How to Become a Sports Psychologist

If you’re passionate about sport and have a keen interest in human psychology, then you might want to consider a career as a sports psychologist. Sports psychologists help athletes and sports people to cope with the pressures and demands of elite sports. You will work with athletes at all stages of their career, often engaging with individuals when they are injured or reach low points in their profession.

The role can be extremely demanding, but it is also incredibly rewarding. Throughout the course of your day-to-day role, you can see the progress your clients make and help them to achieve their goals. Wondering if a sports psychology career is right for you? From the kind of sports psychologist salary you can expect, to where to find sports psychologist jobs, here’s everything you need to know about how to become a sports psychologist:

What is a Sports Psychologist?

Sports psychologists are specialist psychologists who work closely with athletes and sportsmen to ensure that their performance is heightened by their mentality. Your role may see you working with athletes at a professional level, or you could work within your local community supporting individuals from all backgrounds and at all levels. The primary focus of your role will be to assess and support the behaviours, mental processes and well-being of anyone involved in sport and exercise. This could mean working with individual athletes, sports teams, or wider sporting organisations. To succeed as a sports psychologist, you’ll need to be positive, patient, and motivated to reach your goals, even when faced with potentially stressful situations.

As a sports psychologist, you may work with both children and vulnerable adults, which means you will be required to secure advanced background checks before you can perform your role. Depending on the individuals that you work with, your position may see you work in a sports arena, at a fitness centre, at a health centre, or on a sports field. You may also work with your clients on a one-to-one basis within a conventional medical office environment. Because of this your working environment may require you to be outdoors some of the time, and as a result, a certain level of physical fitness may be required in order to successfully perform your role.

If you’re working within an education or healthcare setting then you can expect to work regular 9am-5pm working hours, but if you’re an independent practitioner working with specific athletes or specific sports then this could lead to more varied working hours. Expect evening and weekend hours to sometimes be required in order to fit in with training sessions and sports competitions.

Travel is likely to be a key element of your role, so you may need to hold a full driving licence. This will be particularly important if you’re working with sports professionals, because you may form part of a support team travelling with a team or athlete to competitions and tournaments. This may require you to travel locally, nationally, and internationally so holding a full passport would also be advantageous.

Personal Qualities of a Sports Psychologist

It should go without saying that an interest in both sport and human psychology is essential if you wish to pursue a career as a sports psychologist. But other personal qualities that you will need to be successful as a sports psychologist include:

• Good active listening skills and the ability to counsel others in a clear and straightforward manner, whilst adopting a non-judgemental approach.
• Strong knowledge of psychology and a belief in the importance and impact that psychological therapy can have on everyday life.
• Strong customer service skills. You should be approachable and confident in talking to individuals from all walks of life.
• The ability to understand what people want or need. You will be able to read their visual cues as well as the words that they say and will be able to understand their reactions.
• You will treat all your clients with empathy and respect, demonstrating sensitivity and understanding when they share their life experiences.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. You should be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas clearly to your clients, and you will also need to keep comprehensive written notes of all of your sessions with your clients.
• You should be able to remain calm in stressful situations, dealing with your clients with patience and understanding if they become angry or frustrated during their sessions.
• You should be outgoing and enjoy working with other people, as this is a largely people-facing role.
• You should be able to use both a computer and a handheld device, and all of the software packaged that they contain, with competence.

What a Sports Psychologist Does

One of the benefits of choosing a career as a sports psychologist is that your day-to-day role is incredibly varied. But throughout your working week you can expect to perform most of the following tasks:

• Work closely with athletes and sporting professionals. Using talking therapies to help those athletes and sports professionals successfully deal with their nerves, anxiety and motivation. Working with a sports psychologist can also help athletes to deal with their concentration levels and their self-confidence.
• Set up and assess activities that can be used to improve both individual and team performance in your clients.
• Work with athletes and sports professionals who have suffered from injury, helping them to deal with their mental health as they recover, and giving them motivation techniques to excel during the recovery process.
• Work with team coaches so that they can improve the ways that they communicate with their teams, offering psychological techniques that will enhance team motivation and performance.
• Develop fitness plans for your clients based on their unique fitness and career needs and goals.
• Work within the community to demonstrate both the mental and physical health benefits of regular exercise.
• Advocate for the huge importance sports and exercise can play in having robust mental health.
• Work in a wide variety of different settings to create relevant exercise programmes. As well as working within sports teams and sports environments, this could also see you working within professional workplaces, prisons, and psychiatric centres.

