Sports Psychology is about improving your attitude and mental game.  It's about perfecting skills to help you perform your best in tough situations.  The key to a healthy state of mind while playing is learning to identifying your limitations and embracing a healthier philosophy about your sport.

Below is five ways that an athlete can benefit from sports psychology:

1. Improve focus. Learning to improve your focus can allow many athletes to ignore unwanted distractions. Many athletes have the ability to concentrate, but often their focus is displaced on the wrong areas such as the mistake that was just made or what the current score of the game is. It's important to on the present moment and let go of results and the past.  You can only change the future.
2. Improve confidence. Athletes who have doubts indicate low self-confidence or some athletes are sabotaging what confidence they do have. Confidence is the most important aspect of your game.  You can be a great player, but with low confidence you will never reach your full potential.
3. Develop coping skills. This allows athletes to deal with setbacks and errors. Learning emotional control is a crucial to any athlete.  Athletes with very high and strict expectations, have trouble dealing with minor errors that are a natural part of sports. It's important to address these expectations and learn to stay composed under pressure.
4. Develop communication skills. By learning how to communication effective and efficiently, players and teams will develop a deep sense of unity and cohesion. A team that works as a unit can over come any obstacle. 
5. Believe in yourself. It's important to develop a healthy belief system. Athlete's need to identify ineffective beliefs and attitudes such as comfort zones and negative self-labels that hold them back from performing well. These core unhealthy beliefs must be identified and replaced with a new way of thinking. Unhealthy or irrational beliefs will keep you stuck no matter how much you practice or hard you try.

Sport psychology may not be appropriate for every athlete because not every athlete wants to "improve performance."  It's important that the athlete desires to improve their own mental game without having the motive to satisfy anyone else but themselves. The key to sport psychology is understanding the importance of a positive attitude and mental toughness. A competitive athlete should want every possible advantage they can get including the mental edge over the competition.