Ch 9Psychology and Sports — Class 12 Physical Education, concept-first.

Why would a talented young cricketer, footballer or athlete walk away from the game after just one or two disappointing seasons — even when the skill is clearly there? News reports on Indian sport hav…

When we try to explain why some sportspeople succeed against all odds, we reach for words like determined, persistent, courageous, dynamic and robust.

A personality type is a psychological classification of different kinds of people. Types are different from traits: a type sorts people into distinct categories, while traits are characteristics that…

Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, was for five years a close follower of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.

Another important trait approach is the Big Five Factor model, offered by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae.

Return for a moment to the question of drop-outs. Why do some athletes keep playing through pain, hard training, injury and academic pressure, while other equally talented players stop after a few ear…

Intrinsic Motivation. The word intrinsic comes from the French intrinseque, meaning inward. Intrinsic (internal) motivation drives a person from within to naturally pursue actions that bring fun, plea…

Motivation is the process by which a learner's inner energies and needs are directed towards goals in the environment — the driving force that increases the desire to perform better.

Motivation is understood as the guiding force that initiates, guides and maintains the behaviour needed for sport participation and performance — yet keeping athletes motivated remains a genuinely cha…

“If exercise could be packed into a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation.” — Dr Robert Butler, former Director, National Institute on Aging.

Reasons to exercise (or exercise determinants) point to the motives that lead a person to take up and adopt exercise as part of their lifestyle.

Regular exercise brings a wide range of benefits — physical, mental, social and psychological. The main benefits are:

Although most people understand the importance of physical activity, many never begin exercising, and many who do start soon drop out.

In everyday language the word aggression sounds purely negative, but in the world of sport and sport psychology it has a precise, technical meaning.

Building on Husman and Silva's (1984) framework, the CBSE Class 12 Physical Education textbook identifies two main types of aggression in sport — hostile aggression and instrumental aggression.

Sports scientists around the world have long studied the unique psychological attributes of successful athletes and elite sportspersons, trying to understand the factors that let athletes perform at t…

Self-esteem generally refers to a person's evaluation of, or attitude toward, himself or herself. It is centred on a belief in the self, respect for the self, and confidence in the self.

Mental imagery is a psychological skill used widely in sport to enhance the performance of many motor skills.

Every athlete, at some point, talks to themselves. Self-talk is defined as overt or covert personal dialogue in which the athlete interprets feelings, perceptions and convictions and gives himself ins…

Goal setting is a mental training technique used to increase a person's commitment towards achieving a specific standard of proficiency on a task within a specified time.

- Personality is the relatively stable and unique way an individual responds to others and situations. It is studied through type and trait approaches.