Contents

Editorial
Paul McCarthy
Original Articles
4
Experiences of the pre- and
post-retirement period of female elite
artistic gymnasts: An exploratory study
Hannah Clowes, Pete Lindsay,
Louise Fawcett & Zoe Knowles
22 An exploration of participation football
coaches philosophies from development
to expression
Dan Horsley, Emma Cockburn &
Ian A. James
37 Athletes perceptions about the
availability of social support during
within-career transitions
Caleb Adams, Pete Coffee & David Lavallee
49 Eye tracking in sport: A guide for new
and aspiring researchers
Russell M. Discombe & Stewart T. Cotterill
Applied and Pedagogical Reflections
59 Making ends meet: The typical week of
a Sport and Exercise Psychologist
in training
James Lambdon
66 NLP: Misunderstood by psychologists
Bruce Grimley
73 Eddie Van Halen, please call.
A reply to Grimley
David Tod
Its good to talk
75 One-on-One with Dr Richard L. Cox
77 A week in the life of an
Applied Sport Psychologist
Sarah Cecil
Student Members (Editor: Karen Howells)
82 A Big New World A sport psychology
placement students findings
George Bucknell
86 Effective relationship management as a
survival skill for PhD students
Aleksandra Krukowska

Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2

Miscellaneous
88 The good, the bad and the ugly of elite
sport: A reply to Martindale, A.,
Collins, D. & Richards, H. (2014).
Its good to talk Is elite sport good
for you? Sport and Exercise Psychology
Review, 10 (3), 6876.
Tadhg MacIntyre, Jessie Barr &
Clodagh Butler
91 Is elite sport (still) good for you?
A response to the reply
Amanda Martindale, Dave Collins &
Hugh Richards
95 The team and mate in META:
Two students perspectives
Jessie Barr & Clare Murphy
Masterclass Review
98 A Masterclass in Golf Psychology:
Taking Players and Coaches from
Good to Great
Sarah Carvell
Workshop Review
100 Psychological legacies: Podium,
performance and participation
James Lambdon
Conference Report
103 8th World Congress on Science and
Football 2015
Claire Rossato & Itay Basevitch
Book Review
105 Doing Exercise Psychology
Edited by Mark B. Anderson &
Stephanie J. Hanrahan
Reviewed by Will McConn

Miscellaneous

The team and mate in META:

Two students perspectives
Jessie Barr & Clare Murphy

OFFEE is often central to our research

activity and a series of Americanos are
rumoured to have led to the inspriation of the META label. META represents a
blend of interelated concepts meta-Motivation, meta-Emotion, Thinking and Action
(Metacognition). While Flavell (1979) had
proposed the cognitive aspects of metacognition, in recent decades the role of our cognitions in regulating our emotions (Lane et al.,
2012) has come to the fore with recent
conceptualisations of metacognition encompassing a broader role for metacognitive
processes (MacIntyre et al., 2014). A British
Psychological Society (BPS) research
seminar series award has funded this
concept to develop an innovative interdisciplinary perspective on expertise. The overall
aim of the seminars was to enhance the
conceptual understanding of META
processes by exploring the constructs in the
context of motor cognition (i.e. the field of
research concerned with understanding
action). It is argued that metacognitive
processes and inferences play an important
if neglected role in expertise.
The META team comprised of Professor
Carol McGuinness (QUB), Professor Andy
Lane (University of Wolverhampton),
Dr Tadhg MacIntyre, Dr Deirdre OShea and
Dr Eric Igou (UL), Aidan Moran (UCD),
Paul McCarthy (Glasgow Caledonian) and
Marc Jones (Staffordshire). Thus the attendees represent undergraduate (like me,
Clare) and postgraduate students (like me
Jessie), researchers and practitioners from
several fields of psychology (e.g. social, sport,
organisational and cognitive) coupled with
researchers from allied fields (e.g. physiSport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2
The British Psychological Society 2015

ology, coaching science). The plan was that

by combining expertise from across these
disciplines new knowledge would emerge
which can be translated from theory to practice across numerous contexts.

