Best wishes and happy reading,

Li-wei Zhang

There are two sport psychology organizations in China. One is the Sport Psychology Association, which is part of the China Psychological Association. The other is the Sport Psychology Society which falls under the banner of the China Society of Sport Sciences. These two organizations have a very close link in academic activities. Starting from 2007, we have collaborated to publish the Chinese Section of International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology with the accreditation, guidance, and help from the International Society of Sport Psychology.

We also finished the first accreditation of 22 sport psychology consultants in 2007. These people are now qualified practitioners according to the Accreditation Standard for Chinese Sport Psychology Consultants, endorsed by both the Sport Psychology Association and the Sport Psychology Society. Thirty three sport psychologists led or participated in the mental training programs for Chinese Olympic teams in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and Paralympics. Forty five of 51 gold medals won by the Chinese delegation came from teams with which sport psychologists worked. A seminar on Mental Training for Chinese Athletes for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and Paralympics was held from 24-27 October 2008, during which 20 sport psychologists reported their experiences of mental training and psychological consultation for coaches and athletes before and during the Games. We are also planning to organize a seminar, to be held during June 2009 in the Capital Institute of Physical Education, on the relationship between exercise and mental health.

The Hong Kong Society of Sport and Exercise Psychology, in cooperation with the local university, has been offering professional talks and short-term courses since 2007. These events aim to acquaint participants with foundation knowledge of applied sport psychology. Psychologists and experienced practitioners, who are the top professionals in the field and core members of the Society, with various frameworks (e.g., traditional sport psychology, clinical psychology, hypnotherapy, and neuro-linguistic programming) are invited to share their experiences. Participants include physical education teachers, sport coaches, former professional athletes, personal trainers, life-coaching professions, journalists, and psychology graduates. This wide range of participants shows that the Society has raised public awareness of applied psychology skills in the professional and general communities.

Basic level course content includes goal-setting, imagery, confidence, arousal regulation, anxiety management, motivation, flow state, team dynamics and leadership. The first advanced level course was held in late 2008. It fulfilled the large demand from those graduating from the basic course and provided a further development path for participants. The advanced course emphasizes practical application of various psychological and communication skills. Course content includes in-depth elaboration of psychological skills, identification and regulation of personal beliefs, as well as introduction of intrapersonal communication and sport hypnosis. Some participants indicated their intention to apply sport psychological skills in their life-coaching or physical education works. A new cohort in the basic course has just begun in February 2009. The East Asian Games will be held later this year in Hong Kong. The Society, through course training, professional talks and various events, will endeavour to make sport psychology accessible to more people from the local community.

The Second Applied Sport Psychology International Congress was held from 2^nd to 3^rd of February 2009 at the National Olympic Academy of Iran Tehran. The congress was followed by two workshops on 4^th and 5^th of February. The purpose of the congress was to support applied research in sport psychology, to contribute to the professional development of Iranian sport psychologists and to increase the knowledge of coaches in this area. Participants, some of whom are pictured below, included 25 coaches and representatives from National Federations, 118 students of psychology and sport science and 35 psychologists.

A total of 24 papers were selected for oral presentations and 14 as poster presentations from more than 100 papers received by the congress secretariat. The papers were mostly focused on stress management, motivation, selfconfidence and concentration in sport.

Four keynotes were presented by Gangyan Si (ASPASP Vice-President) on Chinese Athletes Mental Preparation for Beijing Olympic Games, by Peter Terry (ASPASP MC member) on Preparation of Olympic Athletes for Beijing 2008, by Fatolla Mosayebi (ASPASP MC member) on Challenges in Iranian Sport Psychology, and by Reza Rostami (University of Tehran) on Applying Biofeedback in Athletes’ Mental Preparation.

