Vol. 2 No. 2 2016

Abstract
Psychological skills are fundamental to elite athletic performance, yet individual sport athletes face distinct cognitive and emotional demands due to the absence of in-game teammate support. While mental toughness was historically regarded as an inherent trait, contemporary sport science recognizes that psychological skills are trainable competencies that directly influence motor execution and stress management (Brewer, 2001; Martens, 1987; Umler, 2009). This study investigated the efficacy of psychological sports counseling in reducing stress and competitive anxiety among individual sport athletes. A sample of 120 male university athletes (aged 19–24 years) competing in individual sports (Athletics, Badminton, Lawn Tennis, and Boxing) was recruited from various universities of Punjab. Participants were allocated into two equal groups: an intervention group receiving structured sports counseling () and an uncounseled control group (). Evaluated using the Singh Personal Stress Source Inventory and the Sinha Comprehensive Anxiety Test across four competitive events, the counseled athletes demonstrated significantly lower levels of stress () and anxiety () compared to their uncounseled counterparts. These findings highlight the essential role of sports psychologists in helping individual athletes regulate autonomic arousal, optimize pre-performance mindsets, and sustain high-level performance under pressure (Hanton et al., 2008; Vealey, 2007).