Mental Skills Training for Sport and Health (FutureLearn)

You’ll trace the relationship between the brain and the body in sport and exercise as you explore three mental skills training techniques and their application.

Using psychological knowledge, scientific research, and applied case study examples, you’ll learn how these psychological training techniques enhance athletic performance.

What topics will you cover?

On this course we will be covering three key mental skills training techniques:

o Mental practice including how the PETTLEP model can inform the delivery of motor imagery/action observation interventions.

o Self-talk, including the concepts of valence, overtness, motivational interpretation, and function.

o Goal setting, including the different SMART principles and types of goal.

For each skill, case studies from sport, exercise, and clinical settings will be used to illustrate to learners how each of these skills can be relevant in practical settings.

Learners will also have the opportunity to demonstrate and apply their knowledge of each mental skill training technique in a variety of tasks throughout the course.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Explain three core psychological attributes (motivation, confidence, anxiety) that influence exercise participation and sport performance.

- Describe three core Mental Skills Training techniques (imagery and action observation, self-talk, goal-setting) that are frequently used in sport and exercise psychology.

- Explore the relationship between Mental Skills Training and exercise participation/sports performance through the demonstration of applied case studies and scientific research.

- Discuss the application of Mental Skills Training techniques to different populations, including elite and recreational athletes, and clinical groups.