META mates
The seminar series consists of a series of
workshops which take place across three host
institutions: 1. University of Wolverhampton;
2. University of Limerick; and 3. Queens
University Belfast. The first workshop was a
one-day meeting entitled: Conceptual
analysis: A review of META constructs and
was chaired by Professor Andy Lane. The
Irish cohort of the group arrived at Wolverhampton slightly dishevelled after catching
the red eye from Dublin airport that
morning. Fuelled by coffee and some delicious (and healthy) snacks provided by
Professor Lane, the day kicked off with the
elevator pitches (no slides allowed) which
were really effective as they served as a quick
introduction to each of the guests, without
death by powerpoint. I (Jessie) was more
nervous awaiting my turn to deliver my
elevator pitch than I would be on the startline of a race as well as a prospective PhD
student, I train full time as an athlete. The
idea for my PhD research was still under
construction at the time of this first workshop, and so I felt thoroughly unprepared to
stand up in front of this room full of experienced academics! Thankfully my stop in the
elevator was on the second floor, and so my
pitch was short and sweet.
Next, under the expert guidance of
Dr Deirdre O Shea, a brainstorming activity
was organised whereby the entire group
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Jessie Barr & Clare Murphy

(reluctantly it must be said) stood in a large
circle and were tasked to decide upon
several themes which would determine the
content of the two scoping sessions. Emergent themes included resilience, mindfulness, mental health stigma, the automaticity
of expertise and the functions of affect.
During each scoping session, one person led
a discussion on one topic at their table, and
guests were invited to join the table which
theme most appealed to them. These
scoping sessions were informative and challenging due to the variety of topics covered
and the wealth of knowledge and experience
brought to each discussion by each individual. Resulting from a less than discrete
nudge in my (Jessie) direction from
Dr MacIntyre, I not only put forward the
theme of mental health stigma a prominent area of my PhD research but I also
found myself attempting to lead a smaller
group discussion on the topic. Again, feeling
out of my depth, I attempted to allow the
other members of the group to lead the
conversation. However, I could not escape
the inevitable interest in my PhD research,
which I will aim to examine the stigma of
mental health illness in the elite sport
setting. Dr Eric Igou acted as the Devils
Advocate, introducing some interesting
ideas and perspectives for me to consider for
my research. I came away from this discussion with plenty of food for thought which
was a good thing as lunch was beckoning us!
The workshop drew to a close with a
review of the day, with a particular focus on
future directions of the research programme. Opinions on the most appropriate
and favourable methods of dissemination of
the research programme were garnered, and
the potential for further funding opportunities were discussed with enthusiasm. Evaluations of the day revealed the positive take
home messages from this initial workshop;
META was recognised as an area with massive
untapped potential for future work with an
all-encompassing framework. Equally as
important was the dynamic of the research
group itself (more mates than checkmate) it
96

proved to be a successful environment for

establishing new connections and creating
avenues for potential collaborations.

Selling META to the masses

Preceding the second seminar series was a
keynote on The regulation of emotions and
fostering relationships for performance by
Professor Andy Lane at the HP-X, High
Performance in Sport Conference in the IMI
in Dublin. Almost 150 of the key stakeholders managing, coaching and planning
high performance in Ireland attended and
the META featured as a new term for the
attendees. The subsequentMETA seminars at
Limerick combined various breakout
sessions and two applied workshops,
commencing with breakout sessions
discussing new topics to reviewing topic initiated at the first seminar. As before, the
seminar was fuelled by copious amounts of
coffee if the research is to be believed and
it does not serve as a tool for the enhancement of cognition (Nehlig, 2010), well we
are firm believers in its placebo effect!
Topics discussed in the breakout sessions
in this seminar were athletic identity, stigma,
pilot projects, collaborations, funding
streams and dissemination activity. A video
was produced featuring Professor Andy
Lane, Dr Ian Lahart, Dr Ross Cloak (all from
the University of Wolverhampton) and Noel
Brick (University of Ulster) to explain what
metacognition is, who the META
research team are and what the aims of
the
research
group
are
(see
http://tinyurl.com/BPSmetaresearch).

