Student Members
A Big New World: A sport psychology
placement student’s findings
George Bucknell
T
EN MONTHS AGO, I started my
diploma in professional studies (DPS)
placement year at Loughborough
University’s School of Sport, Exercise and
Health Sciences as a Sport Psychology Place-
ment Student. This is a reflection of my
journey leading up to my placement year,
what I have thought so far of it and how this
will influence my choices in finishing my
undergraduate studies.
Interest in sport
I have always been interested in sport. Most
boys are involved in sport, or have partici-
pated in their youth, and this is an important
part of childhood development (Fraser-
Thomas, Côté & Deakin, 2007). We play in
our youth to primarily have fun (Buona-
mano, Cei & Mussino, 1995), and our
engagement in sport tends to be for enjoy-
ment and because winning is an addictive
feeling (Seefeldt et al., 1992).
My personal sporting interests have
always been broad; I’ve played hockey and
rugby to decent levels at school and, since
watching the 2012 Olympic Games, taken up
indoor volleyball at university to National
League standard and beach volleyball. These
interests have usually been to facilitate
changes in my lifestyle. For example,
I started playing rugby when I was 12 in
order to play a sport that my friends were
interested in. Fortunately, I ended up rather
enjoying it and tried to excel it, much to the
disappointment of my mother who was
convinced that I would get injured. Right she
was, since I now need an operation to repair
my septum, three years after I stopped
playing on a regular basis. Regardless of the
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risks of playing competitive sport, we are
encouraged to participate in sport. Risk is
just a part of sport, whether it’s your shoul-
ders for fast spin bowlers, ankles for foot-
ballers or your entire body for contact sports
like rugby or American football. Sport gives
much more than it takes away and we have
come to idolise the best of their sports.
Recently, I watched a BBC documentary
called Olympic Journey: Born Winners. The
programme interviewed the likes of Greg
Rutherford (London 2012 Long-jump cham-
pion), Sir Clive Woodward (Rugby World
Cup 2003 winning coach) and Adam Peaty
(European Swimming Champion in 50m
Breaststroke and 100m Breaststroke). All
argued that possessing some natural talent
was important in getting into sport and
choosing it as a career, but that only those
who were aggressive enough to fight for their
goals would become champions within their
discipline.
Sport has become saturated into our
culture. I know of people who each weekend
will be glued to the screen watching their
football teams compete. Recently, fans of
boxing have been paying up to £85,000 to
watch the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr
and Emmanuel Pacquiao. These figures
signify the importance of sport in our
culture and how heavily invested people
today are in sport. Speaking of sport culture,
what is a more symbolic event in sport than
the Olympic Games?
Getting the placement
Whilst watching the Olympic Games, there
was a pre-competition documentary about
the stress in sport and how the mind is
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2
© The British Psychological Society 2015
 A Big New World: A sport psychology placement student’s findings
limiting factor for most athletes (Olympics
2012 – The Importance of Sport Psychology).
Most, if not all, athletes have a team staff
composing of coaches, physiotherapists, and
agents to help them succeed in their disci-
pline by various means. Sport psychologists
are the newest addition to these teams,
aiming to improve performance in competi-
tion. Since this area mirrors my interest in
psychology and love for sport, it seemed to
me to be a logical area to see what kind of
employment was available. I then started
looking into sport psychology.
The American Psychological Association
states that sport psychology is ‘a proficiency
that uses psychological knowledge and skills
to address optimal performance and well-
being of athletes, developmental and social
aspects of sports participation, and systemic
issues associated with sports settings and
organisations’ (Sport Psychology, n.p., ND).
This definition encompasses the aims of
sport psychology.
Since studying psychology at university
I’ve noticed that a lot of the course looks at
how we develop and improve. For example,
in my second year, students were required to
do organisational psychology. This examined
how psychologists aimed to make work-
forces more efficient in certain areas, such as
the use of open-plan offices within creative
industries to improve communication and
sharing ideas. However, back to sport
psychology…
Sport psychology from an outsider’s
perspective may appear quite a niche area of
expertise. Wilson et al. (2009) highlighted
that 66.7 per cent of college athletic direc-
tors within the sample were unaware of certi-
fication for sport psychology consultants.
This worrying figure indicates that sport
psychology as a field is known relatively little
about by personnel within sport let alone the
general public. Within the UK, the title of
Sport Psychologist is a legally protected
term, and practising Sport Psychologists, are
required to: complete an undergraduate
degree in psychology or sport science
in conjunction with a BPS-accredited
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2
psychology conversion course, an MSc in
Sport and Exercise Psychology and then the
Stage 2 qualification, comprising of at least
two years’ supervised practice. Considering
the lengthy process of entering this profes-
sion, it came to no surprise that finding a
placement proved very difficult. No search
engine would give me clear answers, all
I found were forums informing me of how it
is impossible to get experience. Realising
this, I knew that to get experience within
sport psychology would be to find something
within its roots; academia. I was told it would
be good to get experience within other
companies based on Loughborough
campus, for example, Volleyball England,
British Swimming, the Loughborough Sport
Technology Centre, etc. But this didn’t really
appeal to me, since I didn’t believe there was
direct link to sport psychology, whereas
getting some academic experience sounded
more alluring. Internet searches then led me
to the Director of the Performance
Psychology Support Service who is also a
senior lecturer at Loughborough University.
