Developments In Sport Psychology : Character Development In Sports Psychology

“For any professional athlete, there is a natural assumption of risk to one’s physical well-being. Players are constantly honing their bodies in the weight room—not just to become faster and stronger than their competition, but also to protect against the injuries that can ruin a season” (Barrabi). The National Hockey League (NHL) was one of the last professional sports organizations to issue sanctions against players who cause concussions and head injuries. Just in the past season alone, there have been a total of 44 suspensions in the NHL (TSN.com). Many of these suspensions were assessed due to dangerous, and sometimes intentional, behavior. To many people, these 44 suspensions occurring in the past season may seem too excessive; compared to 2004, it is. However, the frequency of behavior resulting in suspensions has increased over the past several years due to rule changes and a new disciplinary council assessing said suspensions. Despite the change in rules, some still intentionally commit acts of violence against opposing players. These players’ defense is that they are trying to preserve the tradition and respect of the game by humbling new, “arrogant” players who unnecessarily “show-off” or “target” star players (Jones). Although preserving this tradition is expected and necessary due to the violent nature of the game, many players let their tempers get out of control. Because of various injuries, especially head injuries, league officials should take a tougher

Professional athletes are role models for the youth of the nation of the United States of America. The professional athletes of the nation of the United States and the world need to be good role models for the children of the world. When professionals do inexcusable things such as drugs or violence it makes children believe these things are okay to do. The first case that was presented to the public was the case of Josh Gordon.

There are over 8,000 identified sports in the world but most crime comes from basketball, soccer, football, baseball, boxing, and hockey. The NCAA and professional sports are getting more and more strict with a policy that has to do with crime. More and more cases of substance abuse are the cause of most suspensions in professional sports since 2006. In 2014 alone there have been over 20 athletes in college and professional leagues that have been suspended. From charges being as little as theft to murder. Every sport is getting more and more strict with a zero tolerance policy; it has not been stopping the players from committing the crimes, but only resulting in more and more suspensions.

Although being involved in sports has the ability to build good character and morals, the problem is there is also bad character being developed by participating in high school sports. Many high school student-athletes are being pushed harder than ever before to win at all costs, which can result in poor character choices. Multiple points of view, both positive & negative, have been examined from coaches, parents, high school student-athletes, and high school students that are not athletes.

The movie “The Blind Side” originally written by: Michael Lewis is about a highschool boy named Michael Oher who gets adopted by the Tuohy family. The family financially help Michael with his school grades in order to play football, after his grades went up Michael got the proper training to play in his school team. Eventually, he struggles but Sean motivates Michael training him using Football strategies. Sean recorded a video of his sports performance Therefore it made him famous and received a scholarship.

The term sport is highly complex and often tough for people to define. Concepts that are associated with sport can be equally hard to understand. One such concept is deviance among athletes. Coakley states that “Deviance occurs when a person’s ideas, traits, or actions are perceived by others to fall outside the normal range of acceptance in a society” (Coakley, 2015, p.108). These normal ranges of acceptance are created by societal norms. There are two kinds of norms; “formal, which are explicitly written rules or laws and informal, which are unwritten customs and traditions of how a person should think and act in society” (Coakley, 2015, p.108). In order to be able to examine deviance, one must first define the norms in their area of interest. For the purposes of this paper, the area of interest is football. Football is a social world in which the prevalence of deviance is high. There are many levels of football, and this paper focuses on High School football players.

Next, many children and teenagers often look up to professional athletes as role models. For many high school athletes, professional athletes are major influences. High school athletes choose the jersey numbers of their favorite professional players. They emulate their training regimens. They imitate their style of play, and they are influenced by their drug use. Young athletes often believe that steroid use by their role models gives them permission to use. If a young athlete, who is easily influenced, sees his role model attaining success through the use of performance-enhancing drugs, he's going to perceive that as the only way to attain success. “Among students in grades 8 through 12 who admitted to using anabolic steroids in a confidential

