Sports Psychology (Research Paper Sample)

Sports Psychology
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Sports Psychology
Sports psychology refers to the branch of sports that is interested in the influences of psychology on sports, the performance of athletes, physical activity, and exercise. Coaches and professional sportsmen work with sports psychologists in order to enhance their performance, as well as boost their motivation. Some other professionals use sports and exercise in order to improve the lives and well-being of individuals in their entire lifetime (Caruso, 2004). Andersen (2000) claims that the augmented competitions stress can result into mental and physical reactions among athletes in ways that can affect their performance in negative dimensions. This is because sportsmen can become tense, break into cold sweats, the rates of their hearts may race, worry about the consequences of rivalry, or even find it tiresome to pay attention to diverse tasks.
The above-mentioned problems and others related to the mental and physical fitness of sportsmen have obliged coaches to be increasingly interested in the sports psychology area, especially in the competitive anxiety area. This interest has concentrated on the skills, which sportsmen can employ in competitive circumstances in order to retain control, as well as heighten their performance. After learning these skills, athletes are able to relax and concentrate on their duty of preparing and taking part in competitions in a positive way. Horn (2008) asserts that psychology is an essential weapon that empowers athletes with a desire to gain the winning edge. Thus, sports psychologists consider the 4C’s (concentration, commitment, control, and confidence) as the chief mental qualities, which are fundamental for success in almost all sports. He adds that moderation, focusing, and mental imagery are crucial in the realization of the 4C’s. The following paragraphs will examine and discuss each of these C’s.
Concentration refers to the mental capacity to sustain focus on a given task. If a sportsman lacks focus, then their sportsmanship will be ineffective or inefficient to the given task (Horn, 2008). Researchers have recognized two kinds of attention focus: broad narrow and the internal external continuum. The broad narrow continuum claims that sportsmen zero on either large or small stimuli amount, while the internal external continuum is interested in the sportsmen’s focus on the internal (feelings) and external (ball) feelings (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Andersen (2000) observed that each sport has a certain variance of concentration. For instance, squash, cycling, and distance running requires sustained concentration; athletic field events, cricket, and golf demand short concentration bursts; while sprinting events, skiing, and bobsleigh require deep concentration.
The most common factors that distract sportsmen’s concentration include mistakes, coach/manager, destructive thoughts, nervousness, challenger, and weather among others (Caruso, 2004). Nelson (1989) argues that the methods of increasing concentration are exceedingly personal. However, setting process objectives for every competition or session would help in maintaining attention. The sportsman will need an overall objective for which he/she will pinpoint several process goals for aiding in paying attention on particular features of the undertaking. The athlete could utilize trigger words (words that help the athlete to refocus on the goal promptly) for every objective set. For instance, a sprinter whereby the sprinting technique focuses on being composed, smooth, and being tall could use “technique” as the trigger word. Sportsmen will cultivate a routine for contests, which may include pre competition, post competition, or on competition routines that can be so effective in enhancing focus if structured aptly (Hinkle, 1994).
Confidence is the second C. It denotes the capacity of an individual to have faith in his/her own abilities. It crops from the comparison a sportsman makes between their capability and the objective. The confidence that one will realize his/her goal results in self-confidence among athletes. A sportsman with self-confidence has the tendency of holding on even if things seem to be going against him/her plan, exhibiting fervor, being positive in their practice and performance, as well as accept responsibility in case of success or failure. In order to boost their self-confidence, sportsmen can utilize their mental imagery in visualizing the previous sound performances to evoke the look and feeling, or conceptualize the diverse scenarios and means of coping with them. Challenging, but realistic, goal setting could enhance the feeling of success among athletes. If sportsmen can visualize that they are realizing their short-term objectives, and nearing their long-term ones, their confidence escalates at alarming levels. Nelson (1989) perceives confidence as “a positive state of mind and a belief that you can meet the challenge ahead - a feeling of being in control” (p. 2) as opposed to being a “situation that directly affects confidence; thoughts, assumptions and expectations can build or destroy confidence” (p. 2).
The third crucial factor is control. Control refers to the capacity of an athlete to sustain emotional control irrespective of disruption. In order to help sportsmen gain emotional control, it is imperative to recognize the time when they feel a certain emotion, as well as comprehending the rationale for such feelings. The capacity of a sportsman to uphold his/her emotional control during adversity and cultivate a positive feeling remains vital to fruitful performance. Anger and nervousness are usually related to dismal performance. Anxiety could be mental (negative thoughts, mix-up, or apprehension) or physical (nausea, sweating, or butterflies). Relaxation is recommended for athletes to ease their anxiety. Anger, on the other hand, shifts the concentration of an athlete to the root of such anger. This results into lack of attention of an undertaking, deterioration of perf...