Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts

Sports Psychology: Factors of Interest and Current Trends

 

Factors of Interest


Sports psychologists address many issues: leadership, group processes, learning, development, stress management, motivation, self-confidence, personality assessment, and thought control. They may also confront traditional clinical and counseling concerns. These issues can be divided into three broad categories: clinical or counseling intervention, group dynamics, and mental-skills training.

 

Clinical Counseling


Athletes are typically thought of as high-functioning individuals. They are expected to maintain their poise and remain composed during stressful situations. Yet this population has its own set of accompanying psychological issues. Self-doubt and injury-related depression are prevalent even at the most elite levels, compounded by personality characteristics such as narcissism and entitlement.

Additionally, some sports promote harmful behaviors. Research shows that female endurance athletes are at high risk for eating disorders, while male athletes engaged in contact sports may develop antisocial aggressive tendencies. Such situations could disrupt an athlete's career and possibly cause public-relations difficulties for a sports organization. Many professional teams now employ diagnosticians who specialize in treating detrimental behavioral habits and in testing for potential psychopathology.

Group Dynamics


Most athletes -even those in individual-performance sports such as wrestling and gymnastics- compete as a team. Teammates have a common identity, common goals, and often a common fate, and they regard themselves as part of a formal group. Good team chemistry can facilitate performance, whereas lack of cohesion can subvert it. Sports-psychology consultants are sometimes called in to examine factors such as leadership and individual performance that can affect group cohesion and team success. Using knowledge borrowed from industrial psychology, social psychology, and conflict theory, these consultants attempt to build consensus, open lines of communication, provide feedback mechanisms, and instill a sense of pride and commitment in the common goal.

Mental Skills


Mental-skills training remains central to sports psychology. Many techniques -including imagery, goal setting, and attention control- are based on methodologies from cognitive psychology and behavioral sciences. Mental imagery, or visualization, involves mentally experiencing an action or event. Studies show that muscles actually respond during such mental exercises, supporting the sports-psychology axiom "If you can't imagine it, you can't do it."

Self-talk -silent, mental conversation- is a technique that can greatly influence motivation. Athletes are trained to monitor thoughts as they enter consciousness. They replace negative or irrelevant thoughts with more rational, positive thoughts.

While it might appear to be obvious, goal setting is an effective technique. Sports psychologists understand that specific and attainable goals provide direction. In sports, setting short-term and long-term goals can improve performance. Achieving each goal becomes its own kind of reward, providing valuable encouragement during training.

Attention control refers to the ability to focus for extended periods of time. A lapse in concentration or misdirected attention during a critical point in a contest can be pivotal in terms of outcome. Inadequate focus can lead to dulled reaction time, improper execution, and even injury. Sports psychologists help athletes learn to ignore distractions that break their focus. Often athletes regroup by using a specific attention-control routine they have learned.

Current Trends


Sports psychology has evolved as an interdisciplinary field since its inception. It is now part of the curriculum on many university campuses. A plethora of personal trainers and so-called life coaches use its techniques, and concepts such as "visualization" and "self-talk" are part of everyday conversation. And the field continues to grow.

Sports psychologists study the benefits of exercise as a form of stress management. A specialization area, psychophysiology, has contributed information about the ways in which vigorous physical activity and psychological well-being are related. Practitioners now view exercise as beneficial for overall mental health. The services of sports psychology have become more commonplace and better accepted worldwide among national sport governing bodies, coaches, and athletes at all levels of ability.

Introduction to the History of Sports Psychology

 
Sports psychology applies the basic concepts of psychology to athletic achievement. Its practitioners, sports psychologists, study the mental factors involved in sport and exercise. They not only assist coaches who work with athletes; they also help athletes with the special issues they face when playing sports. In addition, sports psychologists are interested in how participation in sports enhances health and well-being throughout the human life span.


History


The academics of sports psychology began in 1898 with Norman Triplett, a professor of psychology at Indiana University and a bicycling enthusiast. Triplett noted that cyclists performed better when racing in groups or pairs than when they bicycled the course alone. Moreover, after collecting and analyzing sufficient data, he concluded that cyclists performed at a higher level when they were being observed and evaluated by others. This study marked the birth of sports psychology.

Twenty years later, Coleman Roberts Griffith, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, studied the personalities of baseball and football players. Based on his findings, in 1923 he offered the first college course in sports psychology. In 1925 he established the first sports-psychology research laboratory in the United States. Griffith also wrote seminal textbooks on the subject, including Psychology of Coaching (1926) and Psychology and Athletics (1928).

Thirty years passed before further research was conducted in sports psychology, in large part because many academic psychologists felt that the topic was unworthy of scientific attention. During the 1960s as American sports were becoming tremendously popular, the subject resurfaced. Professional leagues and the Olympic Games had become big business. Exposure on mass media turned sports heroes into celebrities and role models as never before. Thus sports organizations began to view their athletes as valuable assets. They recognized that psychologists could help improve their players' concentration and other mental abilities. Sports psychology emerged as a respected profession. Then as today, sports psychologists worked alongside trainers, physicians, and coaches to optimize athletic performance.

