program

ORAL ABSTRACTS - THURSDAY, 21 MAY 2015the club. In this light, one can always argue that people in football clubs need to be moreprogressive and embracing of sport psychology. However, a more important reason may be thatsport psychology itself has failed to provide relevant, football specific and concrete psychologicalsolutions for coaches and players to effectively use. In this presentation, the presenter will refer toresearch on psychology in football as well as 20 years of experience in applying psychology to elitefootball (in more than 10 different countries). With this an attempt is made to demonstrate howsport psychology practitioners effectively can develop a psychology knowledge base, and thenstructure and market their services, to effectively penetrate into the often conservative, protectionistand closed world of professional football. The basis for the presentation is a comprehensive model(the 11-model) outlining a summary of the research we have about elite football playercharacteristics. This model also provides a way to anchor psychological processes in football tocontext-specific and functional performance development processes. The presentation will includeempirical evidence, psychological profiling and monitoring tools, case-studies, and practicaldemonstrations of how sport psychology can be effectively communicated to coaches and players.S12.2An exploration into enhancing resilience in Premier League Academy Football players using apositive psychology based educational interventionMisia Gervis, A GoldmanBrunel University, College of Health and Life Sciences, Uxbridge, UKThe focus of this study was to investigate the efficacy of an educational intervention programmebased on positive psychology to enhance the emotional resilience of a group of U16 premier leagueacademy footballers. These players due to their unique environment were considered to be at risk ofnegative psychological symptomology, which the program sought to address by strengthening theiremotional resilience. Research has consistently shown that enhancing emotional resilienceinoculates against potential psychological risk. Using the seven factor model of resilience proposedby Reivich & Shatté (2002) and the associated Resilience Quotient Test, pre-testing revealed belowaverage scores for five of the seven factors. The intervention programme was delivered to nine U16academy players over the course of eight weeks in pre-season. The purpose was to strengthen andenhance their emotional resilience across each of the seven resilience factors, to prepare them for acritical and potentially stressful season. The results from this study found that resilience could beenhanced and developed in adolescent football players. In particular, the factors of emotionregulation, causal analysis and empathy showed significant improvement – with emotion regulation,previously the lowest scoring factor, showing the most improvement. This study indicates not onlythat the programme itself can work successfully, but also that resilience can be enhanced – whichhas implications for the development and psychological support of young footballers.S12.3The influence of perfectionism on psychological well-being in soccerEsmie Smith(1,2), T Donachie(1), HK Hall(1), AP Hill(1)(1) York St John University (YSJ), York, UK2) University College of Football Business (UCFB), Burnley/Wembley, UK91