Dr. Frank C. Bakker
Frank Bakker is a human movement scientist, sport psychologist and educationalist. He started his career teaching physical education. From 1976 to 2012 he held an appointment at the Faculty of Behavioural and Human Movement Sciences (FBHMS) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 1981 he obtained his PhD, following a study of the relation between personality and motor learning in children, and became head of the Teacher Program of the Faculty, which provided didactical training for teachers in higher education. From 1996 to 2005 he was the Faculty’s Director of Studies. During all those years, Frank Bakker also taught Sport Psychology. After his retirement he remained active in this field as a guest lecturer at the FBHMS.
Frank Bakker was co-founder and first president (1989-2001) of the Society for Sport Psychology in The Netherlands. With the late John Whiting he wrote the first academic textbook on Sport Psychology, which was published in 1984, and followed by translations in English, German, French, and Spanish. Together with Raôul Oudejans he co-authored a new textbook in 2012: Sportpsychologie ¬– a standard reference work in this field.
Bakker’s collaboration with the Conservatorium van Amsterdam started in 2011. He is involved in audition trainings and the study labs. With colleagues and students from the FBHMS he studies the concentration of musicians and tests methods that should help them cope with stage anxiety.
Publicaties, (selection)
1987 ‘Weet wat je meet’. Geneeskunde en Sport 20, pp. 202-210.
1990 [Met H.T.A. Whiting en H. van der Brug] Sport psychology: Concepts and applications. New York/London: Wiley.
1994 [Met C.E. Peper, R.J. Bootsma en D.R. Mestre] ‘Catching a ball: How to get the hand to the right place at the right time.’ Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 20, pp. 591-612.
2000 [Met R.R.D. Oudejans, R. Verheijen, J.C. Gerrits, M. Steinbrückner en P.J. Beek. ‘Errors in judging “offside” in football: Optical trickery can undermine the assistant referee’s view of this ruling’. Nature 404 (2 March), p. 33.
2012 [Met R.R.D. Oudejans]. Sportpsychologie. Nieuwegein: ARKO.