Social Justice can be defined as “Promoting equality and rights, especially among disadvantaged populations, as well as increasing the ability of vulnerable or oppressed people to control their own lives” (Austin, 2014) The role of Social Justice within Sport is vital as it gives all people the right to access Sport and participate within sport regardless of their race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social class, disability or any other identity markers they possess. (Long, 2017) Tackling Elitism in Sports Practice: Ensuring the Right To Play and encouraging Social Justice within Sport, specifically reducing Elitism, defined as the belief that an individual has to be of a certain standard or fit into a specific superior category of wealth, talent, …show more content…
(WHO, 2014). Mental health problems within sport is often overlooked compared to the physical sporting benefits and difficulties which be improved or occur due to sports participation. Many researchers often focus upon the physical side of sport as stereotypically sport and the physiology of participants have always been closely linked, but the psychological side of sport not so much until more recent years, which could possibly due to the stigma of mental health being perceived as deeming a person ‘weak’ causing a reduced mount of people to want to speak about their own mental health and wellbeing, making research difficult to conduct. But with the social stigma of mental health gradually reducing many more people, particularly adults are expressing their mental health concerns and issues with more comfort and ease. With this reduce in stigma, a number of staggering statistics has recently been released by the Mental Health Foundation, with nearly half of the adult population within the UK, specifically 43.4%, now reporting to have a diagnosable mental health condition, 1 in 6, 17%, experiencing a common mental health problem such as anxiety and depression and more shockingly, 1 in 5, 20.6%, admitting to considering taking their own …show more content…
A study conducted by Dimeo et al (2001), which evaluated the short-term effects of a training programme on patients with moderate to severe major depression, where twelve patients, with a mean age of 49, five men, seven women, with a major depressive episode according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Society of Psychiatry criteria participated. The mean duration of their depressive episodes were 35 weeks (range12–96). Training consisted of walking on a treadmill following an interval training pattern and was carried out for 30 minutes a day for 10 days. At the end of the training programme, there was a clinically relevant and statistically significant reduction in depression scores (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression: before, 19.5 (3.3); after, 13 (5.5); p = 0.002. Self-assessed intensity of symptoms: before, 23.2 (7); after, 17.7 (8.1); p = 0.006. Values are mean (SD)). Subjective and objective changes in depression scores correlated strongly (r = 0.66, p = 0.01). Proving even within the short time of 10 days, aerobic exercise can produce substantial improvement in mood in patients with depressive disorders. (Dimeo et al,
There has been virtually no research regarding the frequency and duration of exercise sessions on mental health. Thus, it is impossible to determine the optimal frequency and duration of exercise for psychological improvements.
In the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and The Brain by Dr. John J. Ratey, MD (2008), Ratey discuses how exercise can help treat many mood disorders and how it can help strengthen our brains. This book is divided into ten chapters all with five to ten subsections in them. The chapters include: Welcome to the revolution: A Case Study on Exercise and the brain, Learning, Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Attention Deficit, Addiction, Hormonal Changers, Aging, and the Regimen.
The Civil Rights Era impacted the realm of sports in a great and powerful way. Throughout the mid 1900s, many minority athletes emerged through all odds and began to integrate themselves in the white dominated athletic business. These athletes endured constant hardships in order to achieve their goals and dreams; facing much racism, segregation, and violence. Minorities across the country began to look up to these sportsmen and realized that anybody could attain greatness despite the social troubles of the time. Stories depicting the struggles of minority athletes soon arose and grew popular among different cultures. These true accounts passed from generation to generation, each admiring the courage and bravery of athletes and how important they became in obtaining an equal society. Producers and directors soon found a way to revolutionize the film industry by retelling the racial discrimination that minority athletes faced. Remember the Titans, The Perfect Game, 42, and The Express are all examples of how minority athletes overcame racial adversities in order to obtain the championship. These Hollywood movies contain many inaccuracies that draw away from the true impact minority athletes had during the Civil Right Era. Although these films do depict the racial components of the time, they do not depict the accurate occurrences of the stories they try to recreate.
42 is an example of the heavy burdens that minority athletes had to overcome and how they slowly started to emerge at the professional level. The film is based upon Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball athlete to play Major League Baseball. It depicts the racial biases in the realm of sports, the unbearable hardships Jackie endured, and the overall character of the old ballparks. Brian Helgeland, director, wanted the film to depict the terrible racism that Jackie faced and how he overcame many obstacles in order to achieve his dream. Helgeland’s intent to represent this resulted in him exaggerating a few scenes in order to better highlight Jackie’s tough journey to greatness. However, these scenarios helped aid the popular view of the civil rights era by better emphasizing the obstacles that minority athletes had to overcome. In the film for example, after Jackie Robinson moved up to the big leagues, some of his partners wrote a petition to the board of directors explaining their discontent of the current situation. Almost every single player signed the petition against the African American athlete. This event actually happened during Jackie’s first year with the Brooklyn Dodgers, however only a few white players signed the petition. Others like Pee Wee Reese refused to sign it, “It didn’t matter to me whether he was black or green, he had a right to be there too.” The exaggeration of the opposition within his team portrayed the struggles that Jackie Robinson had to deal with because of his race. The refusal of some players to sign shows how not all caucasian males opposed the idea of integration and how they began to accept minority athletes into white cultured sports. Jackie’s rookie year posed plenty of tro...
