Sports psychology

[adondepaco]

Hello,

I came to this forum to see if anyone can provide assistance with the situation I am in. I am a 2014 graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Biological Sciences. I graduated with a GPA of 2.94 and a regretfully say I have no research experience, but I have shadowed an orthopedic surgeon in a couple of real life surgeries and helped him with his daily post-surgery patients. I also plan on taking the GRE in the coming months but it is not set in stone yet.

To give a little background of my situation, my father was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma right when I graduated. I had to help him for the next year with trips to chemo treatments and other appointments. I bring this up because the time I had off and the time I took to take the MCAT the last couple of months has helped me see that being a medical doctor is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. While studying for the MCAT, I needed to learn certain topics about psychology and in one passage it talked about sports psychology and it grabbed my attention right away. That is where I decided to do more research and I came across a sports psychology website. I remember one of my undergrad psych professors said that many people that study in the field of psychology study psychology because they want to understand their families and that, at least to me, reigns true. What has been one constant for me is my love of sports! I love football and soccer most of all and being able to put that together with psychology with be amazing. The idea of helping an athlete perform better by recognizing tendencies and implementing better mental strategies really excites me.

The situation now lies with what I do next. I have no idea which path to choose or which would be the best way to go about my situation. Should I go back to school and get a 2nd degree in psychology? Should I go to school but as a non-matriculated student? Should I just apply to psychology research fields to gain experience? Or am I missing an obvious path to go down? I know it won't be easy, but I will hard my butt off once I have a clear understanding what my path will end up being. Any help and opinions would be greatly appreciated! If you made it to this point, thanks for taking the time to read!

-adondepaco

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[Chalupacabra]

I went the non-matriculated route and took the equivalent of a minor (15 courses) before applying to grad programs. While it won't change the GPA attached to your degree, you can show an upward trend, which would likely help with the lower UGPA. I would recommend taking part time classes as a non-matriculated student and volunteering at a lab to get research experience (or getting a paid position if you can, but those are harder to come by).

I would also recommend doing more research about sports psychology as a career. Obviously n=1 here, but I had a very hardworking and intelligent cohortmate who was re-specializing because they were having an extremely difficult time finding work with a degree in sports psychology. I'd be curious to see the employment outcome data, but I believe I've seen other people here allude to the fact that it's a fairly difficult field to get into. You could always look at finding ways to incorporate sports related topics into more traditional psychology research.

 

[WisNeuro]

Yeah, sports psychology is an extremely niche field, with very limited job opportunities. I'd be thinking about clinical psych with some research areas that would relate to it, definitely want some backups. That GPA will hold you back from most reputable doctoral programs. If you're dead set on psych, a master's may be the way to go to get some research opportunities and to prove you can handle graduate level coursework.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I could be wrong, but it might also be more beneficial to obtain a degree in clinical/counseling psychology with a specialization (based on the settings you work in and supervisors you work with during grad school, internship, and possibly postdoc) in sports psychology rather than to get a degree specifically in the latter. Added bonus would be that a clinical/counseling degree is likely to be more flexible.

I want to say that most of the "sports psychologists" I know or have heard of are in fact clinical/counseling psychologists who happen to work primarily with athletes and have developed that niche market. Although as you can imagine, anytime you're working with a small and select clientele who also (at least with professional athletes) may be spending lots of money, they're likely to be very discerning about the person they choose to work with. Having done research in the field and being a recognized expert in the area would be helpful, if not necessary.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I could be wrong, but it might also be more beneficial to obtain a degree in clinical/counseling psychology with a specialization (based on the settings you work in and supervisors you work with during grad school, internship, and possibly postdoc) in sports psychology rather than to get a degree specifically in the latter. Added bonus would be that a clinical/counseling degree is likely to be more flexible.

I want to say that most of the "sports psychologists" I know or have heard of are in fact clinical/counseling psychologists who happen to work primarily with athletes and have developed that niche market. Although as you can imagine, anytime you're working with a small and select clientele who also (at least with professional athletes) may be spending lots of money, they're likely to be very discerning about the person they choose to work with. Having done research in the field and being a recognized expert in the area would be helpful, if not necessary.

