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This article describes the delivery of personal and performance enhancement consulting services to the major league and minor league teams in the Oakland Athletics baseball organization over a 6-year period. The use of a combined clinical, educational approach is discussed as well as the range and type of services provided in the role as a full-time instructor/counselor. Factors affecting the effectiveness of delivering sport psychology services to professional baseball players are discussed, with special emphasis on developing trust and a good connection in the player/consultant relationship.

This article describes a psychological skills training program developed for the Houston Astros’ minor league player development program. It represents a mode of consultation that includes the training and supervising of an appropriate professional within the organization who delivers the actual training to the athletes. The goal is to provide a quality and continuity of services that would be difficult to accomplish using the traditional outside consultant model. Issues and problems that arose in the implementation of the program are discussed, and data derived from an evaluation of the program are presented.

An investigation of superstitious activity among collegiate baseball players (n = 83) was conducted over the course of three full seasons. A major feature of the investigation was a distinction between behaviors mediated by a conscious belief, and behaviors (presumably nonmediated) established through simple contiguity. Additionally, the baseball players were compared to nonathletes (n = 348) on a variety of traditional indicators of superstitious belief, but the comparison yielded few significant differences. Although the investigation showed that the ballplayers engaged in a high level of superstitious activity, it was concluded that such activity is unremarkable, if not understandable.

This article discusses the development of mental skills training for professional baseball players and coaches. The basic educational model involves providing information, skills practice, and support for the athlete who wants to improve his mental game. The basic philosophy employed is an experiential process that facilitates the athlete’s understanding of mental skills training. Over time, skills are refined and adapted to meet the athlete’s unique needs. The practicing sportpsych consultant must follow a number of operating standards to ensure the trust and respect of both players and management. The most difficult step is getting the commitment from a professional team. This article discusses an approach to making contact, guidelines followed for developing a mental training program for a professional baseball team, and some technical aspects to consider in developing a mental training program. It focuses on the range of services provided to players and coaches in group formats and on an individual basis, both at the major league and minor league levels. Finally, there is a discussion of problems inherent in working with players, coaches, and management and how to cope with them.

The relationship between perceived leadership behaviors and team cohesion in high school and junior college baseball and softball teams was researched. Study participants, 307 athletes representing 23 teams, responded to the perceived version of the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) and the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Correlational and multivariate analyses indicated significant relationships between perceived leader behaviors and team cohesion. Specifically, coaches who were perceived as high in training and instruction, democratic behavior, social support, and positive feedback, and low in autocratic behavior, had teams that were more cohesive. A MANOVA indicated there were significant differences between genders and athletes at the two school levels in their perceptions of coaching behaviors and team cohesion, though these demographic variables did not significantly moderate the leadership-cohesion relationship.

A field experiment was conducted to examine the impact of the Coach Effectiveness Training program on athlete attrition. Eight Little League Baseball coaches attended a preseason sport psychology workshop designed to facilitate desirable coach-athlete interactions. A no-treatment control group consisted of 10 coaches. Children who played for both groups of coaches were interviewed before and after the season and were contacted again the following year. At the end of the initial season, children in the experimental group evaluated their coaches, teammates, and the sport of baseball more positively than children who played for the control-group coaches. Player attrition was assessed at the beginning of the next baseball season, with control-group youngsters withdrawing at a significantly higher rate (26%) than those in the experimental group (5% dropout rate). There was no difference in mean team won-lost percentages between dropouts and returning players, which indicates that the attrition was not due to lack of team success.

This study examined the effectiveness of an imagery training program in improving national softball players’ selective attention. A multiple-baseline design across individuals was used. There were four participants. One remained at baseline, while the other three spent 10 min a day practicing an audio-taped imagery program composed of 28 sessions. Measures of selective attention were collected via a baseball/softball batting specific version stemming from Nideffer’s (1976) Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS). The results demonstrated that the imagery training program generally enhanced the ability of softball players to integrate external stimuli without being overloaded with them and to narrow attention. Results were discussed in relation to the usefulness of multiple-baseline designs for investigating individual differences among elite athletes. Practical pedagogical considerations for coaching are proposed.

Previous research has offered insight into coaches’ perceptions of various efficacy-enhancing techniques but not athletes’ perceptions of their coaches’ techniques. The purpose of the present research was to compare coaches’ and athletes’ perceptions of efficacy enhancing techniques. Male (n = 29) and female (n = 49) baseball, basketball, softball, and soccer coaches and teams were surveyed from Division II and III collegiate programs. Results found that the strategies that coaches perceived they used most, as well as were the most effective, were instruction-drilling, acting confident themselves, and encouraging positive talk. Athletes had similar perceptions to their coaches regarding coaches’ use and effectiveness of efficacy techniques. However, closer examination revealed coaches’ and athletes’ mean perceptions of these techniques to vary among levels of congruence and incongruence. Exploratory analyses were also conducted on coaches’ and athletes’ perceptions by gender.