Still, one of the very few sport psychologists working in eSports is Ismael Pedraza from Colombia. After playing football himself, he realized during his studies of sport sciences how important the mental side of the game is, and he started to specialize in the field of sport psychology. Although he never really played video or computer games himself, he identified a huge demand of mental preparation in eSports, what lead him and some colleagues to found The Mental Craft – a company devoted to help athletes, teams and coaches in eSports improve their performances through sport psychology.

Ismael has been working in eSports for the last three years, which is an amazingly long time, because sport psychology wasn’t really popular in eSports a couple of years ago. While working with Misfits, one of the professional teams in the European League of Legends Championship Series (EULCS), they became the first Western team to take any games off of the then reigning World Champion SK Telecom T1. If – like myself – you’re not familiar what eSports games and eSports competitions look like, you can get a great insight in this video. I think, it’s somehow really interesting and fascinating to see how video games attract more people than some traditional sports.

In this episode, Ismael talks about his experiences in eSports, how he entered eSports as a sport psychologist, and how he thinks athletes, teams and coaches in eSports can benefit from sport psychology. Moreover, he gives some great advice for any sport psychologist who thinks about learning more about eSports and what is really necessary to know about eSports and the different video games in order to be able to successfully work in eSports. One important aspect he mentioned here was, that it can be even beneficial not to know anything or too much about eSports games, competitions, and eSports events, and how this “not knowing” can set you up for a successful career as a sport psychologist in the field of eSports.

For me personally it was great talking with Ismael about eSports and how he implements sport psychology in this new field, because I was never in contact with video games. I learned a lot from Ismael and I decided that I will definitely learn about the field of eSports in 2019, because it is an additional market where sport psychologists can help other people learn, improve and take the next step in their personal and athletic development. No matter if you’re actively involved in eSports as an athlete, coach or sport psychologist, if you think about going into that field in the future as a sport psychologist or performance coach, or if you want to learn something about a sport you’ve never dealt with in the past: this episode is full of great advices, experiences, information and stories!

Also, if you want more eSports news, check out the Podcast on the Holistic Athlete Development in eSports with Fabian Broich!

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Todays guest

• eSports: How Ismael entered eSports without being a video gamer himself.
• eSports News: What Ismael had to learn about eSports and how it helped him work successfully with his athletes.
• eSports Performance: Which mental skills are absolutely crucial to develop in eSports.
• eSports Teams: Why leadership skills and team cohesion are very important in eSports.
• Mental Training: Which critical mental situations during an eSports competition have to be prepared in detail during training.
• Traditional Sports vs. eSports: How teams in eSports can benefit from experiences and knowledge from traditional sports athletes, as well as from sport psychologists who used to work in traditional sports.
• eSports Development: Why developing detailed coach-the-coach concepts for eSports coaches might be necessary.
• Sport psychology in eSports: How athletes, teams and coaches in eSports can benefit from sport psychology in the future.
  
• …and much, much more.
  

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