Expert Opinions

Times are changing with tennis players on tour now having as part of their entourage, a coach that works on their mindsets. One might hear the words mindset coaching, mental coaching, sport psychology but with many having little understanding as to what the role entails. Often practitioner approaches will vary depending on their working philosophy. However, there is a perception that mental coaching is synonymous with sport psychology when this is not necessarily the case. I

“Mindfulness practice has grown exponentially in more recent times out of two schools of thought: Eastern Bhuddist meditative practice which has been popularised by Kabat-Zinn and colleagues (Kabat-Zinn, 2003), and a Western approach developed by Langer and colleagues (Langer, 1989). Adaptations of both Eastern and Western practices have been utilised by sport psychology practitioners as an alternative to psychological skills training. There have been some practices that comb