Pre- and Post-Conference Workshop Registration – NASPSPA – North American Society for Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity.

Pre-Conference Workshops

Workshop 1: Conferencing is hard: Making the most out of the NASPSPA conference experience

Organized and facilitated by Jenny O, California State University, East Bay and Harjiv Singh, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with panel members Penny McCullagh and Frank Ely.

Conferencing is hard. We have all been told that conferences are great for “professional development” and “networking”, but what does that even mean, and how do you do it? This pre-conference workshop will offer insights and advice on “conferencing” for graduate students and early career academicians. Attendees will leave with greater clarity on what they can do to make the most out of their NASPSPA (and other conference) experiences.

Workshop 2: How to write manuscript reviews that advance science and your career

Organized and facilitated by Alan L. Smith, Michigan State University, with panel members.

High quality peer review contributes to the health of our journals and academic disciplines, and more broadly to the advancement of science. Moreover, possessing strong reviewing skills can meaningfully benefit a scholar’s career. Strong reviewers attract the attention of scholarly leaders such as journal editors, receive editorial board and other invitations, engage with others at the cutting edge of science, and effectively navigate the publication process as they communicate their own work. Yet, it is often unclear to emerging scholars whether their time is well spent on reviewing and, if yes, how to construct rigorous and helpful reviews. This is complicated by a rapidly evolving and broadening publishing context, ever-increasing demands on scholars, and our typically informal approach to teaching reviewing skills. The purpose of this pre-conference workshop is to offer guidance on how (and why) to integrate reviewing into one’s professional work and how to produce high quality reviews. The session is open to all NASPSPA members and is highly recommended for late-stage doctoral students and early-career scholars. The workshop will consist of an overview of the peer review process and its importance to scientific progress, a panel discussion with journal editors on contemporary issues pertaining to peer review, and a work session focused on the “nuts and bolts” of producing high quality reviews.

Post-Conference Workshop

Workshop 3: Psychology of high quality coaching: Translating research into practice

Organized and facilitated by Harjiv Singh (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), David Hill (Canadian Sport Institute, Pacific), Frank Ely (University of Windsor), and David Anderson (San Francisco State University)

What does the latest research in motor behavior and sport and exercise psychology tell us about optimizing performance in sport? Does contemporary coaching practice reflect recent discoveries? Are coaches innovating on their own and do their innovations have implications for contemporary research agendas in sports science? What barriers do researchers face in highlighting the relevance of their discoveries to coaches and what barriers do coaches face in communicating the needs of practitioners and athletes to researchers? Can we bridge the gaps between theory and practice and, if so, what are the most effective ways of bridging them? These are some of the many questions participants will address in NASPSPA’s inaugural post-conference symposium “Psychology of High Quality Coaching: Translating Research into Practice.” This full-day symposium brings together experienced coaches and high profile researchers in motor behavior and sport and exercise psychology to discuss how best to translate cutting-edge research into coaching practice. Discussions will be organized around key topics that include: youth sports, positive youth development, talent identification and development, innovative practice, and building team cohesion. The symposium is designed for researchers who are interested gaining a foothold in the communities of practitioners who consume their research and coaches and athletes who seek to gain an advantage over their competitors. The symposium will be an excellent networking opportunity for researchers and practitioners alike. Coaches will have many opportunities to pose questions to researchers and researchers will have many opportunities to pose questions to coaches.