How to land top sport psychology roles

Sport psychologists working with leading teams set out the steps to finding and securing jobs with elite sides

“Overall, we are just not good enough…we have to be honest…everyone tried, but we hardly got any chances [at goal]. We’ll probably get five more e-mails from sports psychologists claiming to have the answers again. Those have been coming in at a regular clip. I wonder why we never needed them before.“

As sport stories go, a coach's throwaway comment about psychologists isn't exactly headline news. But Frank Schmidt's words, uttered after the German manager’s Heidenheim side lost their fifth straight match in February, struck a chord. Is this really how some sport psychologists attempt to land roles with top flight teams?

The answer, from my experience of speaking to leading professionals over the last half-decade, is no. It's tempting to wonder if the emails Schmidt refers to actually came from sport psychologists, if we're using the term to refer to accredited practitioners.

But it did get me thinking: what are the steps sport psychs should be taking to secure work within elite environments?

So, here's a list of tips, taken from interviews with psychologists operating at the top of their field.