Purpose Of Sports In Sports

The pressure to be physically perfect is so severe in dance studios today that young women and girls often suffer from a disease, anorexia nervosa. This disorder also affects male dancers, other men, young girls and women, and even children as young as four years of age (Cohen). An estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of females suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime (NIMH). However, anorexia is more severe and most recognized in the dance studio in the female dancers.

Elice McKinley is a ballet dancer at the Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Mail Online, 2015). During the interview she admitted she was never anorexic but felt she always had the mentality of one, adding that for nearly a decade she ate very little on a daily basis, only ever eating the likes of boiled chicken and fruit. She also revealed how in the ballet world, weight is a topic that is constantly discussed and how they are told to dance all day, every day, and get by on very little sustenance (Mail Online, 2015). This may suggest how little support is received in an institutional environment and the extent of this concern. I believe some blame can be put on schooling for this low self-esteem and some experiencing body image issues due to being in such a closed minded environment for however many years. It is very important that advice is given to dance students, especially as they are in an environment that is based on appearance and have their bodies participate in such a physically demanding schedule. From experience, I am aware how easy it is to get caught up in wanting to look a certain way and to feel obliged to be a certain size. Without personal advice and support, I believe some dance students will be very uneducated when it comes to nutrition having never been in the environment that

“Dying to be Thin,” produced by PBS, is a documentary that examines the troubles that persons who are affected by eating disorders go through and the constant, daily struggles they face with health and body image. The film tells the story of a number of young women who battled mainly anorexia and bulimia and mixes a variety of ages to give a “during” and an “after” perspective. Many of the women in the video were ballet or some similar type of dancer. Dancers, by their own account, are encouraged to be thin. The issue really came to the forefront after a young ballet dancer from Boston died of heart failure at the young age of 22, with an eating disorder deemed to be the cause. The narrator goes on to introduce more young women and detail the potential illnesses that their eating disorders can cause. Chronic low blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, severe early osteoporosis, and heart failure are all common things seem in patients who suffer from eating disorders. Most patients have dangerously low body weights, body fat percentages, and, often, young women will experience amenorrhea, which is the loss of menstruation. All of the people in the video wanted to be better and were seeking a road to recovery. The video showed though, how difficult that can be since the eating disorders can be so wide ranging and have a number of different root causes. Often patients develop eating disorders as something that they have control over, in a world that they feel is out of their

Eating disorders have become very common today, not only with women but men too (Bordo 2). This fixation with being skinny can be seen most often with modeling. Men and women both are required to be a certain weight if they want to be accepted to a modeling agency. Failure to stay under the weight limit will most likely terminate their contract with that agency. Not only do we see this in modeling or fashion but professional sports. I will never forget watching the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders show a few years ago and watching how big of a deal that the cheerleaders stay within their set weight limit. One of the cheerleaders was five pounds over that limit and was called in for a warning or she would be kicked off the team. Her response, “I guess I’ll have to cut out my favorite snack, PB and J’s.” That moment forever stuck out to me, and made me realize I would never wish to be put under a weight limit for sports, jobs, etc. People often forget starving your body of nutrients is another form of an eating disorder. Bordo claims that, “Eating disorders are also linked to the contradictions of consumer culture, which is continually encouraging us to binge on our desires at the same time as it glamorizes self-discipline and scorns fat as a symbol of laziness and lack of willpower.” (Bordo 2). With the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders as just an example, it goes to show also how much of an effect

What are eating disorders? Are eating disorders a reality for cheerleaders? Is cheerleading a sport that causes females to develop eating disorders? Ron Thompson explains in his book Eating Disorders in Sport that, “Eating disorders are not simply disorders of eating. Also, they are not simply a misguided attempt to be thin; nor are they simply a sport participant’s means to reduce body weight or body fat in an effort to enhance sport performance. They are mental disorders that manifest themselves in a variety of eating and weight-related signs and symptoms” (7-8). I believe that eating disorders are a true and tough reality for cheerleaders especially females. Cheerleading is known as an aesthetic sport, such sport has a higher risk factor to develop eating disorders. Cheerleaders are judged for appearance and wear revealing clothing causing them to

It is important to distinguish between normal eating and the behaviors that typify eating disorders or disordered eating. Even among those attempting to lose weight or maintain a lower percentage of body fat, normal eating is “flexible and not obsessive.” (Dunford and Doyle 455). Although athletes have a stricter nutrition plan versus the general population, their eating should actively support training through moderate levels of restraint yet should still allow for healthy eating patterns such as eating when hungry, not feeling the need to punish oneself after an indulgence through excessive caloric restriction or exercise, and the ability to participate in social events. Dunford and Doyle term this as “discipline, not…obsession” (456). While the eating disorders of anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating all have clear-cut clinical definitions, disordered eating is a more nebulous term that can define a wider array of

