Sport Psychology

Numerous publications, both domestic and international, have been written about psychological preparation and its importance. However, emphasis is still predominantly placed on physical, forceful, technical, and tactical preparation, with the athlete's personality and mental training often neglected. Typically, a sports psychologist is only sought after when an athlete unexpectedly fails, and no errors are found in their physical, technical, or tactical preparation. Suddenly, the mind becomes the factor responsible for the failure and is recognized as the most crucial aspect—yet it had previously been overlooked. When elite athletes have similar levels of physical preparation and utilize comparable training methods, it becomes ideal to seek an advantage over the competition through mental preparation (a form of permissible "psychological doping").

There are certain opportunities in the use of psychological science, especially when high levels of athlete performance increase the intensity of competition, leading to psychological stress. The awareness of the importance of psychology in sports preparation is further underscored by instances of performance failures, excessive mental strain, breakdowns without physical causes, and frequent neurotic difficulties in athletes. In advanced training systems, psychology is expected to assist in enhancing athletic performance during training and to influence the athlete's psychological resilience during competitions, allowing them to fully unleash their trained capacity.

The purpose of mental preparation, therefore, is to awaken the strengths and abilities that can help an athlete handle unforeseen stressful situations during training and competitions. This is why it is essential to introduce new methods, forms, and tools into training.

One of the many factors that can help a coach is various forms of mental exercises, which not only aid in developing the athlete's personality but can also serve as a form of active rest. In some ways, every mental exercise is a miniature model of a competition. Participation in these exercises gives athletes invaluable experience, relaxation, spontaneity, and allows them to experience the joy of creative effort. Mental exercises are typically aimed at becoming aware of hidden psychological phenomena and managing unconscious manifestations of the human psyche. Special attention is given to focus and self-control.

Before a competition, an athlete can fall into a psychological trap by constantly thinking about the event. These thoughts prevent relaxation and focus. The athlete then tries to distract themselves or suppress these thoughts, but this often leads to the opposite effect—the thoughts of responsibility become even more intrusive. The mind spirals out of control, and instead of acknowledging their anxiety and taking the first step towards overcoming it, the athlete wastes energy on an unclear internal battle. However, when they manage to understand this mechanism and find a solution to this paradox, they are on the right path to victory. Inattention during competitions cannot be corrected. Crucial competitions do not forgive distractions, so one of the goals of mental preparation is to develop the ability to concentrate—to focus attention on a specific object or task for as long as needed.

These relaxation mental exercises have a single goal: to help athletes in mentally demanding situations achieve a sense of inner harmony, balance, and rid them of negative states, particularly anxiety, mental discord, and fatigue.

However, relaxation is not always the most appropriate psychological intervention to optimize the pre-competition state. In some cases, the opposite is required—mobilization, raising the body's energy readiness for performance rather than relaxing. Therefore, it is crucial in long-term collaboration with the athlete to teach them simple ways to measure the current levels of individual components of their pre-competition mental state and then choose the most suitable method of regulation and optimization to ensure they are mentally tuned to perform at their best.

In many developed countries, conditions for engaging in elite sports are relatively good. New insights into techniques and training methods are quickly disseminated, allowing athletes to use all modern tools for technical, forceful and tactical preparation. Internationally, this leads to a high level of performance parity among the elite, where few major competitions have a clear favorite, and many athletes are vying for top spots. The awareness of this parity, where an athlete can be first or even tenth, creates psychological pressure stemming from the uncertainty of expectations. Among athletes with equal potential for high performance, only those who can optimally tune and manage their current mental state will be able to fully realize their performance capacity at the right moment (achieving their personal best when it matters).

Each sports psychologist has their own unique methods and approaches, which they typically keep private for their clients. However, many principles of wisdom and self-control have long been written down. The challenge lies in finding the right individual combination in the athlete's personality mosaic. There are no clear instructions or lists of tools that can be universally applied to every individual at the peak of their career. The role of a sports psychologist should be to guide athletes to a point where they no longer need a psychologist, as they become their own best mental coach. This fulfills the saying, "Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day; teach him to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime."

