EP 88: Professor Andrew Hill - Perfectionism in youth sport

This conversation is with Dr Andrew Hill, a Professor in Sports Psychology at York St John University in the UK.

Andy's main areas of interest are the consequences of perfectionism (an achievement-related personality trait) for athletes, exercisers, and youth sport participants.

Andy holds a PhD in the area and has published in leading journals in sport and exercise psychology, health and general psychology.

In this episode, Andy talks about the rise of perfectionism over the last 25 years, exactly what it is (and what it's not), as well as some of his research and how it is being applied in the real world.

We also cover:

• Helicopter parenting and the inadvertent consequences;
• Measuring perfectionism and the 'perfectionistic climate';
• The relationship between perfectionism and resiliency;
• The role of the coach and the importance of unconditional acceptance;
• The influence of parental behaviour (and genetics) on child perfectionism;
• Andy's view on being a dad and why he's so careful using the word perfect;
• Why there is nothing inherently good about sport and what this means for participation;
• How Andy got involved in sport psychology and studying perfectionism;
• What can be learned from the sports field and applied to other domains and challenging  life circumstances;
• Why being perfectionistic is best studied at the environment level rather than the individual level; and
• The three myths of perfectionism that need addressing.

You can email Andy on [email protected] or say hello to him on Twitter here.

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Kia ora!

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