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ELLIOTT WAKSMAN: I enjoy working with athletes
and hearing the athletes describe their progress,
specifically athletes will reach their goals.
They'll find that motivational source.
They'll gain that self confidence.
Listening to them to describe those issues is really rewarding for me.
As sport performance consultant, I work
with athletes on the mental game.
It's mental challenges.
It's confidence.
It's motivation.
It's helping athletes where other coaches
or nutritionists or trainers don't.
Sports psychology exists to help athletes and teams.
It's an extra resource.
And the mental game is oftentimes overlooked unfortunately,
yet it's so important.
So it's adding that resource to the field.
Sports psychologists work in private practice or with teams.
For example, an athletic department at a college
will hire a full time sports psychologist or an organization
professionally.
I'm in a private practice.
I network with different professionals and gain referrals
from coaches or athletic directors or parents.
And individuals come to my office.
Some psychologists work directly with athletes.
And their focus is more practitioner, more applied based.
In contrast, there's researchers that focus more
of their work on journals and empirical studies.
A researcher publishes empirical studies.
They collect data.
They collect all the findings.
I take those findings and apply it directly.
There are several misconceptions in the field of sports psychology.
People think that we over-analyze our clients
or dig to deep, when in fact, we're talking about sport
and really teaching mental skills.
As a sport performance consultant, I do not clinically
label my clients such as depression, anorexia.
I work directly with the sport and teach mental skills.
Insurance and clinical labels are not involved with my work.
One of the more difficult aspects of my work
is actually listening to the clients and understanding
what actually needs to be done.
Clients will come in and they'll describe their obstacles,
yet I have to listen.
And my training helps me understand what interventions
or what solutions need to be applied.
The most difficult issue to deal with is confidence.
That's a huge factor in sport.
Regaining that self confidence, that self satisfaction,
that self pride is a big part of my work.
And it's difficult to help athletes find that again.
It's doable.
But it's definitely an issue that I find a lot in my work.
The most rewarding aspect of my work is
hearing the clients describe their progress,
how they reach their goals.
For example, a client talked about how
he was looking forward to competition this week.
And he never would have said that or felt that last season.
So that sense of eager and that sense of satisfaction
and that sense of pride and enjoyment
really is rewarding on my end.
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