November 2012 For immediate release

Psychology experts reflect on London 2012

A team of Leeds Metropolitan University sport psychology academics, students and graduates are set to share their expertise at the 2012 Annual Conference of the British Psychological Societys North East and North West branches in Manchester on Friday 16 November. The conference, held at Manchester City Football Clubs Etihad Stadium, will bring together students, practitioners and other individuals with an interest in sport and exercise psychology. The conference offers an opportunity to

discuss the reflections and implications of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: identifying the role that psychology played in the successes and challenges faced by athletes and coaches during the summer of sport, and helping delegates to find ways to learn from the events, informing research and practice linked to sport performance and participation.

Jon Finn, Professor Jim McKenna and Dr Andrew Manley will lead an interactive workshop at the conference on behalf of Leeds Metropolitan, using the unique Pre-Shot psychology training programme to consider how people learn and how this can be improved using the programme.

The Pre-Shot Training Programme was developed by Jon, a PhD student and Visiting Research Fellow at Leeds Metropolitan. He explains: The concepts of psychology are often difficult to understand, making them difficult to learn and then improve. The Pre-Shot Training Programme creates a physical

format to the invisible things that people are thinking. It helps people to plan

what they are going to think about; the aim is that they fill their mind with only useful thoughts, so their performance improves. Jon developed the programme through his work with the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) and Monmouth School in Wales. It has been adapted into an iPhone app for professional and weekend golfers and is now being further adapted for use in education, business and sport. Attendees of the conference workshop will explore the programmes kit to think about how people learn in these different contexts and how the kit can help various client groups including athletes, coaches, students and teachers.

In addition, MSc. Sport and Exercise Psychology students, James Hazlett, Helen Brown and Christopher Wright, will present findings from their internship work with young athletes on the Sports Aid b active Sporting Excellence Programme, supervised by Dr Manley at Leeds Met. James and Helen will also present their dissertation findings on psychological pressure training in high performance badminton, and the impact of media expectations on elite athletes, respectively.

A panel session will complete the day, led by high-profile names including Mick Hill and Laura Weightman. Mick is Senior Coach (Higher Performance and Enterprise) at Leeds Metropolitan and a javelin thrower who has competed for Great Britain in four Olympic Games. He currently coaches Jessica Ennis in the javelin event. Laura Weightman represented Great

Britain in the 1500m at the London 2012 Games and is currently studying Sport and Exercise Science at Leeds Metropolitan. The panel will discuss their reflections on the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games with particular reference to sport psychology: what was, what is and what could be.

Additionally, several Leeds Met academics and students, PhD and undergraduate, will display poster presentations on their work including: physical activity and quality of life in people with psychosis (Dr Jackie Hargreaves), doping prevention (Laurie Patterson), talent identification (Fieke

Rongen), and the influence of sporting experiences on the development of challenge states in high performance athletes (Josh Scanlon).

Ends

For further details please contact Carrie Braithwaite in the Communications team at Leeds Met on 0113 812 3022 or email c.braithwaite@leedsmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has over 27,000 students and around 3,000 staff. The Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University is Professor Susan Price and the Chair of the Board is Lord Woolmer of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitans four faculties are: Arts, Environment and Technology, Business & Law, Health and Social Sciences, and Carnegie. Leeds Metropolitans heritage can be traced back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in Leeds in 1824. The Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE) showed that the proportion of Leeds Metropolitan 2010/11 graduates in work, further study or both six months after leaving university was 91.87%. Libraries and Learning Innovation at Leeds Metropolitan was awarded the CSE standard for the tenth year running in 2012. In 2012, Leeds Metropolitan was awarded a First in the People & Planet Green League, a league table of environmentally friendly universities, for the sixth consecutive year.