Sports Psychology

The five main things that I learned in sports psychology from is Goal Setting, Awareness, Leadership, Reboundability, and Routines. These all help me not only in the sport world but also in life. It is important to study these things and practice them as much as possible to achieve the greatest benefits from them

Until recently I have never really thought about my goals. I have had them, but have never planned them out or evaluated outcomes. When we had a guest speaker named Mark Henry spoke to use about goal setting. Before I wouldn’t put dates or plans with my goals. It helps a lot when you have a date to start the goal and a date when you want to achieve the goal. One thing Mark Henry taught me was that a lot of smaller goals can lead up to one a larger. One of the goals I set this year was to get better grades. To do this I had to make a plan on how each day I could work on doing this. I made a plan for each day on how to raise my grades and keep track of how they are doing. Keeping the goal organized helps a lot. It helps when you have it all written down on paper for a reference. With this smaller goal it is helping me also with my larger goal of getting accepted in to a college of my choice. Within a few weeks I noticed a huge difference in my grades. I had raised all of them about one grade letter. Once I accomplished this goal, my self esteem went up a lot and I then made more goals.

Another thing that helped me a lot in this class is learning about awareness. Mr. Hunter gave us the stop light as an example on how this works. When I used to play rugby I would easily go from the green to the yellow. When that happened my mind would get filled with thoughts that would distract me from the game at hand and I would get frustrated. When I was in the yellow it was hard for me to go back to the green and easier to go to the red. When I was in the red I would make a mistake almost every time I got the ball. Learning how to prevent yourself from going from yellow to red is a very beneficial trait. Mr. Hunter taught me to think of a word or action that would help me return to yellow. I tell myself I will clinch my fists and that when I release them then it is back to the task at hand. Now when something upsets me or throws me off course in day to day life I will just clinch my fists and then relax ...

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...acks make me stronger in the end.

Last but not least leadership. I have never really been a leader before. After sports psychology I learned that being a leader is a very important position. I tried it out in some of my classes that put me in groups. When nobody wanted to step up and get the task moving I would usually just sit and go along with it. During the first trimester though I would try to take the leadership role. I might not have been that good of a leader but for me just taking the role made me feel a lot better. In life people who can take these important roles of leadership benefit. Rather it is at school, work or home; everyone looks up to the person who can give them guidance in the right direction. The pressure it gives you to lead the people in the right direction is good pressure that will also help out the leader.

Goal Setting, Awareness, Leadership, Reboundability, and Routines are things I have begun to concentrate on and try to incorporate into my every day life. Since I have began to do this it seems life is a lot easier and organized. Learning traits like these is one of the most important things to learn in sports and in life.