5 Summary

Congratulations – you have reached the halfway point of the course.

In this session you have explored some of the psychological interventions that can be used to prevent or reduce the risk of sport injury.

The main learning points from this session are:

• As stress is considered to be a potential cause of sport injury, any intervention aimed at reducing stress (or the individual’s response to it) could potentially reduce injury risk.
• A wide range of interventions have been used including imagery, positive self-talk and relaxation techniques.
• There is strong research evidence to support the role of psychological interventions reducing injury risk.

You have now looked at some of the psychological factors that may increase the risk of developing a sport injury as well as the interventions that may reduce the risk. In the next session, you will move on to explore psychological responses to an injury once it has occurred.

You are now halfway through the course. The Open University would really appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future improvement in our optional end-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , which you will also have an opportunity to complete at the end of Session 8. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

You can now go to Session 5.