Athletic Identity

Sports was a part of my life growing up - whether it was attending games with my family to support the Huskies at Rentschler Field or Wolfpack hockey games at the Hartford Civic Center or even being part of a basketball team since before middle school, I have grown to love the atmosphere that sport brings. Whether it was assisting my Mom coach in our town’s T-Ball league or working with the disabled or even with the students at Wish Elementary School, through sports, I have been able to build a solid sense of a wider community. It is not just about the game itself but it is about what happens in-between and after. It is the indescribable bonds that form between

All of the publicity that is attained by success, and the possibility of this success, places a great deal of pressure and stress on these young single-sport athletes. This stress and pressure takes the fun out of some sports. Youth sports are becoming serious and based more on winning than on having a great time and learning good sportsmanship. Adu points out the winning mindset of athletes in this day and age when he says, “Teams will do anything to win the game. My coach told me to expect that going in and that is exactly how it was. . .I felt like everybody was out to get me” (Goodall, 2003). This

In our society sports are a very important social construction. As sports continue to grow, they are becoming more integrated into the major spheres of social life. Sports have become an entity, due to the fact that they not only create entertainment and jobs; sports have become a huge platform for various causes. Sports are extremely important to our society and have very powerful influences. Though experiences vary from person to person, most people have some sort of experience with sports. I personally have experienced sports more from the spectator and participant stance, and have been impacted from each perspective a great deal. Compared to sophomore safety, Jamal Adams my sports experience has been very different from impact and perspective.

After graduation, college athletes receive additional benefits, even if they are not part of the admittedly tiny group of athletes with the skills to play professionally (McCormack 21). Status as a former star athlete, or even an ordinary one, can open many doors in the professional world, especially in fields like sales and marketing. People enjoy associating themselves with athletic performers, especially those from their own alma mater. In addition, many colleges have developed special programs to help former athletes return and – if they have not received their degree, as many do not – complete their education ( 22). These programs make it a relatively simple process for a former college athlete to obtain his or her degree. More and more colleges are providing programs to help former athletes in a variety of ways, with the focus on helping them earn a degree ( 25). Some of these programs are still available to

Should College Athletes Get Paid? Would you like to work harder in college sports if you got paid? I know I would. I’m talking about this topic because I think it’s important that the college athletes get something for themselves. College athletes should get paid because some of them are tempted to gamble or accept illegal payments, they win games for their university in the premier sport, and they do the same stuff as professional athletes.

Jones, A., & Greer, J. (2011). You don't look like an athlete: The effects of feminine appearance on audience perceptions of female athletes and women's sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 34(4), 358.

Sports in conjunction with academics are capable of creating a balance that makes for a well rounded citizen and healthy, happy employee. Issues in the mix often come from the balance itself. Many students find themselves overcommitted to sport while others find they are not able to compete. I will examine issues in interscholastic and collegiate sport.

Today in sport we see athlete’s lives dominated by their sport. The structure of day-to-day life as an athlete becomes their foundation. Everything is mapped out for them in an effort to keep them focused and on track. Being an athlete becomes a part of you and defines you as a person. So what happens when it is all over? What happens when that part has to end?

Athletics has played an instrumental role promoting success in all branches of life impacting my performance in school, work and other life facets. Involvement in athletics taught me the value of commitment allowing me to play in Division 1 Women’s Soccer while attending the University of Washington. As a former student athlete, I have been winning and losing my entire life developing my own resilience and tremendous work ethic to work with others toward a common goal. My drive spills over into my professional interactions and career aspirations allowing me to connect

The authors open their article by examining the different ways that men and women are portrayed. According to Eastman and Billings, women are identified by their appearance and men by their athleticism when comparing sport stars (as cited in Hull et al., 2015, p. 107). This could be due to previous research

The biggest obstacle I faced was separating my role as an athlete from my identity. As the saying goes, I put all my eggs into one basket. Everything I knew, everything I loved, everything that made me happy revolved around a sport. Suddenly, the inevitable occurred. It ended. Now my weekends weren’t occupied by long bus rides. I wasn’t spending my free time in the athletic training room. The group chat with my teammates wasn’t being blown up with inside jokes and funny pictures.

For High Performance athletes, there can be a lot riding on their results and performance in competition. If athletes develop an over-reliance on sporting success as a source of self-worth and identity, it can lead to serious emotional issues if things do not go as desired. Athletes often identify their self-worth with their ability to perform, and performance failure has been significantly associated with depression (Taylor, 2015 pg.11; Troijan, 2016, pg. 137) Athletes face many struggles and when something goes wrong it can leave them not knowing where to turn for help. They can be left with they feelings that they are nothing, undeserving, and alone. This may also exacerbate their feelings of seclusion, depression, or grief. Most athletes

The correlation of playing competitive sports at college level and self esteem are measured. Subjects were given the Barksdale self esteem questionnaire to fill out and levels of self esteem are measured by scores out of one hundred. The subjects are then separated into categories determined by gender and whether they played sports at the college level. The results indicated that the elite athletes have a higher self esteem than non athletes. The survey also revealed that women have a slightly higher self esteem than men. These findings agree with our hypothesis that athletes will have a higher level of self esteem than non athletes will.

The transition out of sport can be problematic for professional, elite, collegiate, and high school athletes. In addition, Warriner and Lavallee (2008) stated that the retirement process is specific to the individual. It is imperative to also evaluate athletes’ transition out of sport on an individual level. Before evaluating the literature, it is important to understand the majority of research that has documented individual perspectives is predominantly qualitative. Most studies utilized small sample sizes with semi-structured interviews. However, some authors utilized various quantitative measures as well, i.e., the Athlete Retirement Questionnaire (AIQ), the Life After Sports Scale (LASS), the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Therefore, validation of the findings will be determined by the level of consistency among the different studies.

There are many repercussions that are projected upon both men and women when they enter into a sport that typically isn’t thought of as gender appropriate. Some of those cultural and social stigmatisms may be abandonment by your peers, and friends questions regarding your sexuality, and even in some cases criticism as to how you are living your life. In some cases, it may lead to you not being accepted by either group, theone whose norems you are not following, of as well as the one with whom you are trying to get involved. This paper will address all of these issues and how these seemingly negative situations can, will, and are, leading to growth. It will also discuss how this is a situation where repercussions are