Eventually, leading sports psychologists drew up standards for their profession. In 1986 the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (now the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, or AASP) was formed. The AASP continues to certify sports psychologists, sponsor international conferences, and publish scientific research.

Basic Facts About Skateboarding You Want to Know

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Skateboarding is an offshoot of roller-skating, but related to both surfing and skiing in terms of balance, weight placement, and control of direction -is a U.S. phenomenon that developed from a recreational fad into a full-fledged sport.


Skateboards consist of three main parts: the board, called a deck; the axle assembly, or truck; and the four wheels. Skateboards are available in a wide variety of designs and materials. A skillful skateboarder is capable of performing tricks and creative movements, such as turning, spinning, traveling backward and forward, sitting, kneeling, balancing on one or two hands, and jumping over obstacles.


Skateboarding has been criticized for being dangerous, and each year thousands of skateboarding injuries occur in the United States. The American National Skateboard Association, a nonprofit organization headquartered in San Bernardino, Calif., is committed to standardizing competitions and the criteria for judging contests and tournaments.

The original skateboards were merely wooden planks to which roller-skate wheels were attached. It was not until the 1970s, when Frank Nasworthy of California devised a truck with smooth-rolling urethane wheels, that skateboarding flourished, reaching its greatest popularity during the late 1970s.

Aikido Facts and History | Hand-to-hand Fighting

 
Aikido (Japanese, aikidō) is a Japanese method of hand-to-hand fighting. It is a modification of a jujitsu system of holds and locks, combined with a spiritual principle. Even though aikido is a relatively new activity compared with other Asian fighting systems, there are already substyles and variations in practice procedures in different parts of the world.


The principal physical techniques of aikido are bending and twisting actions applied mainly to the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints of the adversary. Although these twists and holds would not necessarily throw an opponent, the partners practice safety falls resembling judo and wrestling falls, and they respond to the aikido techniques by taking rolling and leaping falls. This aspect of aikido makes it a beautiful and graceful exercise. Aikido is practiced primarily in kata, or "forms," which are prearranged and rehearsed series of attack and defense actions in which the students alternate the roles of uke, the assailant, and nage, the person who is assaulted. The latter applies the holds and then throws the assailant. In addition to the principal weaponless techniques, there are also stick-fighting variations.

The practice hall or arena is called a dōjō, as it is in judo. The uniform worn for aikido practice consists of a cotton kimono-style jacket and the hakama, a pleated, ankle-length garment that is either like a skirt or split like trousers.

Colored belts indicate proficiency in kata. There are no universal standards of grading or requirements for promotion from one proficiency level to the next. Typically, however, the novice wears a white belt. Intermediate levels are indicated by a variety of color schemes, including a progression from orange through green and blue to brown. Expert level is indicated by a black belt. Aikido instructors may promote a student at their discretion. The student is expected to spend many years in training and practice in order to become proficient in aikido techniques.

Aikido was developed in Japan by Ueshiba Morihei as a result of a moment of enlightenment that he reportedly experienced in 1925; previously Ueshiba had studied jujitsu systems with the aim of becoming a superior fighter. After 1925 he worked out his system of aikido based on a quasireligious, mystical concept of a universal cosmic power called ki (Chinese, ch'i), which could be tapped for mental and physical control of an adversary as well as for spiritual uplift and purification and for bodily health. Aikido is translated as "the way (dō) of union with (ai) the life force of the universe (ki)."

Practice of aikido is linked to concentration on the "single spot" and the resulting pouring forth of ki. Students are instructed to concentrate on a spot just below the navel and to think of it as the center of the mind. Successful concentration is said to produce pouring out of ki, while imperfect concentration results in a temporary loss of ki. Prolonged loss of ki is thought to be the cause of illness, and permanent loss of ki is thought to result in death. Training for the control of the flow of ki through one's body is described as acquiring a sincere belief in its existence and in its power. Diligent practice is said to give the individual an understanding of the true laws of nature, make him or her impervious to assault and indifferent to fatigue, endow the person with a sixth sense of events about to occur, and make daily life free of anxiety.

Facts about Amateurism in Sports

 
Amateurism in sports is the practice of contestants' pursuing a game as an avocation, merely for the love of it, and not for any recompense. Amateurism is followed by many local, national, and international groups, such as the Amateur Athletic Union, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and National Federation of State High School Associations, all in the United States; the Amateur Athletic Association, in England; the national Olympic committee of each member country; the international sports federations governing each Olympic sport; and the International Olympic Committee.


It is almost impossible to devise rules for participation that would apply in every case of amateurism, since conditions are variable in each sport. A contestant may be rewarded or paid in many different ways, but his intent in relation to the sport is known only to himself. What constitutes amateurism is further confused by the fact that in most competitive sports both amateur and professional teams exist. In some sports amateurs may compete under certain conditions against professionals (those who receive remuneration for participating in a sport and, therefore, whose vocations are in these sports). In other sports this is not allowed without jeopardizing the status of the amateur participant.

Originally, amateur competitors paid all their own expenses (the cost of clothing, equipment, travel, food, and housing). At present, because of the widespread development of sport and the youth of most of the participants, expenses are generally assumed by the amateur organization to which the athlete belongs.