The opening ceremony was attended by sports authorities and the chairs of the two psychology associations (Iranian Psychological Association and Psychology and Counseling Organization of IR Iran). The congress secretary and director of the National Olympic Academy's Sport Psychology Centre, Dr. Vaez Mousavi, was also in attendance. Two workshops were held following the congress. Professor Gangyan Si ran a workshop entitled A Mental Training Model for Coping with Adversity, during which he explained his original model for dealing with adversity having reviewed the existing models.

Professor Peter Terry instructed a workshop entitled Emotion Regulation for Competition. Participant reflections on the workshops and the congress overall rated them both as excellent. A selection of photographs from the congress can be found at: http://www.olympicacademy.ir/albumdetail-en-94.html

The Japanese Society of Sport Psychology (JSSP) held its 35th Annual Conference in conjunction with International Symposium from Nov.14-16, 2008 at Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan following the Managing Council meeting of the international Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). During the conference three keynote lectures and the ISSP Presidential Lecture were given. Keynote lectures were provided by Keith Henschen (USA) on Olympic Team Preparation and NBA Team Preparation, Athanasios Papaioannou (Greece) on Motivational Climate and Equality in Physical Activity, and Ernest Tsung-Min Hung (Taiwan) on Applying EEG and Heart Rate to the Study of Performance Enhancement. The Presidential Lecture was delivered by Dieter Hackfort (Qatar) on Sport Psychology Assessment and Coaching System (SPACS). The International Symposium, which had a theme of Sport Pychology - Currents Trends in the World, was chaired by Akihiko Kondo and Ari Naoi (Japan). Speakers were Natalia Stambulova (Sweden), Judy Van Raalte (USA), Gangyan Si (Hong Kong), and Hiroshi Sekiya (Japan). Reactions to the speakers were provided by Ronnie Lidor (Israel).

The 2008 Sport Psychology Conference Across Taiwan Strait, the first cross-Taiwan-Strait conference on sport psychology was held from December 6^th to 8^th, 2008 in Taipei, Taiwan. The purpose of the conference was to facilitate the interaction of sport psychologists, researchers and scholars from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to enhance academic research quality and discuss the latest trends in the application of sport psychology to elite athletes for peak performance. Keynote presentation was the main format taken along with poster presentation on the second evening to deliver various topics in sport and exercise psychology. There were sixteen keynote speakers who shared their updates in both application and academic areas. Among them, six were related to psychological counseling and intervention to enhance performance; four were highlighted on exercise psychology; three caught the latest wave of physiopsychology; two were on performance related topics (anxiety and achievement goal motivation) and the other one dealt with motor learning and control.

The biggest part of the conference was the sharing of psychological interventions implemented for athletes who participated in 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. Professor Ji Cheng-shu who worked with weight-lifters in the Paralympics introduced an integrated psychological skill training (PST) program consisting of problem diagnosis, analysis, choices of PST and skills to promote self-motivated and self-adapted behaviors. Dr. Zhang Zhong-qiu showed creative equipment and facilities specifically designed for Olympic athletes to help them relax, recover from vigorous training and get motivated. Dr. Zhang Li-wei worked on promoting self-confidence, self-control and self-dependence for the rhythmic gymnastics team, and the skills used by Dr. Zhang Li-wei to achieve the goal strongly linked to theoretical knowledge which was quite a successful trial to put theory into practice. Professor Wu Yong-mei created accompanied PST program which tried to avoid the barriers preventing athletes from practising PST. Dr. Lee Hing-chu shared her experience working with athletes during the competition period and Dr. Chan Chin-ming stressed the importance of using a life-coaching approach in sport psychology consultation.

After the conference, participants not only had a better understanding of the research and application of sport psychology in different areas across the Taiwan Straits, but also had fruitful knowledge and experience theoretically and practically. The first intention to promote interaction of sport psychologists, researchers and scholars across Taiwan Strait was clearly successful. Looking forward to the second conference for more updates and surely by doing so, the advancement of sport psychology will be more rapid among these areas. We sincerely hope so!

