Introduction

Psychology has already become part of our everyday life and it has also affected sports psychology. Olympic champions declare that they would not have won without their sports psychologists. It is true that coaches of teams in crises also want the assistance and support of sports psychologists. When internationally successful federal captains are asked what their views are about having the support of sports psychologists their answer is the following: there is enough number of coaches to confuse their players.

Considering this opinion it is evident that there are several significant areas of sports where prejudices, either negative or positive, exist. There can be a reasonable explanation, that is, earlier bad experience affects professionals’ opinion about sports psychology. Only few sportsman and sportswomen are aware of how effectively they could be supported by this science. Although it is well known that without using the outcomes of sports science peak performance cannot be achieved.

The German Olympic team worked with 20 sports psychologists on the spot. They started working together with their psychologists long before the competitions. It is no accident that sports psychological preparation trainings are considered a valid and useful. The nervous system can be hardened in the same way as the somatic one. In other words what the athlete's nervous system gets used to during trainings that will be provided in competitions. We should bear in our mind that trainings- in most cases- do not mean only technical, tactical and fitness preparations and coaching. Athletes being mentally prepared for competitions may mean more success. If it is missing athletes cannot be expected to over-perform at competitions. Simply they have not got used to over-performing.

Based on the above views it can be stated that sports psychology is not some kind of magic or occult wonder. Mental preparation is an exact sport performance without which maximum performance cannot be achieved.