Notes from recent Coach Seminar from Dr Peter Haberl Dr Peter Haberl

Senior Sport Psychologist,

US Olympic Training Centre, Colorado Springs

Dr. Peter Haberl is Senior Sports Psychologist at the US Olympic Training Centre (since 1998), providing individual and team consultations and counseling sessions. He worked with the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team from 1996 to 2006 and provided sport psychology services at three Olympic Games and four International Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships. He recently presented to Coaches on the following…

What can Sport Psychology do, and also (most importantly) what it can’t do; what models are there for the use of a Sport Psychologist and how he believes a Sport Psychologist best works in a High Performance Programme. Dr Haberl gave a perspective on the time frame he believes it takes for a Sport Psychologist to have an impact on performance and talked about how you can measure the impact that sport psychology makes through evaluating both quantitatively and qualitatively. He uses evaluation based on Stop, Start, Continue as well as What, So What, Now What.


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Peter indentified the role of the Psych as important to assisting the athlete to:

• Raise their Awareness
• Build their Resilience
• Be in the Moment

An example Peter used was to ask athletes to chew a single raisin for 10 minutes. He would ask them what they were thinking. Invariably they would say they thought ‘why are we doing this’, ‘this is stupid, this is dumb’. Peter would use this to ask them where these thoughts had come from and typically the athlete would reply they just ‘arrived’. He would use this as an example to illustrate being more aware of where thoughts come from, how easily they arrive, recognising that and then working to refocus on getting back to the ‘present’.

Peter talked about mindfulness and working with the athlete to recognise:

• Where is my mind at? Paying attention
• Where does it need to be? Regaining attention
• How to get it there? Mindful Practise

Is the athlete optimally prepared for the pressure of competition? Can they pay attention to what really matters? Assisting the athlete to focus outward not inward with purpose, be present and non judgemental.

Peter talked about the example of Zidane in the World Cup Final and how one of the most confident, skilful hardworking players lacked awareness in that headbutting moment in the most important game, with the consequence having a huge impact on the game’s outcome.

He talked about reading cues in the moment and being aware of:

• What you’re looking at
• What you’re looking for

He finally outlined the most effective use of Psychology in sport:

• To win
• Skill development - mentally
• Behaviour in competition
• Mindset in competition
• Psychological wellbeing
• Athlete and coach evaluations

Dr Peter Harbel has also worked with USA Triathlon, US Diving, US Synchronized Swimming and US Women’s Volleyball. Born in Austria, Peter received his undergraduate degree in sport science from the University of Vienna, Austria, and earned a master’s degree in counseling and his EdD in counseling psychology at Boston University. He is a licensed psychologist in Colorado.