Statement Of Purpose: Tunnelvision

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

I've always been the odd man out on any sports team who looked forward to conditioning at the end of practice and would hold my plank an extra few seconds until I really felt the pain. I loved pushing myself beyond my expected limits and the satisfaction of leaving the gym knowing I gave my full effort. Although the thought of taking a weight lifting class was extremely intimidating, I acknowledged my deep love for training and bettering myself.

The gym was my home. I spent more time with my teammates than I did my family. I spent more time in myteam room strewn with ankle weights and uneven bar grips than I did my own bedroom. I spent more time visualizing every detail of my routines before competitions than I did studying before tests in school. Gymnastics was my passion. It was the only sport I’d ever known and loved. From 2 years of age, no matter how much every other aspect of my life changed, gymnastics was my constant. The bumps and bruises that covered my shins were proof of my hard work. The countless ice baths to soothe my aching muscles never got old as they reflected the hours I’d spent at the gym. The stinging and bloody rips on my hands were simply reminders of the sport I loved so much. I couldn’t wait to challenge both my body and my mind at practice every single day. I absolutely loved every element of gymnastics, yet, I still remember the day that my perspective was completely altered.

Works in conjunction with other sports-related individuals, such as strength and conditioning staff, to create safe and effective exercise plans in terms of “fitness, nutrition and conditioning programs [that are] customized to meet individual student-athlete needs”.

It’s Monday, August 22, 2016. The time is 4:00 a.m. The first of five alarms began to sound in my ear. Snooze. Second alarm sounds. Snooze. The snooze button is my friend until I realize I cannot afford to sleep another minute. I grudgingly get out of bed and start my morning routine. The time is 4:30 a.m. I get into my car and drive through the pitch-black morning. I arrive to the Michael S. Starnes Athletic Training Center at 4:45 am. My semester long internship begins. For the 2016 Fall semester, I had the opportunity to do a volunteer practicum through the Ole Miss Strength and Conditioning department under some of the best strength and conditioning coaches. This event, rather experience, was an eye opener into the real world.

It is not unusual to see Olympic athletes sacrifice time with their family and loved ones, among other things, to achieve their goals and dreams. With sacrifices great and many, each Olympic competitor “perseveres through a long series of challenges” that leave behind “wave after wave of others” who hope to achieve something of similar caliber. (Langley) When one sees an athlete at the Olympics, they do not only see one of the finest athletes in the world, but they also see someone who has spent hours, days, weeks, and years to perfect their craft, to awe the audience, to inspire the young, up-and-coming athlete or individual to go beyond their own limits, whether that be in sports or in daily life, and to achieve something extraordinary. Now, to only be able to entertain others by one’s physical abilities is to be no more than an average athlete, a physically talented person; however, to be able to inspire and move others by one’s constant struggles and sacrifice is something that separates the average from the exceptional, and deserves the right in being called a

I am proud to be part of a community that supports each other, respects milestones, and strives for more accomplishments. The weightlifting community in Vancouver, British Columbia has been a vital part of my life for the past five years. Anyone can be a part of it if they have a passion for the sport and common goals. A weightlifter is supported when they ask for a spot or look for information online. They cheer you on as you seek a new personal best. When a weightlifter achieves a milestone in their weightlifting career, those around them recognize it. When I reached the milestone of being able to squat three hundred and fifty five pounds I was showered with encouragement and advice on how to improve even more. Weightlifters who are more

This amazing publication is about the best players in sports climbing the mountain to glory, and the hard work put in to make their dreams a reality. All of these athletes have major flaws that most of them cannot easily overcome, but they put in the work and effort to follow their dreams no matter the circumstances or challenges.

The intended audience for this book are athletes, but anyone can read this book because his philosophies can be used in our daily lives. The book spreads forty lessons in four parts: Part I - Welcome to the Inner Game Part II - Living the Dream Part III - Mind-Set for Success

However, all of this is not to say that experience is the cure all to tunnel vision. If it was, then cases like Michael Morton's would not have happened. Loyalties, cognitive biases and emotional commitments are here to stay; they are part and parcel of the human condition.i But there are other recommendations for how to address tunnel vision on several levels. Bandes recommends that institutional directives should be made clearer and more concrete, and institutional culture and incentives should be addressed.ii That review mechanisms should exist at every level of decision-making.iii While also pointing out that, however that review may become simply a way of reinforcing group norms.iv In order for that to work the process needs to be explicitly structured to perform a critical role.v Banes takes note that, review will be ineffective without transparency, rules governing record keeping, record sharing and discovery must strive to ensure that a full investigative record exists and is accessible for review.vi Banes finally believes that, training of both supervisory and lower level personnel must explicitly address the dynamics of tunnel vision.vii That if these dynamics can be better understood, they can be flagged, and, that perhaps, with sufficient will and sufficient knowledge, we can correct for them.viii

Today was a great opportunity to shadow and be further educated on performance training. Today at my internship, I observed sport performance coaching as well as was educated on the principles of performance coaching. Before prepping for the College Prep class, all the interns met with the supervisor of Athletes Arbor to go over what do performance coaches do and why they do what they do. From this meeting, I learned that performance coaches are movement coaches. They focus on making their athletes faster, stronger, and more explosive opposed to a strength and conditioning coach who focuses more on building an athlete's strength as well as conditioning their athletes to get in shape for their season.

Earlier this year, I decided to attend a fourteen-day J-Robinson intensive wrestling camp in the Oregon mountains to help reinforce my values of dedication and discipline and to reinvent my definition of hard work. My decision was born out of the desire to prove wrong to those who called me an underachiever, a weakness that I’ve come to terms with and through determination and work, have addressed. Until recently, I would procrastinate when faced with a hard problem set or paper, but now I meet those things head on. I have also promised myself that I will never give up. Nearly twenty people had quit camp, and I was not

According to James Loehr, a famous sport psychologist, mental toughness is defined as the ability to constantly maintain a perfect performance state during the heat of competition (Loehr, 1986). Since then, Goldberg (1998) has well-defined mental toughness as the ability to stand high in the face of difficulty, and being able to rebound from repetitive setbacks and failures. Fletcher and Fletcher (2005) defined mental toughness as the ability to manage with various

Today, I got to workout, observed classes as well as observed an individual and semi-private training session.This morning the sport performance coaches, interns, and I did a trial run of the College Prep workout. This workout was challenging. It had a lot of explosive, strength, and endurance movements combined. During and after this workout, I was fatigued and exhausted. The semi-private training went well. The athletes worked hard. It was great to see the coach working on sport specific movements with the athletes. Both athletes were football players, so the coach worked with them on football specific movements. Next, the Speed and Weights class went well. Both athletes worked hard and the coach did a great job motivating the athletes when

Jones et al. (2002, 2007) has contributed to the understanding of mental toughness and its definition. Utilising qualitative methods to interview 10 elite athletes in a three-stage process, consisting of a focus group, interviews, and a rank order task. The focus group consisted of three athletes with the goal to define what mental toughness is and identify attributes of what they believed