Leader

Performance in motor sports

A J Klarica

Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre Swan Street, Melbourne 3004, Australia ajklarica@yahoo.com

Key Words: motor sports; racing drivers; performance; psychology; fitness

Motor racing is one of the most physically and mentally challenging of all sports, not only for racing drivers themselves, but also for the teams that play an integral role in the eventual performance of the car. It is my belief that, for such a demanding and popular sport, sports medicine is seriously underused. Drivers and teams are faced with continuous pressure to perform, yet have far less involvement with sports medicine staff than many Olympic athletes, tennis professionals, and footballers of all codes, particularly from a preventive perspective. In this article, I will outline some of my experiences as a sport psychologist and fitness consultant with racing car drivers and teams, identifying some of the challenges in a growing field.

Before going into detail, it should be noted that motor sports has depth well beyond Formula One. For example, motor racing is a major sport in the United States . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Baur, H, Muller, S, Hirschmuller, A, Huber, G, Mayer, F, Klarica, A (2006). Reactivity, stability, and strength performance capacity in motor sports * Commentary. Br. J. Sports. Med. 40: 906-911 [Abstract] [Full Text]