The sport and exercise psychology practitioner’s contribution to service delivery outcomes

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to review research related to the practitioner’s contribution to effective service delivery. Specifically, we answer five questions. First, what are sport and exercise psychology practitioners striving to achieve? Second, what is expertise in applied sport and exercise psychology? Third, what are the characteristics of effective practitioners? Fourth, how can practitioners develop their expertise over time? Fifth, how do practitioners manage the athlete variables and contextual factors that influence service delivery? Offering answers to these questions allows us to identify practical implications to inform practitioner training and development and to suggest avenues to expand knowledge. Results from the review suggest that practitioners who help athletes effectively possess facilitative interpersonal skills, experience professional self-doubt, engage in judicious decision making, exercise organisational savviness, demonstrate multicultural humility, and willingly engage in skill development. Based on current knowledge, future research directions include examining the magnitude of practitioner attributes on service delivery outcomes. Applied implications for professional development include the use of deliberate practice to enhance skill learning, along with using supervision and feedback.

KEYWORDS:

• Practitioner expertise
• professional development
• service delivery outcomes
• performance psychology

When applied sport and exercise psychology practitioners meet with athletes, the individuals start a partnership to secure outcomes the client wants. Attaining desirable outcomes, however, results from many factors, including the athlete’s and practitioner’s input, their collaboration, the interventions they use, and the cultural and organisational context (Cruickshank et al., 2020; Poczwardowski, 2019). Researchers have examined these factors to build evidence-based knowledge that can inform practitioners’ attempts to help athletes and their own continued professional development, and this research has led to professional organisations’ position stands on topics such as supervision (Poczwardowski et al., 2023), professional accreditation (Schinke et al., 2018), scientist-practitioners (Schinke et al., 2024), and competence and training (Tenenbaum et al., 2003).

When considering the practitioner, Brown (2009, p. 309) suggested, “as a consultant assisting performers, you yourself are a performer. Your success as a consultant will be determined largely by how you perform as a consultant”. Like other performers, practitioners work in unpredictable environments, cope with various, sometimes stressful demands, and strive to deliver outputs that other people value (e.g., athletes). The consequences of a practitioner’s performance can be both positive (e.g., excellent client outcomes) and negative (e.g., reputational damage, unemployment). Research on sport and exercise psychology practitioners and their roles in service delivery provides knowledge they can use to improve their abilities to assist athletes.

Further, when practitioners enter service delivery, they rely on their knowledge, behaviour patterns, emotional regulation, interpersonal skills, and personalities to achieve positive athlete interactions, a notion summed up in the phrase that the “individual is the instrument of service delivery” (Tod, 2013, p. 44). In this article, we explore practitioner characteristics that allow them to help athletes achieve desired outcomes. More specifically, we aim to review knowledge related to practitioner expertise. To achieve our aim, we seek answers to the questions presented in Figure 1. The questions in Figure 1 help to integrate existing research and provides a conceptual map of the contributors to effective service delivery. We have integrated the research around questions rather than summative statements to show that firm answers are still developing. In this article we will (a) discuss research related to each question, (b) offer applied implications for practitioner development, and (c) suggest future research directions. Where possible, we have cited sport and exercise psychology literature, but where research is lacking, we have included counselling psychology literature to broaden our answers and provide a starting point for continued discussion. Previous research has indicated strong parallels between sport and exercise psychology and counselling psychology, and sport and exercise psychology practitioners have indicated that much of their learning comes from reading counselling psychology literature (McEwan et al., 2019).

Figure 1. Framework for exploring the practitioner’s contribution to effective service delivery.

Question 1: what are sport and exercise psychology practitioners striving to achieve?

