Sport Studies

KNES 383 - Psychology of Sport & Physical Activity
KNES 202 - Introduction to Kinesiology

Andrea Becker received her PhD in Sport Studies from the University of Tennessee (2007) where she also worked in the athletic department providing sport psychology services to athletes, coaches, and teams. She received her BS and MS degrees in Kinesiology and Sport Performance from California State University, Sacramento. Dr. Becker is an active member of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and has published her research in The Sport Psychologist. She is also co-author of Focused For Fastpitch, a softball specific mental training book.

Dr. Becker is primarily interested in research on coaching and performance enhancement. Specific areas include: coaching education, the influence of coaching expectations and/or behaviors on athlete performance, athlete experiences of great coaching, and issues related to team and individual performance.

Current Projects:

Dr. Becker’s current research projects include:

Effective coaching personified: Observations of Pat Summitt’s practice behaviors.

It’s not what they do, it’s how they do it: Athlete experiences of great coaching.

Same team, different coach, different outcome: Athlete experiences of a turn-around season.