Sports Psychology Personal Statement Example

At age ten I had been to 12 different countries, across 3 continents, getting a taste of a multiculturalism that would taint my life to the present day.

The experience of a nomadic upbringing It inspired analysis from a young age. It inspired the recurring questions “how?” and “why?”.

I’ve been involved in fitness training since I was a teenager when I moved to a town on the South African coast and beach culture beckoned me to the gym.

It didn’t take long before I was hooked. Fitness became a part of life from that day on and it felt great to find something so relaxing that I could spend my spare time doing.

At the time, I was involved in full-time volunteer work at a home for underprivileged children/AIDS patients. At a holiday home for children we provided environmental education, sports days and training while on alternate days I was also involved in English and art classes in the city infirmary.

I found that spending an early morning’s focused training before heading out to the clinic or the prison kept me alert and gave me more energy.

From 2002-06 I participated in humanitarian work predominantly in South Africa, and Mozambique as well as their neighbouring countries.

I also became quite involved with the NGO’s fund-raising programme and took a lead role in handling the PR and heading up sponsorship appeals as well as learning the Portuguese language (spoken in Mozambique).

As time passed and I continued with the volunteer work, I gained several humanitarian work related certificates before returning to the UK in 2006.

Spending 3 years in sales and advertising, both in South Africa and in the UK, I had valuable opportunities to create and strive for goals I had set for myself.

After 3 months at Aurora Media, I achieved top field sales personality. I loved the idea of getting continually looking for a better way, one that exceeds competition.

I was promoted to a management position where I was able to further develop my skills in communication as well as time-management and maintaining a ‘results-focused’ outlook. Though I learned a lot in my time there, I felt it wasn’t an industry within which I could reach my full potential.

Over the past few years, I have increasingly prioritized and put more of an emphasis on my personal fitness regime which meant delving into the science of it through extensive reading and research. Resultantly, I have been approached by friends, colleagues and friends of friends, who - over the past four years - I have delivered personalised training plans and sessions to.

This has helped to progress further my in-depth analysis of the human psyche and performance. Furthermore, to aid my development of structuring an individual’s fitness goals into achievable reality I took a course in Fitness Instructing.

The course built on my knowledge of physiology, while the work experience aspect provided valuable insight on working in the fitness industry.

After being privileged to have travelled as much of the world as I have and seen so much of humanity and how we work and operate in different cultures through different traditional, religious and socio-economic backgrounds I feel now be in a position where I am able to develop my acquired analysis in the field of sport specific psychology.

Combining what I’ve learned from the philosophies of meditation, tried and proven sales techniques, the very science of muscle, reading training manuals and my experience in training myself as well as others, the mind is the force behind our every action. I’m led to believe that the difference between success and failure is in the mind.

Tapping into it and regulating its control over our bodies is perhaps the most important task we as humanity can learn.

Applying this to athletes, it is beyond exciting to think of what can be accomplished when the mind is trained to precision along with the body. I want to be on the forefront of scientific research that combines record breaking physiological performance with psychological discipline.

Having been away from the academic scene for many years I’m aware that I have some catching up to do to get back up to scratch.

The curriculum I’ve been following on the Access to Sports Science course here at KCC is challenging at times but I’m certainly enjoying it. I feel that in this time away from education I have developed a real hunger for it.

Being back in the classroom now after many years, didn’t at all feel overwhelming, the way I thought it might. Instead it felt right, like it was where I was supposed to be all along.

In my spare time, I like to train (I’m currently focusing on cardiovascular ability with a view to run the 2011 London Marathon). My reading interests include books ranging from psychology to nutrition. I don’t follow any particular authors so much as the material they cover.

A book, constantly on the top of my pile is “Patrick Holford’s – The Optimum Nutrition Bible”, which gives incredible reference to healthy eating. I’m currently inching through “Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker”. But don’t quiz me just yet...