APS Member Groups

Award of Distinction

Each year, the APS College of Sport Psychologists grants an Award of Distinction to a candidate of exceptional merit. The purpose of the award is to recognise the importance of an individual's contribution to the specialist field of sport psychology and significant contribution to the College over a number of years.  

The recipient of the 2009 Award is John Gross.

John’s contribution to the discipline and practice of sport psychology began in 1982, when he took up a lectureship as a foundation member in Sports Studies at the then Canberra CAE.  He then began a long-term professional relationship with staff at the Australian Institute of Sport, which included co-organising the first sport psychology conference to be held in Australia, in 1983.

John became a member of the College on its inception, and served on the National Committee for over a decade. He held the role of Convenor of the College’s Course Approvals Committee for several terms, and led the identification and development of the specialisation’s competencies, which served as the basis of the curriculum for accredited postgraduate programs, and which were subsequently utilised by the International Society for Sport Psychology (ISSP) in its own publication of competencies for the profession. 

John has demonstrated his considerable expertise and scholarship in sport psychology through over 50 international or national level publications and over 80 presentations.  His specialist research interest is in coaching behaviours, for which he was awarded an Australian Sports Commission Applied Sports Research Grant.  Other research interests include sports attributions, with one co-authored paper on perceptions of causality in sport cited by the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology as a modern classic in sport psychology literature.

John was responsible for the development and teaching of the first Australian distance education subject in sport psychology through the Central Queensland University, and delivered a sport psychology subject intensively at the Hong Kong Institute in the 1990’s. John was an invited speaker to the 2001 International Sport Science Conference in Bangkok, and presented at the 2001 and 2005 ISSP World Sport Psychology Congresses.  In addition to regular contributions at APS Conferences John has been invited to speak at several Australian Coaching Council Conferences and served as session chair on many occasions for various sport psychology symposiums and fora. 

The College is delighted to honour John through its Award of Distinction for 2009, which was announced at the College's Annual General Meeting on 16 October 2009. 

Previous Award Recipients 

Previous recipients of the award are listed below, and biographical details are available at Previous Award Recipients.