A starting point to understanding the practitioner’s role is to explore what constitutes effective service delivery because doing so describes what the person is striving to achieve. Researchers have defined effective applied sport and exercise psychology as a multifaceted activity in which practitioners (a) assist athletes in attaining goals, exploiting unused resources, and resolving issues, (b) via collaborative alliances characterised by open and genuine attitudes from each person, (c) in which they reflect on and agree the goals, tasks, interventions, and responsibilities contributing to desired outcomes (Cropley et al., 2010; Tod et al., 2007). Missing from these previous definitions, however, is the need for practitioners to act in ethical and humane ways as described by the codes of conduct of professional bodies such as the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (https://appliedsportpsych.org/). The ability to provide effective and ethical services, as described above, and help athletes in dynamic unpredictable settings, where performance is being evaluated by others, requires a set of skills, knowledge, and competencies that take time to acquire (Martindale & Collins, 2013). Once mastered, practitioners might be considered experts, and it is helpful to define expertise in sport and exercise psychology (Cruickshank et al., 2020).

Figure 2. Framework summarising research exploring the practitioner’s contribution to effective service delivery.

Question 2: what is expertise in applied sport and exercise psychology?

Currently, an agreed definition describing the expert sport and exercise psychology practitioner is lacking. In proposing a description, we draw on work from the broader discipline of performance science. Ullen et al. (2016, p. 427) suggest experts “gradually acquire highly specialized competencies, which are needed for achieving consistently superior levels of performance within a particular domain”. Based on this definition, an expert sport psychology practitioner is an individual who achieves superior client outcomes compared to non-experts, primarily because they have acquired highly specialised competencies over time. This definition, however, along with any description, has limitations. First, the correlation that sport psychology practitioners’ behaviours and attributes have with client outcomes is unknown. Second, expertise is an arbitrary label dichotomising attributes existing on a continuum. For example, skills in interpersonal communication are not all or nothing phenomena. Practitioners marginally below a cutoff score (expert/nonexpert) will have almost the same level of interpersonal skill as individuals just above the criteria and will be just as effective with clients. Labelling one person an expert and the other not is unsubstantiated discrimination. Third, although desirable, expertise is not always a necessary requirement to help athletes. Competent practitioners and trainees can help athletes when their skills and knowledge match the athlete’s issues (Little et al., 2023). We hypothesise, however, that expert practitioners would be more consistently helpful when working with challenging issues and complicated situations. Fourth, although agreement exists about the highly specialised competencies needed for effective service delivery, as illustrated in the position stands cited above (Poczwardowski et al., 2023; Schinke et al., 2018; Schinke et al., 2024; Tenenbaum et al., 2003), the evidence that practitioners acquire these over time is almost exclusively based on self-report. Investigators have seldom measured practitioners’ skills, behaviours, and attributes or documented change over time. Much work remains before a satisfactory evidence-based definition of expertise exists. Nevertheless, expert practitioners are a subset within the broader group of individuals who are effective in helping athletes, just as elite athletes are a subset of competent and highly skilled sporting performers. Researchers have examined characteristics of effective practitioners, and the results provide an answer to question 3 as summarised in the next section.

Question 3: what are characteristics of effective practitioners?

Ullén et al.’s (2016) definition suggests expert practitioners have a set of highly specialised competencies or characteristics allowing them to achieve positive client outcomes. Limited evidence exists, however, measuring the relationship between applied sport and exercise psychology practitioner characteristics and athlete outcomes. Instead, indirect descriptive data suggests a relationship (e.g., Orlick & Partington, 1987). For example, athletes and coaches report that helpful practitioners have strong interpersonal skills and offer concrete practical advice, whereas unhelpful individuals lack these attributes (Anderson et al., 2004; Orlick & Partington, 1987). Perceptions of helpfulness, however, may not translate to effectiveness. Athletes may perceive a practitioner as helpful, even if the practitioner did not resolve the issues that led the athlete to approach them. Nevertheless, the existing research pointing to the characteristics of expert practitioners focuses primarily on facilitative interpersonal skills and judicious decision making.

