Aufbau und Unterstützung eines sportpsychologischen Betreuungssystems für Elitesportler in Guatemala

Superordinate objective of the project was to assist the COG and CDAG in developing and improving sport psychological services for Guatemalan athletes, teams and coaches in preparation for the Central American and Caribbean Games 2014 in Veracruz/Mexico. This objective was pursued twofold. First, workshops were conducted with athletes, teams, coaches, sport psychologists, executive board members and media representatives. Second, individual coaching sessions were conducted with athletes.

In total, 289 athletes (54.0% male; M = 22.9 years old) and 66 coaches (92.4% male; M = 41.3 years old) from a variety of 42 individual and team sports, and 24 sport psychologists (57.1% male) took part in workshops and individual coaching sessions. In addition, 42 executive board members (78.6% male) and 12 media representatives (91.7% male) participated in the project.
In total, service for athletes, sport psychologists, executive board members and media representatives was provided in 53 workshops and 60 individual coaching sessions with a total of 1198 participants. The number of contacts with individual athletes in individual coaching sessions ranged between 1 and 3 occasions. The number of daily interventions ranged between 1 and 10, with an average of 5.38 interventions per day. On average, one intervention lasted 2 hours, resulting in 226 hours of intervention, not including preparation and following up on interventions. The ratio between formal, planned and scheduled individual coaching sessions on the one hand, and informal, brief and unplanned individual coaching sessions on the other hand was 70% and 30%.

First, the project shows that a total of 113 sport psychological interventions within 20 working days can be delivered to athletes in preparation for international competition. Second, the study reveals that in Guatemala athletes’ issues that need to be dealt with in individual coaching sessions predominantly deal with performance issues, such as expectations, mental preparation, motivation and self-regulation. Third, there is a strong need of coaches to be supported by sport psychologists in their working on reaching athletic excellence. Fourth, sport psychologists perceive lack of support and trust from the federations. Moreover, sport psychologists need to gain more trust in their own knowledge and in specific aspects gain more knowledge in order to effectively plan, conduct and evaluate sport psychological services delivered towards athletes.