I offer my clients modern psychological counseling aimed at improving sports performance. My approach brings innovation, emphasizing the latest scientific knowledge in performance psychology and neuroscience. I don't offer magic or promise miraculous universal solutions. I focus on efficiency—if you are willing to work on yourself, I will help you make your efforts lead to long-term positive changes. My practice is based on three main principles:

Principle of Efficiency

I emphasize the usefulness and meaningfulness of my work. Whether it's a consultation, workshop, or long-term psychological preparation, it must always bring value to you. Efficient work is key to this goal.

Principle of Innovation

I work with the latest scientific insights, bringing my own know-how, creativity, and analytical thinking. I avoid clichés—you'll never hear me say, "Just think positively." That's not my vision of modern sports psychology.

Principle of Positivity

I'm an optimist. I rely on effort, determination, and perseverance. There's always a way to improve. Having dedicated my life to various forms of sports, I believe I understand it and look at the world through a competitive lens. I am someone who will never let you give up.

For my clients, I offer the following forms of collaboration:

PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELLING

Standard personal or online consultations focused on improving your performance.

The content of these consultations is variable, but the key points often involve identifying psychological barriers preventing maximum performance, strengthening key mental skills, and pushing psychological abilities beyond previous limits.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TEAMWORK

If you're looking to improve team performance, we will work together to create a "culture of peak performance" that permeates the entire team. This comprehensive approach combines group and individual consultations.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WORK WITH TEAMS

If you want to work on improving your team's performance, we will collaboratively create a "culture of peak performance" that permeates the entire team. This is a comprehensive approach based on a combination of group and individual consultations. I offer, among other things, various short-term and intensive programs or diagnostics of group dynamics (special techniques of applied sociometry, diagnostics of interpersonal relationships, relationship and opinion preferences, etc.). Following this, I primarily offer long-term collaboration in optimizing interpersonal relationships, enhancing their effectiveness, preventing and resolving conflicts, diagnosing latent tension, and eliminating it, among other things.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FIELD COACHING

I accompany my clients throughout their entire sports preparation, attending any number of training sessions, both conditioning and technical or tactical; I participate in selected competitions, both national and international—all with the goal of monitoring the nature of the activity itself, the specifics of the sport discipline, and all possible influences stemming from individual peculiarities and their reactions to situational changes, etc. At the appropriate time, I begin to collect data—information about performance (objective and subjective performance parameters), information about components of the psychological state, and their comparisons; then we determine optimal ranges for individual parameters and choose suitable regulatory procedures, which we teach athletes to manage so that they can use them independently. At a certain point in our collaboration, the athlete becomes relatively independent of the psychologist and is able to positively influence and tune the pre-start states—performing at the level of the personal maximum (or higher). The service includes not only psychological preparation during the season and participation in selected competitions but also participation in intensive training camps, online consultations, etc.

PERSONAL PSYCHODIAGNOSTICS

Personal psychodiagnostics (specifically designed testing battery) is part of collaboration with each athlete, for many reasons—the type of temperament, for example, determines the effectiveness and choice of the most suitable training means and overall training regime; some personality traits condition and co-determine the choice of regulatory mechanisms, etc. We conduct psychodiagnostics always at the beginning of our collaboration (entry diagnostics) and then approximately every year. The goal is not only to obtain information about the current situation but especially to monitor and analyze trends in gradual changes at the level of the athlete's personality to ensure not only the necessary personality prerequisites for maximizing their performance but also their healthy mental and somatic development.

WORKSHOPS AND COURSES

Workshops are intended for anyone interested in learning more about performance psychology and acquiring practical skills that can be utilized—whether in the position of an active athlete, coach, or parent. We prepare workshops on demand, tailored to agreed-upon topics from the field of sports psychology (e.g., on topics such as motivation, emotions, etc.)