The next professional development opportunity came in the form of the annual conference of Sports Medicine Australia, held on idyllic Hamilton Island, Queensland during October 2008. Prominent speakers at that event included Michael Kellmann who gave an invited presentation on Is Recovery Important? and Stephanie Hanrahan, who presented a workshop entitled Holistic Treatment: More Than Body and Mind.

In January 2009, the 2^nd Victorian Sport Psychology Conference was held in Melbourne, Victoria organized by Michelle Pain. This was a chance for professionals and students of sport psychology to exchange knowledge and ideas in a mutually supportive environment, and included a provocative presentation from Steve Bannon of the Victorian Institute of Sport entitled You Can’t Handle the Truth.

Other items of news from down under include the publication of Cultural Sport Psychology, the first text to focus exclusively on cross-cultural aspects of our profession, edited by Robert Schinke (Canada) and Stephanie Hanrahan (Australia) and published by Human Kinetics. Also, an innovative concept in professional development for sport psychologists, in the form of a 1-week workshop entitled Performance Psychology in Action, will be held in the wilderness of the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia during August 2009.

Full details of this workshop, which is facilitated by Peter Terry, can be found at: http://www.intotheblue.com.au/tours/tour.asp?ID=61. Finally, the College of Sport Psychologists (CoSP), which is part of the APS, produces a regular newsletter, which can be accessed at: http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/csp/newsletters/.

I attended the 1^st Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Congress on 12^th to 14^th March 2009 in Kuwait, preceded by the Inauguration of the impressive Headquarters of the OCA on 11^th March. Dr Supitr Samahito and Dr Fatolla Mosayebi of ASPASP Managing Council were also there, Supitr representing Thailand in the area of Women in Sport and Fatolla as part of a large Iranian group, led by the Congress Director. It was Fatolla who got ASPASP an invitation to present on Sport Psychology in Asia.

As an academic psychologist not trained in physical education/human movement, my knowledge of the political structure of world sport is limited. Of course, I was aware that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a powerful organisation, which does much more than run the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Nonetheless, I had no idea of the status of the OCA. Attending this Congress revealed that the OCA holds a pivotal position in sport in Asia. The OCA has great potential to help ASPASP to achieve its mission to support and promote the development of sport psychology in the Asian (and South Pacific) region.

This became evident at the Inauguration of the Headquarters of the OCA on the 11^th March. The substantial 7 storey OCA building was dwarfed by the two huge office tower blocks next to it and the large 5-star Hilton hotel next to the business blocks, all of which are owned by the OCA and will bring it much revenue.

The IOC President, Jacques Rogge, was at the opening of the HQ alongside the OCA President Seikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and the two presided over the opening of the Congress the next day.

It is surprising that this is the first official Congress of the OCA, which has been in existence under several names for more than half a century. The aim of this Congress was to develop recommendations from the OCA to a congress the IOC is holding in October in Copenhagen. The IOC has six themes, so the OCA Congress matched these with the aim of making recommendations on all of them that will shape the direction of the work of the OCA for the future. The six themes were Sport and Environment, Women’s Sport in Asia, Sport Marketing in Asia, Governance of Sports in Asia, Asian Games and Youth Sports and Sports Sciences in Asia.

My presentation was in the Sports Sciences theme. It followed a presentation by Dr Manikavasagam Jegathesan, from Malaysia, who is the Chair of the OCA Sports Medicine Committee. In his presentation, he spoke about the great diversity of sports science among Asian countries and the need for action to equalise the standard of sport science in different countries. He proposed that a survey be carried out to determine the status of sports medicine and sports science in all Asian countries. I had been worried that my approach might be inappropriate, given that most other sports science presentations were just superficial lists of what each sport science does (delivered by individuals, with all due respect, who are probably not near the cutting edge of those disciplines).