Facilitative interpersonal skills

In more than 30 studies, various stakeholders, including athletes, coaches, practitioners, administrators, and parents, have reported on the attributes of effective and ineffective practitioners leading to several reviews (Fortin-Guichard et al., 2018; Tod et al., 2022; Woolway & Harwood, 2020). Stakeholders believe effective practitioners build strong interpersonal bonds with athletes, develop real relationships characterised by openness and realistic perceptions, inspire hope and rational expectations in clients, encourage athlete engagement in the change process, and fit well into the teams and organisations where they work. These findings point to cultural humility as a characteristic of useful practitioners. Specifically, individuals who are culturally humble: (a) treat athletes with respect and openness, (b) collaborate with clients, (c) strive to understand the intersections among athletes’ various identities, and (d) explore how that affects the working alliance (Hook et al., 2013). Cultural humility incorporates a willingness to self-reflect, share power, and to develop mutually beneficial partnerships with individuals and their communities (Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998). Cultural humility, however, embraces more than learning about and appreciating a client’s various identities and backgrounds (i.e., it goes beyond cultural competence). Athletes live and operate in various contexts, cultures, and subcultures which the culturally humble practitioner will endeavour to understand and engage where suitable. Also, athletes’ identities and culture intersect, and effective practitioners are sensitive and flexible when adapting services for these individuals. These principles of cultural humility echo the cultural sport and exercise psychology literature that has emerged in recent years (e.g., Hanrahan, 2023; Hanrahan & Lee, 2020).

Researchers in applied sport and exercise psychology have not measured the associations practitioners’ facilitative interpersonal skills have with service delivery outcomes. It is unknown, for example, the extent to which interpersonal skills predict or enhance client change (i.e., the magnitude of the relationship has not been assessed). Also, research exploring the perceived attributes of effective practitioners has focused most often on male consultants from Western countries. Researchers could advance knowledge by examining diverse groups of practitioners.

Although the associations that sport and exercise psychology practitioners’ facilitative interpersonal skills have with athlete outcomes are lacking, evidence from counselling shows a robust and consistent relationship (Wampold & Owen, 2021). In several longitudinal studies, for example, practitioners’ interpersonal skills predict client outcomes (Anderson et al., 2016; Schöttke et al., 2017). These studies indicate that effective practitioners are fluent verbally, communicate clearly, express suitable emotions, are persuasive, communicate hope, are warm and empathetic, demonstrate respect, attune to clients, can develop strong working alliances, are willing to collaborate, are problem focused, and manage criticism well (Anderson et al., 2016; Schöttke et al., 2017). Evidence also indicates that these facilitative interpersonal skills are teachable, and trainees can develop them (Anderson et al., 2020). Recently, Santos et al. (2023) created an inventory that allows clients to provide feedback on practitioners’ facilitative interpersonal skills. Practitioners who use the inventory will have access to feedback which they can use to help them improve their interpersonal skills, although they need to recognise that clients may not readily give negative feedback given the power dynamics inherent in service delivery relationships.

Professional judgement and decision making

Practitioners’ professional judgement and decision making (PJDM) skills influence the course and outcomes of service delivery (Martindale & Collins, 2005; Martindale & Collins, 2007). For example, practitioner’s decisions at case formulation will affect the interventions they select, design, and implement (Smith & Keegan, 2023). As another example, practitioners’ judgements about the goals of service delivery (e.g., performance, wellbeing, happiness, etc.) will shape the working alliances they build with athletes (Smith et al., 2019). From a PJDM viewpoint, applied sport and exercise psychology involves a chain of decisions practitioners make in dynamic and unstructured environments (Cruickshank et al., 2020). Benefits of studying PJDM include helping practitioners understand the reasons underpinning their judgements and equipping them with the resources and skills to make suitable decisions to guide effective athlete interactions (Martindale & Collins, 2013).

PJDM theory offers a coherent description about the ways that practitioners’ decisions influence service delivery processes and outcomes. Although PJDM literature in applied sport and exercise psychology is blossoming, most papers to date are theoretical (Martindale & Collins, 2013), and there are few empirical studies focused on the applied sport and exercise psychology context (e.g., Smith et al., 2019; Winter et al., 2024). Research has revealed, for example, the role of PJDM in the training of applied sport and exercise psychology practitioners (Martindale, 2010; Smith et al., 2019), explored the decision-making process in athlete consultations (Martindale & Collins, 2012), and examined issues related to evidence-based practice (Winter et al., 2024; Winter & Collins, 2015a, 2015b). Few attempts, however, have been made to measure the associations between PJDM and athlete outcomes. Although studies exploring relationships between decision making and athlete outcomes will advance knowledge, researchers need to consider which outcomes are relevant, robust, and worth measuring.