Do you want to map the functioning of your club or sports team from a sports-psychological perspective? Would you like to make the most of the training methods used? Do you need to improve cooperation between the sports club and parents? Do you think it is necessary to alleviate the pressure exerted on young athletes by parents and coaches? Take a look at the services I can offer you:

• Sports-Psychological Audit - Mapping all external and internal influences and effects, creating an overall picture of the sports club or team from the perspective of sports-psychological issues, diagnosing risk factors and negative phenomena, analyzing causes, and proposing possible changes.
• Analysis of Training - Analyzing training methods used, measuring the effectiveness of activities, and searching for optimal solutions to increase effectiveness. Analyzing the performance profile of individuals and teams.
• Sports-Psychological Training for Coaches - Addressing the psychological aspects of the training process and ways to maximize sports performance through psychological feedback.
• Assistance in Improving Relationships - Assisting in enhancing relationships between the sports club and the parents of young athletes, whether through specific meetings/discussions or by creating a short-term to long-term action plan.
• Discussions/Seminars for Athletes, Parents, and Coaches - On current topics.
  
  

Everything depends on mutual expectations and possibilities. You can contact me HERE (link to contact form), and together we will find a form of collaboration that will be meaningful and effective for you .

REFERENCES FROM SPORTS AND SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

I began collecting my first experiences in the field of sports psychology as a student at Charles University (FTVS UK and FF UK Prague) in the late 1980s; from 1988 to 1992, after finishing my studies, I further completed an internal aspirant program and doctoral studies in the field of sports psychology at the Research Institute of Physical Education and the Department of Psychology at FTVS UK in Prague under the guidance of Ing. Mazurov, Doc. Rychtecký, Prof. Hošek, and Prof. Annet from the University of Warwick. During this time, I began collaborating with elite athletes in various sports disciplines. Together with Oleg Mazurov and a team of students (and later graduates of FTVS UK and doctoral candidates), we began working on a special methodology for increasing the efficiency of sports activities based on psychological feedback, which resulted in the creation of an original program for managing sports preparation based on psychological feedback. Since the early 1990s, I have successfully collaborated and continue to collaborate with numerous athletes both domestically and internationally, who, in cooperation with me and our team, have won more than 80 medals from European, World, and Olympic competitions.

From 1982 to 1988, I actively engaged in climbing and competitive climbing at a high level, completing numerous first ascents of high difficulty both domestically and internationally. I hold the title of Master of Sport and am a Class I coach and instructor in climbing. From 1989 to 1992, I worked as a Czech National Coach and psychologist for the National teams of Czechoslovakia, and in 1993 I further worked with the National Teams of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in sport climbing (both competition disciplines – difficulty and speed climbing).

In 1993, I started my own business in sports services with my company PROFI-LINE, s.r.o., and until 1999, I successfully operated a sports center with a hotel, restaurant, fitness center, gym, and especially a climbing wall in the premises of TJ Ruzyně (Prague 6). This climbing wall had excellent European parameters at the time of its establishment (height 12.9m, total climbing wall area 1,125 m², overhangs up to 7.6m, climbing difficulty from grade II to grade VIIIc); during the 6 years of operation, we organized 12 national championships in senior, junior, and youth categories, 6 international Bohemia Cup competitions with the participation of top competitors from the then European and world elite (Francois Legrand, Suzi Good, Jevgenij Krivošejcev, .........), 1 European Cup competition, and a European Championship, among others. Our fitness center with a gym and climbing wall was regularly used for conditioning camps by national teams in competitive climbing (both our own and foreign teams from Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, etc.), as well as by national teams from other sports disciplines - bodybuilders, ski jumpers, parachutists, athletes, trampoline jumpers, national teams in sports aerobics, sport shooters (pistol disciplines and long guns), aerial acrobats, and many others.

Since the end of 1999, and especially since mid-2000, I have significantly reduced my collaboration with athletes for work reasons—my position as HR director in the entire MEF Holding group (1999-2004), and from mid-2002 onwards, my enormous workload, where I worked both as Group HR Director within the holding and as HR manager in the TV NOVA group (part of MEF Holding) took up more and more of my time outside regular working hours. Therefore, I gradually reduced my collaboration with athletes, until in the years 2003-2011, I focused solely on Human Resources.

However, since 2012, I have returned to sports psychology again. The experiences from business and from the environment of middle, higher, and top management in Czech and foreign companies and corporations are extremely beneficial for the service I provide to collaborating athletes (and vice versa).

Currently, I am actively collaborating with several promising athletes (a fencer - future Olympian, a sport shooter - vice world champion in pistol disciplines, a tennis player - currently around 150th in the ATP rankings, basketball players etc.).

If you are interested in collaboration, you can contact me HERE.