Non Successful Student Athletes

The topic I chose to study for my report is inequality in college athletes regarding academics. The first article I read was, Class and Cleats: Community College Student Athletes and Academic Success by David Horton, which was published in New Directions for Community Colleges. The second article I read was, Are Athletes Also Students? The Educational Attainment of College Athletes by Dean Purdy, Stanly Eitzen, and Rick Hufnagel, which was published in Educational Researcher. I chose to study this topic because there is apparent inequality between student-athletes and non student-athletes in aid they are given academically.

Sports psychology deals with the mental and emotional aspects of physical performance. It involves describing, explaining and predicting attitudes, feelings and behaviours in an attempt to improve performance. In the film 'Coach Carter,' directed by Thomas Carter, sport psychology is used effectively to enhance the performance of a high school basketball team. However, this improved performance is not limited to the basketball court, it extends into the classroom where the students use goal setting, motivation, concentration and confidence control, ultimately to become accepted into college, avoiding a life of drugs, gangs and prison.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 480,000 college students were recruited to continue their education while playing the sports they love (“NCAA Recruiting Facts”). Several Americans question the lack of income for collegiate athletes, including college athletes that find themselves battling for a share of the NCAA’s profits in courtrooms. The last reported revenue of the National Collegiate Athletic Association from 2011-2012 was $871,600,000 (“NCAA Benefits to College Student-Athletes”). Therefore, one would one think that the NCAA can afford to pay its players. However, those who believe it is possible to add student athletes to the universities’ payrolls are incorrect. Per the NCAA, while the amount of revenue

Since starting my Career at Wake Forest University 5 years ago I have learned and seen so many different things. When I first came into college I didn’t have the knowledge that I have now. There are many issues that can affect a student athlete especially freshmen. When freshmen first come into college they have to try to balance out school and there sport. The first thing freshmen student athletes run into is time management. To me personally I think that is a down fall for college athletes. Coming into college as a freshmen and leaving as a graduate transfer I have witness and heard stories of student athlete who couldn’t not make it through college all four years. The reason why I chose this is because I came into college with 24

Sports teach teamwork and help achieve goals, and offer many health benefits, with staying “fit”(University of Missouri). This proves the general benefits of sports and the long term effects of playing a sport. However these building blocks of teamwork and skills are good throughout life, but going into college level and professional sports changes the outlook and benefits of sports. The difference of amatur nad professional sports really change mentally throughout an athlete’s career. The pressure, competitiveness, and high standards can overpower these skills and functions that these athletes learned at a young age. The psychological pressures and expectations of this current era are the root of the development of these mental illnesses, through studies and

In most circumstances this derives from the parents and the coach, who are extremely relative to the sport psychology of the athlete. There are over 100,000 athletic coaches in the nation that carry out intense face-to face coaching (Ryan, 1981, p. 96). Current research focuses mainly on coaches’ positive behavior and the impact on an athlete’s performance through the use of observation. However, there is a gap in research on coach’s behaviors leading to an athlete’s negative emotions. Without a doubt, not all coach-athlete relationships are positive and effective. Sports psychologists have conducted numerous interviews with coaches in order to find out the true importance of a coach-athlete relationship and how it can impact the outcome of an athlete’s hard work. Famous sports psychologists Gould, Lauer, Collins, and Chung examined coach-athlete relationships by questioning ten American football coaches who all earned special recognition for their abilities to promote their athlete’s personal development. In the interviews, these coaches stressed the importance of communication. They let their players know what was expected of them, without too much pressure, and made sure that they were always on the same page. The coaches also avoided using punishment or comments that were directed towards their players’ characteristics or personalities, and most importantly showed

Your Guide to sport psychology-Every weekend professional soccer players play in front of 60,000 and many more watching on TV. Yet, they stay focused and confident thorough there 90-minute battle. It fascinated me that how these players are able to do this consistently without many hiccups. The Idea that simple techniques applied by sport psychologists could make such a big difference in an athlete’s performance is what I find out during my non-fiction journey.

As time passes, the participation in youth athletic events continues to increase. This has both benefits and consequences, but to what extent? There are the obvious injuries, the burnout, and time spent not engaging in the social occasions. The skills and abilities attained during the years of athletic efforts will undoubtedly effect one’s future habits. What hasn’t been analyzed, however, is the mental toll a young person must bear to recover from an injury, battle to make the starting lineup, and be noticed by college recruiters. Physical development is important, but there must be an emphasis on mental stability. Once a player has completed their athletic careers, the physical and emotional scars may remain into their adulthood.

Athletes in today’s society who play competitive sports are constantly under pressure by their parents, peers, and even themselves. This article focuses on somatic and cognitive anxiety and how that affects athletes’ perceived ability and goal orientation. Somatic anxiety refers to the physical bodily symptoms of anxiety, for example: butterflies in the stomach, sweating, or increased heart rate. Cognitive anxiety refers to the mental symptoms in anxiety such as concern or worry; in sport this could be applied to things such as concern of potential failure or capacity of one’s

Mental toughness is not a new concept in sport, but is generally misunderstood. Coaches design programmes to develop mentally tough athletes, predominately in professional sport, to separate elite performers from good performers (Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993) as physical talent itself is not the only component that can lead an athlete to success (Gucciardi, Gordon, & Dimmock, 2008).

Top level sport is characterized by a demand to excel at optimal levels while performing under conditions that are considered extremely demanding. The pursuit for performance excellence in sport encompasses the continuing development of four key facets of performance, namely physical, technical, tactical, and mental skills. However, when physical, technical, and tactical skills are evenly matched, which commonly occurs in competition especially at the highest level , performers who possess more of what is commonly referred to as ‘‘mental toughness’’ appear to prevail more often than those with less mental toughness (Gucciardi, Gordon, & Dimmock, 2008). Psychological attributes such as self-confidence and

Confidence has been outlined as an important and essential mental skill in sporting performance by both athletes and coaches according to Vealey and Chase, 2008. There is a general consensus of support by the literature for a positive relationship between confidence and performance (Moritz, Feltz, Fahrbach, & Mack, 2000 cited by Machida, Ward and Vealey, 2012). In developing an understanding of these models of confidence and efficacy it has become a primary target to increase the confidence of athletes at specific psychological interventions (Hanton & Jones, 1999; Mamassis & Doganis, 2004 cited by Machida, Ward and Vealey, 2012). There are two

Every college athlete wants to be the best and with the increase of childhood athletes, stress to perform at a high level increase as well. The drive to be successful in their competition and perform at a high level often is positive, resulting in self-confidence, teamwork, and leadership. The drive can also result in a negative one as well. For an example, “winning at all costs.” Athletes sometimes lose focus of the game itself and become “selfish,” taking performance-enhancing drugs it not only puts athlete’s health at risk but it also gives them unfair advantage to others.

Nonexperimental Research (McMillan, 2012, p.13): Nonexperimental research is a quantitative research design in which the researcher has no control over any of the variables or factors within a study, and thus cannot influence the behavior of the subjects of the study.

Being Ambidextrous can be quite useful; particularly for athletes and musicians. Many sports require the use of both hands, as do many instruments. For this reason our team decided to determine the difference in ambidexterity, if any, between people who are either athletes or musicians, and individuals who are not involved in either sports or music. We were interested in determining if the ability of participants to use their weak hand as well as their dominant hand is associated with participation in athletics or music. Does an individual’s participation in either a sport or the fact that they play a musical instrument dictate how well they can use both hands?