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"Sports Psychologists and Their Contribution to the Field" essay
Importance of sports psychology
Importance of sports psychology
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Joshua Mabry
PSY-102
4-30-17
Mr. Witherspoon
The Mental Side of Sports While many people in the United States and all around the world playing sports such as football, baseball, soccer, basketball or any other sport it is a fun activity and a way to stay fit. Some people though are able to make playing sports a job and make pretty good money off of playing the sport they love, but what is it that makes someone strive to compete and to go for the win? That is where Sports Psychology comes into play. It is a part of psychology that looks into the ways the brain works while playing sports. What is it really that makes someone in the sport of football want to go out and hit someone just for the fact of knowing they may win. Sports psychology looks
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Some cons of being a sports psychologist is after completing the schooling of 6 years or more people then have to find a job. An article by the American Psychological Association states, “Sometimes a sport psychologist has the difficult job of counseling a student athlete who wants to quit the team despite the coach's opposition” (Voelker Para 28). In this quote it can be seen a con of the job is they have the task of trying to make both sides happy which is not always possible. Also there is the fact that if someone ends up filling a position on a traveling team while they do get to bond with the team there is very little down time and time to relax. Some pros could be the people with whom you work with are mostly people who enjoy playing a sport but just want to excel. The overall reason that people should be looking to go into sports psychology is because for one the field is growing and is becoming more recognized. A statement from an article states, “At the international games, and with a massive global audience watching, another crucial hurdle faces the sport psychologist: Olympic-sized performance anxiety” (Therapy Para 3). In this quote it can be seen is that it is gaining more and more attention from all over even from the Olympic committee. They are recognizing just how crucial of a point this job is. While the need for sports psychologists is going up the advance degrees will not be as prevalent meaning not as much time and money spent on a college education. There is also the fact about the salary is also another good reason to become a sports psychologist. Not only do you get to help athletes and people with their mental and emotional struggle of sports but you also get to make quite a bit of money doing
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.
Overall, those are the benefits that a career in athletic training can be beneficial to society as well as one who pursues this career.
However, what this argument does not take into account is that athletes have an abundance of pressure put on them that most non-athletes don’t ever experience. Hence, the saying, “go hard or go home”. A recent study emphasizes this fact as McClatchy notes, ”The researchers monitored mood levels of 465 collegiate athletes over three years and found 6.3 percent of the athletes met the criteria for clinically significant depression and 24 percent were considered ‘clinically relevant’ “ (2016). Studies like these prove that athletes are not blind to the idea of depression, but rather experience this disorder themselves. Anxiety has a huge role in depression. As sportsperson, there is constant effort to become an awe-inspiring player. As the stakes of the game raise, so does the anxiety. Some want a scholarship, some want to show off what they offer to a team that got a scholarship, and some are professionals. Regardless of whether it's grade school sport or a professional sport, failing at personal goals one set is down right depressing. Kearns and Hwang state that, ”While it’s not clear whether the source of challenges to a student-athlete's mental well-being is the same as those non-athletes, collegiate athletes are known to encounter unique stressor that the general population doesn’t have to deal with, such as the demands, relationships with coaches and missed scheduled classes” (2014). Pressure is something everyone experiences. However, athletes experience some of the same pressure that of non-athletes and then some. Being on a sports team is demanding to time and the idea of being “superior”. In athletics, coaches are everything. For example, If a coach likes how a person attributes as a team player, then that person will get a chance to shine. However, if the coach is not very fond of one, then the chances of opportunities are not very
Sport and exercise science is a multidisciplinary field that draws on knowledge from the broader parent disciplines, the subareas that make up sport and exercise science also draw on measures, constructs and concepts from each other. In fact, it is suggested that sport psychology should include knowledge from other sub-disciplines within sport and exercise science in order to gain better understanding of situations specific to
Sports psychology can be defined as the study and application of the attitudes and behaviors of athletes (including team athletes) that impact (either positively or negatively) performance in sports or competitive settings. The goal of sports psychology is to help athletes and teams identify unhealthy attitudes and beliefs, apply mental toughness skills and peak performance strategies to perform at optimal levels (Cohn). Sports psychology is not recognized as a traditional field of practice offered by graduate programs; although, it is a recognized field of specific study under Kinesiology and Physical Education Programs. Sports psychology was first founded in 1920 by Carl Diem in Berlin, Germany. Later on, in 1925, sport psychology was brought to the U.S by Cloman Griffith. These early psychologists aimed to observe the effects of mental state on different factors of performance such as reaction time, tension, relaxation, and awareness (Haney). In the 1960’s Griffith’s research interest in sports psychology reemerged after having faded away for a while; however, the field had a...
