The most student-focused introduction to sports psychology on the market
Written by a leading expert and practising university teacher, Sport Psychology gives you all the key knowledge and information you need to succeed quickly and easily.

Think about your favourite sport. Now ask yourself how much of success in that sport is down to physical skills and how much is down to mental skills?

We all know that physical skills are vital for performance and understand about training them. We know that psychology is important too, but what people actually do to understand and train in it is less well known. Sport Psychology: A Complete Introduction gives you the answers, explaining everything you need to know in one place.

Structured in two parts, theory and application, chapters in part 1 define the idea of personality and cover essential psychological traits, including mental toughness, confidence, motivation, stress and character. Part 2 covers topics such as assessment, working with groups, skills training, coping techniques and working with coaches and teams. You will also find substantial coverage of measurement questionnaires, skills and routes to practice.

As well as learning about how the mind works and how that has an impact on sporting performance, you will discover what sport psychologists actually do to improve a performer's psychological skills and mindset.

Whether you are a student, involved in sport at any level, or simply interested in sport and sport performance, Sport Psychology: A Complete Introduction is your go-to guide.

John Perry is a lecturer in sports coaching and performance at the University of Hull. He has a PhD in psychology and over ten years' experience in lecturing in sport psychology. His main research areas are mental toughness, coping with stress, sportspersonship, and statistical methods.

Sport Psychology: A Complete Introduction is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear, jargon-free English and providing added-value features like summaries of key experiments and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam.

The book uses a structure that mirrors the way sports psychology is taught on many university courses, and is split into theory and application. Chapters in the first part include coverage of essential personality traits, including mental toughness, confidence, motivation and character. The chapters on applied sports psychology cover topics such as assessment, working with groups, skills training, coping techniques and working with coaches and children. There is also substantial coverage of measurement questionnaires, skills and routes to practice.

Sport Psychology employs the 'Breakthrough Method' to help you advance quickly at any subject, whether you're studying for an exam or just for your own interest. The Breakthrough Method is designed to overcome typical problems you'll face as learn new concepts and skills.

- Problem: "I find it difficult to remember what I've read."; Solution: this book includes end-of-chapter summaries and questions to test your understanding.
- Problem: "Lots of introductory books turn out to cover totally different topics than my course."; Solution: this book is written by a university lecturer who understands what students are expected to know.