Boxing Confidence Boxing and mental health share a fascinating connection. You can burn nearly 800 calories for every hour you spend training at the boxing gym. The benefits reach way beyond the reach and influence of just physical fitness. A study in Frontiers in Psychology reveals that people who train in combat sports like boxing show lower stress levels and better emotional control. The participants also display higher levels of self-confidence and mental toughness. This

GAA Psychology Gaelic games hold a distinctive place in Irish life. Played across more than 2,000 clubs in all 32 counties[1] and generating annual revenue exceeding €100 million[1], the GAA is far more than a sporting organisation; it is a cultural institution woven into the fabric of communities throughout the island. Yet beneath this communal identity lies a demanding and often underappreciated reality for the athletes at its centre. Inter-county players dedicate upwards o

Getting better at running Runners seeking to improve their performance often assume that simply logging more miles will carry them forward. More miles might help, yet getting better at running means something richer and more considered than that; it means running faster, covering longer distances without the weight of fatigue, recovering more efficiently, and reducing the risk of injury that so often interrupts progress[1]. The encouraging reality is that most runners begin n

We are now in the decade of the 2020s and much has changed in the world of sport and sport psychology support for the masses. The number of qualified sport psychologists is growing and the number of people seeking the services of a sport psychologist is growing. With all this growth going on, what are we doing to ensure that the masses can access, use and benefit from sport psychology support? The greatest development recently is the proliferation of sport psychology services

Did you ever wonder about professionals and world-class athletes that have made it to the top of the game and wonder how they got there? Did you ever think it might have something to do with the size of the population in which they grew up? There is research which suggests that the size of the city where an athlete spends their developmental years can affect the chances of attaining elite level performance. Small to medium-sized communities (about 30,000 to 1,000,000) seem to

When we think about our habits in sport, we might feel that they are routine behaviours we do without thinking or paying much attention to what we are doing, but goals always seem so purposive. For example, if we were going to clean the kitchen, we might say that we are going to clean the kitchen for two hours and then have lunch. What if I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly every Saturday as a habit? Would I still consider it a goal? What if I were working on Saturdays for three

Did you ever notice yourself working hard to prove someone wrong and, by extension, prove yourself right? Did you ever wonder why you feel so motivated to do so? According to the self-completion theory (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982), when people experience a threat to something they value about themselves as a person (i.e., an aspect of their identity), they become highly motivated to show others that element of their identity. For example, if a football player did not perform

"My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces". Wilma Rudolph, American runner who, after contracting polio as a child, had to walk with orthopaedic support until she was 12, and then went on to win three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics (1940–1994) We all crave success now – we all want to win now. But success now is difficult to come by if we have not prepared properly to succeed, despite