Previous research demonstrates that sport psychology consultants use humor to facilitate working alliances, reinforce client knowledge, and create healthy learning environments. The current study sought to gain further insights into consultants’ reflections on the role of humor, humor styles, purposes for humor, and experiences of humor use. Forty-eight sport psychology consultants completed an online survey comprising open-ended questions. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: “It’s the way I tell ’em,” “It’s the way I don’t tell ’em,” “This is why I tell ’em,” and learning to use humor in consultancy. Participants used 2 styles of humor (deadpan and self-deprecating), each with the goal of facilitating the working alliance. Although not all participants used humor during consultancy, its incorporation might render the working alliance and real relationship as resources in ways (e.g., a “barometer” that predicts consultancy outcomes) previously not considered in applied sport psychology.

The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of professional cricketers who had encountered a career-ending non-musculoskeletal injury. Three male cricketers each with over nine years of playing experience in professional cricket representing England and Wales participated in retrospective in-depth semi-structured interviews. The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed that at the time of the injury, the participants were at the "final stretch" of their professional sporting careers and that despite a range of unpleasant reactions to injury, all participants experienced a healthy career transition out of sport. To best prepare athletes for a life outside of sport, ensuring athletes have sufficient plans in motion early on in their careers can reduce external and internal stressors, which if not addressed, can increase sport injury risk and have a negative effect on athletes' reactions post-injury.

“Creative efforts,” such as the use of humor, have been found to be beneficial to the nurse–patient, teacher–student, and psychologist–patient alliance. Potentially humor use might benefit the working alliance in applied sport psychology, yet to date there is limited research. Sport psychology consultants (n = 55) completed an online survey that explored humor use within their practice. Statistical analyses revealed that most participants used humor for adaptive purposes such as to facilitate the working alliance, reinforce knowledge, and create healthy learning environments. Therefore, possible client change is likely to be facilitated by practitioners’ personal qualities and skills such as humor use and humor style. Recommendations are made for sport psychology practitioners in relation to humor use and further research. Increasing recognition has been given to the importance of the professional relationship between the client and practitioner within sport psychology consultancy as a means of facilitating client change. The present study demonstrated that use of humor by practitioners is an important part of enhancing the professional relationship and therefore potentially client change.Lay Summary: Increasing recognition has been given to the importance of the professional relationship between the client and practitioner within sport psychology consultancy as a means of facilitating client change. The present study demonstrated that use of humor by practitioners is an important part of enhancing the professional relationship, and therefore potentially client change.

This study investigated the effect of long-term training on the development of mental toughness (MT). Thirty recreationally active participants (age: 33.53±6.83years; height: 177.41±7.11cm; weight: 78.40±11.94kg; maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max): 47.00±6.48 ml.kg-1.min-1) undertook 6-months of training prior to completing an iron-distance triathlon. Mental toughness questionnaires (MTQ48) were completed at 0,2,4,6 months of training and 1-month post-race. Repeated measures ANOVAs were performed for each MTQ48 variable with consideration to faster v slower finishers. No significant differences (p>0.05) were found between fast and slow finishers on any of the MT criteria. There was an effect for time with overall mental toughness (OMT) improving from baseline-post race (cohens d = 0.52; p<0.01) and month 2-post race (d = 0.39; p<0.01), commitment improving from baseline-post race (d = 0.60; p<0.05) and confidence increasing from month 2 post-race (d = 0.39; p<0.05). MT was not associated with race time. The findings indicate that longitudinal training culminating with competitive experience may favourably impact MT.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the role of swimming on Paralympic athletes' perceptions of self and identity development. Method: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken. During semi-structured interviews, five Paralympic swimmers (aged 20-24 years) were asked questions about their swimming career, perceptions of self, integration, and impairment. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Results: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis yielded three superordinate themes: (a) "One of the crowd"; none of the participants viewed themselves as disabled, nor as supercrips; these perceptions stemmed from family-, school- ,and swimming-related experiences, (b) "Becoming me"; participation in swimming facilitated self- and social-acceptance, and identity development, and c) "A badge of honor"; swimming presented opportunity to present and reinforce a positive identity. Conclusions: Swimming experiences enabled the participants to enhance personal and social identities, integrate through pro-social mechanisms, and to develop a career path following retirement from competition.

