The positive relationship between stress and sport injury is well documented in the literature. An increasing number of prevention intervention studies shows that it is possible to prevent sport injuries through cognitive-behavioral training. However, the use of biofeedback combined with a cognitive-behavioral approach for injury prevention is a relatively unexplored methodology (Johnson, 2007). The purpose of this study was to investigate if it is possible to combine biofeedback and cognitive-behavioral training to reduce numbers of sport injuries for soccer players. Participants from four sports high schools (16-19 years old) where divided into one experiment (n=13) and one control group (n=14). Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires (SAS, LESCA and ACSI-28) in a baseline measure. A MANOVA test showed that the two groups did not differ significantly based on the questionnaires at the baseline measure. The experiment group participated in a 9 week intervention period consisting of 7 sessions including: somatic relaxation, critical incident diary, thought stopping, emotions/problem focused coping, goal setting and biofeedback training. A Mann-Whitney U test showed a tendency to a significant difference between the control and experiment group U (n1 = 13, n2 = 14) = 51.00, p < .054, where the experiment group sustained fewer sport injuries compared to the control group. The result of the study is discussed foremost from a psychological perspective and proposals for future research are given.

This study examined feeling states prior to, during, and after best ever and worst ever competition in 85 skilled Russian athletes using metaphor-generation method (Hanin, 2000). Six situations elicited 510 idiosyncratic and functionally meaningful metaphors (67% animate and 33% inanimate agents) and 922 interpretative descriptors. Metaphors and descriptors reflected high action readiness in best ever competition and low action readiness in worst ever competition. Athletes used different metaphors to describe their feelings prior to, during, and after performance. Accompanying idiosyncratic descriptors had multiple connotations with different components of psychobiosocial state. Aggregated content of descriptors had high scores on optimal and low scores on dysfunctional state characteristics in best ever competition but not in worst ever competition. Future research directions and practical implications are suggested.

The holistic ecological approach to talent development in sport highlights the central role of the overall environment as it affects a prospective elite athlete. This paper examines a flat-water kayak environment inNorwaywith a history of successfully producing top-level senior athletes from among its juniors. Principal methods of data collection include interviews, participant observations of daily life in the environment and analysis of documents. The environment was centered around the relationship between prospects and a community of elite athletes, officially organized as a school team but helping the athletes to focus on their sport goals, teaching the athletes to be autonomous and responsible for their own training, and perceived as very integrated due to a strong and cohesive organizational culture. We argue that the holistic ecological approach opens new venues in talent development research and holds the potential to change how sport psychology practitioners work with prospective elite athletes.The holistic ecological approach to talent development in sport highlights the central role of the overall environment as it affects a prospective elite athlete. This paper examines a flat-water kayak environment in Norway with a history of successfully producing top-level senior athletes from among its juniors. Principal methods of data collection include interviews, participant observations of daily life in the environment and analysis of documents. The environment was centered around the relationship between prospects and a community of elite athletes, officially organized as a school team but helping the athletes to focus on their sport goals, teaching the athletes to be autonomous and responsible for their own training, and perceived as very integrated due to a strong and cohesive organizational culture. We argue that the holistic ecological approach opens new venues in talent development research and holds the potential to change how sport psychology practitioners work with prospective elite athletes. © 2011 Human Kinetics, Inc.

The purpose of this study was to study psychosocial factors influence on injury risk among youth national team soccer players. Obsessive passion has been a key factor that has been studied in relation to injury. Also the factors number of training hours per week, number of matches played, stress, self confidence and motivation has been studied in relation to injury. A quantitative design was used in which 300 Swedish youth national team soccer players have concluded as study participants. Used instruments in this survey has been

PANAS, PSS, Grit-scale, PCLDS, Passion Scale, SCI and SMS.. The results showed that men incur more serious injuries then women. Furthermore, results showed that players with more than one injury during the season had higher obsessive passion then other players. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical framework and the results from previous research. Proposal for future research in the field are provided.