Since the moment you had your first play date every single boy that has ever been born has always wanted to win or be the best out of what you are doing. This is the competitive instinct that is within everybody but especially in boys and men. Even when you’re a baby when another baby is around and that baby starts to get more attention than you your first reaction is to cry and demand attention. As we get older into our teens our competitive instinct blossoms more than any other emotion we have. In sports you always want to be the best, that’s why you play the game. You lift weights and do speed drills so that you get faster and jump higher just to help you become better than your opponent, the thing that drives you through your training is you competitive instinct. Even after we are done playing sports we make up our own games just so we can still be competitive with our friends and other people, prime example is fantasy sports. We treat it as if it were life changing for our team that we picked was able to beat or lose to your friends teams.
Sports Psychology Today. Mental Edge Athletics, 4 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. Forde, Pat.
I am a young ambitious student who strives to excel in everything I do. I want to study Sport Psychology as I know I possess the right skills to further and develop myself in the career of sports. I have the ability to understand others in sports as I also play sports myself. I have been in high pressured sporting situations which I have used my psychological skills to help increase my performance. What interests me in Sport Psychology is that I can make a big difference to not just my life but the lives of people in sport such as rehabilitating athletes or boosting athlete performance. I am fascinated by how different athletes perform in the same environment and getting practical with the mind, body and brain. Improving performance, consistency and stability in an athlete’s
Gill, D. L., (2000), Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise, Champaign, IL, 2nd Ed., p197, Human Kinetics.
Have you ever held another person's life in your hands? Professionals in the sports management industry handle an athletes well being, body, and money. Many would say those are pretty pivotal things in an athletes life. Well, sports have been one of the biggest things in my life and so its clear why my career choice has to do with sports. But more specifically, Initially I looked at my struggle rehabilitating and how without the support of the therapists around me, I wouldn't have progressed back to walking so smoothly.
Balance is the most important aspect of this because achieving balance between sports and other activities is crucial for a child to live a happy life and it encourages a kid to see beyond life as a game of winning and losing (Price-Mitchell, 2012). Sport psychology in these three environments are very important for the development of young athletes, teams,
It’s a sort of guideline for boys in how to become a male figure. The author explains how sports are an agent of socialization as it provides a sort of masculine guideline for boys, a place for where boys can learn to be what they grow up to be, men. Socialization is described as habits, and beliefs of the society in which they live through a series of training. Hartman explains that we men become very attached and we have the action of becoming emotionally involved in sports that we tend to play or watch, what we are taught is not to show some sort of emotion in any circumstances as on page 117 the author states that “boys even when dealing with injuries and pain should be tough in the face of
Children who participate in sports are developing rapidly in sports skills, sportsmanship, and psychologically, but does this come from organized sports are just nature’s process. Children develop emotional and social benefits from participating in sports. Children experience character and leadership development through peer relations leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in anxiety levels. Children will get opportunities to experience positive and negative emotions throughout their practice and games trials. It is important for the coach to understand the “psychology of youth sports and physical activity participation” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011 p.516).
A lot of times, sports seem like a contest of physical skill― a test to see who is the fastest or strongest, who has the best eye or the most endurance, who can jump the highest or can handle the ball the best. What a lot of people don’t know is that there is so much more to a sport than just the muscle and coordination. In order to excel in a sport, an athlete requires a lot of self-discipline, concentration, and self-confidence. It’s the mental factor that makes a difference. Former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlon runner Bruce Jenner once said, “You have to train your mind like you train your body” (Gregoire 1). Success or failure depends on the mental factors just as much as the physical ones. The training of the mind of an athlete is called sports psychology. The use of sports psychology has a huge impact upon an athlete’s performance. The mental skills of a sport are just as important as the physical skills. All professional athletes use sports psychology. “If they aren’t currently using it, it’s almost guaranteed they’ve used it in the past, even if they are unaware they have” (Davis, Stephens, The Exploratorium 129). It’s hard to find an experienced athlete who hasn’t used sports psychology, because without it, they probably wouldn’t be where they are. The use of sports psychology is a crucial step to becoming a successful athlete.
Sports psychology continues to evolve in order to ensure that comprehensive and evidence-based psychological services are available for athletes and teams. Giving athletes an understanding of their psychological functioning, and building the ability to implement a range of psychological strategies in competition enables athletes to both execute their skills and thrive under pressure as they strive to reach their performance potential.