Division of Sports & Exercise Psychology: Annual Review 2011

This has been a significant year for the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology.  The focus of the committee has been on increasing the visibility and profile of the Division, and I believe we have made progress on this as a result of several recent initiatives. 

The Greatest (Sport) Psychological Show on Earth - Public Engagement Grant

Former divisional chair Dr. David Lavallee has lead a DSEP Committee proposal for a BPS public engagement grant. The proposal was successful and the committee have subsequently written to members via the DSEP email list in early November 2011 inviting everyone to volunteer ideas and their service which could help contribute to the project. The DSEP conference is part of the BPS Annual Conference next year, which starts on 18 April 2011. This is 100 days before the start of the Olympics and the project aims to create an evidence-based resource of the psychological phenomena that will be seen in the Olympics and Paralympics by spectators. We aim to produce this as a web-page/app that the interested spectators could read/watch/listen-to in order to find out more about some of the psychological terms they will hear in commentary and the science behind these concepts. The resource would cover all aspects of sport, from grassroots to elite and would include an evidenced-based feature every day, for the 100 days. The 100 topics will include information on/for athletes, coaches, spectators, exercise participants, sports clubs, children, policy makers, media and other influencers (bloggers, think tanks). The end-result will be a sustainable 'toolbox' for sport psychology. At the time of writing this notice, a sub-committee is considering all the submissions (the deadline for submissions was December 2011) and making recommendations on what is to be included in the project.  

DSEP Committee

Over the last few months the DSEP Executive Committee has taken the opportunity to consolidate its structure and function and has also started to consider its succession plan.  To this end we have agreed specific roles for each member of the committee and with each role associated goals will be generated.  Past Chair David Lavallee is doing an excellent job as our conference organiser (more details below).  Ruth Lowry is the Division's first contact for media (which we expect will be exceptionally demanding over the next twelve months, for obvious reasons).  Mark Uphill has agreed to lead on our CPD activities and be our liaison with the BPS Learning Centre and Pete Coffee will be in charge of our web-based developments.  Jan Graydon continues as the Hon Sec., Sandy Wolfson as the Treasurer with Gavin Breslin (Exercise Psychology), Andrew Manley (Conference Sub Committee), Neil Weston (Sport Psychology), David Fletcher (Careers) and Sean Webster (PsyPAG) completing the Executive Committee.    

Annual Conference

With interest in sport and exercise psychology increasing rapidly with the run up to London 2012  the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology have been delighted to be asked to play a high profile role in the Society's 2012 Annual Conference. It will be particularly exciting to be part of the Annual Conference in London in the midst of the Olympic year. We have a fantastic line-up of Keynote and Invited Speakers, including Professor Dan Gould, Professor Sandy Gordon, Dr John Kremer, Professor Nanette Mutrie, Professor Ken Fox and Dr Mark Bawden (lead Sport Psychologist for the English Institute of Sport). 

CPD

The DSEP has been working with the BPS Learning Centre to develop workshops for 2012 which will increased in depth and scope for 2013 (details to be found on the DSEP website). 

Awards 

The Distinguished Contribution Award will be presented to Professor Lew Hardy.

Other Awards for 2011 have included:

• The PhD Prize to Dr Sarah Williams (University of Birmingham) for her thesis 'Athlete Imagery, Ability and Effective Imagery Use (Director of Studies - Dr. Jennifer Cumming).
• HTA Whiting Undergraduate Prize to Daniel Brown (Bath University)

Journal

Sport & Exercise Psychology Review (SEPR), edited by Dr Iain Greenlees, continues to attract high-quality publications.

I would especially like to thank the DSEP committee and the BPS staff for their support of the division over this past year.

Ian Maynard, Chair

• Annual Review 2011
• More about the work of the Division of Sports & Exercise Psychology