The level that an athlete performs on any given day depends on five main things, physical skills, and mental skills, level of technical skill, strategic awareness, and chance. "Chance" is all those variables that are not under the athlete's control, such as the weather and how good the opposition is. As there are always some uncontrollable things in sports, performance is left up to chance to some extent. To help an athlete get the "chance" aspect out of their mind some sports teams and athletes have chosen to hire a sports psychologist. A sports psychologist will help an athlete focus more on the aspects of the game that are under their control. I was supposed to write a paper on the effectiveness of sports psychology but since there is no proven information or statistics I will write on the ways that sports psychologist's help an athlete return from injury.
             One way that sports psychologist's help athletes return from injury is to use visualization. Otherwise know as imagery, visualization works by an athlete visualizing him or herself scoring the goal, hitting the hole-in-one, or scoring that touchdown. Visualizing also helps to control and strengthen the nerve pathways inside the brain so that when that big you will have complete control over your feelings and your reactions at such a presser-filled time. An athlete doesn't have to be injured to practice visualization. It can be used when you are physically tired, or do not want to tire yourself before a big game, When weather is too bad to train or when you do not have the time to practice a particular skill physically. Visualization will only work if the athlete presents a clear image in the mind and if the athlete is a willing participant. When visualizing one should use all of the body's senses. Touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight should be used to present a realistic image. For example if a baseball player is returning from injury and i...