Sport psychology

**Sport psychology** means applying parts of psychology to sports and athletes. One of the main ways that sports psychologists use is to help athletes meet their goals. The main group of people that sports psychologists try to help are professional athletes. They can help non-professional athletes as well. Sports psychologists mainly focus on problems the athlete has on the field but they can also help athletes with problems that they have off the field. Sports psychology did not become a recognized area of study until recently, but it has been used in the past.

## History 
### European history and the beginnings 
Sports psychology began at the end of the nineteenth century in Europe. Sports and the body were now a more important part of people’s lives. During the 1880s, more sports were a part of the lifestyle of the people. But, the word psychology was not used in connection with the word sport before the late 1890s. In 1899 and 1900, the phrase, psychology of sport, appeared in the titles of two journal articles. The first one was by Balduin Groller. It was published in two parts in 1899, in the journal Die Wage under the title “Zur Psychologie des Sportes” (translated About the Psychology of Sport).

George Wells Fitz was also active in sports psychology at this time. Fitz created the first known physical education lab in North America. In 1895, Fitz ran an experiment. This experiment focused on studying the reaction times of people. He found one thing in his results: people who had quicker and more accurate reaction times would be better at sports.  Next in 1912, Howard wanted to discover why people became so emotional while watching sports.

Sportswriter Hugh S. Fullerton is involved in the next development in the history of sports psychology. Fullerton brought New York Yankees player Babe Ruth to a psychology laboratory at Columbia University. Fullerton brought Ruth there to participate in a study run by Albert Johanson and Joseph Holmes. He wanted Ruth to participate in the study because he wanted to find a reason for why Ruth hit so many home runs. He also wanted to prove to other baseball scouts whether or not other players like Ruth existed. This led to the use of psychology as a way to gain an advantage over your opponent in a competition. In 1923, he started a special course focusing on psychology and sports. It was called Psychology and Athletics. Some coaches used what they were learning about sports psychology while coaching their teams. Paul Brown was head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. He began using psychological testing with his players. His tests eventually became known as the beginning of the National Football League’s tests that are still used today. Also during the 1940s, hypnosis was starting to be used to help athletes to relax. During the 1950s, David F. Tracy began using psychological methods to help players on the St. Louis Browns, a major league baseball team, now known as the Baltimore Orioles. In 1961, Maxwell Howell started the first graduate school program in physical education. He did this at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Today the number of sports psychologists that are being used by athletes is increasing. In fact, so many athletes are being helped by sports psychologists, that some organizations are starting to limit how many coaches can be on the field during a game. Many athletes are now using sports psychology as part of their everyday lives and training for games.

## References