Sports Psychology term Paper
PSYC 3360.1WW
Professor Stewart Downing
August 12, 2013
Athletes are under a lot of pressure to excel and become perfectionists and invincible at the sports they play, however sometimes during competition elite athletes react physically and somatically which can adversely affect their performance.
G. Jones definition of stress and anxiety. “Stress is a state that results from the demands that are places on the individual which require that person to engage in some coping behavior. Anxiety results when the individual doubts her or her ability to cope with the situation that causes him or her stress.”
Abel Gemeda a high school quarter back football player at Saint John A, in Halifax Nova Scotia feels like everyone is watching his every move, he feels the sweat running down his whole body and he hasn’t even started running yet. His body tenses up, he starts thinking ahead on his actions but his body is failing him, everything he did so easily in practice is now looking and feeling like such a challenge, he jumps to catch the ball but it slips right off his hand, he tries harder but the game is lost.
Abel has been playing football ever since he could hold a ball, and he was a natural his throws were precise, strong and accurate. Recently knowing that he is a senior and that scouts were coming to seek him from elite universities his nerves started getting the best of him.
To any sports person, the debilitative effects of high anxiety are only too familiar, and can range in severity from butterflies to a full-blown panic attack (Jan Graydon, 2002).
Anxiety, stress and performance tend to be interrelated, when athletes are nervous they start stressing on why they are nervous, causing them to lose control over their nerves thus inhibiting their performance. According to the work of Yerkes and Dodson(1908), performance is enhanced with increase in arousal until a peak is reached, after which further arousal causes a dramatic deterioration
Professor Stewart Downing
August 12, 2013
Athletes are under a lot of pressure to excel and become perfectionists and invincible at the sports they play, however sometimes during competition elite athletes react physically and somatically which can adversely affect their performance.
G. Jones definition of stress and anxiety. “Stress is a state that results from the demands that are places on the individual which require that person to engage in some coping behavior. Anxiety results when the individual doubts her or her ability to cope with the situation that causes him or her stress.”
Abel Gemeda a high school quarter back football player at Saint John A, in Halifax Nova Scotia feels like everyone is watching his every move, he feels the sweat running down his whole body and he hasn’t even started running yet. His body tenses up, he starts thinking ahead on his actions but his body is failing him, everything he did so easily in practice is now looking and feeling like such a challenge, he jumps to catch the ball but it slips right off his hand, he tries harder but the game is lost.
Abel has been playing football ever since he could hold a ball, and he was a natural his throws were precise, strong and accurate. Recently knowing that he is a senior and that scouts were coming to seek him from elite universities his nerves started getting the best of him.
To any sports person, the debilitative effects of high anxiety are only too familiar, and can range in severity from butterflies to a full-blown panic attack (Jan Graydon, 2002).
Anxiety, stress and performance tend to be interrelated, when athletes are nervous they start stressing on why they are nervous, causing them to lose control over their nerves thus inhibiting their performance. According to the work of Yerkes and Dodson(1908), performance is enhanced with increase in arousal until a peak is reached, after which further arousal causes a dramatic deterioration