Success or Failure: Its All In Your Head?

Sports are one of the most important parts of our culture in the United States. A vast majority of people in our country grew up playing an organized team sport and even if they did not participate in an organized team sport they surely played a sport in school growing up or at the nearest park or school yard. Sport is a part of human nature and exists all over the world, even in the most sheltered and closed off countries. While it is all fun and games, when one reaches a certain level it may seem to turn into something much different. It becomes a lifestyle for those who take it far enough and in some cases it becomes a career and a way of income, so not only must you play all the time in front of thousands of hostile fans but you are also expected to play at a high level every time you step on to that playing surface. The pressure from this is something that some crave, but for others, it is something that can cause them to crack and nearly fall apart. There is a difference, mentally, between athletes that continue to succeed and flourish in this atmosphere and those who crumble. An athlete’s healthy psyche can be there most powerful weapon and a weak one can be their downfall.

Many of the world’s leading psychologist’s work with athletes to help them maintain a stable mental wellbeing and many of the world’s top athletes are the ones who seek the help from these psychologists. In J. B. M. Clark’s journal, Sports Psychology, he discusses the stereotype of baseball players being superstitious; he says “As a class, American ball players are possibly more susceptible to ‘jinxes’ than any other body of professional players in the world” (Clark 61). A “jinx” is something that would cause a string of bad luck to occur for a player....

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...ifferent sorts of adversity an athlete will go through, the best thing they can do is keep their head on straight. With the help of psychologists trained to help athletes, this is possible and will help them remain in competition through success and failure.

Works Cited

Clark, J. B. M. (1930). Sports psychology. The North American Review, 230(1), 60-61. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25113590

Reese, L. M. S., Pittsinger, R., & Yang, J. (2012). Effectiveness of psychological intervention following sport injury. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 1(2), 71-79. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254612000415

Sarkar, M., & Fletcher, D. (2013). How Should We Measure Psychological Resilience in Sport Performers?. Measurement In Physical Education & Exercise Science, 17(4), 264-280. doi:10.1080/1091367X.2013.805141