Running a psyching team: Providing mental support at long-distance running events

Psyching teams provide brief psychological support to participants before, during, and after long distance running events such as marathons. Developed and refined over the past 30 years, psyching teams benefit runners themselves, provide mental skills training and hands on experience to team members, and help de-mystify sport psychology. Using one particular model, this article is designed to describe both the content and process of psyching teams and 18 offer information for others’ development of similar volunteer programs.