BARRIERS TO THE PRESCRIPTION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STRATEGIES BY STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING SPECIALISTS

The purpose of this article was to explore the barriers to strength and conditioning coaches integrating psychological strategies within the strength and conditioning practice. The sample of accredited strength and conditioning coaches comprised 10 subjects working within the United Kingdom, 3 within the United Sates, and 5 within Australia offering a cross section of experience from a range sporting disciplines and educational backgrounds. Subjects were interviewed using semi-structured interviews and thematic clustering was used using interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify common themes. It was evident that not incorporating psychological strategies into strength and conditioning practice could be attributed to either internal, personally governed beliefs, or external, environmentally governed situations. Internal sources consisted of insufficient knowledge either regarding the value of psychological strategies or methods of implementing such techniques; in addition, the implementation of psychological techniques was outside the remit of the coach and difficulty existed in demonstrating the effectiveness of interventions. External causes consisted of a lack of time, insufficient control and authority of training session content, and athletes' negative perceptions. Recommendations are made on the basis of eliminating the observed barriers to the inclusion of psychological strategies. This included the use of education programs for both strength and conditioning coaches and organizational gatekeepers and the suggestion for increased collaboration with qualified psychologists.