Horne, G, Burkill, R, Agarwal, A and Swettenham, L Should aspiring esports psychologists train in esports? Reflections of trainee sport and exercise psychologists. Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports. ISSN 2836-3523 (Accepted)

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Abstract

There is growing demand for psychology support at esport's highest level of competition. Not only does research suggest that professional esports players are at risk of poor physical and psychological health, but tournament organisers have begun to require teams to provide their player's psychological support. Currently however, psychology practitioners working in esports' top teams have trained in traditional sports before bringing their skills to esports: this is the training route advised by organisational staff of the teams they work for. In this article, we reflect on our experiences as trainee sport and exercise psychologists in esports to evaluate whether psychology practitioners aspiring to work at esports' highest level should first train in traditional sports, or develop in esports regardless. Our reflexive thematic analysis of our autoethnographic narratives identified themes of opportunity, alienation, and financial and scheduling barriers to working in esports. While we are more pessimistic than established practitioners, we believe our experiences are somewhat typical of sport psychologist trainees, in-or outside of esports. While training within esports has its limitations, we encourage trainees with passion for working in esports to try. We finish by providing grounded recommendations on what has helped us develop as practitioners so far.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Accepted author manuscript version reprinted, by permission, from Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports, 2024 (ahead of print). © Human Kinetics, Inc.
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport amd Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Human Kinetics
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	25 Sep 2024 09:15
Last Modified:	25 Sep 2024 09:15
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24256

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