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Context: A multidisciplinary approach is one of the many forms of professional practice that can be utilized by sports medicine professionals to provide care to injured athletes. While this approach has been empirically supported in the health care domain, studies supporting its utilization in the sport injury rehabilitation context—particularly at the high school level—are limited. Objective: To investigate former high school athletes’ experiences of a multidisciplinary model of care for sport injury rehabilitation. Design: Cross-sectional survey design. Setting: In-person, in a classroom setting at 2 Division I universities. Patients: A total of 186 former high school athletes. Main Outcome Measure: An author-constructed instrument developed using the multidisciplinary model of care for sport injury rehabilitation as a guide. Results: Family, athletic coaches, and athletic trainers were the closest professionals/individuals that injured athletes reported interacting with during sport injury rehabilitation. The data also revealed that these professionals/individuals had the closest and most direct relationships with the injured athletes. Conclusions: The findings from the present study provided support for the utilization of the multidisciplinary model of care for sport injury rehabilitation with high school athletes.

The maturation processes of applied sport psychologists have received little research attention despite trainees and practitioners having often reported experiencing challenging circumstances when working with clients. Within clinical psychology literature the self-practice of cognitive techniques, alongside self-reflection, has been advocated as a means of addressing such circumstances, and as a significant source of experiential learning. The present study sought to identify the possible types of, and purposes for, self-practice among twelve UK-based sport psychology practitioners. Thematic analysis of semistructured interviews indicated all participants engaged in self-practice for reasons such as managing the self, enhancing understanding of intervention, and legitimising intervention. Some participants also described limitations to self-practice. Subsequently, three overriding themes emerged from analysis: a) the professional practice swamp, b) approaches to, and purposes for, self-practice, and, c) limitations of self-practice. It is concluded that self-practice may provide a means of better understanding self-as-person and self-as-practitioner, and the interplay between both, and is recommended as part of on-going practitioner maturation.

This study documented the lived career-ending injury experiences among elite Irish rugby football union (IRFU) players. Three players took part in semistructured one-on-one interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, 1996) revealed that the process of psychosocial injury rehabilitation and the subsequent transition process was for the most part a distressing one and evolved in a cyclical, yet stage-like (Heil, 1994), manner. The nature of the postinjury career transition appeared to be dependent on the interactional balance of participants’ psychosocial responses to injury, existing coping mechanisms, and other factors related to the injury and career transition process. Appropriate social support network, use of sport medicine and counseling professionals, as well as organizational officials are needed to best prepare elite rugby players for life outside of sport, and to ensure a healthy career transition (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994) out of sport.

Context: The use of active video games (AVG) as a treatment modality in the rehabilitation context is increasing. However, little is known about the functional outcomes and psychological benefits of such rehabilitation in college athletes with lateral ankle sprains (LASs). Objective: To examine functional outcomes and psychological benefits of AVG-aided rehabilitation program for LAS. Design: A mixed-methods, single-subject case series design. Setting: College athletic training clinic. Patients: Two female college soccer players who sustained LAS (grades I and II) during sport participation. Intervention: A 4-week balance training program. One patient completed balance exercises using AVG, whereas the other patient completed traditional balance exercises. Main Outcome Measures: Several validated instruments were used to evaluate different functional outcomes and psychological factors: balance (Balance Error Scoring System, Star Excursion Balance Test), rehabilitation adherence (Rehabilitation Adherence Measure for Athletic Training), foot and ankle function (Foot and Ankle Ability Measure), perceptions of pain (Visual Analog Scale for pain), perceived readiness to return to sport (Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport Scale), and mood (Brunel Mood Scale). Results: It appears that the balance training protocols (AVG and traditional balance exercises) were equally effective in restoring patient’s balance to functional levels. Despite very individualistic processes of rehabilitation, the participants’ perceived pain, perceived readiness to return to sport, and mood states were closely linked with objective and subjective functional measures of progress. Conclusions: Based on the results, AVG has the potential to provide more versatility into the static and dynamic postural control exercises typically used following acute LAS. Moreover, the current results support the existing psychological and biopsychosocial theoretical conceptualizations of athletes’ responses to injuries and rehabilitation process.

To gain an insight to the existing suggestions and recommendations on chartered physiotherapists’ preferred methods of delivery for further training in sport psychology.

The aim of the present study was to identify profiles of elite athlete mental well- and ill-being and study how the profiles (i.e., subgroups of athletes) differed in sport-related demands and resources. A total of 259 Finnish elite athletes (n = 170 active and n = 89 retired) completed quantitative self-report inventories. Through cluster analysis, four profiles of mental well- and ill-being were identified. Profile 1 was overrepresented by retired, older, and male athletes, and characterized by good mental well-being. Profile 2 consisted mainly of active athletes who reported mild risk for alcohol abuse. Profile 3 consisted mainly of women who displayed possible presence of an eating disorder. Profile 4 was typical of young athletes with mental ill-being. The balance between sport-related demands and resources appeared to be the healthiest in Profile 1 and worst in Profile 4. The present findings are beneficial for those who work with and/or provide psychological support to athletes.

The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of professional cricketers who had encountered a career-ending non-musculoskeletal injury. Three male cricketers each with over nine years of playing experience in professional cricket representing England and Wales participated in retrospective in-depth semi-structured interviews. The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed that at the time of the injury, the participants were at the “final stretch” of their professional sporting careers and that despite a range of unpleasant reactions to injury, all participants experienced a healthy career transition out of sport. To best prepare athletes for a life outside of sport, ensuring athletes have sufficient plans in motion early on in their careers can reduce external and internal stressors, which if not addressed, can increase sport injury risk and have a negative effect on athletes’ reactions post-injury.

Previous research demonstrates that sport psychology consultants use humor to facilitate working alliances, reinforce client knowledge, and create healthy learning environments. The current study sought to gain further insights into consultants’ reflections on the role of humor, humor styles, purposes for humor, and experiences of humor use. Forty-eight sport psychology consultants completed an online survey comprising open-ended questions. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: “It’s the way I tell ’em,” “It’s the way I don’t tell ’em,” “This is why I tell ’em,” and learning to use humor in consultancy. Participants used 2 styles of humor (deadpan and self-deprecating), each with the goal of facilitating the working alliance. Although not all participants used humor during consultancy, its incorporation might render the working alliance and real relationship as resources in ways (e.g., a “barometer” that predicts consultancy outcomes) previously not considered in applied sport psychology.