Sport and Exercise Science

Profile

Background

Dr Thelwell joined the Department in September 2000 and became the Head of Department in August 2009. Richard is a British Psychological Society (BPS) Chartered Psychologist, a registered Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Sport and Exercise Psychologist, and a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist. Further to this, Richard was awarded a BASES Fellowship in recognition of his contribution to sport and exercise science in the UK. His consultancy experiences include having worked with a range of professional sporting organisations (e.g., football, cricket, rugby union) governing body sporting organisations (e.g., Olympic sports) and business organisations (e.g., management groups, future leadership programmes).

Teaching Responsibilities

Richard contributes to the teaching on all undergraduate and postgraduate sport and exercise psychology units and is unit coordinator for Applied Sport Psychology (MSc). Richard also teaches on the Research Methods related units as well as supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations and research projects. Richard currently joint supervises four PhD students.

Research Interests

Having completed his PhD investigation into the psychological requirements for 'repeatable good performance' in cricket, Richard's current research interests include investigating how psychological skills training benefit sports performance and how psychological strategies may be of use to the sports coach. Specific projects include the examination of coach stressors and associated coping responses, understanding coach usage of psychological skills, and examining how expectations and impressions are formulated within a coaching context. Each area has resulted in a number of publications in esteemed peer-reviewed International journals such as Journal of Sports Sciences, The Sport Psychologist and Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications before 2008

Thelwell, R.C., Weston, N.J.V., & Greenlees, I.A. (2007). Batting on a sticky wicket: Identifying sources of stress and associated coping responses for professional cricket batsmen. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8, 219-232.

Thelwell, R.C., Lane, A.M., & Weston, N.J.V. (2007). Mood states, self-set goals, self-efficacy and performance in academic examinations. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 573-583.

Barwood, M.J., Datta, A., Thelwell, R., & Tipton, M.J. (2007).  Breath-hold performance during cold-water immersion: Effects of habituation with psychological skills training. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, 78, 1029-1034.

Greenlees, I.A., Dicks, M., Thelwell, R.C., & Holder, T. (2007). Order effects in sport: Examining the impact of order of information presentation on attributions of ability. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8, 477-489.

Greenlees, I.A., Stopforth, M.L., Graydon, J.K., Thelwell, R.C., Filby, W.C.D. & El-Hakim, Y (2007). The impact of match importance and gender on the team-serving attributional bias among interdependent sports team players. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice, 11, 54-65.

Thelwell, R.C., Greenlees, I.A., & Weston, N. (2006). Using psychological skills training to develop soccer performance.  Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 254-270.

Thelwell, R.C., Weston, N.J.V., Lane, A.M., & Greenlees, I.A. (2006). Relation of game location and experience on mood states. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 102, 157-162.

Barwood, M.J., Dalzell, J., Datta, A., Thelwell, R., & Tipton, M. (2006). Breath hold performance during cold water immersion: Effects of psychological skills training. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, 77, 1136-1142.

Buscombe, R., Greenlees, I.A., Holder, T., Thelwell, R.C., & Rimmer, M. (2006).Expectancy effects in tennis: The impact of opponents’ pre-match non-verbal behavior on male tennis players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24, 1265-1272.

Greenlees, I.A., Jones, S., Holder, T., & Thelwell, R.C. (2006). The effects of self-handicapping on attributions and perceived judo competence. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24, 273-280.

Greenlees, I.A., Thelwell, R.C., & Holder, T. (2006). Examining the efficacy of the concentration grid exercise as a concentration enhancement exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 7, 29-39.

Thelwell, R.C., Weston, N.J.V., & Greenlees, I.A. (2005). Defining and understanding mental toughness within soccer. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17, 326-332.

Greenlees, I.A., Lane, A., Thelwell, R.C., Holder, T., & Hobson, G. (2005). Team-referent attributions among sport performers. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 76, 477-487.

Greenlees, I.A., Bradley, A., Holder, T. & Thelwell, R.C. (2005). The impact of opponents' non-verbal behaviour on the first impressions and outcome expectations of table tennis players. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 6, 103-115.

Greenlees, I.A., Buscombe, R., Thelwell, R.C., Holder, T., & Rimmer, M. (2005). Perception of opponents in tennis: The impact of opponents’ clothing and body language on impression formation and outcome expectations. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 27, 39-52.

Thelwell, R.C., & Maynard, I.W. (2003). The effects of a mental skills package on‘repeatable good performance’ in cricketers. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 4, 377-396.

Thelwell, R.C., & Greenlees, I.A. (2003). Developing competitive endurance performance using mental skills training. The Sport Psychologist, 17, 318-337.

Thelwell, R.C., & Maynard, I.W. (2002). A triangulation of findings of three studies investigating repeatable good performance in professional cricketers. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 33, 247-268.

Thelwell, R.C., & Greenlees, I.A. (2001). The effects of a mental skills training package on gymnasium triathlon performance. The Sport Psychologist, 15, 127-141.

Thelwell, R.C., & Maynard, I. W. (2000). Professional cricketers’ perceptions of the importance of antecedents influencing repeatable good performance. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 90, 649-658

Thelwell, R.C., & Maynard, I.W. (1998). Anxiety-performance relationships in cricketers: Testing the zone of optimal functioning hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87, 675-689.

Funding

Sport Science support to a professional football Club (2002-2003) £45k

Research programme investigated psychological skills usage in coaches (2006) £7k