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The importance of the mental side of sports
The importance of the mental side of sports
The importance of the mental side of sports
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This research project was based on my hypotheses and trying to find out whether or not it is true or not. I used successful teams to help with the process. From the resources gathered, it remains clear to me that my hypotheses is true, but I do not have the information to back it up. However, past results state otherwise yet no clear evidence is available with the possible answer. The research approach involved qualitative research and the research technique was desktop research. Data analyze was used to show the impact mental toughness had on various sports.
3. Introduction
The thought process behind this topic was simply to find out if this statement is true
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This thought process allowed them to play the game in the manner it should be, which was by taking it pitch-by-pitch. The mental game is an aspect they worked on behind the scenes. Getting the boys into a routine by breathing deeply, refocusing and staying in the present, was something take took time to develop. As we, all know the brain is a muscle and in order for a muscle to work effectively, it needs to be exercised. In addition, the brain becomes mentally stronger because you have programmed yourself to be committed to a daily routine on a daily basis. In hindsight, it helps you to have control on what you need to do instead of what you want to do, hence the term mental toughness was created. How does having mastered the skill of mental toughness benefit you in a match situation? Well to answer that completely we will need some information on …show more content…
By being in tune with your body, you literally have control over your body in stressful situation, which allows you think clearly and perform with belief that you capable of doing what is needed from you on the field. In saying that when you placed under a pressure situation things will not always go as planned. You as the player will need understand the concept of failure and find a way to move on. By dwelling on past events, your concentration goes out the window and your confidence levels drop. Now, the 1-Pitch Warriors mentality on that is to understand what happen, how it happen, what can be done to prevent it from happening again, then to flush the negative thoughts and move on. They stuck to their motto of taking each game pitch-by-pitch, which allows them to focus on the process rather the outcome. The process allows them to focus in the things they can control and minimize thinking about things that are out of their control. By focusing on the things as a team that you can control you allow yourselves to be productive. One of the process-based philosophy was the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. They believed that winning was the by-product of doing small things right during the course of the game. At the end of the game if they stayed to their process-based philosophy, they will give themselves a chance to achieve their outcome. This can also lead to
Mental mistakes often lead to physical mistakes, which is when everything goes sour. Mental confidence plays such a critical role in how a person physically plays. When a player is mentally down on himself, it is extremely hard to raise his confidence back up, and most of the time he cannot. A determined baseball player’s mind is totally different, an error is a learning experience, and he shrugs it off like no big deal and moves on to the next play.
.In addition young athletes have become more aggressive. Kids that participate in competitive sports are becoming more and more aggressive and competitive the sports have become themselves. Mitchell reveals "traits like bullying and the need to dominate their oppo...
players will seem indomitable and can cause opponents to be fearful of any move. Taking many risks and using aggression is a strategy that frequently works in acquiring power. Additionally, using defense is critic...
Sports Psychology Today. Mental Edge Athletics, 4 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. Forde, Pat.
It may seem like all you need to succeed in sports is physical power, but there is another aspect that holds just as much, if not more importance. Mental strength can be just as important as physical strength when it comes to an athletes winning (or losing) streak. Success in sports does not only require physical power, it also requires mental strength,and along with that goes determination and self-control.If someone cannot tap into their mind, they may find that sports are more difficult than they imagined.
In the future, it would be very interesting to see the effects that positive psychotherapy and the concept of flow can have on a team’s performance as whole. If an individual person can reach optimal performance by entering flow, if an entire team would be able to enter flow they would be very competitive. It would be incredibly powerful for a coach to be able elicit flow within a team. Additionally, it would interesting to see which particular sports this would work better for. However, due to the fact that flow is a very organic concept and it is very difficult to tell is a person has truly reached flow, it would be very difficult to compare the results across a wide range of sports. At the academy and within the Coast Guard being able to elicit flow would be a very useful skill to be able to complete the difficult tasks faced on a daily basis.
When competing in a sport, the performance of the athlete can be compromised if he or she doesn’t maintain a healthy lifestyle. While staying physically fit and exercising are important in any athlete’s daily routine, there are other factors to determine a “healthy” lifestyle. Similarly, an athlete should practice good sportsmanship while competing. Respect for a fellow athlete is the root of every great athlete. In order to perform well at any sport, an athlete has to enjoy the game. Take soccer for instance, if a soccer player does not enjoy playing soccer, then it will be significantly harder to perform at his or her best. Along with enjoying and respecting the sport, an athlete has to have the mindset of a champion. Thinking like a perfect athlete will provide the motivation and determination to achieve the goals of a perfect athlete. Consider Bruce Lee, a world renown martial artist and fighter. Lee is known as one of the greatest martial artist in history and is respected for his methods. “If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life”, Bruce stated. “It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.” Bruce Lee tells how the proper mindset is
Confidence is the single most important mental factor in sports. it’s also a mental area that is ripe for change. The definition of confidence is how strongly you believe in your ability to achieve goals in every aspect. Being confident is so important because athletes have all of the ability in the world to perform well, but if they don't believe you have that ability, then they won't perform up to their ability. For example, a basketball player may be physically and technically capable of executing a dunk with one hundred percent accuracy, but she or he won't attempt the skill in a game situation if they don't have the confidence that he or she can successfully execute the skill. Confidence however is dynamic, unstable and susceptible trait that changes based on ones range of factors,and this can leave athletes feeling like they have no control over their confidence. This makes them more ready to accept that what they have experienced over a course of a season are unavoidable, but his doesn’t have to be true. Athletes can take ownership over their confidence, and can have more control. Too often athletes are their own worst enemy rather than their best ally. Keep in mind that opponents are against you and want to beat you badly. If you're also against yourself, you don't have a chance of performing to your best ability and being successful.
