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Psychology introduction and importance in sports and education
Essay on the importance of sports
Essay on the importance of sports
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Sports are an important aspect in society. They help people to strive to reach certain goals and join people together, but they also can divide people and turn a fun game into the main purpose of someone’s life. Taking sports games too seriously can be harmful for both the athlete and the spectator. The attitude of always winning at any cost in sports and has managed to distract us from other important parts of our lives, such as health and education. This importance of the value of sports can heavily influence the way that we see ourselves as both the spectator and the athlete by creating a positive self image and distilling confidence and discipline within the player, or by embedding self doubt and invertedness. The values of sports can influence Being part of a team creates a bond between teammates that can last a lifetime. Also, enduring the criticism of the coaches distills proper direction and discipline that you would likely not learn off the field. In “The Real New York Giants”, the author, Rick Reilly, writes about how a football team of firefighters loses many teammates and friends due to the attacks on September 11th, 2001 on the twin towers, and how the bonds and closeness of that group helped them to keep playing football and honor their fallen friends whom they became so close with through the sport (**insert beginning pg #). While in this certain circumstance, the importance of sports did not affect Society loves sports and as a result, the fans idolize the athletes, almost as celebrities. Along with this new “celebrity” standing, comes major pressures to always be “perfect” or in the “right”. If the athletes make one mistake or have a bad game, their standing with the fans and their popularity changes negatively, lowering their self-esteem and confidence. In the short story, “The Silent Season of a Hero”, Gay Talese talks of how the former baseball star, Joe DiMaggio felt pressured to always uphold the myth of the “perfect” player with patience (444-445). In the essay, “Kill ‘Em! Crush ‘Em! Eat ‘Em Raw!”, John McMurty, a former professional football player, talks about his experience and injuries during his personal career. He endured many injuries such as broken nose, fingers, jaw, and toes, a dislocated shoulder, pinched nerves, etc. Acquiring injuries such as these tore him and other athletes apart, especially since they felt pressured to continue to play with these injuries because the spectators. The author talks of how people love to see the players “blindsided, clotheslined, or decapitated.” which leads to those injuries that they obtain. The viewers love violence and pain, so “Either you, too, do your very utmost to efficiently smash and be smashed, or you admit incompetence or cowardice and quit.”(Find page
In David Foster Wallace’s essay, “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart,” he argues that the true talent of star athletes is to completely engross themselves in playing the game. While worshipping the “abstractions like power and grace and control” of Tracy Austin, he notes the contradicting quality, her inability to articulate such abstracts (143). He continues by writing, as people’s expectation while reading the autobiography of a successful athlete is to take a peek at the secrets of their god given gifts, whereas the expectations are rarely met, making spectators, such as himself, disappointed. As a matter of fact, Wallace suspects that the exceptional talent of athletes may be brought out by their apathetic and ignorant nature when it
Athletes in times of difficulty can be important role models.” This shows that sports are in fact helpful because they can grow children into being important role models for the rest of society. Studies have shown time and time again that playing sports can be beneficial to children and we also believe this to be true. Many people still think that sports cause “too many injuries”, or coaches “are not fair enough”, but adolescents will experience these things all throughout their lives because injury can happen anywhere and they will not always be the best at what they are doing. Sports are beneficial to the youth because they can teach children and teens important life skills, help them maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle, all while improving their mental health.
Stephen D. Keener, writer for the New York Times, says in his article Sports Teach Kids Valuable Lessons, “The lessons young players gain between the foul lines have guided some to become astronauts, emergency first responders, bestselling authors, military heroes, professional athletes and even president of the United States” (Keener). Keener talks about how playing on a sports team as a child can teach the kid very important characteristics, like: teamwork, leadership, and sportsmanship. Any kid who wants to get a job when they’re older is going to have to know how to work well with people, which is where learning the skill of teamwork is so huge. Considering Ripley’s point about sports lowering academics, Keener argues, “These lessons directly translate into the classroom and beyond” (Keener). These are some very important lessons I think that kids can benefit from
Much like character development, fostering self-esteem in young athletes is dependent upon the way the sport is presented. If the sport is presented in a way that instills confidence and security, sports can instill or improve self-esteem. Once again, it is not the sport in itself that instills self-esteem but rather the way the sport is presented. However, there is a link between self-esteem and physical activity that may have a lot to do with why and how youth players can develop healthy self-esteem from sports. “Furthermore, in terms of child development, positive parental involvement can help develop important skills such as self-esteem, motivation and social skills”(Quinton)
In today’s modern world, professional sports have evolved into one of the most influential aspects of human culture. The unscripted nature of competition, combined with larger than life athletic figures, has inevitably prompted fans to associate sportspeople with being superhuman. However, this unintended consequence is the where the controversy surrounding professional athletes arises. Fans, who confuse athletic superiority with a sense of righteousness, have subjected professional athletes to unreasonable moral and physical expectations. Consequently, this has led sportspeople, who fail to meet these unrealistic standards, to come under tremendous public scrutiny.
The knowledge and cunningness of professional athletes has greatly contributed to many players’ sense of greed, justifiability, and ignorance, and can be astounding. While some may be better able to handle the wealth and celebrity status that comes with being a professional athlete, others cha...
