Transatlantic lecture for international sport psychology student

Glasgow Caledonian University sport psychology student and former Israel national baseball team player Nadav Ephrat has just delivered mental skills training to students in the US.

He presented his online guest lecture to sport psychology and sports management undergraduates at Keystone College, in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Nadav is an international student on the University’s DPsych sport and exercise programme. He used to play for Israel’s national baseball team and was a sport psychologist for Israel’s rough sleepers’ national football team.

He said: “The students were really engaged, asked in-depth questions, and seemed intrigued by the topic and its use and efficacy with athletes.

“It was a very enriching and engaging experience on my part. It was really interesting to be ‘on the other side’ of the teaching and learning experience.”

Nadav said his lecture focused on mental skills with an introduction to imagery, the psychological/biological mechanisms of how it works, how it could be integrated in sport and how its benefits could be maximised.

He also highlighted new research leads such as the incorporation of virtual reality to assist imagery accuracy and its use in rehabilitating athletes who suffered injury.

Speaking about his past, Nadav said it was a “privilege” to have worked with the rough sleepers’ team in his homeland after they competed in the Homeless World Cup before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

He added: “It's a fantastic project which attempts to rehabilitate and reincorporate rough sleepers back into society.

“I supported the team as a sport psychologist, so basically introductory workshops on what sport psychology is, and 1 to 1's with the players.

“I only joined after they had been in an actual World Cup, which took place in Wales, and just before the pandemic broke, so didn't get to support them in a competition, but rather during training and in the adjustment process we've all experienced with the pandemic.”

The DPsych Sport and Exercise Psychology is the only programme of its kind in Scotland, with a strong focus on developing outstanding therapeutic skills, inter-disciplinary learning, teaching and research.