Although much scope remains for researchers to explore PJDM in applied sport and exercise psychology, the approach rests on a solid theoretical and empirical foundation borrowed from other disciplines. The foundation offers useful insights, such as methods for evaluating practitioner effectiveness and learning outcomes for practitioner training. When evaluating practitioner effectiveness, for example, Martindale and Collins (2007) proposed methods including process and outcome measures. Regarding learning outcomes for training, Phillips et al. (2004) outline goals for developing effective cognitive decision-making skills, such as: (a) enhancing perceptual skills, (b) enriching mental models about the practitioner’s domain, (c) constructing a varied set of relevant cognitive patterns and styles, (d) providing a wide range of behavioural examples, (e) exposure to a large base of instances, and (f) encouraging a commitment to continued learning.

Other practitioner characteristics

In a recent review, Woolway and Harwood (2020) explored the preferred characteristics of applied sport and exercise psychology practitioners in terms of athletes’ likelihood to seek help. Although the strength of the evidence varied, preferred practitioners were the same gender, race, and age as clients. Also, preferred practitioners had athletic backgrounds, sport-specific knowledge, and solid interpersonal skills. Such practitioners were lean and athletically built, physically active, possessed advanced degrees or were certified, and had experience working with diverse populations. Although these results point to the types of practitioners that athletes prefer when seeking services, they do not reveal how well these characteristics predict service delivery outcomes.

Evidence suggests that several of the preferred characteristics Woolway and Harwood (2020) identified are not related to service delivery outcomes. For example, athletes do not always use athletic background and sport-specific knowledge as criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of practitioners (Anderson et al., 2004). From counselling literature, age, gender, training, and certification (registration or licensure) are also not related to outcomes (Nissen-Lie et al., 2023; Wampold et al., 2019). Research has shown, however, that practitioners vary in their abilities to work with individuals of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (Hayes et al., 2015; Hayes et al., 2016). Multicultural competence influences service delivery outcomes. Cultural sport and exercise psychology literature has expanded in recent years and there exists guidance to help practitioners develop their knowledge, attitudes, and skills so they can assist people from diverse intersectionalities, cultures, and subcultures (Hanrahan, 2023; Hanrahan & Lee, 2020).

Notwithstanding multicultural competence and strong interpersonal skills, few characteristics that athletes use when seeking preferred practitioners (e.g., Woolway & Harwood, 2020) seem to be the ones they apply when evaluating effectiveness (e.g., Tod et al., 2022). The distinction between the attributes athletes use when seeking help and the ones they employ to evaluate practitioner effectiveness has implications for the marketing and recruitment of practitioners. For example, based on the preferred characteristics research, sporting organisations might be tempted when hiring practitioners to privilege individuals with attributes athletes use when seeking help (e.g., individuals of a similar age to the athletes). In many places, however, such practices are unlawful (e.g., in the UK it is unlawful to discriminate on age). Instead, in the UK suitable criteria for hiring practitioners include those characteristics necessary to perform the practitioner role, such as facilitative interpersonal skills and sound professional decision making.

Some practitioners have used the phrase imposter syndrome when describing anxiety about their abilities to work with athletes (Middleton et al., 2022), a term referring to a pattern of thoughts and behaviours in individuals who doubt their abilities and fear being exposed as inadequate (Clance & Imes, 1978). Practitioners from various helping disciplines (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses) who doubt their abilities have better client outcomes, especially if they also possess a positive sense of self (Nissen-Lie et al., 2017). Potentially, practitioners who doubt their abilities may be willing to improve and engage in self-reflection and skill development (Wampold et al., 2019).