Due to the extreme workloads encountered in ironman training and performance, mental toughness (MT) appears to be an important factor associated with performance. However, to the authors’ knowledge no research has yet investigated the direct association of MT with ironman race times. PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of mental toughness on race times in novice ironman triathletes. METHODS: 30 recreationally active participants (Age: 33.53±6.83years; Height: 177.41±7.11cm; Weight: 78.40±11.94kg and Maximal Oxygen Uptake (VO2max): 47.00±6.48ml/kg/min) undertook an 8 month training period prior to completing an iron distance triathlon. Mental toughness questionnaires (MTQ48) were completed by all participants at the end of training for assessment of overall mental toughness (OMT) and key sub-criteria (challenge (CHA), commitment (COM), control (CONT), confidence (CONF)). Data were stratified according to faster v slower finishers on an equal basis, with differences assessed via independent samples t-tests. Pearsons correlation coefficients were performed to assess relationships between MT and race time. Data presented as M±SD. RESULTS: Whilst OMT increased over the training period for the cohort (baseline: 5.88±1.61 v month 8: 6.36±1.92, P=0.03), no differences were observed at the end of training between faster v slower finishers respectively for: OMT (6.47±1.81 vs 6.27±2.22; P=0.79), CHA (6.27±1.87 vs 5.67±2.26; P=0.43), COM (6.53±2.07 vs 5.73±1.91; P=0.28), CONT (5.93±2.19 vs 5.87±1.81; P=0.93), life control (6.00±1.77 vs 5.93±2.12; P=0.93), emotional control (5.80±2.14 vs 5.47±1.60; P=0.63), CONF (5.87±2.20 vs 6.07±2.37; P=0.81), confidence in ability (5.93±2.09 vs 6.40±2.32; P=0.56) and interpersonal confidence (5.27±2.25 vs 5.20±1.97; P=0.93). There were no significant correlations between race times and MTQ48 variables (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Whilst OMT may be enhanced via the training process, MT does not appear to influence race performance of novice ironman triathletes. Further research is required to investigate the effect of mental toughness on performance in a more experienced sample of triathletes.

BACKGROUND:Research involving long-term follow-up of patients after successful anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) has shown that return-to-sport rates are not as good as would be expected despite many patients' having normal knee-function scores. The psychological component, specifically fear of reinjury, plays a critical role in determining patients' return to play and is frequently underestimated. Little is known about the recognition and intervention from the therapist's perspective. AIM:To gain a greater understanding of the views of sports rehabilitators and athletic rehabilitation therapists on recognition of fear of reinjury in clients after ACLR. METHOD AND DESIGN:A qualitative approach, consisting of semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of 8 participants, sports rehabilitators, or athletic rehabilitation therapists. This population has been largely unexamined in this context in previous research. MAIN FINDINGS:Thematic analysis yielded 2 main themes: communication and education. Participants discussed the importance of communication in the client-therapist relationship and how it is used in addressing misinformation and fear of reinjury. All participants used education in outlining the rehabilitation pathway and dealing with those providing social support around the client. Issues emerged relating to therapists' recognition of observable signs of fear of reinjury in the clinical setting. Overall, participants thought that fear of reinjury was not a barrier to return to play after ACLR. CONCLUSION:There is a need for more education of therapists on recognizing fear of reinjury and the appropriate use of psychological intervention skills as a method for dealing with this throughout the rehabilitation process.

The maturation processes of applied sport psychologists have received little research attention despite trainees and practitioners having often reported experiencing challenging circumstances when working with clients. Within clinical psychology literature the self-practice of cognitive techniques, alongside self-reflection, has been advocated as a means of addressing such circumstances, and as a significant source of experiential learning. The present study sought to identify the possible types of, and purposes for, self-practice among twelve UK-based sport psychology practitioners. Thematic analysis of semistructured interviews indicated all participants engaged in self-practice for reasons such as managing the self, enhancing understanding of intervention, and legitimising intervention. Some participants also described limitations to self-practice. Subsequently, three overriding themes emerged from analysis: a) the professional practice swamp, b) approaches to, and purposes for, self-practice, and, c) limitations of self-practice. It is concluded that self-practice may provide a means of better understanding self-as-person and self-as-practitioner, and the interplay between both, and is recommended as part of on-going practitioner maturation.

Stephen Pack, Judith Naseby, Elizabeth Scholefield, ‘It takes two: The experience of stress and associated impacts upon the coach-athlete relationship in elite athletics’, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the BPS Division Sport and Exercise Psychology, Manchester, UK, 16-17 December, 2013.

Paper presented at the BPS Qualitative Methods in Psychology Conference, 4-6 September 2013, Huddersfield, UK.