FEPSAC Newsletter (September 2017)

Welcome to this issue of the FEPSAC Newsletter – Fédération Européenne de Psychologie des Sport et des Activités Corporelles (European Federation of Sport Psychology). 1. B-WISER: Let's support elite athletes' employability and employment By Simon Defruyt (Vrije Unvirsiteit Brussel). As elite athletes are often challenged in their vocational development outside of elite sport, they may be confronted with reduced opportunities in employability and actual employment during, as well as after their elite athletic career. The project ‘Be a Winner In elite Sport and Employment before and after athletic Retirement’ (B-WISER) is a 2-year project, co-funded by the Erasmus + programme, which allows 13 partner organisations from six EU Member States (i.e., Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) and 8 expert organisations (The Adecco Group, IOC, IPC, EOC, UEAPME, Schuman associates, Kapito HR, and Unizo) to examine the vocational development of elite and former elite athletes in order to develop best practices. In the opening phase (WP1), the B-WISER project will identify existing structures and measures on the support of ‘elite sport and employment’. Subsequently, in WP2 the project will identify the competences that athletes require to combine ‘elite sport and employment‘, and also the competences they require to successfully make the transition from elite sport to the labour market at the end of their elite sports career. In the next phase, the B-WISER project will examine the added value of employing (former) athletes for employers (WP3). Finally, based on the results of the previous phases, the project will identify, develop, implement (WP4) and evaluate (WP5) best practices in the participating countries to optimize the matching process between (former) athletes and (future) employers. This will allow educational institutions, sport governing bodies, employers and career counsellors in the participating countries to optimize their support and guidance in ‘elite sport and employment’ trajectories. More information can be found on the website www.bwiser.eu. 2. Sport and exercise psychology at the 2017 ECSS congress The European College of Sport Science (ECSS) organizes a yearly congress. At the ECSS Metropolis 2017, a total number of 110 abstracts were submitted in the field of sport and exercise psychology. This equals to a 6.51% of all submissions, resulting in the second highest number of sport and exercise psychology communications presented within the last 8 years of the yearly ECSS Congress (e.g., in 2014 was 7.55%). FEPSAC MC members Anne-Marie Elbe and Markus Raab contributed to the scientific programme with two sessions. Anne-Marie Elbe presented about “Volition in the physical activity context: Measurement of volition and its importance for keeping up regular exercise” in the symposium “Volition in Sport and Physical Activity” chaired by Michael Kellmann from Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Markus Raab was the chair of the symposium “The psychology of judgements and decision-making in sport and exercise” and his presentation was about “The power of simplicity: Why less is more in sport and exercise choices”. Over the past years FEPSAC and ECSS have been working on a closer collaboration and exchanging ideas on how the yearly ECSS Congresses could also become a meeting point for the sport and exercise psychology community. To discuss further collaborations a fruitful meeting between the ECSS board and FEPSAC president Anne-Marie Elbe took place during the congress. As another new initiative a FEPSAC evening took place at the ECSS Congress which was very much enjoyed by all participants. We look forward to the next FEPSAC evening at the ECSS Congress in Dublin in 2018. 3. ISSP congress 2017 FEPSAC would like to congratulate the newly elected President Rob Schinke and the rest of the MC members of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). FEPSAC is looking forward to a close collaboration between FEPSAC and ISSP. During the recently held 2017 ISSP Congress in Seville, FEPSAC MC member Maurizio Bertollo chaired the FEPSAC invited symposium on “Psychological features and interventions in endurance performance” with contributions by Tadhg MacIntyre, Carla Meijen, Selenia di Fronso, Daniel Gucciardi, Antje Hill and Laura Schücker. Furthermore, Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis and Anne-Marie Elbe contributed to the ISSP symposium on “Transnationalism, mobility, and acculturation in and through sport”. Last but not least, Karin Moesch contributed to the well-attended symposium “Global efforts in developing credentialing systems for sport and exercise psychologists: Four organizational perspectives” (AASP, FEPSAC, EFPA, and ISSP), with the talk “The FEPSAC certification for specialists in applied sport psychology”. Keep an eye on the forthcoming newsletter for a more, in depth overview on FEPSAC's plans for certification. 4. FEPSAC and social media – keep in touch with FEPSAC Facebook (https://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Fepsac-SportPsy/100010095409342). Twitter (https://twitter.com/FEPSAC_MC). On behalf of the MC, we would like to thank all those who contributed to the making of this Newsletter. We look forward to receiving more contributions for forthcoming Issues so do not hesitate to send them by email to office@fepsac.com