The history and the prospect of the cooperative trials to support mental problems of top athletes in the Japanese Institute of Sports Science

Abstract

In Japan, there are three groups for mental support of top athletes. They are mental trainers, sports counselors, and clinical psychologists. Each group has it’s own specialty and they overlap in some situations, so there are some difficulties in cooperation.

In this paper, the author overviews the history of the trial to cooperate in Japanese Institute of Sports Science, including the process to regularize meetings and case conferences to understand each other. The author proposes a new style to support top athletes with the three groups’ cooperation in Japan .