The purpose of this study was to examine if individual goal setting are being used byprofessional soccer players, what kind of goal setting is preferred and which of those areperceived as most effective. How the use of goal settings are related to professional soccerplayers and elite junior players perceived competence and motivation is also being examined.Also difference between regular, non-regular, juniors and senior players was studied. Finally,the interaction between the use of goal settings, motivation and perceived competence wereexamined. 101 soccer players participated in the study. A quantitative method with thequestionnaires GSSQ, TEOSQ and Harter’s competence questionnaire was used. The resultsshowed that performance goals were the most preferred and that task orientation was morecommon than ego. Perceived effectiveness of goal setting and the player’s motivation waslowest among non-regular juniors. Interaction results also showed that non-regular juniorsshowed low perceived competence. The results are discussed in relation to the essay’stheoretical framework.

Keywords: Goal settings, motivation, perceived competence, professional/elite soccer players.

Fitness center activities have gained popularity. One central role fitness staff members have is to help participants to become or maintain health and fitness. In recent years, a new phenomenon – orthorexia nervosa, which M.D. Bratman coined in the late 1990s – has emerged. He termed orthorexia as "a fixation on eating healthy food". Research has mentioned that participants in sports and fitness activities may be at higher risk of becoming orthorexic. Since the late 1990s, orthorexia has been noticed, also in Swedish newspaper articles. In so doing, the 'condition' has evolved to include fanatic exercise and eating behaviours. Fitness professionals might thus work with individuals that are considered to suffering from orthorexia. The purpose of this presentation is to elucidate and problematize ethical issues that are raised during the research that deals with personal trainers and group fitness instructors talk of health and orthorexia. The material will consist of four focus groups with 18 fitness professionals that work in Swedish fitness centers. It will be carried out as a qualitative study. This study raises ethical issues, including for instance: a) by focusing and giving attention to orthorexia, the study may contribute to categorizing "the problem", as well as enlarge it. This paradoxical situation as the aim is to contribute scientific knowledge that can problematize orthorexia; b) the challenge to manage and balance a critical approach without causing harm (e.g. introduce orthorexia to fitness professionals who might have an erroneous perspective of and/or have little knowledge about orthorexia) (cf. Halse & Honey, 2005).

In the late 1990s, Bratman coined the term orthorexia nervosa to mean an unhealthy obsession of only eating healthy foods (Bratman & Knight, 2000). The research is limited and orthorexia has rarely been researched in sport settings (e.g. Eriksson et al., 2008; Segura-García et al., 2012). At this stage, this concept is considered under establishment and negotiation – a process of formation where it is not clear what orthorexia is. How orthorexia is contextualized and represented influences the establishment and understanding of the condition and concept. The aim of this study is to analyze representations of orthorexia in articles printed in Swedish newspapers, with a special view on how the articles refer to sport as a social setting. Notions of healthy and disordered eating are influenced by cultural ideas in society. The language is central in this process as it creates and organizes beliefs about social reality. Perceptions and knowledge about orthorexia are created through, for example, newspaper texts. The material included in this study was limited to national, regional and local Swedish daily newspaper articles published between January 2004 and June 2011. A total of 102 articles were included as they explicitly dealt with orthorexia. The articles were analyzed using a discourse analytical approach through a qualitative content analysis. The articles represented orthorexia in different ways: a) (un)controlled and obsessive patterns of behavior; b) sacrificing social situations; c) an eating disorder in new clothes; d) a painful existence; and e) an invisible problem. Within the last category, the way orthorexia is represented in relation to sport points to how different norms and values apply in and outside this setting. Orthorexia is only considered as disordered eating in non-sport settings. In sport, orthorexic behaviours are considered standard practice. These findings thus further problematize disordered eating in and outside sport settings.

Context:

Athletes participating in sport are exposed to a high injury risk. Previous research has found a great number of risk factors (both physiological and psychological) that could increase injury risk.1 One limitation in previous studies is that few have considered the complex interaction between psychological factors in their research design.

Objective: To study whether personality, stress and coping predicted injury occurrence in an elite soccer population based on a hypothesized model.

Design: Prospective.

Participants: 56 (n = 38 males, n = 18 females) Swedish Premiere league soccer players were selected based on convenience sampling.

Intervention: Participants completed four questionnaires including the: Swedish Universities Scales of Personality,² Life Events Survey for Collegiate Athletes,³ and Brief COPE⁴ during the initial questionnaire administration. Subsequent to the first meeting, participants also completed the Hassle and Uplift Scale,⁵ once per week for a 13-week period throughout the competitive season.

Main Outcome Measures: A path analysis was conducted examining the influence of personality traits (i.e., trait anxiety), state level stressors (i.e., negative life event stress and daily hassles), and coping on injury frequency.

