We have an updated page devoted to answering your questions about the field here.

With sport psychology a rapidly expanding field, with scores of professional teams hiring specialists to work with their athletes on their mental game, many are wondering how one makes a career in sport psychology and what it takes. Below are some commonly asked questions and answers to help get you started.

What are sport psychologists and how do they differ from mental game coaches?

Most generally, sport psychologists are licensed psychologists who are trained in psychological skills training, athletes’ mental health, team dynamics in sports settings, psychological factors that influence performance, assessment of psychological and performance variables, and more. Mental game coaches also work with athletes on the performance side of sport, but they do not have specific training in mental health and are not licensed. You know the old saying that every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square? Every sport psychologist is a mental game coach, but not every mental game coach is a sport psychologist. For more information about sport psychology, click here.

Do I need to go to graduate school to become a sport psychologist?

Yes. In order to become a full-fledged licensed psychologist, you’ll need to earn either a Ph.D. or Psy.D. and then complete further requirements for licensure depending on which state you want to practice in.

Is there only one set path to becoming a sport psychologist/mental skills coach?

Absolutely not! Our sport psychologists have all had very unique experiences. Learn more about how they got where they are by clicking below.

Dr. Justin Anderson

Dr. Carlin Anderson

Dr. Alexandra Wagener

As a student, what kind of experience should I be trying to get?

As far as experience goes, working with athletes of any level will help you along the road, as will doing research. Reach out to various sport psychologists and firms for advice and to see if they have any internships—many will post information on their websites. In order to find sport psychologists, quick Google searches will take you a long way, and check out AASP’s (Association for Applied Sport Psychology) website.

I want to open up my own sport psychology practice. Any advice on what I need to know?

Make sure you know how to run a business and who you can reach out to for help. While a doctorate degree will help you become a sport psychologist, it won’t necessarily help you with the day-to-day operations of owning your own company.

I’d like to work with elite athletes—how can I get there?

First, realize that many people want to work with elite and professional athletes, so don’t be upset if it doesn’t happen right away! You need time to prove yourself and get the most experience that you can. Work with colleges and universities: try to get a position on their medical staff and work with athletes there. It may not happen right away, but you can put in the time and the effort!

Good luck to all on your sport psychology journey, and check back for future blogs answering more questions! Again, if you have a question, please let us know via Facebook or Twitter! 

Premier would like to welcome Alexa-Jane Hoidahl to our team! Read this Q&A to learn more about our new intern.

Let’s start with a fun fact about yourself.
I will be graduating college at the age of 20.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Norway, Bali, or Greece.

Do you prefer movies or Netflix?  
I like both—it depends what mood I am in. I love movies, but there are days when I love a good Netflix binge.

What is the best show you’ve watched on Netflix?
How to Get Away with Murder

Chocolate or vanilla?
Most definitely chocolate!

What is the most played song on your iPod?
“Ship to Wreck” by Florence and the Machine

You are being sent to a deserted island you can bring one person and one item, who and what would you bring, and why?
I would bring a speedboat to get on and off the island.  The boat would come with wakeboards, bonfire supplies, Nick Goepper, Jimmy Fallon, and Melissa McCarthy. I would then bring Taylor Swift. We would spend the day attempting to try to wakeboard and do cool freestyle ski stuff like Nick. We’d also listen to Taylor tell fun stories about her cats and awkward experiences. We would then have the ultimate lip sync battle. It would be fun to be stranded on an island with all of these people–which I found a loophole to bring–because they are all very different, interesting, and down-to-earth people.  I think it would be so cool to talk with all of them about their journeys to where they are now.

Favorite sport to play? How about to watch?
My favorite sport to do would probably be figure skating, but I love and will try anything competitive regardless. My favorite sports to watch are skiing, snowboarding, and Winter X Game events as well as hockey and figure skating!

What is your experience with sports?
I have been in sports since I was very young—my parents put me in everything to try it all out. Slowly I cut down to my core sports; I captained both figure skating and tennis in high school. I started competing in figure skating in groups at age 11 and individually at age 12. As soon as I did my first individual program and got to perform for people I was hooked. From then on it was all about performing and competing. At that time I found my love for the artistic side of this sport. I competed almost every other week at figure skating competitions with between 4 and 6 routines and usually placed within the top three skaters if not first. I still continue to skate now and get regular practice in even though I don’t have as much time for it as I used to. I am also fortunate enough to be able to share my passion, knowledge, and experiences with the children I teach. I am an ISI certified Bronze and Silver Judge and am working on getting my gold certification. I’m also working on getting more involved on the USFS side of figure skating. Sports have taught me so much about who I am, life, and has provided me with many connections. When I started participating in sports way back I never thought I would become as connected to them as I did—let alone be where I am today.

