Coleman R. Griffith, the first American professional sports-psychologist
Griffith started his sports-psychologist career as a PhD student at the Illinois University, where George Huff was the manager. He noticed Griffith’s devotion and excellent competences. As soon as Huff had founded a lab in 1925 sports-psychology started out as an independent discipline (Weinberg, Gould, 2011).
Already in the 1920-ies Griffith’s works were published in Psychology of Coaching (1928) and in Psychology and Athletics (1928). As a result, a number of sport professionals’ attention was attracted. It is worth mentioning, that from the very beginning the owners of sports clubs were businessmen who expected high profits. Therefore they contracted the best professionals. Griffith became the first professional sports-psychologist when the Chicago Clubs contracted him in 1938. This link shows his photos and papers:
http://expsychlab.com/2011/09/07/the-father-of-sport-psychology-dr- coleman-r-griffith/
After the Second World War sports-psychology was becoming more and more important. It started to apply trends and directions from different areas of sciences. Very soon professionals worked out and elaborated new research methods and theories. Sports-psychology has become a well known applied discipline using the latest IT innovations. Very often professionals differentiate between the competitive sports and the exercise psychology which is focusing on recreation, healthy way of life and the impact if physical activities on humans. This website shows the mental training of formula 1 racer. You can see Fernando Alonso