Beyond the characteristics already discussed there exists a smattering of research focused on applied sport and exercise psychology practitioners across a diverse range of topics. Examples include practitioner self-care (Quartiroli, Etzel, et al., 2019), quality of life (Quartiroli, Knight, et al., 2019), professional identity (Quartiroli et al., 2021), self-awareness (Winstone & Gervis, 2006), sexual attraction between clients and practitioners (Stevens & Andersen, 2007), emotional labour (Hings et al., 2020), practitioner use of mental skills (Filion et al., 2021), and practitioner social support (McCormack et al., 2015). The emergence of research on the practitioner is an encouraging sign for the discipline because it reveals increasing recognition that the person delivering the intervention is just as influential on consultancy outcomes as the strategies and methods they use with athletes (or even more instrumental according to counselling psychology research). In applied sport and exercise psychology, practitioners, and the interventions they employ, cannot always be divided into neat separate categories. Any intervention, be it empathetic reflection, a person-centred relationship, a needs assessment questionnaire, or a mental skill, is delivered through the ways that practitioners behave, talk, and interact with athletes. The practitioner is the intervention or the instrument of service delivery.

Question 4: how can practitioners develop their expertise over time?

Much literature has been published in which authors suggest how practitioners can develop their expertise (e.g., Silva et al., 2011), but due to a lack of sport and exercise psychology-specific studies, these claims are unsupported. Instead, studies document the ways practitioners suggest they have changed throughout their careers, along with the people and events stimulating professional development, but these investigations have been descriptive and have not demonstrated that client outcomes improve (McEwan & Tod, 2023; Simons & Andersen, 1995). Researchers making statements about how quickly registered sport and exercise psychologists or certified mental performance consultants develop expertise (or compare individuals from diverse backgrounds) are speculating without suitable evidence.

Several of these studies have been longitudinal and focused primarily on trainees (Fogaca et al., 2018; Haluch et al., 2022; McEwan et al., 2019; McEwan & Tod, 2023; Tod et al., 2011). Major findings reveal that practitioners’ confidence in their abilities increase and they become adept at managing their anxiety through client experience. Over time, individuals adopt client-focused, rather than solution-focused approaches to helping athletes. They experience individuation or an integration of professional ideas and methods with personal values and beliefs that allow them to thrive within the contexts they work and with the clients they help. Practitioners report that clients, supervisors, and colleagues influence professional development more than theory and research, although such work is deemed helpful if applicable to individual’s current needs (McEwan & Tod, 2023).

Another key finding from the longitudinal studies reveals that self-reflection drives professional development (Tod et al., 2009). Most articles on reflective practice in sport and exercise psychology are theory-based, opinion papers, or case studies, and they provide limited evidence that self-reflection influences professional development. A recent study, however, provides initial evidence that teaching practitioners how to reflect leads to improved client feedback (Cropley et al., 2020). Pre- and post-intervention client feedback indicated practitioners had improved across several personal qualities, such as becoming more personable, practical, trustworthy, and knowledgeable. The magnitude of changes, however, were small and their significance untested. Further, out-of-session client change was not measured (e.g., increased competitive performance). Nevertheless, the study shows that practitioners can improve their expertise and examining the association between practitioner characteristics and client outcomes is possible.

Whereas researchers have not examined if practitioners’ client outcomes improve with time, experience, or professional development, such studies exist in counselling research. Longitudinal studies reveal that experience, whether defined as years helping people or the number of cases accumulated, has a weak inconsistent relationship with client outcomes (Goldberg et al., 2016; Owen et al., 2016). Goldberg et al.’s (2016) results showed a decrease in client outcomes, although the effect was small. Overall, there is limited evidence indicating that practitioners have improved client outcomes across their careers. Instead, research indicates that inexperienced practitioners achieve client outcomes comparable to their professional elders (Owen et al., 2016).