With that being said, certain sports put more emphasize on a player’s weight and performance than others. For instance, gymnastics, dancers, wrestlers, divers and long distance runners feature more strain than sports such as basketball, skiing or volleyball. Gymnasts and dancers are highly at risk for developing eating disorders for multiple reasons. The main reason is that their success relies

Numerous studies have shown that athletes are more prone to developing eating disorders than nonathletes, as well as female athletes being more at risk than their male counterparts. Disordered eating is seen in athletes of all sports. (Johnson, 1994). The prevalence of eating disorders in the female athletic population ranges from anywhere between one and forty percent, depending on the athletes questioned, and the methodology used (Sundgot-Borgen, 1994). Rosen and Hough (1988) found that 32 percent of athletes practiced at least one pathogenic weight-control technique(141). A study done by Sundgot-Borgen, in 1994, controlled for the possibility that self-report data could be unreliable in numerous ways, including not informing coaches of their intentions, and assuring 100 percent confidentiality to the athletes who participated. It found that the risk for eating disorders is increased if an athlete's dieting is unsupervised, if there is an early start to sport-specific training, and/or extreme exercise (Sundgot-Borgen, 418).

Eating disorders are a very serious psychological condition that affects your mind so that you are more focused on your food and weight than you are on everything else. The most known and most commonly diagnosed eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder; however, these are not the only eating disorders. Eating disorders cause psychical and psychological problems, which at their worst can even become life threating. Statistics show that more women are affected by eating disorders, but men none the less can still be affected. “Age (most common from teens to early twenties), Family history (hereditary), emotional disorders (people with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder are at a great chance), transitions (moving, heading to college, or anything that can bring emotional distress), and sports (ballerinas, gymnasts, runners, and wrestlers are at a higher risk) also can play a role in who is being affected by an eating disorder” (Eating Disorders).

Bulimia and anorexia have found their way into the sport of elite, or Olympic-level gymnastics. In a 1992 University of Washington study of 182 female college athletes, 62% of college gymnasts have practiced at least one form of disordered eating. This percentage was higher than that of any other sport. Many elite gymnasts have come forward to admit that they suffer from eating disorders. These gymnasts include: 1970 world medallist, Cathy Rigby, 1972 Olympian Nancy Marshall, 1984 Olympic medallist Kathy Johnson, 1989 junior national champion Erica Stokes and Christy Henrich.

My audience is athletic trainers at the National Coaching Conference. Attendees of this conference are coaches, educators of coaches, sport science researcher, and students. They can use their extensive knowledge of coaching to develop a plan of action for the collection of coaches, across the nation, to take to combat eating disorders among athletes. The development of new regulations and educational requirements for coaches can only happen if a large number of coaches or coach educators are on board.

Pressure to reduce weight has been the common explanation for the increased prevalence of eating-related problems among athletes and dancers. One of the reasons that ballet dancers may be at risk for developing eating disorders is that they may have to diet in order to maintain the sylph-like bodies that are required for the discipline of ballet. Lowenkopf and Vincent (1982) have suggested that female adolescent dancers run eight times the risk of developing eating disorders compared to their non-dieting peers. Ballet is also an activity that is low in energy expenditure, and Cohen et al. (1982) reported that while age-matched swimmers or skaters might expend 500 calories in a similar length session, a dancer would only expend 200 calories.

Young dancers and their bodies is a topic rarely out of the news right now. Those involved in the art form and the public have argued whether ballet has pushed the ideal “ballet body” stereotype to such an extreme that the ballet community is full of insecure, depressed and eating disorder ridden girls. The ballet school environment has been called a weight-obsessed subculture and a breeding ground for eating disorders. Body image is a major issue for young ballet dancers with potentially life-damaging consequences because of the distorted idea of body image instilled in them at such a young age. The main cause of poor body image in young dancers is the perceived idea that one must have the perfect ballet body. Body image issues can deeply

In the video “Dying To Be Thin”, by PBS - NOVA, the video addressed anorexia in the world of dance. The Ballet world is especially vulnerable to anorexia as there is a rigid concept of the perfectionism of the ballerina. Although the dancers in the video were obviously thin, the ballet company expects each ballerina to be atleast thirty pounds thinner than the average model, which makes each ballerina become anorexic.

Many students who participate in sports are very common to have an eating disorder such as Bulimia Nervosa. There are different sports that it is most common in and they are usually ones with less clothing or uniforms also. Athletes such as Gymnasts, ice-skaters, ballerinas and even runners have a very high risk of eating disorders. The effort to please people around another and to have a perfect body and even coaches suggesting diets for a team or players can lead to eating disorders. Even sports such as wrestling can have these disorders even though these disorders are less common in guys because wrestling has a specific weight category. Mostly in guy's sports eating disorders are unintentionally encouraged because more in boys sport teams they are taught winning is the most important thing. But when an athlete has an eating disorder it is more harmful because they are doing so much activity without nutrients and energy and then the performance level with decrease and injury is more likely to happen.