History
The academics of sports psychology began in 1898 with Norman Triplett, a professor of psychology at Indiana University and a bicycling enthusiast. Triplett noted that cyclists performed better when racing in groups or pairs than when they bicycled the course alone. Moreover, after collecting and analyzing sufficient data, he concluded that cyclists performed at a higher level when they were being observed and evaluated by others. This study marked the birth of sports psychology.
Twenty years later, Coleman Roberts Griffith, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, studied the personalities of baseball and football players. Based on his findings, in 1923 he offered the first college course in sports psychology. In 1925 he established the first sports-psychology research laboratory in the United States. Griffith also wrote seminal textbooks on the subject, including Psychology of Coaching (1926) and Psychology and Athletics (1928).
Thirty years passed before further research was conducted in sports psychology, in large part because many academic psychologists felt that the topic was unworthy of scientific attention. During the 1960s as American sports were becoming tremendously popular, the subject resurfaced. Professional leagues and the Olympic Games had become big business. Exposure on mass media turned sports heroes into celebrities and role models as never before. Thus sports organizations began to view their athletes as valuable assets. They recognized that psychologists could help improve their players' concentration and other mental abilities. Sports psychology emerged as a respected profession. Then as today, sports psychologists worked alongside trainers, physicians, and coaches to optimize athletic performance.
Eventually, leading sports psychologists drew up standards for their profession. In 1986 the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (now the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, or AASP) was formed. The AASP continues to certify sports psychologists, sponsor international conferences, and publish scientific research.