Nevertheless, counselling studies show that practitioners benefit from skills training, becoming proficient at helping clients (Hill & Lent, 2006). In a recent line of inquiry, researchers have implemented deliberate practice principles (e.g., providing clear feedback, goal-directed instruction, and supportive coaching), and emerging results yield positive outcomes (Mahon, 2023). These results have relevance for sport and exercise psychology because the deliberate practice principles studied echo many suggestions about how to train practitioners. There are different nuances between counselling and sport and exercise psychology, however. Researchers could replicate the counselling studies in sport and exercise psychology contexts to help the discipline learn how to optimise practitioner training. In the applied implications section, we will discuss ways to implement deliberate practice principle to help practitioners.

Questions 5a and 5b: how do practitioners manage the athlete variables (Question 5a) and contextual factors (Question 5b) that influence service delivery?

Effective practitioners are aware of and work with the athlete and contextual factors that influence service delivery, fashioning interventions to suit clients’ needs, preferences, and circumstances (McEwan & Tod, 2023). In this section, we review literature on how effective practitioners manage athlete and contextual variables influencing service delivery.

Athlete factors

Few researchers have explored athlete factors influencing service delivery. Studies have examined athletes’ attitudes to sport psychology but have not established links with service delivery processes or outcomes (Martin et al., 2002), which is an area for future research. Counselling psychology, however, has ascertained client factors predicting outcomes (Constantino et al., 2021). For example, clients who (a) have positive outcome expectations, (b) see interventions as credible, (c) actively participate, (d) are open to psychological ideas, (e) are self-aware, (f) are ready to change, and (g) have a secure attachment style have better outcomes than individuals lacking these characteristics (Constantino et al., 2021). Factors such as increased problem severity, perfectionism, self-criticism, interpersonal problems, hostility, and resistance obstruct outcomes. Many of these characteristics are cited by applied sport and exercise psychology practitioners when they describe mental skills training. For example, sport psychology practitioners encourage athletes to hold realistic and positive expectations about their mental training (e.g., Hodge, 2005).

To manage and work with athlete factors, and elicit clients’ active involvement, effective practitioners use strategies such as promoting allegiance, building sound service delivery relationships, and contracting (e.g., Wampold & Imel, 2015). The first strategy, allegiance, involves practitioners helping clients understand and believe in the model of mental skills training underlying service delivery (Tod et al., 2022) through providing simple clear explanations and specific concrete practical interventions (Orlick & Partington, 1987). The second strategy, relationship building, helps athletes commit to working with the practitioner and engaging in the tasks that will allow positive outcomes to arise, such as trying interventions and disclosing relevant personal information (Sharp & Hodge, 2014). The third strategy, contracting, occurs when practitioners and clients agree on the goals, methods, individual responsibilities, and logistics of their collaboration (Moore, 2003). Contracts help athletes commit to the service delivery process and make them accountable for their involvement. Helpful contracts also enhance positive expectations by outlining the practitioner’s approach and foster beneficial relationships.

Contextual factors

In contrast to knowledge about the athlete’s role in applied sport and exercise psychology, researchers have identified relevant contextual factors (e.g., Orlick & Partington, 1987). Effective practitioners adapt to the organisation or context in which they find themselves (Arnold & Sarkar, 2015). Specific examples from the research include dealing with stigmas about applied psychology and mental health, resolving ethical dilemmas, such as managing confidentiality in high-performance environments, and coping with gender stereotypes and sexual attraction (e.g., Mapes, 2009; Sharp & Hodge, 2011; Zakrajsek et al., 2013). Further contextual factors include the amount of time practitioners have available to spend with athletes and the support they receive from coaches (Orlick & Partington, 1987). Effective practitioners embed themselves into the context and culture, build relationships with the stakeholders, and act in helpful ways during difficult moments, such as knowing what type of support to offer during competition (e.g., Arnold & Sarkar, 2015; Castillo et al., 2023).

Applied implications

Research shows that practitioners can develop their capacities to help athletes by applying deliberate practice principles (Mahon, 2023). Figure 2 presents answers to the 5 questions guiding our review of the practitioner’s contribution to service delivery. The answers can inform practitioner professional development. For practitioner learning, deliberate practice requires: (a) goal-directed systematic efforts to enhance performance, such as focussing on weaknesses; (b) help from suitable supervisors; (c) feedback on service delivery processes and outcomes; and (d) constant repetitive efforts undertaken outside of service delivery (Rousmaniere, 2017).

