Adequately assessing not only the quantity but also the quality of practice is important for achieving high-level performance among sports athletes. We aimed to develop the Self-Regulation of Learning in Sports Scale based on the Self-Regulation of Learning Self-Report Scale (SRL-SRS; Toering et al., 2012) and to verify its predictive validity in measuring the quality of practice. Five hundred and eight university students belonging to physical activity clubs completed the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis showed five subscales with a factor structure similar to the original questionnaire (SRL-SRS): planning, self-monitoring, effort, self-efficacy, and evaluation/reflection. Each subscale and five-factor model was demonstrated to be reliable and valid on reliability and confirmatory factor analyses, respectively. Additionally, we examined the relationship between each subscale score and the actual competition level of students. As a result, international-, national-, and area-level students showed significantly higher scores than prefecture-level students on some subscales, which supports the predictive validity of this scale. Thus, the Self-Regulation of Learning in Sports Scale, incorporating five subscales (37 items), was developed for the measurement of the quality of practice.

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This paper presents a review of the literature on psychological support practice for athletes in Japan. Our aim was to identify future directions for practical research and to suggest new viewpoints for practice. First, we extensively reviewed studies on “research through practice,” and found that the volume of practical studies has grown continuously. However, most of the studies are practical reports and few are case studies. Second, we examined the case studies of psychological support, and found that they were conducted by a small number of researchers representing only a few viewpoints. The three main viewpoints of the studies were the process of psychological change, the involvement of the body in psychological change, and the coexistence of research and practice. These findings point to issues for the future study of psychological support practice. These include elucidating the psychological mechanism related to the athlete’s body in performance enhancement and studying psychological support cases that address the subjectivity of practitioners, including their body experiences. These issues are relevant to both practice and research. Therefore, researchers who are also practitioners of psychological support should consider the integration of research and practice and promote practical research.

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In this study, the group sand play technique (GSPT) was applied to athletes who struggle with teamwork due to low mutual understanding and poor inter-teammate reliance. The process of team improvement was examined through group sand play. Subjects included 14 female athletes who were regulars on their team. A total of 14 sessions were held during the intervention periods, and were divided into two parts; the first took approximately one month and the second approximately a week. On average, each player attended 4.0 sessions of group sand play (range; 3–5 sessions).

Developmental changes brought about by the intervention were examined in four ways: (1) psychological scales, including the scale of dialogical athletic experience, the collective efficacy scale and the diagnostic inventory of competitive ability for athletes, (2) reflection on team performance and dynamics, (3) interviews of athletes and reflection of the facilitator after each GSPT session and (4) coach’s observations of performance improvement.

Improvement in team dynamics was realized in the following four ways: (1) GSPT helps teammates come to an understanding of problems in team dynamics, (2) mutual understanding at the image level is gained through GSTP, (3) GSTP becomes a catalyst for the team learning to cope with team problems and (4) GSPT experiences and training activities run parallel to each other and interact on the athletic field.

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The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine tripartite relationships in the mental training (MT), and to analyze the process of relationship change, in order to suggest directions for future psychological research. Participants were seven female high school athletes who attended MT sessions, one male training coach, and one female MT coach. Expressions used to complete sentences describing impressions of MT were considered as data describing participantsʼ experiences of MT. Participantsʼ verbal utterances during MT sessions (recorded with a voice recorder and transcribed, with their consent) were considered as utterance data. Data were analyzed using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach; concepts and categories were extracted. Results indicated that the relationships between high school athletes and the training coach were reflected through the following processes: 1) depending on one another, 2) attempting to compromise, 3) development of misunderstanding, and 4) accepting removal. The MT coach’s viewpoints toward high school athletes and the training coach were reflected through the following processes: 1) feelings of uncertainty toward the relationship, 2) grasping individual issues, 3) grasping general issues, and 4) recognizing one’s role. In addition, a change occurs in the relationship of high school athletes and the training coach with the MT coach due to changes in perceived distance and position, and a gap occurs between them. They work on each problem with a shift in viewpoint.

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