Sports psychology remains a hot topic in equestrian sports, but many of the key principles continue to be absent among top coaches and their students. So how do we move this discipline forward and ensure everyone receives the mental training and skills they require to perform to their full potential? In this podcast episode, Dr. Inga Wolframm, professor 'Sustainable Equestrianism' at Van Hall Larenstein, University of Applied Sciences, discusses surrounding sports psychology and when/how it should be incorporated into a rider’s program. Inga provides examples of how small changes to a rider’s movement (for example, increased stiffness in muscles due to stress), can impact how the rider communicates with the horse, leading to a cascade of changes and negative effects. Common behavioral and performance issues in the competition ring can often be traced back to small changes in a rider’s equitation brought about by anxiety. Inga also discusses the three types of goals and how a rider should set goals to ensure they can be achieved and built upon. Conversely, Inga dives into why most athletes fail to achieve their goals and how this can create a negative feedback loop that makes success virtually impossible.
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Despite several decades of Sport for All policies, opportunities for sports participation are still unequally divided, with certain socially disadvantaged groups having less access to sports. To reduce this gap, structural efforts are needed. A question that arises is what role nonprofit sports clubs can fulfill in this matter. In this study, first, it is explored how nonprofit sports clubs perceive their role and responsibility towards socially disadvantaged groups and how they act on it. Second, it is investigated which factors predict the presence or absence of efforts from nonprofit sports clubs for lowering barriers. For this second question, we focus on people living in poverty. Data are based on a survey among 580 nonprofit sports clubs throughout Flanders (Belgium). The findings indicate that the human resources capacity of the club is not the main barrier. It is argued that local sports authorities and sports federations have an important part to play in supporting and encouraging sports clubs in terms of social inclusionary policies, for example by instilling awareness.
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Competent practice in sport psychology is of utmost importance for the professional status of the field, and hence proper assessment of competence for sport psychology practice is needed. We describe three cycles of action research to improve the assessment of competence in a sport psychology education program. The cycles were directed at (a) empowering supervisors in their assessing role, (b) improving the assessment checklist, and (c) investigating an alternative assessment method. Although challenges remain (e.g., improve the still low interrater reliability), the action research has contributed to an improved quality and higher acceptability of the assessment in the education program.
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