Mental training under limelight
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Cho Soo-kyung, Korea’s first sports psychologist, stresses importance of psychology counseling. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Kang Seung-woo
In sport, how to manage the mind is becoming increasingly critical. Mental strength is a key element on any athlete’s journey to victory.
Since Cho Soo-kyung, the nation’s first licensed sports psychologist, opened a sports psychology lab named after her own in Seoul in 2009, she has provided
to athletes.
Her client list includes Park Tae-hwan, Olympic swimming gold-medal winner, Yang Hak-seon, Olympic gymnastics champion and LPGA major-winning golfers Park In-bee and Ryu So-yeon.
“As I was really enamored by sports psychology, which was one of my major subjects at undergraduate school, I continued to study it at graduate school and earned a master’s degree at Boston University, known for its prestigious sports psychology program,” Cho, a graduate of Ewha Womans University, said in an interview.
“I guess studying at Boston University has led me to buckle down to this job.”
After returning home and receiving a doctor’s degree at Ewha, she began to provide counseling to athletes in 2003 before practicing at the lab.
Cho, 44, said that sports psychology is focused on athletes enhancing their performance.
“Mental training helps athletes cope with the pressures of competition and raises the level of their game,” she said.
She added that talented players can lose their nerve in competition and struggle at times.
Recently, Park In-bee, a regular visitor to Cho, is chasing a grand slam history on the LPGA Tour, so when mental training became a media buzz she received many offers for interviews from local outlets, but she said it still has a long way to go.
“Compared with five years ago, mental training is gaining more recognition, given that I met athletes who received it before coming to me, but there are still those who do not know of its importance, how to approach it and where to find sports psychologists,” said Cho.
“Mental training is at an early stage in Korea, given that athletes are not able to get to mental advisers without help from those who are familiar with it.”
Despite declining to comment on how many athletes she is currently giving counseling, Cho said golfers account for many of her clients due to the game’s characteristics.
“A golf round takes about four to five hours and various psychological factors are required during the long period. Unless they all balance, athletes cannot achieve their full potential. That is why mental training is popular among golfers,” she said.
“In addition, athletes who are well aware of the importance of mental training are professionals whose prize money is up for grabs (like golf).”
Currently, some athletes who do not have successful careers quit sports at an early age and face an uncertain future, and Cho wants to set up a system capable of providing counseling to help them during their post-retirement career.
“Athletes who spend their whole life on only one sport call it quits in their mid- to late-20s or early 30s at a time when ordinary Korean people are just beginning their careers in society, so they are hugely uneasy about their future,” she said.
“Given that the situation, I think they really need psychology consultation and I want to try my best to come up with a counseling system for them.”