Time: 14:15 – 14:35
Session: Academic Talk

Sources of Psychological Skills Training in Sport: A Coach–Athlete Perspective

Speaker Profile

Iain Aberdeen is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Physical Education at the University of Sunderland, with over 20 years of coaching experience across multiple sports. His work focuses on performance psychology and the development of psychological skills within applied sporting environments.

He holds an MSc in Psychology and a PGCE in Higher Education and has completed the UK Sport High Performance Coach Programme and the UK Coaching Performance Foundation Programme. His experience across coaching, teaching, and research informs his work in understanding how psychological skills are developed in practice.

Overview

Psychological skills are widely recognised as essential for both performance and athlete development, yet relatively little is known about where and how these skills are learned in practice. This session presents findings from research exploring Psychological Skills Training (PST) from both coach and athlete perspectives.

The findings highlight a clear alignment: while coaches value psychological skills, they often face barriers such as limited time and inconsistent formal training, whereas athletes consistently identify their coach as their primary source of psychological skill development. The session will explore the implications of these findings, emphasising the central role of the coach and the need to better support coaches in delivering effective psychological skills training.