Results: Results of the path analysis indicated that trait anxiety, negative life event stress, and daily hassle−were significant predictors of injury among professional soccer players accounting for 24% of the variance.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the need for athletes, coaches and medical practitioners to attempt to reduce state level stressors, especially, daily hassles in minimizing injury risk. Educating and training athletes and coaches in proactive stress management techniques appears warranted.

Regular exercise habits are hard for many people both regarding establishment and adherence, which in many cases is caused by lack of motivation. Since the human body needs a certain amount of physical activity to function properly it is important to help people to motivate themselves in order to promote physical and mental health in society (Lindwall & Faskunger, 2003). The interest in motivation related research is, according to Roberts (2001) huge and holds as much as one third of all psychological research. A comparatively small part of this research treats perceived barriers to exercise and how individuals overcome these obstacles to adhere to their exercise habits over time. Such knowledge could be useful to challenge the drop-out rates by helping those who recently have initiated new exercise habits to maintain them, e.g. by providing useful strategies to overcome these barriers. These strategies could consist of predetermined coping strategies and alternatives to use when facing obstacles towards planned activities. The theoretical framework used was Achievement Goal Theory (Dweck, 1986; Dweck & Elliot, 1983; Maer & Nicholls, 1980; Nicholls, 1981; 1984; 1989 ref. ur Roberts, 2001), Expectancy-Value Theory (Eccles et. al 1983, 1984 ref. in Eccles & Whigfield, 2002), Relapse Prevention Theory (Brownell, Marlatt, Lichtenstein & Wilson, 1986), Self-Efficacy Theory (Bandura, 1977 ref. in Bandura, 2001) and Social Exchange Theory (Thibaut och Kelley, 1959).

Introduction. This study is a part of the international project „European perspectives on athletic retirement“ (Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, in press). It focuses on: a) reasons for sports career termination; b) perceived emotional problems, need for adaptation, and duration of transitional period; c) differences in the process of retirement between athletes who planned and did not plan it in advance.Method. The „Retirement from sport“ questionnaire (Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2001) was send to retired Swedish athletes by mail, and after considering returned answers 88 subjects were selected for this study on the basis of two criteria: international level athletic career; 1-10 years period after the sports career end. Participants included males (n=57) and females (n=31) – representatives of different individual and team sports.ResultsQuantitative analyses showed that elite Swedish athletes terminated mainly because of sport-related reasons followed by health- and familyrelated reasons. About a half of the subjects (46%) perceived a specific need to adjust to the life after sports, and 24% experienced emotional problems during the transitional period, which lasted 19.0 months (SD=15.7). Several one-way ANOVAs were conducted to identify differences in the process of athletic retirement between two groups of subjects: who planned (67%) and did not plan (33%) retirement. These revealed that athletes who planned retirement were more satisfied with their athletic careers (p< .01) and the timing of retirement (p< .01); they also used „acceptance“ of retirement as a coping strategy more often (p< .01). Athletes who did not plan retirement had more negative emotional reactions on this event (p< .01), and used „denial“ as a coping strategy more often (p< .05).Conclusion. The results will be discussed from the point of view of the Sports Career Transition model (Stambulova, 1997).

Peer tutoring is a type of collaboration directed learning strategy in which students support each other rather than relying only on assistant teacher or paraprofessional assistance. Utilizing peers as a natural support might facilitate interactions between students with and without disabilities. However, the research on cooperation oriented education approaches in Europe is very spare.

PURPOSE:

This study aims the implementation of cooperation oriented learning of peer tutoring in elementary general inclusive physical education (GPE) setting in three city schools in Sweden. The study was utilized within a Nordplus- Horizontal project.

METHODS:

A single subject multiple baseline design across elementary school age students with moderate disabilities (n=4) was used. While peer tutor training program was provided for the whole class target students were included when attending GPE, peer tutors (n=37) were students without disabilities who volunteered for this role. The peer tutor training program incorporating disability awareness, teaching instructions and communication skills served as the independent measure. Dependent measures included physical, instructional and social interactions between students with and without disabilities. Totally 43 observations sessions (á 20 minutes) were collected on videotapes. The obtained data were coded using the Computerized Evaluation Protocol of Interactions in Physical Education (CEPI-PE) (Klavina, 2011).