Its not what you think but

As part of the strategy to apply the META
construct there were workshops organised for
athletes, coaches, clinicians and practitioner
psychologists. The first workshop Its not what
you think but what you say that counts: Optimising communication in coaching and
consulting focused on the role of language in
mediating change for players, coaches and
sport science support. The overall aim of the
workshop
was
to
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2

The team and mate in META: Two students perspectives

optimise communication so that it promoted
metacognition, autonomy and a sense of
control. The workshop drew from experts
from sport psychology, physiology and we had
the addition of Dr Catherine Norton, an
expert in sports nutrition from Munster
Rugby. The objectives of the workshops were
to: (1) To present the principles underlying
optimal communication for coaching and
how these can develop the expertise of the
player by enhancing their knowledge of how
they think, behave and change; and (2) to
facilitate the discussion of the two case studies
and to generate new ideas with the coaches
and support staff that attended. During this
workshop I (Jessie) led a group discussion on
language used by support staff when an
athlete is injured, with a particular focus on
the language used at the initial onset of injury
and at every stage of recovery. The group
included an athlete, two coaches and a physiotherapist, each of whom provided their own
unique perspective and thoughts on the topic.
The second workshop, Its not what you
think but how you think that counts:
Metacognition as a vehicle for change, was
aimed at sport psychologists, clinicians,
researchers and anyone interested in
pursuing a career in sport or organisational
psychology. The aim of this workshop was to
shed light on our understanding of how
people acquire and demonstrate expertise.
The workshop provided a case study for the
attendees to discuss and a forum to share
ideas and opinions. Both workshops were a
huge success. Some tweets about the workshops were from Irish rugby captain Niamh
Briggs; Really enjoyable evening @TadhgMacIntyre & fellow @BPSmetaresearch
learnt loadsv interesting #differentperspectives #learning #nerd, and Eoghan McNeill,
postgraduate student in sport psychology at
Ulster; Fascinating and entertaining workshop with @BPSmetaresearch @TadhgMacIntyre in #Ul today #andthepricegoesup.

META team mates

design and research proposals for the

META in the 21st century, kicks off on
18 September at Queens University Belfast.
An outreach workshop focuses again on the
Its not what you think but concept with
an emphasis on action (Its what you do that
counts). If you are intested in attending
contact us the team via www.metaresearch.org and follow the research group
activity on twitter: @BPSmetaresearch.

The Authors
Jessie Barr is a student athlete (London 2012
Olympian) and graduate of the University of
Limerick (UL). She recently completed her
Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology
from the University of the West of England.
At present, she is undertaking a Summer
internship with Tadhg MacIntyre at the
Department of PE and Sport Sciences at the
UL and commences her doctoral studies
investigating mental health stigma among
elite athletes in September.
Clare Murphy is a final-year sport science
student at the UL and has just completed
her work placement where she helped plan
and organise the META workshop activities.
She too is a student athlete and competes as
a rival to Jessie in the 400m hurdles and has
been funded to conduct research on the
action modality effect in promoting second
language acquisition.

References

Flavell J.H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive

monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906911.
Lane, A., Beedie, C.J., Jones, M.V., Uphill, M. &
Devonport, M.J. (2012). The BASES Expert
Statement on emotion regulation in sport.
Journal of Sports Sciences, 30(11), 11891195.
MacIntyre, T.E., Igou, E.R., Campbell, M.J., Moran,
A.P. & Matthews, J. (2014). Metacognition and
action: A new pathway to understanding social
and cognitive aspects of expertise in sport.
Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1155.
Nehlig, A. (2010). Is caffeine a cognitive enhancer?
Journal of Alzheimers Disease, 20(1), S8594.

Round three of the seminar series New

paradigms and new approaches: Research
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, Vol. 11 No. 2

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