Athlete Coping Strategies

The second concept of sport psychology displayed during the soccer game was the use of arousal regulation strategies. Arousal regulation strategies are methods that either increase or decrease arousal levels of a person (Weinberg & Gould, 2011). It is crucial for athletes to be aware of their psychological states so they can

Do you think college athletes should be paid? In my opinion I think you should be given a monthly allowance for athletes. They should be given enough money for stuff they need as in food, clothes, gas, etc. Every year the NCAA makes more than a billion dollars in profits, that is not enough money to pay every collegiate athlete. Now I know these athletes are young and can make not so great decisions with money they are given, but they need money for things, they don’t have time to have a job because their schedules are always busy.

Common factors that can contribute to performance anxiety include; fear of performance failure, negative social evaluation and/or physical harm, as well as disruption of a well learned routine (Cox, p.201, 2007). The effects of these factors can be further heightened in correlation with importance of an event, or the level of competition. These fears and feelings of anxiety may affect the athlete’s perception of their abilities and hinder their self-confidence, which can be detrimental to their performance. Patterns of perfectionism can also lead to sport-related anxiety, mainly involving setting exceptionally high performance standards of oneself (Cox, p.202, 2007). Setting high standards can often be beneficial to a performance, but athletes that succumb to unrealistic thoughts, that nothing but a perfect/ideal performance is good enough, are more likely to experience negative emotions and heightened levels of anxiety due to the discrepancy between ideal and current self/situation (Koivula, Hassmén, Fallby, 2001).

Hours before a match, athletes in all corners of the world tend to freak out due to all the psychological factors that accompany performance in sports. Stop for a quick second and imagine becoming a Manchester United Striker or a Denver Broncos Wide-Receiver. For those who did not know already, these two positions are among the hardest in the sports world to play. Not only must the person assigned to these positions stay up until the early hours of the morning studying plays and formations so they might better assist their team come match day, but they also act as the main way the teams they play for get any points. If the expectation of being the team’s top scorers isn’t enough, they must also act as an inspiration to every other

Coaches learn how their athletes get motivated and use that information to keep them motivated when they are training which lets the athletes become better. Most athletes enjoy receiving criticism from their coaches because it lets them know what their weakness are and motivates them to fix them making them better athletes. Fear of failure affects the athletes performance because it can cause them to lose their focus and therefore not being able to make quick decisions in the game. Athletes who experience a lot of anxiety can cause them to make mistakes and the only way to overcome their anxiety is to try and understand where the anxiety may be coming from. There are a couple of types of anxiety which are mentally or physically types. Their muscles may become tense making it impossible for them to perform correctly, they may also have a lot of negative thoughts running through their heads which may cloud their judgment. Most athletes can never get rid of the anxiety but they can control the level of it and use that energy to perform better in their

Around the entire world, sports psychology is undoubtedly vital in the everyday life of athletes. An intense interest in this department of psychology has existed for years and is growing swiftly amongst college athletes, professional athletes, and fitness gurus everywhere. Muhammad Ali once stated, “Champions are not made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them- a desire, a dream, a vision.” The behavior, motivation, and performance of athletes are just a few of the major aspects of this type of psychology, and a solid psychological foundation is necessary to fully become the best athlete one can be.

Before exploring the health of an athlete its important to understand what mental health is. Mental health is characterised by emotional wellbeing and resilience to stress (ClearingHouseForSport Australian Government Ralph Richards 9th June 2016). Mentally healthy individuals are able to cope with daily stresses and fully participate in family, work and in this case sport activities. A mental disorder is a diagnosable illness that affects a persons thinking, emotional state and behaviour and disrupts his/her ability to carry out normal daily activities and maintain personal relationships. Exercise has many benefits, not only for physical health but also your mental health as well. In the brain, exercise stimulates chemicals that improve an

This memo will narrate my personality and identity in professional context. I will elaborate and summarize key findings and brand myself in narrative form. This narrative will allow me to understand my own professional persona and my communication styles and values. My personality type is “Protagonist.”

Myth has for a long time come into question with whether they exist or are just fairy tales. People nowadays are just to ignorant to ask questions about things they believe in because they choose not to accept it, did Jesus Christ really die for our sins or was it a myth, is Jesus Christ a myth, who knows.

There are a couple different things that I would do. First, after meeting them I would want to observe a week or two of practice and a competition. It would be important to see how the athlete arrives to practice on a daily basis. What type of attitude does he have? What about body language when practice is starting? How is his attitude while being coached or asked to repeat a certain drill? All these situations will give me an up-close view of how to attack their weaknesses when it comes addressing mental toughness.

When it comes to emotions and psychological well being athletes are not machines and they should not be expected to deny any mental struggles. Trainers, coaches, and physical therapists are there for their physical training but they also require psychological support. Those closest to the athletes need to learn to recognize the warning signs such as an overly self-critical nature, perfectionism, and fear of failure to be able to seek out help for the athletes. Sport governing bodies and organizations should induce protocols and procedures about how peers, coaches, and support staff can help when dealing with an athlete suffering from a mental illness. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has released “Mind, Body and Sport - Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Wellness” which is a resource developed to provide information and outline the roles and responsibilities of sports staff and coaches as well as identifies the Models of service, and NCAA resources and policies. This is an extremely helpful and reliable source that other sporting organizations should follow. Also, high performance programs for both individual and team sports should require programs to have a team sport psychologist to be readily available for athletes, and to work with them on throughout the sporting season to be able to develop mental skills to better them on, and off the court. It should become the “responsibility (of the sport association) to provide the services and care to help each athlete reach his or her full potential” (Hainline 2014, 7) In some situations, Sport psychologists may find themselves having to address mental health issues with the athletes they counsel that they may find is out of their capability to deal with mental health problems. It may be

A student once described their personal experience of stage fright as ‘‘the platform does something to me. The vacuum up there seems to suck the marrow out of my bones, to numb my fingers and, worst of all, to put my memory out of commission’’ (Sadler & Miller, 2010, p. 280). This quote vividly paints a picture of how performance anxiety acts as a severe hindrance on students. This review will evaluate two chosen interventions on the chosen psychological performance issue of performance anxiety.

Hoar cites Graham Jones (1991) as proposing the direction dimension of perceived anxiety, which relates to the translation of perceived anxiety to either debilitative or facilitative behaviour. Simply, athletes differ in the way they handle anxiety, some athletes perceive anxiety as a sign of readiness, and others perceive it as a reason to believe they are unable to perform at a high level. Jones’ proposal is highlighted in an article by Martinant and Ferrant (2007) which aims to find meaning groups of athletes based on intensity, direction, and frequency of anxiety.

● What are three ways to recognize anxiety in athletes? There are three fundamental ways to recognize anxiety in an athlete--behavioral and physiological symptoms, and testing. The first two require the coach and athlete to have a sound and trustworthy relationship with connection and the ability freely communicate and expose their vulnerabilities. Testing requires the involvement of a sport psychologist or consultant to administer the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT), for examples, to assess individual differences in the perception of competitive situations. Such as test can identify the anxious athlete and further define the type of anxiety (Vernacchia, McGuire, & Cook, 1996).

In earlier days sports psychology was mostly concerned with developing assessment methods that would identify those people with the potential to become serious superior athletes. Today the focus is on psychological training, exercises that strengthen the mental skills that will help athletic performances on the path to excellence. These skills include mental imagery and focus training. If an athlete is serious about becoming the best he or she can possibly be, the most essential ingredient is commitment to practice the right things. It takes incredible commitment to reach the top: a commitment to rest and train the body so it can perform under the most demanding conditions and a commitment to train the mind to