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:

Age appropriate peer tutors were effective at assisting students with moderate disabilities in inclusive GPE in Swedish elementary schools. The percentage of interactions between target students and peer tutors significantly increased (3.2% to 11.8 % respectively, p<.5). These results replicate findings of previous studies done in the United States demonstrating that peer tutor arrangements can contribute the successful collaboration between students with and without disabilities in inclusive GPE (Houston-Wilson et al., 1997; Klavina & Block, 2008; Lieberman et al., 1997; Murata & Jansma, 1997). All four students with disabilities maintained high percentage of activities done independently throughout baseline and intervention phase (50.5% and 57.6%, accordingly). While collected data did not demonstrate significant change in social interactions for students with disabilities across the two study conditions (11.6% in baseline and 13.9% in intervention), anecdotal notes and social validation outcomes indicated that peer tutoring conditions provided them with the sense of being included in the class. For example, the classroom teachers stated that students with disabilities experienced more social interactions and positive attitude from their classmates during other situations during the school day increasing self-esteem of target students. Along this line, Goodwin and Watkinson (2000) found that factors contributing to positive experience for students with physical disabilities in GPE were a sense of belonging and companionship. Also, school principals and teacher assistants at all four research sites indicated positive change regarding social climate and the quality of the social interactions in the whole class after the study, not only between students with and without disabilities. The positive perceived peer culture (Jansson, 2005) reported by the school personal is an essential additional outcome of the peer tutoring training. The importance of using a class wide peer tutoring approach when including students with moderate disabilities in GPE become obvious.

References

Goodwin, D.L., & Watkinson, E.J. (2000). Inclusive physical education from the

perspective of students with physical disabilities. Adapted Physical Activity

Quarterly, 17, 144-160.

Houston-Wilson, C., Dunn, J.M., Van der Mars, H., & McCubbin, J. (1997). The effect          of peer tutors on motor performance in integrated physical education classes. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 14, 298–313.

Jansson, U. (2005). Vad är delaktighet? En diskussion av olika innebörder.

Pedagogiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet. [in Swedish]

Klavina, A. (2011). Development and Initial Validation of the Computerized

Evaluation Protocol of Interactions in Physical Education. Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 15(1), 26-46.

Klavina, A. & Block, M. (2008). The effect of peer tutoring on interaction behaviors in inclusive physical education. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 25, 132-158.

Lieberman, L.J., Newcomer, J., McCubbin, J., & Dalrymple, N. (1997). The effects of cross age tutors on the academic learning time in physical education of children with disabilities in inclusive elementary physical education classes. Brazilian Journal of Adapted Physical Education & Recreation, 4, 15–32.

Murata, N.M., & Jansma, P. (1997). Influence of support personnel on students with and without disabilities in general physical education. Clinical Kinesiology, 51 (2), 37-46.

Titel ”Samarbetsorienterat lärande med kamratstöd/mentorsstöd för ökad delaktighet i ämnet idrott och hälsa”. Syfte Att ta del av ny forskning och pröva en modell med kamrat/mentors-stöd som visat positiva resultat i USA. Syftet med projektet är att öka möjligheten till delaktighet för elever med funktionsnedsättning. Studien riktar sig mot ämnesområdet Idrott och hälsa som har brister när det just gäller delaktigheten. Målgrupp Primär målgrupp är elever i grund- och särskolan, med funktionsnedsättning, lärare i Idrott och hälsa, rådgivare, specialpedagoger och rektorer. Bakgrund Kunskapen om, och vikten av lek, rörelse och fysisk aktivitet är idag ett väl utforskat område som har många förespråkare. Även politiker och myndigheter arbetar med nya förslag och rapporter som ligger i linje med detta, och ger ytterligare stöd för mer fysisk aktivitet i skolan. Problematiken ligger ofta i att detta måste komma alla elever till del. Genom satsningar såsom ex. handslaget och tillägg i läroplanen om daglig fysisk aktivitet, som borde gynna barn med funktionsnedsättningar, upplevs i istället att det ofta görs särskilda lösningar med följden att många elever med funktionsnedsättning upplever att de inte är delaktiga.  I detta sammanhang är det också anmärkningsvärt att notera att personer med funktionsnedsättningar, och i synnerhet personer med rörelsehinder, har den sämsta folkhälsan i Sverige (Folkhälsoinstitutet, 2008) Delaktighet är en viktig faktor för att må bra och elever som mår bra lär sig bättre. Forskning visar att delaktighet på lektioner också påverkar delaktigheten på raster och fritiden. Det förekommer alltför ofta att elever med någon funktionsnedsättning får en bristfällig undervisning i ämnet Idrott och hälsa, samt i andra fysiska aktiviteter inom skolans ram. Många elever deltar inte alls, andra deltar, men utan att vara delaktiga. Att ha en eller flera elever med någon funktionsnedsättning i sin klass bör ses som en tillgång. I forskningssammanhang internationellt, fr.a. från USA har man de senaste åren undersökt hur delaktigheten påverkas av kamratstöd istället för assistentstöd inom skolämnet Idrott och hälsa. I dessa studier har det visat sig att elever inte bara upplever markant ökad delaktighet, utan också att elever med funktionsnedsättning får ett bättre och mer situationsanpassat stöd. Metod Kvantitativ ”Single subject study”, videodokumentation. Kvalitativ intervjuer med fenomenografisk ansats.Projektgrupp Aija Klavina ass. Prof universitetet i Riga, Lettland; Kajsa Jerlinder, Högskolan i Gävle/GIH Stockholm; Lena Hammar, Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten. Tine Soulié, Handikappidrottens Videncenter, Roskilde Danmark. Lars Kristén, Högskolan i Halmstad

