Making the Case for Curiosity in Sport

Abstract

Curiosity is a crucial factor for promoting development and learning in various performance domains. In this article we position curiosity as a construct of interest in sport and draw on knowledge from the psychological, pedagogical, and organizational literature to inform our argument. In doing so, we speculate on the value that promoting curiosity can have for those working in sport, before offering an overview of the work conceptualizing curiosity, and considering ways that curiosity is inhibited in high-performance sport contexts. We conclude by offering considerations for applied sport psychologists for promoting curiosity in sport, and invite practitioners to begin a critical discourse on the topic of curiosity and the role it can have within their sport context.

Keywords:

• Curious
• desire to know
• high performance sport
• practice
• psychological safety

Disclosure statement

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.