Читать реферат по английскому: "The Effects Of Pressure On Professional Atheletes" Страница 1

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

The Effects Of Pressure On Professional Atheletes Essay, Research Paper

January 27, 1991, Tampa Stadium, Tampa Florida. Super Bowl 25, The New York Giants playing the Buffalo Bills in arguably the most exciting game in Super Bowl history. Back and forth the two hulking teams went, every yard a struggle every first down a relief. In front of 73,813 fans and millions watching worldwide, the table is set for a hero or a goat to take form. The Giants score a touchdown to make it 20 to 19 in their favor and their defense holds the kick return to relatively short yards. The bruising New York defense digs in to make its final stand and hopefully become Super Bowl champions. Legendary Bills quarterback Jim Kelly articulates an eighty-yard drive down field with but two seconds left on the clock. The field goal unit is sent on to the field, as millions anxiously await the referee s whistle. Scott Norwood, a local boy, born in Miami, is the Bills field goal kicker. The spot leaves Norwood with a forty-seven yard attempt to win the Super Bowl for the championship starved city of Buffalo. Norwood had made his previous field goal attempt measured at forty-five yards, so this kick is but a formality. With one snap of a football, time stood still for all involved, including I, watching this game at home. The kick is up, and in the air is a sense of calm, the crowd is about to either erupt with joy or sadness. As Al Michaels of ABC sports put it wide right, wide right . And just like that the weight of the game, the city of Buffalo, fell on the shoulders of a kicker from Miami. Scott Norwood will always be remembered for the kick heard round the world , and how he missed the most important kick of his life. What happened to the nearly perfect Scott Norwood that day? Was it a bad hold, could it be he was not ready, or did his nerves get the better of him. The pressures and stress on athletes are numerous and sometimes too much of a load to bear, and can lead to abnormal and sometimes destructive behavior. The dictionary describes pressure as; a compelling or constraining influence, such as a moral force, on the mind or will: pressure to conform; peer-group pressure. It is this that can interfere with the performance of a highly skilled and meticulously trained athlete. They are trained from the beginning to adhere to standards and perform at high levels; they are molded not to fail. Often times the failure of an athlete does not stem from physical malfunctions but mental stress. That is the focus of this paper. Firstly I will briefly discuss the role of the mind in an athlete s performance on the field of play, including competitive anxiety. Secondly, I will discuss the pressures that professional athletes face, outlining the cause and effect. Thirdly, I will discuss the point of positive pressure , where an athlete can use it as motivation, and perhaps propel him or herself to something more. And finally I will discuss the concept of negative pressure and how some cannot cope with it.

Competitive athletics requires a lot more than just physical readiness. The role of the mind in the performance of an athlete is of utmost importance, and has recently gained wide spread attention. With people becoming more physically fit, becoming bigger and stronger every year, the need to gain every advantage possible is important to success. When it was realized the extent to which the mind becomes involved, coaches, specialist, psychologists began to study it extensively, finding cause and effect. This increase in academic study in the field of sport psychology, the topic has grown and many opinions have been put forth. In almost every opinion that I have read the commonality is the idea of the mind playing a very important role on the athlete. It would seem to be a natural environment where stress would manifest. The idea of the sport atmosphere being based on a goal and reward system, where an event or achievement is rewarded and success is good and failure is bad, stress would naturally find a home here. The sport environment provides, therefore, many of the ingredients which invariably create stress in those who participate (Jones and Hardy 1990; 4). And this stress has often been overlooked, as Lee Vander Velden and James H. Humphrey points out, most of the focus of athletes is on biomechanics and physiological factors and little attention has been given to the mental preparation of athletes for competition (Velden and Humphrey 1986; 47-48). It is clear that for the successful athlete it should be important to look at physical training but also preparing for the mental battle on and off the field of play, because the athlete who is better prepared will, in most cases be more successful. To the most cautious viewer the factors in determining performance lie solely on athletic ability and practice. Not may people would acknowledge the mind as a significant aspect of performance but it is not simply the product of physiological (e.g. strength, fitness) and biomechanical (e.g. technique) factors, but that psychological factors also play a crucial role in determining performance (Jones and Hardy 1990; 3). From here we can start to look at how stress in athletics can affect the athlete and how it can alter performance. I refer to the above example of Scott Norwood, who all season missed 2 field goals, but when the pressure was on he did not produce. It could be said that he did suffer from a physical miscue because of the mental stress on him at the time. In front of over seventy thousand people who s eyes are all on you, it may be a bit nerve racking. As Dorcus Susan Butt states; stress in sport is both physical and psychological (Butt 1987; 198) , meaning that athletes have to deal with not only physical stress such as pain and injuries but also psychological affects like fear of failure and the need to succeed. And this stress has been proven to, in some case, alter athletic performance. It has

Похожие работы