Interestingly, I found that he ran the MSc
Psychology of Sport and Exercise which
I had noticed when searching for post-grad-
uate courses. After some discussion, he
agreed to employ me as a research student.
Starting on 2 October I would be on place-
ment, I was both excited and a bit nervous.
I had only just finished my second year of
university and would now be entering an
environment where everyone had completed
at least an undergraduate degrees, and prob-
ably Master’s, and were pursuing PhDs and
vigorous academic pursuits.
Experience on placement
Nearly a year later I am now writing this
reflective article and looking back at my
experience within an academic environment.
The activities I have been involved with have
truly being varied. My initial assignments
were similar to that of a personal or general
assistant. I would print, copy and read various
academic articles for the senior lecturer and
would assist in the preparation of his lectures.
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George Bucknell
Initially I pondered whether this was a worth-
while use of my time, but reflecting back it
did expose me to the amount of it grind it
requires to succeed in academia. For
example, I became aware that members of
the research team invest months into system-
atic reviews looking at publications relevant
to their research interest. From an under-
graduate standpoint this appeared to be a
ludicrous commitment, but after having
experienced the kind of work attitude and
grind within the office. I became aware that it
is necessary acquire the knowledge required
to become an expert within your chosen area
of expertise. I was also given the opportunity
to research independently of the team. One
study that I have taken on is an autobiograph-
ical study examining the perceptions of sport
psychology from Olympic champions’
perspectives. This has been enjoyable to
conduct since I am an avid book reader, and
this opportunity to learn more about the
Olympic Games from a champion’s point of
view has been very insightful.
Fortunately, I have been able to partici-
pate in the more practical sides of academia.
An example of this was working in schools.
One PhD student was examining physical
activity in school children over a long period
and required assistance with collecting data.
Two assistants and I helped gather details
such as weight and height, and also assisted
children participants completing the ques-
tionnaires. Earlier in the year, I assisted a
senior researcher at a launch event for her
app – TANDEM Performance. This was an
enlightening and inspiring experience since
it was fascinating to see research driven prac-
tical applications being available to coaches
and athletes with a goal of improving sport
performance. The role mainly comprised of
assisting coaches and athletes using the app,
but it was simply the experience of seeing
how it was possible to relate academia to
results that was most impressive. It’s all good
seeing results in a lab or on a computer, but
physically seeing how the research influ-
ences performance is a truly fascinating.
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From this experience I have learnt some
lifelong lessons and met some people I will
never forget. I’ve learnt that academia is a
hard-field. It is a very political environment
where who you know as opposed to what you
know can prove to be more advantageous.
Over this experience I’ve learnt that I cannot
go back to the raw lifestyle of a student, well
at not least to the same degree. I now know
that I am very interested in pursuing post-
graduate studies with my focus on sport and
performance psychology. This I hope at
some point in the future could translate into
working as a Sport and Performance
Psychologist. Looking at the industry, the
application of sport psychology methods to
other sectors looks promising and I hope to
be part of it.
Advice
After having completed my placement, there
are some pearls of wisdom I wish to share
with those have taken the time to read this
reflective account. For those who are inter-
ested in sport psychology as a career path,
I will say this now and foremost: network.
This is important for any industry nowadays,
but it is as if, if not more important for sport
psychology. Current researchers will have
great reach and influence over the next few
decades and can ultimately control the direc-
tion of the subject; therefore, it is crucial to
have a working relationship with these
people who will prominently indicate how
the discipline will develop. This can be
achieved through a number of ways. Going
to conferences or emailing them about your
interests and about helping conduct
research can help you significantly in the
long-run. Next I will say that you must be
open and pro-active within this field. Again,
sport psychology is not as established as
clinical or criminal psychology, there is very
few work experience opportunities associ-
ated with sport psychology. Therefore, it is
important to be as involved in sport as
possible. If you play sport, teach sport, work
for a sporting organisation or simply work
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2
 A Big New World: A sport psychology placement student’s findings
with athletes in any medium, it will demon-
strate your competence and indicate
capacity to work in a performance-oriented
environment.
Finally it is important to be flexible if you
are certain on pursuing a career in sport
psychology. Many people have the dream of
being the sport psychologist for the England
football team or working for their home
rugby side, but full-time sport psychologists
are rare. Those who do practise usually work
within universities requiring them to pursue
research as well as practically applying their
knowledge. The skills that you learn from
sport psychology can be manipulated to use
in different settings. This is now evident in
areas such as: the military, performing arts
and business. The techniques you teach a
footballer to assist the visualisation of scoring
a goal will be similar to that you would tell a
ballerina to execute the perfect pirouette.
George Bucknell is a sport psychology under-
graduate placement student at Loughbor-
ough University.
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2
References
American Psychological Association (n.d.). Sport
psychology. Retrieved 1 June 2015, from:
http://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/
sports.aspx
See more at:
http://reffor.us/index.php#sthash.
ZTb2kxUw.dpuf
Bates, A. [Tom Bates] (2012). Olympics 2012 –
The Importance of Sport Psychology [Video file],
5 October.
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https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=d8DSzLpEru0
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