Have you ever heard about racial discrimination and what is it? Racial discrimination is defined as the action of a persons who treat differently or who excludes another person just for his or her racial or ethnic origin. Racial discrimination continues to exist in the world and may never end with it. For example, in the documentary "Linsanity" Lin mentions that he was a victim of racial discrimination and that despite everything that happened, he was able to reach the American dream. Finally, from watching this documentary, I can strongly be argued that Discrimination is also present in sports, and that depends on what privileges you enjoy will be easier the way to reach what you want.
Depression: a common mental disorder which affects up to one in four female athletes and one in nine male athletes. Being an athlete is a difficult task, and can tear down one's well-being. Therefore, they are more likely to experience depression. Three reasons that athletes are more likely to experience depression is the retirement of a sport creates a void in their life, they’re more prone to injury, and they have a great deal of pressure put on them.
Kim, Y. S., Park, Y. S., Allegrante, J. P., Marks, R., Ok, H., Ok Cho, K., & Garber, C. E. 2012 Relationship between physical activity and general mental health. Preventive Medicine 55(5), 458-463.
Unintentionally, a lot of us have been boxed into institutions that promote gender inequality. Even though this was more prominent decades ago, we still see how prevalent it is in today’s world. According to the authors of the book, Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions, Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree define gendered institutions as “the one in which gender is used as an organizing principle” (Wade and Ferree, 167). A great example of such a gendered institution is the sports industry. Specifically in this industry, we see how men and women are separated and often differently valued into social spaces or activities and in return often unequal consequences. This paper will discuss the stigma of sports, how gender is used to separate athletes, and also what we can learn from sports at Iowa State.
Walker, N., Thatcher, J., & Lavallee, D. (2007). Psychological responses to injury in competitive sport: a critical review. The Journal of The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 174-180.
From when a baby is born they are either identified or told to be “feminine” or “masculine”. For many decades, females have been associated with raising children, wearing frilly dresses, responsible for all the house work, to keep passive, pure and to maintain themselves physically. Due the traits put on to not only girls but also boys it leads to their definition of what femininity should be or, in other words the “weaker sex”. These expectation put on by society onto the boys and girls of femininity often results in women being discouraged from doing activities such as sweating, being aggressive and, competing in sports and physical activities. It also results in boys thinking that it is okay to suppress women and make comments such as “She throws like a girl” or “This isn’t the kitchen”. The main reason for this is because society puts the expectation on women to be “ladylike,” and not to demonstrate any characteristics defined as being masculine. Even though these social norms are still evident today, there are legislations that I could say “try” to promote gender equity in sports, such as the Title IX which is “a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex ”. Even though the U.S have implemented the Title IX, it still does not create equal opportunities or protections under it for women. For example the Office of Civil Rights had a report saying that “it received more than 1,250 complaints over a four-year period from 2009 to 2012. The number of sexual violence complaints increased from 786 during the three-year period ending in 2011 to 854 in 2013-2014 ”. How can there be equity in sports when the laws implemented aren’t doing enough?
Playing a sport whether its basketball, soccer, football or any other of your interest can be thrilling, and accelerating. Not only can it be fun yet physical exercise is good for the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, as an athlete one must keep in mind that playing any sport, injury is part of life and inevitable. Research has proven from time to time that severe injuries in sports can trigger psychological mental health issues, affecting them in their athletic performance.
Social justice is the fair and just relation between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social privileges. In western as well as in Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society. Today social justice lies in between the balance of chaos and insanity. In what possible way could law enforcement be viewed as criminals while professional athletes who show no respect to the country that pays them millions of dollars be viewed as political figures and heroes?
Gender inequity is widely conveyed in the world of professional sports. Gender discrimination has afflicted professional sports since its establishment. Although women have made and continue to make progress in eliminating the inequalities they face in professional sports, remaining discrimination still exceeds their advancements. Because gender inequality is such a common form of discrimination, it is crucial to recognize why and how it exists and to understand what can be done to overcome and eradicate it.
In the article, “Athletes and Coaches Report Mental Health is Slightly More Important Than Physical Health in Overall Performance; Both Agree That More Communication is Needed to Address Mental Health Concerns.”, the Minds in Motion Depression Awarenes Campaign conducted a survey and found that the athletes and coaches believed that “mental health shares an equal, and/or slightly greater role than physical health, in defining peak athletic
IDEA Fitness Journal. Exercise Decreases Risk of Depression in Kids. October 2004. April 4th, 2005. < http://pdfserve.galegroup.com/pdfserve/get_item/1/Scdbf1ew6