There are countless different degrees that individuals can study today, but while most are very useful, it’s hard to consider what types of career paths these degrees can unlock for you. Take sports psychology, for example. This is a well-known and popular degree choice among academics who have an avid interest in the sporting world. But it’s easy to be somewhat confused as to where a degree like this can take you afterwards. What is a sports psychologist, after all? Is that a specific role, or is it an umbrella term? This article aims to shed some light on what you can do as a career after studying this topic and how varied these different roles can be.
Sports Psychologist
First of all, we should clarify that a sports psychologist is a specific profession. In fact, it can be split into a few different categories, too. A couple of examples of this are an applied sports psychologist and a clinical sports psychologist. The applied variant is one that generally focuses on enhancing the performance of athletes that they work with, helping them to push themselves to reach tougher goals with the aid of specialized mental techniques. In contrast to this, a clinical sports psychologist doesn’t focus on the performance of these athletes and instead works more in line with the way a standard clinical psychologist will. They will focus on the mental health problems that athletes can experience when training, such as stress, depression, and anxiety, and will employ several different cognitive therapy techniques to help people to deal with these issues.
Sports Rehabilitation Therapist
A more specialized sports psychologist may end up working in the world of sports rehabilitation. A common occurrence in sport, as you’ll know, is injury. In some cases, these injuries can be life-changing and can even end someone’s sporting career entirely. But at other times, those that have suffered from a severe sporting injury may want to get back to training and restart their sporting career. They will likely need to do this with the help of a physiotherapist who will provide them with specialized training regimes and exercises that will help rehabilitate their body, but this isn’t always the only problem. After experiencing something like this, mental trauma can be a common issue, and in cases like this, a rehabilitation therapist will be required. The injury could make them overly cautious when trying to get back into their sport, or they may even end up suffering from PTSD. A rehab therapist will help athletes overcome these fears and get their minds back in the game.
Sports Researcher
Moving away somewhat from the more hands-on psychological work, you could consider entering into the world of research and enriching the field. The first step is studying a sports psychology degree at a prestigious university such as the University of Stirling, and from there, you can enter into the research market. There is a great need for researchers in most medical fields today. Dedicating yourself to a career in which you will be working on experimental techniques and treatments, as well as learning more about human behaviour, endurance, and the relation between fitness and mental health, can be a very rewarding pursuit. You might find yourself working in a laboratory or conducting research in the field, as a solo researcher or alongside a team of other experienced researchers.
Sports Coach
Being a coach is about quite a lot more than overseeing training and exercising, at least if you want to be a good coach. Coaching a team through the intricacies of fitness training and tactics in a sport is no easy task at all. One thing that can make this process a bit easier is having a good handle on the way in which others think, as well as the methods you can employ to identify any issues that individuals are struggling with and how you can alleviate those problems with techniques you’ve learned as part of your training and study. You can get involved in various levels of coaching with a sports psychology degree, too, be it a coach for a University team or even at a professional standard. For example, you could get a job as a coach for a professional football team if you have the knowledge and experience. You might have to work up to this stage by coaching teams at lower levels first, as you’ll need actual experience in coaching within that sport on top of your academic training.
Sports Psychology Professor
Another area you could get into with a sports psychology degree is teaching others about this fascinating academic subject. Many who gain a postgraduate degree consider going on to teach the subject that they have become so familiar with over the years. This would also give you the chance to study for a doctorate, teach classes at your university as part of your study, and fund your study, too. Of course, you don’t have to pursue a doctorate to be a university professor. This simply denotes a staff grade rather than a qualification. However, becoming a lecturer often does involve the route of conducting extensive research in the pursuit of earning a doctoral degree.
High School Psychology Or P.E. Teacher
Another choice in the realm of teaching would be to pursue a career as either a P.E. teacher or a psychology teacher in high school or sixth form. Of course, when choosing this path, you will actually be required to have a teaching qualification before you begin. However, there are a number of different pathways to getting this. For example, some schools will take professionals on as teaching assistants while they study for their teaching qualifications. This allows you to build up some significant teaching experience while earning the right qualifications to teach your own class.
School Guidance Counselor
Studying sports psychology doesn’t mean you definitely need to pursue a career in sports, either. During this time, you’ll pick up plenty of experience and knowledge regarding psychology as a whole and will merely be specialized in relating that knowledge to sports and fitness. However, you could pursue other career paths, such as a guidance counsellor at school, working with kids to help them figure out their futures and working through any psychological troubles they may be having at such a volatile time in their lives. In a role like this, you will spend time promoting positive mental health to students and providing advice on things such as fitness and health.
