Psychological Testing for Athletes
Are you an athlete, whether in college, professionally, or even in competitive adult sports leagues, and wondering how you can best achieve peak performance and “flow” more frequently? Do you want to jump-start your motivation and enjoyment of your sport? Psychological testing for athletes can uncover the pathways to this and clarify the challenges and roadblocks ahead so you can avoid them or minimize their impact.
Sports Psychological Testing Benefits
Psychological testing for athletes can lead to powerful insights and help with decision-making.
Improve Confidence
Reduce anxiety and increase confidence, Learn techniques to visualize and manifest success. The goal is to have these improvements carry over into other areas of your life such as school and work.
Maintain Your Drive
Maintain your motivation, drive, and joy over time, and reduce the duration of plateaus. This will include reducing the time you spend in any ruts, and how to take care of yourself between contests.
Peak Performance
Increase the chances that you will achieve peak performance and flow. Understand factors that are most important in replicating your best performances, and how to overcome challenges.
Spread the Benefits
With sports psychological testing you’ll be able to make sure that the benefits of being an athlete spread to other areas of your life, including school, work, family, and your social life.
Sports Psychological Testing Instruments
Personality Testing
General personality testing: What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to managing stress, maintaining motivation, handling anxiety, and dealing with challenges? These tests provide a broad base that will help us decide what performance and add-on tests to choose.
Performance Testing
Performance testing: Specific to sports, what has led to peak performance and slumps, what coping strategies do you use, and what is your thought process during your event? These tests describe what drives you, makes you anxious, and gives you confidence.
Specific Add-Ons
Specific add-ons: Once we have the reults of the testing above, we’ll know what tests to add on. Do we need more information about where your anxiety comes from, how you can overcome stress, or what your thought patterns are before and during your event?
Psychological Testing for Athletes Overview
We offer psychological testing grounded in the basic tenets of sports and performance psychology. We help athletes improve their performance and success on and off the fields of play.
Psychological testing for athletes can play a powerful and effective role in optimizing performance. The assessments can provide valuable insights into an athlete’s psychological characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in their mental approach.
Athletic Psych Testing Process
Athletic psychological testing often begins with a personality assessment, which examines personality traits and behavioral tendencies that may impact performance. By understanding an athlete’s personality profile, coaches and sports psychologists can tailor training programs and communication strategies to suit the individual better.
After the general Personality evaluation is complete, we assess relevant mental skills and performance-related variables. These tests evaluate psychological factors such as motivation, self-confidence, focus, concentration, and stress management. They help identify areas where athletes may need additional support or training to enhance their mental toughness and resilience.
The third pillar of sports psychological testing involves measuring an athlete’s cognitive abilities, such as decision-making, reaction time, and attention span. These tests can provide valuable information about their cognitive strengths and weaknesses, aiding in developing targeted interventions to optimize performance.
The Australian Psychological Society has an excellent article about Psychological Testing for Sports.
The Goal of Psychological Testing for Athletes
The goal of sports Autism Spectrum Disorder is to maximise peak performance and “flow”, while also ensuring that the result is improve success, enjoyment, and motivation. We hope to not only help the athlete improve but also design strategies to focus on well-being and mental health. Sports can place significant psychological demands on athletes, and it’s crucial to monitor and address any signs of mental distress so that athletes can maintain a balanced and healthy approach to their sport, optimizing their performance and overall satisfaction.
Sports Psychological Testing Summary
In summary, our psychological testing for athletes is a valuable tool to gain insight into an athlete’s personality, mental skills, and psychological well-being. By understanding these factors, coaches, trainers, and sports psychologists can tailor training programs, develop targeted interventions, and provide appropriate support to optimize an athlete’s performance and overall well-being. Psychological testing for athletes plays a vital role in helping the athlete understand her or himself and carry that learning into other important aspects of their lives.
Sports Psychological Testing Example
Kayla is an athlete who plays lacrosse in college and has done quite well, but she wants to learn more about how to improve her focus, feel “in the zone” more often, and reduce anxiety. Kayla has a sports psychology therapist who recommended athletic psychological testing because she felt it would help Kayla and could guide their work together.
We got to know Kayla and realized she is quite motivated, intelligent, and goal-oriented. She does not suffer from significant anxiety, but at times when there is pressure, she does get stressed and may not perform at her peak. On the other hand, when she is in the flow of the game and fully focused, she plays extremely well. Kayla’s college coach is very enthusiastic about sports psychological testing for Kayla because she believes it could help her play up to her potential more often.
Sports Psychological Testing Battery
With Kayla’s input, we decided on four tests: The PAI to measure all aspects of her personality, a detailed anxiety measure to dig into the specific triggers that make her anxious, the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS), which measures athletes’ use of psychological skills in competition and at practice, and the Elite Athlete Self-Description Questionnaire (EASDQ) to measure many aspects of her mental competence and performance.
Kayla’s testing includes one session where we get to know her and do the TOPS and EASDQ with her virtually so she can ask questions along the way. She then does the PAI and anxiety screening on her own. When we get the results, we realize we want a little more information from Kayla about specific situations she encounters. We have a quick follow-up session to get that clarity and formalize our conclusions.
Psychological Testing for Athletes Results
Through Kayla’s testing, four conclusions are reached:
- Kayla does not necessarily experience anxiety when the pressure is on or after she makes a mistake. She’s actually quite resilient during those times. Instead, she experienced what we call positive attribution anxiety, meaning that she gets anxious when a coach or teammate gives her positive feedback, as she feels extra pressure to live up to their new expectations.
- Kayla is most likely to experience athletic flow under three circumstances: when she has an intense, almost game-intensity-like warm-up when she takes a leadership role and is particularly communicative, and when she has less outside stress. The latter finding is confirmed by some of the results of her PAI.
- Kayla’s TOPS revealed that she has excellent focus in general, but she would benefit from attention control and self-talk techniques. It also clarified the times when she is most likely to experience “automaticity,” which refers to feeling like she can compete with little effort.
- Finally, her EASDQ helped us weave her results together, showing how her skill and fitness level affect and are affected by the psychological aspects of her sports.
We met with Kayla, reviewed the results, and answered her questions. We used specific examples to illustrate how she might use the results. With her permission, we sent her coach a shorter version of the report. We also planned to meet again halfway through the upcoming season to go over what she took from the testing and see whether there were additional steps she could take.
Psychological Testing for Athletes FAQ
Common questions about Sports Psychological Testing
You can also contact us or schedule a consultation to get more information.
How Long Does Psychological Testing for Athletes Take?
Psychological testing for athletes usually involves two testing sessions of 60-90 minutes each. We will also have a one-hour feedback session after the results are in. The first session is usually longer because it includes an intake and gathering history.
How Specific are the Results of Sports Psych Testing?
The report you will receive will contain highly specific and individualized suggestions to improve your performance, achieve flow more often, and overcome barriers. The results likely will stretch beyond sports.
When Will I Get the Report and Findings
We will send a draft psychological testing report around 2-3 weeks from the last testing date for you to review. Once you have confirmed that it meets your expectations and answered your questions, a final report will come around a week later.
Can Sports Testing be Combined with other Tests?
Yes, we often do psychological testing for athletes in combination with other testing assessments such as Personality evaluation and Intelligence Quotient (IQ). We may suggest a good combination as we get to know you and understand your goals.
Contact Us About Psychological Testing for Athletes!
We’d be happy to talk to you more about how sports psychological testing can benefit you.