Basketball

Sport Psychology and Coaching

Adam Nicholls
Faculty of Health Sciences
Professor Adam Nicholls
Group Lead

The Challenge

The Sport Psychology and Coaching group is broadly concerned with the wellbeing of both athletes and coaches. Much of our research assesses the impact of sport on human functioning.

The Approach

We examine psychological interventions among athletes and coaches, including surveillance, doping, stress and coping, as well as the social-pedagogical complexities of coaching practice.

Amber Amey

OUR AIMS

  • Reduce doping among athletes by working with athletes, coaches and governing bodies
  • Facilitate the ability of athletes and coaches to perform under pressure
  • Help coaches provide feedback effectively
  • Maximise talent development pathways

Projects

football

Anti-Doping Values in Coach Education

Anti-Doping Education Programs for High-Level Adolescent Athletes and their Entourage: A Randomised Control Trial. The International Olympic Committee funded this project, in which we developed an anti-doping educational resource for high-level adolescent athletes, in order to reduce favourable attitudes about doping and intentions to take performance enhancing drugs.

tricep extension

The Effectiveness of the Play Clean Group Based and the Mobile Application

Anti-Doping Education Programs for High-Level Adolescent Athletes and their Entourage: A Randomised Control Trial.

The International Olympic Committee funded this project, in which we developed an anti-doping educational resource for high-level adolescent athletes, in order to reduce favourable attitudes about doping and intentions to take performance enhancing drugs.

Sports facilities available on an Open Day

Development and validation of the Adolescent Sport Doping Inventory

This World Anti-Doping Agency project involved developing a questionnaire to assess the psychological and social factors that predict doping. Data was collected across four continents: Europe, Asia, North America, and Oceana. 

View all projects
  • Anti-Doping Values in Coach Education (ADVICE). Funded by the European Commission's Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (Unit A.6, Erasmus +: Sport, Youth and EU Aid Volunteers)
  • The Effectiveness of the Play Clean Group Based and the Mobile Application (iPlayClean) Anti-Doping Education Programs for High-Level Adolescent Athletes and their Entourage: A Randomised Control Trial. Funded by the International Olympic Committee
  • Development and Validation of the Adolescent Sport Doping Inventory. Funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency
  • Maturity-Status ‘Bio-Banding’ as a Tool for Ongoing Talent (De)Selection of Academy Soccer Players Using a Multi-Disciplinary Approach. Funded by UEFA
  • Health and Wellbeing of Female Football Players in Preparation for Competition in the Heat. Funded by FIFA
  • Psychological Wellbeing for Ileostomists. Funded by the Ileostomy Association
  • An Evaluation of the 'Embed the Pathway' National Talent Development Project at Proof of Concept Phase. Funded by the Rugby Football League

Members

Outputs and publications

Nicholls A R, Cope E, Bailey R, Koenen K, Dumon D, Theodorou N C, Chanal B, Saint-Laurent D, Müller D, Andrés M P, Kristensen A H, Thompson M A, Baumann W & Laurent J-F, 'Children's first experience of taking anabolic-androgenic steroids can occur before their 10th birthday: A systematic review identifying 9 factors that predict doping among young people', Frontiers in Psychology, 8:1015 (2017)

Toner J, Montero B and Moran A, 'The perils of automaticity'. Review of General Psychology, 19, pp 431-442 (2015)

Toner J, Montero B and Moran A, 'Considering the role of cognitive control in expert performance', Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 14, pp 1127-1144 (2015)

Weaving D, Jones B, Marshall P, Till K and Abt G, 'Multiple measures are needed to quantify training loads in professional rugby league', International Journal of Sports Medicine, 38(10), pp 735-740, DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-114007 (2017)

Jones L, Marshall P and Denison J, 'Health and well-being implications surrounding the use of wearable GPS devices in professional rugby league: A Foucauldian disciplinary analysis of the normalised use of a common surveillance aid', Performance Enhancement and Health (2016)

Malone J J, Harper L D, Jones B, Perry J, Barnes C and Towlson C, 'Perspectives of applied collaborative sport science research within professional team sports', European Journal of Sport Science, 1-9 (2018)

Towlson C, Cobley S, Parkin G and Lovell R, 'When does the influence of maturation on anthropometric and physical fitness characteristics increase and subside?', Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports (2018)

Towlson C, Cobley S, Midgley A, Garrett A, Parkin G and Lovell R, 'Relative Age, Maturation and Physical Biases on Position Allocation in Elite-Youth Soccer', International Journal of Sports Medicine, 38(3), pp 201-209 (2017)

Research Students

James Metcalfe

Optimising the training prescription in patients with testicular cancer and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Phil Marshall

Sam Orange

Home-based resistance training in adults with severe obesity

Phil Marshall

Rebecca Roebuck

The effects of home based training on movement quality, weight loss and perceptions of pain in adults with severe obesity

Phil Marshall

David Scott

Optimising the prescription of training for post-activation potentiation in rugby league players

Phil Marshall

Doug Waterson

An investigation into the participation rates of grass roots football in Hull and the East riding in order to develop a blue print for the East Riding County FA in its future provision of the sport

Luke Jones

Mark Thompson

Stress Appraisals, Coping, and Emotions

Adam Nicholls and John Toner

(TBC)

A Examining player recovery kinetics in professional football (Hull City Tigers Funded)

Chris Towlson

(TBC)

The efficacy of virtual reality training in professional football (Hull City Tigers Funded)

Chris Towlson

Inspired?

Our research impacts the world. Come and join us.

Be part of a vibrant research community at the University of Hull.

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