What has drawn you to the sport psychology world?
Being an athlete most of my life I always thought the mental side was just as important as the physical side. When I was in 10th grade I came across a show called Necessary Roughness. The plot was based around a psychologist and her life as a newly divorced mom.  She gets thrown a curveball by somehow becoming a psychologist for the star athlete and problem child of her area’s NFL team. As soon as I saw the first episode I knew that was what I wanted to do for a career. Another thing that really drew me towards this field is how the view of seeking mental help is changing. It is becoming more of a common thing and more accepted not only in the general populations but also among athletes. I think this is great step in the right direction considering all the issues athletes face both in and out of the arena.

What is your educational background and future aspirations?
I graduated from Park High School in 2013 and started my first year of college my senior year of high school through the PSEO program. I then graduated from Century College with my Associate of Arts degree in 2014. That following fall I transferred to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and will be graduating this spring with a major in Psychology and a minor in Leadership. I plan to take a gap year before returning to school to take all my GREs and apply to grad school, gain some work experience, and travel.  My ultimate career goal is to become a sport psychologist for professional athletes and teams.

At Premier, we always strive to learn more. We read through the latest scholarly journals, explore new books, and—one of our favorites—watch numerous TED talks. Below is a list of some of our favorite TED talks about sport and/or psychology along with a memorable quote from each of the pieces. If you have any recommendations for us, let us know via Facebook or Twitter!

Sarah Lewis – Embrace the near win “Coming close to what you thought you wanted can help you attain more than you ever dreamed you could.”

Dan Gilbert – The psychology of your future self “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been.”

Diana Nyad – Extreme swimming with the world’s most dangerous jellyfish “And with all sincerity, I can say, I am glad I lived those two years of my life that way, because my goal to not suffer regrets anymore, I got there with that goal. When you live that way, when you live with that kind of passion, there’s no time, there’s no time for regrets, you’re just moving forward.”

Christopher McDougall – Are we born to run? “Running — it’s basically just right, left, right, left — yeah? I mean, we’ve been doing it for two million years, so it’s kind of arrogant to assume that I’ve got something to say that hasn’t been said and performed better a long time ago. But the cool thing about running, as I’ve discovered, is that something bizarre happens in this activity all the time…”

Angela Lee Duckworth – The key to success? Grit “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Amy Cuddy – Your body language shapes who you are “So, for example, we smile when we feel happy, but also, when we’re forced to smile by holding a pen in our teeth like this, it makes us feel happy. So it goes both ways. When it comes to power, it also goes both ways. So when you feel powerful, you’re more likely to do this, but it’s also possible that when you pretend to be powerful, you are more likely to actually feel powerful.”

Carol Dweck – The power of believing that you can improve “I heard about a high school in Chicago where students had to pass a certain number of courses to graduate, and if they didn’t pass a course, they got the grade ‘Not Yet.’ And I thought that was fantastic, because if you get a failing grade, you think, I’m nothing, I’m nowhere. But if you get the grade ‘Not Yet’ you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future.”

Sophie Scott – Why we laugh “Everybody underestimates how often they laugh, and you’re doing something, when you laugh with people, that’s actually letting you access a really ancient evolutionary system that mammals have evolved to make and maintain social bonds, and clearly to regulate emotions, to make ourselves feel better. It’s not something specific to humans — it’s a really ancient behavior which really helps us regulate how we feel and makes us feel better.”

Amy Purdy – Living beyond limits “If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go? That’s the question that changed my life forever.”

Andy Puddicombe – All it takes is 10 mindful minutes “…when did you last take any time to do nothing? Just 10 minutes, undisturbed? And when I say nothing, I do mean nothing. So that’s no emailing, texting, no Internet, no TV, no chatting, no eating, no reading. Not even sitting there reminiscing about the past or planning for the future. Simply doing nothing…”

Ben Ambridge – 10 myths about psychology, debunked “So the myth is that psychology is just a collection of interesting theories, all of which say something useful and all of which have something to offer. What I hope to have shown you in the past few minutes is that this isn’t true. What we need to do is assess psychological theories by seeing what predictions they make, whether that is that listening to Mozart makes you smarter, that you learn better when information is presented in your preferred learning styleor whatever it is, all of these are testable empirical predictions, and the only way we can make progress is to test these predictions against the data in tightly controlled experimental studies.“