För att inte tröttna snabbt och för att inte hela tiden kräva en vuxen vid sidan kan det vara bramed en översikt över kreativa användningsmöjligheter. Ett längre snöre som medger att manäven kan använda fötterna. Resultatet tyder på att barn och lärare uppfattar hjälpmedlet somen kreativ del i lektionen och undervisningen i ämnet Idrott och hälsa. Barnen uppfattar Swing-Pingis som en möjlighet att få motorisk träning och känna rörelseglädje. Barnen resonerar ocksåkring olika hälsovinster. Lärarna framhåller hjälpmedlet som användbart och lättillgängligt. Detär en tillgång i undervisningen samt möjliggör och kompletterar annan motorisk träning i undervisningen. Hjälpmedlet stimulerar hälsan hos barnen.

Denna studie visar på relationen mellan rörlighet och utvecklingen av sociala, relationella, emotionella,existentiella och kroppsliga kapaciteter. Studien visar entydigt att människor med funktionshinderhar rätt att utvecklas som kompletta människor och att SwingPingis utgör en viktigkomponent i den utvecklingen.

Sport psychology today is a vibrant and thriving field with well-developed theory and increased opportunities for applied consulting. However, when the field is historicized, it is often done so with an emphasis on its North American roots (c.f., Williams & Straub, 2001). While the development of sport psychology in other parts of the world, particularly Eastern Europe, is acknowledged, less is known about the contributions of individuals in those countries. One such person, who was one of the earliest contributing figures to the field, is the Russian practitioner and scholar Avksenty Tcezarevich Puni (1898 – 1986). To date, English-speaking audiences have been unaware of the profound influence of Puni’s work because his papers were published in Russian. Though some of Puni’s work was translated into various languages of the European socialist countries, only glimpses of his work exist in English in the form of a few published abstracts of papers Puni presented at international conferences.  

                      In this paper, we offer the first of two essays designed to acquaint English-speaking readers with the work of this patriarch of Russian sport psychology. The second essay (Stambulova, Wrisberg, & Ryba, 2004) entitled “A Tale of Two Traditions in Applied Sport Psychology: The Heyday of Soviet Sport and a Wake-Up Call for North America,” is currently in preparation. Both papers represent our attempt to disrupt the established linear flow of the North American narrative by juxtaposing Russian and English historical texts, original Puni’s writings (including documents from his personal archives), and oral history.[i] This first essay begins with a short biographical sketch of Puni, followed by an English translation of one of his most influential early works. It concludes with a brief discussion of some of the parallel events transpiring in North American sport psychology during Puni’s era.

This paper presents the Five-Step Career Planning Strategy (5-SCP) that is a counseling framework for helping athletes with career transitions. The first four steps in this strategy deal with mapping out the client’s past experiences, current situation, and perceived future. The last step involves integrating their past, present, and projected future into a career and life strategy. Starting out with basic ideas about career transitions, the author proceeds to describe how the 5-SCP framework was developed and tested, provides a detailed step-by-step description of the 5-SCP, and finishes with reviewing consultants’ and clients’ reflections on the 5-SCP application.