“By the same token, one in five teens surveyed said kids learn from professional athletes that ‘you don’t that to worry about the consequence of sex’, and sixteen percent said kids learn it’s ok to use alcohol and drugs” (Study Says Kids Emulate Athletes.) “One in five males ages 18-25 said that taking APEDs is “The only way to make it in professional sports” Kids think you need that supplement to make it in professional sports. Steroid and supplement use by professional athletes sends the message to children that it’s okay to cheat as long as you’re the best” (Top 10 Pros and Cons - Drug Use in Sports - ProCon.org) They think it’s alright to cheat because they aren’t getting busted for it. “In 2002 National Institute of Drug Abuse study, 2.5 of eighth graders, 2.5 of tenth graders and four percent of twelfth graders admitted to using steroids at the same time” (Steroid Use Among High School Athletes - Global Sports Development.) More kids than we thought admitted to having drugs, knowing they had out trust. “Seventy- seven percent of males surveyed said that APED usage in professional sports puts pressure on young athletes to use drugs to get ahead” (Top 10 Pros and Cons - Drug Use in Sports - ProCon.org) When young adolescents have pressure put on them, they will do the easier and faster way

An American debatable topic is whether or not athletes can or will ever be legitimate role models for the next generation. Athletes have been and still can be a powerful and effective role model for students as well as people of all ages. “Athletes know kids look up to them, and it’s important for athletes to be responsible (Athletes).” Professional athletes are watched every day on and off the field/court, and it’s important for the athletes to act as role models for kids and teens. Professional athletes have the ability to be role models by donating and helping charities, by setting a good Christian example, and by encouraging kids to be active.

Athletes do not conduct themselves in appropriate ways. They do not act in ways worthy of idolizing. Such an emphasis is placed on sports that often times athletes become role models. As Barash stated in his article, kids don’t value or place people as their role model based on “character, intelligence, compassion, decency, or creativity”(Barash). In other words, the role models have nothing an individual can look up to besides a lifestyle. Society’s priority of important characteristics is flawed. In addition to choosing unworthy athletes as role models, society also dismisses any bad behavior that athletes exhibit as part of the game or the nature of the sport. Araton blames the media for exposing the athlete’s negative actions, but the underlying fact is that the media did not force them to do the actions they did. He compares the Pacers-Pistons fight to the Kermit Washington and Rudy T fight, a fight much worse than. The fight resulted in the“shattered

Having gone through both elementary and middle school, we have all run into peers who spent a lot of time and energy trying to act like the most popular athlete in any given time period. Kids often try to imitate controversial athletes to bring attention to themselves. Such behavior can bring popularity to a young person. A sad outcome of violence in adult sports is that youth sports end up mirroring adult sports. Young people are encouraged to be aggressive, and often those who are the stars of the team are those who know how to "stretch the rules". Often, young people who do play by the rules are relegated to the bench. As a result, youth athletic teams, even

Athletes are expected to stay out of trouble and be role models to children and one mistake could be detrimental to an athlete’s success.

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

Practicing a sport can be highly beneficial to children, until it’s taken too far. Often called training now, children as young as six years old are participating in sports that require too much time. At that age, sports should be something fun to do and a favorable source of physical activity. However, whenever an athlete shows a hint of a talent, child exploitation occurs (Bean 10234). Between the ages of 7-12, adolescents should be learning identity, motives, beliefs, and values, but nearly all athletes are practicing 5 days a week with games every Saturday. This leaves no time or energy for hanging out with friends, homework, family time, and relaxation. Dr. Shane Murphy reports that if a coach or trainer sees talent in a young child, immediately they are convincing the

"Sports will either be a school of virtue or a school of vice, and that 's why the epidemic of cheating in professional sports is, and ought to be, a huge cultural concern” (Landry, 2012, para. 1). Professional sports are littered with cheating scandals and as technology advances so will access to new and clever techniques. There are many ways to cheat in sports, such as fixing games, placing bets on teams, lying about your age, and the biggest one of them all, taking performance enhancing substances. Doping is a matter of great public concern, and equally as concerning, is doping procedures that go undetected because they have been manipulated to slip under the radar.