Athletes who are subsidized by commercial establishments or government agencies solely because of their athletic ability are not considered amateurs. Business and industrial firms sometimes employ athletes chiefly for the value received from the publicity given to their athletic fame. These athletes presumably are paid to devote most of their time and energies to perfecting their athletic skills. For national aggrandizement, governments occasionally adopt similar methods; they give athletes special positions in the armed services, in the police force, or in a government office. They also operate training camps for extended periods. It is thus easy for a government agency to command leaves of absence for their athletes to train for scheduled events. Recipients of these special favors, which are granted only because of athletic ability, are not amateurs.

Contestants in the Olympic Games must be amateurs. As defined in the Olympic rules, an amateur "is one who participates and always has participated in sport as an avocation without material gain of any kind." He does not qualify: "(a) if he has not a basic occupation designed to insure his present and future livelihood" (if sport is an avocation, there must be a vocation); "(b) if he receives or has received remuneration for participation in sport." In addition to the above requirements, the athlete must comply with the rules of the international sports federation that governs his sport.

The Olympic code bars from Olympic competition any athlete who has:

(1) Received prizes exceeding $50 in value or presents that can be converted into money or into other material advantages.

(2) Received payment of excessive expenses or demanded payment or expense money for a manager, coach, relative, or friend.

(3) Capitalized in any way on his athletic fame or success or accepted special inducements of any kind to participate.

(4) Secured employment or promotion by reason of his sports performances rather than his ability in the job, whether in commercial or industrial enterprises, the armed services, or branches of the press, theater, television, cinema, radio, or any other paid activity.

(5) Indicated his intention of becoming a professional athlete.

(6) Received payment for teaching or coaching others for competition in a sport.

(7) Been awarded a scholarship based mainly on his athletic ability.

(8) Interrupted his occupation (studies or employment) for special sports training in a camp for more than four weeks.

When any sport has become commercially successful as a means of entertainment (baseball, football, and basketball, for example), it is practically impossible to conduct a strictly amateur program at an international, or even at a national, level because of the large sums of money involved. Such a sport eventually may have to be dropped from the Olympic program, or it may never become a part of the program.

As long as the regulations governing amateurism in sports remain primarily the responsibility of the many separate international sports federations and their national affiliates, it will continue to be difficult to obtain a uniform code of interpretation and enforcement for the conduct of amateur sports throughout the world.

Interesting Facts About Motorcycle Racing

 
The sport of motorcycle racing has become international in structure. In organized form it is controlled by the Fédération Internationale Motorcycliste and its national affiliates such as the American Motorcycle Association. Amateur racing can be almost any activity involving people and motorcycles. Professional racing is divided into road racing, motocross, drag racing, speedway, cross-country racing, trials, and oval-track racing.

 
Road racing has displacement classes of 50cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, 500cc, and 750cc. Modern road-racing machines have engines with up to four cylinders, and they are partially streamlined. The most powerful have almost 150 horsepower and top speeds in excess of 185 miles (298 km) per hour. Most events counting toward the world championships in the various classes are held in Europe, but the annual race at the Daytona International Speedway is considered one of the most important and draws a large field of entries from all over the world. The once-famous Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races have been relegated to minor status, and its 28-mile (45-km) course over public roads is considered by many star riders to be so dangerous for today's machines that they refuse to compete there.

Motocross, a European sport, is internationally popular. Motocross events are held on a very rough, rutted dirt-surface course, usually in two long heats. In motocross, rider stamina is perhaps even more important than equipment, and the riders quite rightly see themselves as athletes. Their machines are characterized by lightness, with power a secondary consideration except in the small-engine classes. Much care is taken with suspensions.

Motocross has largely displaced other types of off-road events in spectator appeal, but the amateur rider who cannot give enough time to physical conditioning will turn to cross-country regularity trials called enduros. They are an offshoot of the European International Six Days Trial, but of much briefer duration. In another event called an observed trial, the object is for riders to traverse various obstacles, such as boulders and logs, without putting a foot down.

Like half-mile (0.8 km) and mile (1.6 km) dirt-oval racing, cross-country racing is an American sport. The most famous cross-country race is the Baja 1,000, which is run in Mexico but organized and run by Americans. Most American professional racing takes place on flat dirt ovals that are one-half mile or a mile in length. Racing distances are up to 25 miles (40 km) for a single event on the larger tracks. Points earned at these dirt-oval races usually decide the American championship.

Drag racing attracts many amateur participants, most of whom race the same motorcycle they use for general sporting purposes, though some persons in drag racing build special motorcycles exclusively for that purpose. They combine exotic oxygenated fuels with supercharging to produce some remarkable performances; nevertheless, their motorcycles still do not attain the speeds of drag-racing cars.

Speedway is a form of racing that combines the showmanship of roller derby and professional wrestling with motor cycling. Speedway tracks are small, sometimes only a quarter mile (0.4 km) around, and surfaced with loose clay or cinders. This accounts for speedway racing's excellent safety record as compared with other forms of professional motorcycle racing in which serious injury and fatalities are not uncommon.