In a nutshell, what is sport psychology?
DC: Sport psychology, in its cleanest sense, is helping athletes deal with anything that interferes with their performance. But it’s not all negative. The positive side is when athletes are already doing well and they are looking to incorporate ideas and approaches into their training that might make them even better. HJ: How did you get interested in the field? DC: I was a high school physical education teacher and coach, and I loved everything about it. But eight years into it I figured out that what I was better at was player development. I was fascinated by kids who could do well one day and not the next. I wanted to know why people who train so hard couldn’t get it together on game day, or how come some kids can be confident in the face of all kinds of trouble and others can’t. That mental aspect of sports really fascinated me. When I found out that you could actually study this, I went after it. HJ: Who can benefit from meeting with you? DC: Any athlete can use mental training to
