Sports and Performance Psychology program helps athletes feel their best

While athletes may look focused and determined on gameday, fans rarely see what’s going on mentally. Thankfully, with the help of those at the Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology Center, athletes in the Mankato area don’t have to face their troubles alone. 

The program was started in the early 1980s by Joe Walsh who ran the program until 2007 when current director Cindra Kamphoff took over. Kamphoff said students getting master’s degrees in Sports, Exercise and Performance Psychology can work as sport psychology consultants, mental performance consultants, in collegiate or professional athletic departments to name a few.

“The military is one of the biggest employers of people who get a degree in our field as they can work with military members to focus on their ability to deal with pressure,” Kamphoff said. 

Recently, MSU was ranked 8th in the country for the master’s program by sportsdegreesonline.org. Kamphoff said one of the reasons the program was ranked so highly was for the real-world experience students get by getting certification hours in the community. Students in the master’s program work with Maverick Athletics, the MSU ROTC team, St. Peter Schools and Mankato East and West high schools.

Kamphoff said the experience master’s students get involves mental training workshops where they teach others skills related to performing under pressure, letting go of the fear of failure, motivation and confidence. MSU athletes and students can access these services for free. Community members can access the center for $25 a session. 

The 36-credit program allows students to become Certified Mental Performance Consultants (CMPC). Classes range from psychology courses to interpersonal skills and research courses. MSU is also home to one of the only programs with dual enrollment for the sport and performance psychology program and the mental health counseling program.

While sports psychology has been around since the 1970s, Kamphoff said the degree has become more prominent in the last 10 years, thanks to athletes like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps being open about their mental health struggles. 

“In the early 2000s, people weren’t as open to talking about mental health. Now, the teams and coaches we work with see the importance of the mental game,” Kamphoff said. “They know they have to train physically, but usually it’s the mind that gets in the way.”

Second-year master’s student Tess Limberg got her undergraduate degree with a bachelor’s in psychology and a minor in sports medicine. She said in high school, athletics were a big part of her life. When she got to college, she focused more on the health and fitness side.

“It sounded like the most fun career ever. I always knew I wanted to do something to help people and it just sounded perfect,” Limberg said. 

Limberg said her dream job would be to work as a counselor for an athletic department or professional sports league on the “mental performance side of things.” Her favorite class so far has been a seminar in sports psychology.

“It helped me get to know myself as a consultant and influenced the way I understand myself so I can understand the way I want to help other people,” Limberg said.

Limberg said the experience she’s received from working with students at MSU, Bethany Lutheran College and Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter has helped prepare her for post-grad life. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to do individual work with clients once a week or every other week where we work on more mental performance things,” Limberg said.

While the program has students from the surrounding Mankato area, Kamphoff said several international students are involved in the program. Past students have been from Italy, Sweden, Spain, Hong Kong and the Philippines. 

“A lot of our students go back to their country and make sports psychology more prominent there. It’s cool to see the impact one program in Minnesota can make throughout the world,” Kamphoff said.

First-year master’s student Callum Goldsmith is from the UK where he received his Bachelor’s in psychology with minors in sociology, sports psychology and coaching. Goldsmith said he played soccer in college and by majoring in psychology, his two worlds combined.

“I went into my last year of being on my college team and I started to think about how I could make a difference not just as a player, but as someone studying sports psychology,” Goldsmith said. 

Goldsmith works with Mankato East and St. Peter’s high school soccer teams. He said bringing psychology into the sports field is important in helping athletes change their perceptions.

“Some athletes value their mental performance at 80% and others at 10%, but if you could be 10% better, why wouldn’t you be?” Goldsmith said. “If they go out and play better because of it, then we’ve done our job.”

Limberg mentioned the importance of bringing psychology into the sports field as student-athletes face a unique set of challenges.

“They have the stressors of normal people and they also have the high-demanding stress of going to practice every day and performing in front of lots of people. There’s a lot of self-worth around performing as well because that’s part of their identity,” Limberg said.

Goldsmith said students should join the program if they are looking for a way to get plenty of experience through applied hours.

“I don’t remember a week where I haven’t been getting hours. In Mankato, you need to get 400 hours total while other school’s master’s programs require 50 or 100 hours,” Goldsmith said. “It saves a lot of hassle post-graduation when you’re trying to finish off that certification.”

The biggest takeaway Limberg has got from the program has been the relationships she’s created.

“You’re working with so many different types of people with so many different backgrounds. Everybody is so supportive and there for each other,” Limberg said. “It’s given me such a sense of reward and confidence to prepare me for a future in this career.”

Kamphoff said students who want to make a difference by changing how others think should consider joining the master’s program. 

“It’s a rewarding field because we’re behind the scenes and you can make a major difference that impacts athlete’s actions and the results they get,” Kamphoff said.

Write to emma.johnson.5@mnsu.edu