Well-being, performance, and effective service provision: (Re)locating reflective practice at the heart of Applied Sport Psychology practice.

Within Applied Sport Psychology (ASP), reflective practice has become established as an aspect of education, professional training and development, and applied service delivery globally (Adams & Pope-Rhodius, in press 2023; Knowles et al., 2014). This has resulted in an emerging, context-specific evidence base that has attempted to make sense of the application and utility of reflective practice as a mechanism to facilitate personal and professional growth through experiential learning, and subsequently develop the knowledge required to navigate the complexities of applied service provision (e.g., Huntley et al., 2019; Picknell et al., in press 2023). This evidence base has extended to consider how reflective practice might be adopted by applied practitioners to manage their own well-being and performance within their roles, as well as how reflective practice can be used to underpin effective interventions with clients across a range of contexts (e.g., Cropley et al., 2020; Hägglund et al., 2021). However, in the culture of applied practice that can often be dictated by a “hurry-up mentality”, the value placed on opportunities for meaningful, critically reflective thought is often diminished. Drawing on the contemporary empirical and anecdotal evidence, which includes our own original research, we aim to make the case that reflective practice lies at the heart of ASP service provision. Specifically, we will discuss: (a) the concept of critical reflective practice and its place within ASP; (b) how reflective practice interventions are efficacious in facilitating beneficial practitioner and client outcomes; (c) the links between critical reflective practice, well-being, and individual performance; and (d) the applied issues that may thwart or facilitate effective reflective practices. Thus, we aim to provide rigorous evidence that explicates how reflective practice works and why ASP practitioners should commit to reflective practice within their service delivery.