Editorial: Volume 11, Issue 3

We hope you enjoy the present co-edited compilation of Athletic Insight. The topic matter for this release reflects an international forum of applied sport psychology contributors. Each contributing author was asked a simple question when approached to participate in the immediate endeavor: How does culture influence your work, be that work applied practice or conceptual thought?

In 2004 Cultural Sport Psychology (CSP) began as a formal trajectory, spurred by a special edition found in the Autumn 2004 archives of Athletic Insight. At the time, undoubtedly many practitioners were engaged in applied practice in their respective corners of the world, working in manners that have been meaningful to their clients. Though such work has, and continues to happen internationally, the sport and exercise psychology readership likely knows very little about such practice. The danger in presenting culturally informed work as innovative resembles a slippery slope. While culturally informed work unfamiliar to the reader might be regarded as unique and even innovative, the work is likely mainstream among a given population. Far too often we tend to exoticize culturally informed work as “different”, all applied sport psychology is exotic among some clients, and not among others.

In the Autumn of 2009, the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology was released and the special topic was developed to address culturally informed methodologies in our domain. The present endeavor is meant to uncover another part of the larger discussion – applied practice. What follows is a compilation of work that only touches on how applied practice is being approached in manners that account for culture.

This issue begins with a submission from Tatiana Ryba (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), who challenges our readers to take a deeper look into matters of culture and how one might generate knowledge that is culturally relevant through her conceptual submission. Tatiana is a cultural sport scholar and you will find she invites people to look beneath the surface in the more challenging matters that undergird discussions about CSP. Afterward, Ronnie Lidor and Boris Blumenstein (Wingate Institute, Israel) were asked to discuss how they engage in multicultural practice with professional soccer players of Israeli, Palestinian, and immigrated background. Thereafter, Yoichi Kozuma (Tokai University) has considered his applied practice with professional race-car drivers in Japan, and the culturally informed aspects of his work. From Australia, Emma Campbell and Chris Sonn (Victoria University, Australia) have shared their research with Australian Aborigine professional soccer players, and the adaptation experiences they undergo when relocating to pursue sport. Finally, an afterward has been developed by Gershon Tenenbaum (Benjamin Bloom Professor of Educational Psychology, Florida State University, US). Gershon was asked to provide his views on the installment, which you will find raise ongoing questions that will spur further discussion in the years to come.

Robert J. Schinke & Emily A. Roper
Co-editors for this Volume
Athletic Insight

You can purchase this issue of Athletic Insight which is available through our partnership with Nova Science Publishing. Yearly subscriptions to the journal are also available for purchase. We thank you for your continued patronage.