Building Rapport with Athletes via Online Technologies: Tips and Tricks for Sports Psychologists

As a sports psychologist, building and maintaining rapport with athletes is of the utmost importance. However, many sports psychologists now rely on distance technologies to work with their clients. While convenient, these remote options pose unique challenges to building relationships that may naturally occur in-person.  

Recently, I completed an internship at HeadGames Sports LLC and worked directly with Dr. Alison Arnold. Throughout our time together, I was able to observe the many strategies she and her colleagues used to build rapport with athletes via online technologies. In this blog, I will focus on five tactics that resonated with athletes from various sports and age groups. These five tactics are gamification, positive reinforcement, empathy, keeping it light, and energy.  

Gamification  

Gamification is the tactic I saw Doc Ali utilize the most when working to build rapport with her athletes. Gamification can be defined as the use of games or game-like approaches to motivate an individual to achieve their goals (Sailer et al., 2017). Research shows gamification can improve skill acquisition, problem solving, response time, and creative thinking (Zeybek & Saygı, 2024). One way my mentor used gamification was to explain complex concepts to the athletes in a way that was relatable to them. For example, when teaching an 8-year-old gymnast about neuroplasticity, she used the metaphor of brain roads instead of neural pathways. She explained that these roads get stronger and thicker each time they are driven on.     

Another form of gamification I observed throughout my internship was nicknaming psychological terms with fictional characters. This strategy effectively uses imaginary play to open athletes up to discussing their emotions. For example, my mentor regularly referred to the amygdala as Amy. The athletes in our sessions knew they needed to keep Amy calm if they were going to be calm and perform at their best. Some athletes even decided to name their ‘beast’ of negative thoughts. They described seeing the ‘beast’ in their head like you would in a game. Squashing a ‘beast’, even if it is made-up, is much easier than squashing a negative thought, especially for a young athlete. As the athletes started to name the characters in their head, I noticed they also became more open to discussing their emotions (characters) with their peers and with Doc Ali. This was a playful way to build team cohesion and boost positive attitudes.  

Positive Reinforcement  

It can be intimidating and scary for a young athlete to open up about their struggles because they often view sports psychologists as authority figures. One way my mentor countered this was through positive reinforcement. There are creative ways to do this online. For example, at the beginning of the session before the lesson begins, she had the athletes write about something they had accomplished that week in the chat. Then, she read each one out loud congratulating that athlete individually. As the session continued, we encouraged the athletes to share their struggles and acknowledged these individually as well with grace, positivity, and optimism. Positive reinforcement strategies such as these allow athletes to effectively articulate their feelings and build confidence in their ability to autonomously address problems they are facing.  

Empathy  

During my internship, we hosted online group sessions with athletes from all over the country. Doc Ali and her colleagues built sessions around a pre-planned topic based on improving their performance in their sport. Sometimes these plans were derailed when athletes shared problems they were having outside of their sport. Although these comments forced us to move away from our original plan, we always took the time to acknowledge the problem and show empathy towards that athlete before continuing the lesson. In doing so, we showed the athletes that we cared not only about their performance in sport, but also their mental health and well-being, which in turn, strengthened the relationship we had with each athlete. Another way my mentor's showed empathy was by reminding athletes that sports are challenging. This validation reassured the athletes that we were there to help them work through their struggles, no matter how big or small.

Keeping it Light  

Many topics that sport psychologists focus on are categorized as ‘hard to talk about’, which is why keeping the content light is critical for maximum engagement. One way that Doc Ali kept it light was by playing a ‘pump up’ song of the day at the beginning of each session and having the athletes write their favorite lines in the online chat while it was playing. The song was always motivational and uplifting which helped set the tone for the session and encouraged the athletes to open up.  

Another method we used to keep it light was asking the athlete questions about their performance such as, ‘Do you like practicing or competing better?’ If the athlete answered ‘competing’, we could assume that this individual performs well in high pressure situations. If the athlete answered ‘practicing’, we could assume the opposite. Asking questions this way helped to keep the atmosphere light because even though we were gaining insight into the athlete’s potential stressors, we were not sharing this insight with the athlete directly and instead focusing on the positives.

Energy

Even virtually, athletes can feel your energy and attention throughout the session. If you are multitasking, the athlete can feel that disconnect. It’s important to show them that you are there and fully committing to their session. It can often be challenging to not start working on other tasks when working online, however, from the words of my mentor, ‘challenge yourself to be there 100%’. Even if the athlete does not know consciously, they are unconsciously picking up the fact that you are distracted which is harmful to the session outcomes. It is also harmful to you as the sports psychologist because you are not gaining as much insight as you would if you were giving them your full attention. One big takeaway from my internship on this topic was the positive and lively energy my mentor brought to each session. Whether it was a group, team, or individual session, she was always animated and excited to be there, which made the athletes excited as well.  

Conclusion

Overall, building rapport with athletes, whether you are a coach, teammate, or sport psychologist is of the highest importance. Gamification, positive reinforcement, empathy, keeping it light, and energy, are all tactics that I have observed help create and maintain rapport between sports psychologists and their athletes. Given my background as a Senior Elite acrobat, I am deeply passionate about connecting with athletes and helping them combat their fears. With these five tactics in hand, I feel both excited and confident about starting this journey to becoming a sports psychologist myself.  

References

Thinking Pro (2023, July 31). Motivation and learning through gamification [blog].  https://www.thinkinghabitats.com/blog/motivation-and-learning-through-gamification?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwr7ayBhAPEiwA6EIGxBvaej40sIKopB0j2YGIdFAAyOZ Jeo0VIzbh8k4XvwfWeFUWYKouxRoCgPEQAvD_BwE  

French, D. N., Lorena Torres Ronda, & National Strength & Conditioning Association (2022). NSCA’s essentials of sport science. Human Kinetics.

Sailer, M., Hense, J. U., Mayr, S. K., & Mandl, H. (2017). How Gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 69(69), 371–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.033 

Zeybek, N. & Saygı, E. (2023). Gamification in education: Why, where, when, and how?—A systematic review. Games and Culture, 19(2), https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231158625