Abstract
INTRODUCTION Pete Carroll was the keynote speaker at the Third World Congress on Mental Training in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1999. At that time, he was the Head Football Coach for the NFL’s New England Patriots. From his presentation, I was most impressed by his passion for teaching and his affinity for the mental aspects of the sport of football. His knowledge of the principles of sport psychology and how he incorporated them into a professional sport setting were impressive. Several years later he was hired to become the head football coach at the University of Southern California, responsible for rebuilding one of college football’s most storied programs. In his 5 years, Coach Carroll has not only rebuilt the program but has elevated it to one of the nation’s most elite, achieving national championships in 2003 and 2004, and helped produce three Heisman Trophy winners in four years. I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity of providing sport psychology consultation services to the USC Athletic Department for eight years, and thus have been given ‘behindthe-scenes’ access to some great programs and coaches. This access has allowed me to hear and see how Coach Carroll puts into action his philosophies and practices shared during the above presentation. This interview reflects the impact that sport psychology has had on his philosophies, principles, and practices for life and coaching. After this initial interview was conducted, follow-up meetings were conducted to formulate a working model of the most salient of these practices and strategies for coaching excellence. This article will detail the many aspects to this model integrated with direct quotes from the interview and follow-up meetings. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how a major collegiate head coach in football uses principles and practices of sport psychology. Most coaches who have obtained this measure of success tend not to want to “open the vault” and share their ingredients for success. Consistent with his demeanour and personality, Coach Carroll is quite open to “talk shop” with fellow coaches (and sport psychology consultants!) and hopes that his International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching Volume 1 · Number 4 · 2006 321