This is what I've also seen. The couple of sports psychologists I know are actually academics who conduct research in the field and have then developed consultation work with high school/college/pro athletes. It is a very niche area and since there are thousands of clinicians out there trying to do this work with a range of training backgrounds, competition is akin to being an actor in Hollywood (i.e. many try but few succeed).

Being able to get good foundational training during grad training, researching in a related area, and receiving mentorship working with this population will provide the best opportunity to provide the clinical services. The added challenge is the selectivity of the population and the over-supply for the (relatively) low demand….unless you want to work exclusively w. high school aged athletes.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I know a few sports psychologists at R1 institutions working for various athletic departments in different capacities, and as said before, they are clinical and counseling psychologists who have specialized and developed skills based on their clinical and research interests. A lot of the skills and techniques that they use for performance enhancement are foundationally built on the skills we use in clinical practice. I would recommend, if this is something you want, taking steps to develop yourself in a competitive manner for any clinical/counseling training graduate programs and THEN seeking out training sites that cater to your interest level. But it sounds like you have some stuff to do to get yourself competitive first, be that a masters degree, research lab work, etc.

 

[PsyDr]

The potential patient base is far too limited to make this full time work. There may be an outlier or two, but the vast majority have a clinical practice and consult on the side. Be extremely cautious of the "peak performance" fringe.

 

[adondepaco]

Thank you very much for your responses, I didn't expect so many so quickly! This website is great because all of you are extremely helpful unlike others than don't even respond. I'll go the non-matriculated route and earn a minor like Chalupacabra and also find research somewhere that will kick start my career in psychology. Also as many of you advise, I'll probably become a clinical/counseling psychologist and then slowly work with athletes to get into the sports section that I love. Thanks again for all the help and any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated and welcomed! I hope you all have a nice rest of the year!

 

[adondepaco]

I went the non-matriculated route and took the equivalent of a minor (15 courses) before applying to grad programs. While it won't change the GPA attached to your degree, you can show an upward trend, which would likely help with the lower UGPA. I would recommend taking part time classes as a non-matriculated student and volunteering at a lab to get research experience (or getting a paid position if you can, but those are harder to come by).

I would also recommend doing more research about sports psychology as a career. Obviously n=1 here, but I had a very hardworking and intelligent cohortmate who was re-specializing because they were having an extremely difficult time finding work with a degree in sports psychology. I'd be curious to see the employment outcome data, but I believe I've seen other people here allude to the fact that it's a fairly difficult field to get into. You could always look at finding ways to incorporate sports related topics into more traditional psychology research.

I just wanted ask if you knew of a website of some kind that listed the specific colleges that allow for non-matriculated students? Because I've search for schools around my area to see if they allow that, but some don't allow students to take classes without it having go toward a major. Lastly, I wanted to ask you if you can provide me the list of classes that you took as a non-matriculated student so I can get a feel for what classes I should be taking. If not its okay, you already helped me a lot! Thanks again and I hope to hear from you soon!

 

[Chalupacabra]

I just wanted ask if you knew of a website of some kind that listed the specific colleges that allow for non-matriculated students? Because I've search for schools around my area to see if they allow that, but some don't allow students to take classes without it having go toward a major. Lastly, I wanted to ask you if you can provide me the list of classes that you took as a non-matriculated student so I can get a feel for what classes I should be taking. If not its okay, you already helped me a lot! Thanks again and I hope to hear from you soon!

I had no psychology experience, so I took Psych 1 & 2, Abnormal Psychology, Lifespan Development and a special education class (I was applying to school psychology programs, hence the last on). Most people would probably recommended subbing stats for one of those last two. As for non-matriculated courses, I found the easiest and most cost effective way was through my local community colleges. I actually took classes at three different comm colleges - one in my town and two online - throughout the course of the time when I was working full time and going to school part time.

 

[Aestheticism]

Also some options to think about:
• Bachelor and Masters in Sports Medicine (Since you have a bachelors in Biological Sciences, the masters program requirements should be kind of met),
• 2nd Bachelor's in Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy then Masters in Sports Psychology ,
• or the options like the others said above.