How Much Does a Sports Psychologist Earn?

The amount you could earn as a sports psychologist will depend on a variety of factors, including how much experience you have in the field and whether you choose to work for an employer or become self-employed. Starting salaries for newly qualified sports psychologists range from between £20,000 and £22,000. Once you have more experience you can expect to command a higher salary or between £27,000 and £37,000, and if you rise through the ranks to become a senior sports psychologist or work as a head of a department within a sports centre or university setting then you could earn in excess of £48,000 per annum.

If you work for a sports club, then you can expect your salary to be higher if you work for a professional club or a national governing body for a professional sport than you will if you work for an amateur sporting organisation. If you choose to work for yourself as a self-employed sports psychologist and are able to work with top professional athletes or sports persons in their field, then you can expect to charge a consultancy fee of up to £1,000 per day. This is the very top level of the sports psychologist earning potential.

Qualifications Needed for a Sports Psychologist

Sports psychologists are highly qualified health professionals, and so in order to become a sports psychologist, you will need to be educated at postgraduate level.

First, you’ll need to complete a degree in psychology accredited by The British Psychological Society (BPS). A BA degree in sports psychology would best equip you for your future career, but if you choose another sports-related degree that is not accredited by the BPS (such as a BA in sports science) then you can take an approved postgraduate conversion course to continue pursuing your sports psychology career goals. You’ll usually need 3 A levels or equivalent to be accepted onto an undergraduate degree course. Some universities will ask that one of these A levels is in a science subject, so you should check this with the university you want to attend before you apply.

Competition for places in the post graduate courses you need to complete in order to become a sports psychologist can be fierce, so you will need to achieve either a first-class or a 2:1 classification in your undergraduate degree, evidence of exemplary research skills and, where possible, examples of industry-specific work experience. The course you should apply for is a BPS accredited master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology. You will then need to undertake a structured supervised practise programme accredited by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Once this has been achieved, you’ll be able to register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a qualified sport or exercise psychologist.

There is no other route to becoming a sports psychologist. It is not possible to work towards this role via an apprenticeship or on-the-job training. You can’t work as a sports psychologist without registration, and you can’t be registered with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the British Association of Sport and Exercise (BASEs) without a degree.

Because it is such a big commitment to pursue this path, both in timescale and financial terms, you may want to undertake some sports-related short courses to ensure that this career is the right choice for you. These may also help to enhance your degree application, showcasing your commitment to pursuing your chosen career path and ensuring you stand out from the crowd. These courses include:

• • • • Sports psychology level 3
      • Sports massage level 3
      • Personal fitness level 3

On-the-Job Training

As has already been mentioned above, it is not possible to become a sports psychologist via an on-the-job training route. Because sports psychologists are recognised health and care professionals, you will need a post graduate degree qualification to work in this role. That doesn’t mean that on-the-job training won’t be important once you have qualified as a sports psychologist, however. Continued professional development (CPD) is incredibly important within the sports psychology sector.

Engaging in CPD allows sports psychologists to demonstrate their commitment to keeping up to date with new knowledge and developments within their sector. It also ensures that the techniques that you are using with your clients remain as safe and effective as possible. The importance of CPD cannot be understated.

Examples of continued professional development and on-the-job training opportunities that you may wish to undertake as a sports psychologist include:  regularly reading books and journals on developments within your area of expertise, contributing to journals and papers within the sector, working with a more experienced mentor who can help you to develop your sports psychology skills, being involved with a professional body that represents the interests of the sports psychology industry, and going on formal CPD courses aimed specifically for sports psychologists.

Professional Bodies

As already outlined above, you cannot operate as a sports psychologist in the UK unless you are registered with and accredited by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). You may also want to consider joining the British Psychological Society (BPS), which has a division tailored specifically for sport and exercise psychology. This division promotes the professional interests of sport and exercise psychologists in the UK and aims to support the development of psychology both as a profession and as a body of knowledge and skills

There are many benefits of joining a professional body that represents the interests of your industry. This is true no matter what stage of your career you’re at, with the BPS welcoming applications from student members. It is a great way to show your commitment to your chosen profession and to meet other people working within the sports psychology arena. You will also receive access to continued professional development opportunities, annual conferences and professional workshops, and a database full of resources. Accessing these resources could help to ensure your application stands out from the crowd when your post-graduate university application is being reviewed.