• The opening chapter explains the field of sport psychology, which also encompasses the related field of exercise psychology.

• Chapter 4 focuses on how coaches and athletes interpret and explain the causes of contest results, and how that plays an important role in future participation.

• Chapter 5 uncovers the underlying causes of an athlete's emotions just prior to the contest and what one can do about them.

• Chapter 9 discusses communication and counseling techniques as applied to sport psychology.

• To lend additional credence to the application of cited research studies, Chapter 12 includes portions of the author's conversations with many athletes. As these conversations show, ideas believed to be widely held “truths” in the coaching profession often are considered myths by athletes themselves.

• To further familiarize the reader with sport psychology literature, a brief explanation about how to read and interpret sport science research is presented in Appendix A.

Dr. Mark H. Anshel is a professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Safety at Middle Tennessee State University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in sport and exercise psychology, and graduate courses in research methods. His extensive experience as a practitioner makes him unique among highly published academics. Dr. Anshel combines his experience as a teacher and researcher with more than 20 years experience as a sport psychologist, counseling male and female athletes at the amateur, university, Olympic, and professional level.