Goal-directed systematic efforts to enhance performance

Practitioners can use goal setting and performance profiling to satisfy the first principle (Wang & Healy, 2023; Weston, 2023). A performance profile will help practitioners to identify their strengths (e.g., empathy) and weaknesses (e.g., tendency to offer solutions too quickly) when helping athletes. Having identified areas to address, goal setting can help practitioners set measurable goals and plan systematic learning strategies to build skills. For example, a practitioner might have a habit of asking too many questions leading to clients feeling interrogated. The practitioner may aim to increase the number of empathic reflections used with clients (goal) and have role plays with their supervisors to practice using empathic reflections rather than asking questions (learning strategy).

Receive help from suitable supervisors

Practitioners can consider several questions when assessing if a potential supervisor will help them towards their skill learning goals:

• Can we form a relationship based on openness and genuineness?

• Am I open to being coached by this individual?

• Does the person have suitable experience, both in skill learning and supervising?

• Is the person reliable?

• Do we have compatible professional philosophies?

• Can I afford the cost this individual charges?

• How will we deal with differences of opinion?

The list of questions is not exhaustive but helps to illustrate the value of spending time to find a suitable supervisor instead of making an unreflective decision.

Feedback on process and outcome

There are several ways practitioners can obtain feedback about their progress towards their skill learning goals. As a first example, the individual above who wants to ask fewer questions and offer more empathetic reflections could record client sessions and count the number of each communicate type. Recorded sessions also allows practitioners to reflect and supervisors to provide feedback on what occurred. As a second example, researchers have developed routine process and outcome questionnaires that are usable in real-world settings (Lambert et al., 2018), allowing athletes to provide feedback on practitioner performance. These questionnaires can be used alongside qualitative feedback, although clients may not always be comfortable criticising practitioners and relationship complexity may hinder feedback processes. As a third example, practitioners can gather data about athletes’ sporting performances, such as using putting performance in golf to assess the helpfulness of pre-shot routines. Inferring a causal relationship between sporting performance and service delivery is not possible given the army of rival explanations. Practitioners, however, can discuss performance measures with athletes and together they can decide about the helpfulness of service delivery. Although not objective data, practitioners can use the discussions to reflect on their skill learning progress.

Constant repetitive efforts undertaken outside of service delivery

The need to focus on the client takes precedent over skill learning during service delivery. Instead, role plays and simulations are suitable vehicles for practitioners to practice their skills. For example, if a practitioner wants to develop the ability to adapt interventions to athletes’ needs, then colleagues could role play as distinct types of clients (e.g., children, mothers who are elite performers, or athletes hard of hearing). Practitioners can sometimes practice skills outside of role plays. For example, practitioners can practice basic counselling and communication skills during everyday conversations they have with family and friends.

Future research directions

Although we know much about the contribution practitioners make to service delivery and how they develop their expertise, a lot remains to be learned. Two ways to advance knowledge include exploring service delivery outcomes and examining practitioners’ in-session behaviours, thoughts, and feelings.

Service delivery outcomes

Anderson et al. (2002) offered a framework of service delivery outcome variables that investigators could draw on to help them select relevant measures for their studies. Specifically, Anderson et al. listed quality of support, psychological skills, athlete wellbeing, athletes’ responses to support, and performance as ways to assess applied sport and exercise psychology practice in general. Researchers, however, could use these same indicators to explore the practitioner attributes and behaviours that predict service delivery outcomes. First, under quality of support, for example, Anderson et al. mentioned athletes’ perceptions of and satisfaction with support. Specific questions to explore include what types of practitioner verbal behaviour (e.g., silence, empathic reflections, questions, affirmations) predict athletes’ positive perceptions of and satisfaction with a consultant? Second, regarding psychological skills, researchers could explore the relationships practitioners’ behaviours and attributes have with athletes’ increased or decreased use of psychological skills in training and competition. For example, what practitioner actions and attributes lead to athletes’ use of pre-competition and in-competition plans becoming more consistent and robust? What types of practitioner behaviours predict increases in the quality of athletes’ imagery? Third, with respect to athlete wellbeing, do practitioner attributes predict changes in athletes’ wellbeing and happiness? Fourth, regarding athletes’ responses to support, are there practitioner characteristics and styles of working that increase clients’ knowledge, use, and attitudes towards sport and exercise psychology?