Injuries impact the school life, profession, and the approach to society of a player. It slows down the natural ability of one to obtain and accomplish their aspirations in life, such as academics achievements or relationship goals (Dr. Echlin, 2014). Physicality and toughness are important factors in sports, especially in hockey. In a sport that is nearing a century old, who dare prohibit the originality of it? But with prolific past injuries on players caused by malicious hits, such as Todd Bertuzzi’s infamous check on Steve Moore in ’04 or superstar Sidney Crosby’s year-long concussion in ’10-11, speculation has started to gather regarding the complete exertion of violence in the NHL. With over 50% of players getting injured each year and
Participation in sports has proven to increase self-discipline and self-esteem, and can teach athletes to learn from their mistakes and move on (Issitt). Athletes playing team sports also develop the ability to work well with others and use teamwork in their everyday lives. Teammates form relationships that are strengthened over a common passion and goal. These relationships can last long after high school is over (Chen). These social skills translate into better communication used with an athlete’s family, peers, and in the community. Likewise, “A 2006 study in Maryland found that student athletes are 15 percent more likely than non athletes to be involved in their communities and to take the time for civic engagements, including participating in voting and volunteer activities” (Issitt). The same study also concluded that athletes are far more likely to be comfortable with public speaking than non-athletes. This study provides concrete evidence that high school sports can help to gain mental and social skills that will be used later in life
Hard checks, high-impact hits, rough blows, knockouts, crushing tackles; some violence occurs naturally in some sports. Those naturally violent sports (e.g., football, hockey, soccer, wrestling, and boxing) with all that aggression and violence excites audiences and enhance enjoyment. However, aggression and violence in sporting competitions are clearly becoming an issue. Destructive aggression is often deliberate and frequently encouraged by coaches, spectators, and teammates. This aggression in becoming increasing accepted by the public and ever popular in today’s sporting events. Michael Strahan a player in the NFL said in 2007 that, “It’s the most perfect feeling in the world to know you’ve hit a guy just right, that you’ve maximized the physical pain he can feel….. You feel the life just go out of him. You’ve taken all this man’s energy and just dominated him” (Coakley, 2008). Clearly, Strahan’s words show the acceptance of aggressive behavior and even glorify this aggression.
The correlation of playing competitive sports at college level and self esteem are measured. Subjects were given the Barksdale self esteem questionnaire to fill out and levels of self esteem are measured by scores out of one hundred. The subjects are then separated into categories determined by gender and whether they played sports at the college level. The results indicated that the elite athletes have a higher self esteem than non athletes. The survey also revealed that women have a slightly higher self esteem than men. These findings agree with our hypothesis that athletes will have a higher level of self esteem than non athletes will.
Firstly, it is vital to note that anxiety, motivation, and concentration tremendously influence people's self-confidence and their performance at the long-run (Damon & Raedeke, P 188). Higher self-confidence reduces anxiety. The vice versa is also true. This is based on the fact that optimally confident sports people experience fewer doubts on self. Their worries reduce and give room for concentration in their activities. Additionally, motivated athletes are in a better position to strive towards achieving their goal. Motivation enables sports people to combat negativity and low self-esteem as they focus more on their goals other than obstacles. Therefore, it is fundamental to note that coaches and sports people must collaborate in finding any mechanisms that could stimulate and uphold self-esteem since it is, directly and indirectly, impactful to their
Between the indifferent and the protestor, we find a marvelous creature called an athlete whose species is varied into many different types; the marshmallow, the jelly bean, and the rock. Athletes can be found everywhere- in the classroom, locker room, the gym, the thick of the game, and in church. Places people will not find athletes are up late, in bars, missing church, in trouble, or being disrespectful to his elders. An athlete is made of wondrous stuff. Athletes have the eyes and the steadiness of an architect, the muscles of a body builder, the speed of a bullet, the reflexes of a cat, the heart of a lion, and the faith of a saint. To his coach an athlete is a modeled player, a perfectionist to be encouraged, a student to be taught, and a dream come true. To his teammates an athlete is a hard worker, unselfish, modest, determined, and understands the meaning of teamwork. To himself the athlete is never good enough, aware that he is an example to others, the reason his team lost, but never why they won. An athlete is an amazing being. People may dislike him, but you have to admire his performance; doubt his capabilities, but never his courage; question his efficiency, but never his effort. People might be able to defeat the athlete, but never make him quit.
“Sports are for fun, but they also offer benefits and lessons that carry over into all aspects of life”. This well-known anonymous quotation conveys the message that sport is the game which has some rules and custom. It is not only for fun and entertainment, but there are also some benefits of playing sports and which gives some important lessons for life. Every kind of physical sports is healthy because it involves running, jumping, stretching, mind skills and much more. There are so many sports available in the world nowadays, but we can categorize them by the numbers of players, the three main categories are individual sport, dual sport and team sport.
In conclusion, it is explicit that sports is a positive influence on athletes, spectators and the world as a whole as it teaches imperative life lessons as well as allows its participants to experience enjoyment, fulfilment and gratification. As mentioned previously sports enables its players to bring out the best in others and create unity amongst groups as team work is so essential. This highlights the views I have in conjunction with the views of Joe Humphrey.
The main goals behind Sport Education are to help students become knowledgeable about different sports and activities to the point where they can participate in these outside of the classroom to stay active. Also it teaches execution and strategies and encourages competitiveness. It is important for kids to be competitive because they will have to be in life and it will teach the importance of winning and losing the right way. “Sports offer kids a great chance to work cooperatively toward a common goal. And working coope...