (e.g., “The injury is no big deal”)
 Repeatedly coming back too soon and
experiencing re-injury
 Guilt about letting the team down
 Rapid mood swings
 Statements indicating that no matter what is done,
recovery will not occur

13. Injury-illness phase
Rehabilitation-
recovery phase
Return to full
activity phase

14.  A holistic approach is needed, emphasizing
both the healing of the mind and body.
 Injury treatment should include psychological
techniques to enhance the healing and
recovery process.

15.  Build rapport with the injured person:
• Taking his perspective (thinking how he must
feel)
• Providing emotional support
• Being realistic but positive and optimistic.
(e.g.this is a tough break , mary, and you’ll have
to work hard to get through this injury. But I’m
in this with you and together we’ll get you
back).
• Enlisting the player as part of the planning
and implementation of the rehabilitation
programme will show an acceptance of his/her
role in the process, and give the player a crucial
sense of control

16.  Educate about injury and recovery process:
• Tell the injured athlete what to expect
during the recovery phase.
• Help him understand the injury in practical
terms

17.  Specific psychological coping skills:
 Goal setting:
• SMART
• Long term and short term goals
• Each component of rehabilitation
• Highly motivated athletes: tends to do more
than require and reinjure themselves.

18.  Positive Self-talk:
• Help to counteract the lowered confidence
• Turn negative thoughts into positive ones
Example
 Negative Thought : I’ll never be able to perform
as well as I did before this injury.
 Positive Thought :This injury has allowed me to
identify a number of weakness is my fitness. I
will work on these areas of weakness, while
rehabilitating the injury. This will allow me to
return as a stronger player than I was before
injury

19.  Imagery/visualization:
• Removal of injured tissue and growth of new
healthy tissue
• Visualize oneself in game conditions
• Use all the senses to make the image as
realistic as possible.
 Pain management imagery:
• Imagine tight muscles getting massaged
• Swelling draining out the body
• Pain flowing out of the injured body part

20. 20
 Regular exercise is a great way to reduce the
effects of stress.
 Lead a healthy lifestyle—proper nutrition
makes
a big difference.
 Take one thing at a time.
 Go easy with criticism.
 Be realistic in what you can accomplish
compared
to what you want to accomplish.
 Shed the “superman/superwoman” urge—
realize
that no one’s perfect, you will make mistakes.