Fifth, performance was another indicator Anderson et al. (2002) identified. Performance can be assessed at various levels equivalent to the outcome, performance, and process goals described in goal setting literature (Bird et al., 2024). At the outcome level, variables include rankings, placings, and win/loss records, but may also include team selection and money earned. At the performance level, indicators include personal bests and a host of other statistics, such as batting averages, cycling cadence, bowling speed, shots to green, and stick speed. At the process level, markers include the bodily responses and actions athletes need to produce to perform well, such a head position, running economy, and muscular power.

Although relevant in some cases, athletes do not always seek help with performance enhancement. They may wish to discuss other issues with practitioners, such as grief, destructive relationships, loss of meaning, or addictive behaviours. Researchers could explore a range of outcomes beyond sport performance. After seeing a practitioner, for example, do athletes report improved social skills, greater life satisfaction and meaning, better self-regulation, or a sense of ease with life?

Practitioners’ behaviours, thoughts, and feelings during service delivery

To date, most research has treated practitioners as static entities and their attributes as trait-like factors. For example, researchers suggest athletes appreciate empathetic and genuine practitioners (Poczwardowski, 2019). Empathy and genuineness, however, are dynamic attitudes that are expressed through actions and words (Wilkins, 2015). In personality parlance, empathy and genuineness are states, not traits. Practitioners’ capacities for and expressions of empathy and genuineness will vary across clients and settings. Acknowledging that practitioners are dynamic, and their characteristics are expressed through their words and actions points to the value of exploring their in-session verbal and non-verbal behaviours, thoughts, and feelings. Two questions could help frame studies in this area. First, what are the indicators that signal to athletes that practitioners are displaying characteristics such as empathy, genuineness, unconditional positive regard, etc.? Second, what is the magnitude of the relationship these verbal and non-verbal behaviours have with athlete outcomes?

A difficulty that researchers face is accessing enough practitioners and athletes to generate sufficient power to answer the questions posed above, both quantitatively and qualitatively (Malterud et al., 2016). In the United Kingdom, for example, there are about 385 registered sport and exercise psychologists, compared with more than 16, 000 counselling and clinical psychologists (Health Care and Professions Council, 2019). Given the small number of sport and exercise psychologists, and their geographic spread across the United Kingdom, running experiments of sufficient size to estimate the effect of practitioner attributes on athlete outcomes represents a logistical challenge. Rather than rely on experiments or large-scale surveys, researchers could use other approaches, such as single-subject experimental designs, as illustrated by Cropley et al. (2020) when they tested the influence of practitioner reflective practice on client feedback. Further, when conducting a single-subject experiment, researchers can calculate effect sizes that can be meta-analysed making it possible to pool research results (Hedges et al., 2012).

Conclusion

In this article we examined research exploring the practitioner attributes that allow them to assist athletes to attain positive service delivery outcomes, and we integrated it in a conceptual map based around five questions. The literature indicates that practitioners who display strong facilitative interpersonal skills, who possess a professional self-doubt that allows a self-reflective attitude, who exercise judicious decision making, who are sensitive to the organisational and political context, who recognise athletes’ intersubjectivities, and who willingly engage in skill development outside of applied practice will provide clients with high-quality services. To advance these findings, researchers need to measure the relationships that practitioners’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours have with service delivery processes and outcomes. Researchers need to also examine how supervisors and educators can help practitioners develop the attributes listed above. These lines of research will provide evidence-based knowledge that can help practitioners (and their educators and supervisors) develop the knowledge, skills, and expertise to better meet their clients’ needs.

Data sharing statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).