The paper presents a summary of six studies on the transition from junior to senior sports conducted by Swedish master’s students under the author’s supervision. All the studies were qualitative and used the developmental model (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) and the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003) as theoretical frameworks. Ekengren (2003) studied male handball players in the transition. Josefsson (2004) conducted an intervention case study of a female track-and-field athlete in the transition. Hornbrinck and Båge (2005) interviewed female football players who made successful transition to the senior national team. Mavroidis (2005) focused on the role of coaches in the transition of male football players. Vujic (2006) contrasted one successful and one crisis transitions in swimming. Stolze (in progress) follows the transition of four female football players longitudinally. To summarise, the studies demonstrate that the transition from junior to senior sports relates not only to a sport context. Besides new challenges in practice and competitions, the athletes experience new demands in psychological development (identity formation, striving for independence), in psychosocial (importance of socializing, having friends/love), and in academic/vocational development (higher education/professional choice demands). As a result, the athletes are under high life stress and need to find time/energy for everything. The successful transition lasts one-three years depending on the resources/barriers balance and coping strategies. Career planning, balancing lifestyle, stress/time/energy management, effective recovery are important issues helping athletes to develop internal resources to cope. Continuity in coaching and significant others’ psychological support are the most valued external resources for the transitional athletes.

In this chapter an evolution of the topic of athletes’ career transitions in sport psychology is traced though a meta-review of two books and eight review papers, in which theoretical, empirical, and applied aspects of the topic have been thoroughly addressed. Based on this meta-review, a conceptual model for assistance in career transitions (ACT model) is suggested. Within the ACT model seven major types of career transition interventions —career planning, lifestyle management, life skills training, identity development, cultural adaptation, crisis-coping educational, and clinical—are described in greater depth. Further, anticipated challenges for both career transition research and practice are outlined.

Objectives: The focus of this paper is on a cross-national comparison of elite French and Swedish athletes in terms of a) pre-conditions for the athletic retirement, b) coping and related factors, c) perceived quality and long-term consequences of the transition. The study also examines an impact of retirement planning upon the transition process and outcomes. Method: The Retirement from Sports survey (Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2004) translated into French/Swedish and adapted for studying athletes in corresponding countries was employed. The sample was composed of 157 former international level athletes from France (n= 69) and Sweden (n=88) comprising both males and females and representatives of different sports. The data were analysed with ANOVA and MANOVA. Results: One common and two nationally-specific patterns have been identified in the process of the transition to the post-career. The common pattern involved mainly athletic retirement pre-conditions (e.g., retirement planning), coping (e.g., action-oriented strategies) and related factors (e.g., financial support). Cross-cultural differences related mainly to reasons for termination, emotional reactions upon retirement, perceived difficulty in starting a new professional career, usage of emotion-focused/avoidance coping strategies, duration of the transition, current athletic identity and professional choice/career/life satisfaction nowadays. Retirement planning, regardless of the country, was associated with more favourable emotions and coping behaviours in the transition but was not associated with perceived quality and long-term consequences of the transition. Conclusion: The study showed that the transition out of elite sports is a dynamic, multidimensional, multilevel, and multifactor process in which nationality/culture plays an important role.

This paper is the second of two essays designed to acquaint English-speaking readers with the work of Avksenty Tcezarevich Puni (1898-1986), one of the fathers of Russian sport psychology. In our previous essay "The Russian origins of sport psychology: a translation of an early work of A. Tc. Puni" (Ryba, Stambulova, & Wrisberg, 2005), we discussed Puni's innovative ideas of psychological preparation of athletes based on his classic paper "Psychological preparation of athletes for a competition" that was published in 1963. In that essay, we grounded Puni's pioneering work within the specific socio-political and historical context of his era by providing a brief overview of his life (including extensive explanatory footnotes) in pre- and post-Socialist Revolution Russia. In this paper, we attempt to further historicize the work of Puni on the psychological preparation of athletes by discussing his ground-breaking model of Psychological Preparation for a Competition (PPC) and contrasting that work with the activity of sport psychology consultants taking place in North America during the same time period (i.e., 1960s and 1970s). In a concluding section, we will discuss some of the lessons sport psychology consultants have learned in the decades since Puni developed his model and suggest some ways future models might expand on Puni's view of the provision of psychological assistance for athletes.