My presentation was a report of the results of a survey that ASPASP had already completed on the status of sport psychology in Asia. It seems to be a good sign that we were ahead of the game. I hope we will be asked to complete the OCA survey when they get it organised. I assume it will be more thorough than mine, which was not developed through any systematic process. At least at the time, it seemed like the Chair of the OCA Sports Medicine Committee, who was also the moderator of the session, had been sensitised to the existence of sport psychology. I talked to him later to reinforce our role. It is very important for us to get a voice on that Committee if there is any way to achieve that.

At the closing of the Congress, the OCA presented a Declaration, including 8 principles. These were very general, but I think encompassed the idea of working to equalise sport science activity across the region. Sport psychology should be included in that effort (although the area is currently dominated by medicine and physiology as usual) and we must make every effort to ensure that ASPASP plays a big role in developing sport psychology in Asia through the OCA. I was required to write a full paper and this is contained in the Proceedings of the Congress, which were circulated on a USB stick to all delegates. In the paper, I presented tables which list the countries under a range of headings related to the survey questions. This will make it easy for people from various countries to see where they stand or that they are absent altogether. I hope this will hit home with senior sport officials from those countries.

I took two positives and a negative from our presentation. The first positive is that we showed that ASPASP is already concerned with the issues that the OCA is raising and has the organisational vision and structure to implement policies for the development of sport psychology in Asia. The second positive is also the negative! Our survey showed that only a third of OCA countries (15/45) are involved in ASPASP and, of those, few have developed the key criteria for advanced national development, especially professional training in sport psychology and a national accreditation system. This was a positive in the sense that it showed OCA that there is a big job to do, that ASPASP is aware of the need, and that we require support from OCA to achieve substantial development across the region. The negative, of course, is that we have been able to reach so few countries and to assist in real development in even fewer of them.

Although I didn’t know them or their roles, I am sure that many of the Congress delegates were senior officials in their countries’ National Olympic Committees, maybe including a few Presidents. Not all of them would have been at my presentation, but some may see the paper. In addition, Fatolla and I in particular, did try to meet people and to discuss sport psychology with them. Fatolla’s role, both in arranging the original invitation to attend the Congress and in talking to key people, was crucial. Supitr introduced me to a colleague from Lao, who might be a link into that country. I met the NOC President from Bhutan, who seemed interested in sport psychology. I was also approached by a representative from Oman. I will follow up on these contacts and hope that I might receive messages from others.

Fatolla introduced me to a representative of Olympic Solidarity, which provides financial support for “Sports Medicine”. Fatolla argued to that person (and at the end of the session in which I presented to the Chair of the Sports Medicine Committee of OCA) that the term sports medicine should be interpreted more broadly that just medicine and we pressed for some consideration of sport psychology. I will follow that up too. Fatolla certainly opened my eyes to some major directions for ASPASP to follow in the effort to take the development of sport psychology across Asia to a new level. I thank him for his work in getting ASPASP invited to the OCA Congress. Now we must ensure that we cement the link with OCA and use the connection to help develop sport psychology in our region.

Note. The full presentation is available on request from tony.morris@vu.edu.au

India 2009:

ASPASP Managing Council Meeting and

Pre-Congress Workshops

19-20 December 2009, Gwalior, INDIA

The next MC meeting will take place at the Lakshmibai National University of Physical Education. Workshops for ASPASP members will be held simultaneously. Further details can be obtained from the Jayashree Acharya, at jayashreeacharya@hotmail.com

India International Congress in Sport Psychology

21-24 December 2009, Gwalior, INDIA

The organising committee, under the auspices of the Sport Psychology Association of India (SPAI), Asian South Pacific Association of Sport Psychology (ASPASP) and the International Society of Sport Psychology, have great pleasure in inviting you to the INDIA INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS IN SPORT PSYCHOLOGY. The congress will be held at the famous Lakshmibai National University of Physical Education (LNUPE) in Gwalior, India under the theme:

EXCELLENCE IN SPORT AND LIFE

(New Challenges in Sport Performance, Exercise and Well-being)