According to Damon and his colleague, teams and individuals can attain greater consistent levels of confidence if it is based on performance as opposed to outcome. Scholars argue that performance goals are flexible and in apposition to enable athletes to be in control. Progressive achievement in performance will propel athletes to goals achievement and improve motivation. Eventually, their success will be manifested in their tremendous performance which will also attract higher levels of self-confidence. Contrary, the sports people with outcome confidence often believe that higher performance could allow them to improve their social image. All this confirms that the success in sports is integrated with the levels of self-confidence, performance, and outcome. However, it is advisable for athletes and other sports people to focus on their performance but not their outcomes if there is need to improve their skills for the sake of goals
But under Brooks’s training and with Brooks as a slight common enemy for the group, the boys who once were pitted against each other, become a strong, clean team and gain success. The mismatched group of kids went through their struggles early on in their process as they didn’t know how to work as a team, but after being broken down after their first game, a tie against the Norwegian national team, they started to think like a unit and began to run like a true team on the ice. An article by umbrella.org.nz explains perfectly how teamwork is important in success: “A strong team will provide an environment that fosters and supports individuals to enhance and maintain their resilience.” The best team is able to highlight the strengths of all their members instead of individuals carrying the rest of their team. If one works as a member of a team, both their triumph and lack of are supported. A group member who struggles or falters,
Through time, I discovered the meaning of sports. The coaches knocked it into my head over and over again, and then some more, that teamwork was crucial to the psychology of the game. “You have to cheer on your teammates.” “You have to be a modest winner and a graceful loser.” “You have to pass the ball.” Eventually, I realized that sports are certainly not only focused on teamwork. There is a great deal of individual work that needs to be addressed and applied: believing in oneself. This alone is the matter of most importance while playing team sports. If one player doesn’t think he can perform to the best of his abilities, then the team will suffer and the overall consequences can be great.
Sports and performance anxiety often go hand-in-hand. When a competitor ‘freezes’ in the big moment or commits an inexplicable error, anxiety, in one of its many guises, is very often the root cause. Anxiety is a natural reaction to threats in the environment and part of the preparation
Although, the theory of mind and body is a controversial subject ( Gummow and Janit, 2002). Indeed, monists such as Aristote or Hegel believed that the mind was just a bodily function. While dualists believed that the mind was really apart from the body. In sport, the mind can have many consequences on the body. For instance, William and Andersen (1998) have demonstrated that the psychology in sport can cause injuries. In that way, an athlete who is stressed can be injured easier. The stress may cause tension in the muscles or poor audition detection as examples, which can increase the risks of getting hurt during a game or a performance. The stress is not the only factor. There are other psychological factors such as the low self-esteem or the social support which are directly related to the mind of a sport. Moreover, some research has found that psychological characteristics of the great athlete have consequences on the quality of their performance (Krane and Williams, 2006). For example, in football when a player is about to shot a penalty, he often puts himself under pressure, his members are going to react with this anxiety, and can lead him to fail. What happen in the brain during a sport performance has so a direct impact on the body which can react from a negative psychological
Emotions and their principals are a vital part of sports and the concentration of substantial investigation in athletics. When a person is feeling a certain emotion, it is all caused by chemicals in the brain. (Rathschlag, Memmert 197-210). When a person is angry or frustrated, they are experiencing their own brain allowing them to open up to that certain emotion. It is all in the person’s hands as far as attitude and mentality goes. “Many athletes get extremely emotional or mentally stressed during their sport due to the weather, the opponent, and the endurance needed to pull through." “Mental conditioning is something that is often used to psych athletes up, block negativity, and show visualization” According to Reardon, after a match, athletes simply do not blame their loss on their lack of endurance, they complain that they were not mentally prepared. (Reardon 2003) Attitude is a huge contributor to performance during play time. When an athlete loses their mental edge, everything goes downhill. It is clear that the level to which stimuli in mental rotation tasks can be represented as aids to the mental rotation development. However, traditionally athletics focused on physical aspects rather than emotional. Athletes often feel pressure from sports administrators and fans, to be physically fit and competitive. Because of the recent advances in sports research, today'ss athletes have more recourses to target mental toughness rather than physical toughness in their sport.
Sometimes, the negativity of past don’t let us to succeed in future. As mentioned by authors (Flood et al., 2015). The outdoor sport Adlerian psychology tested on 429 students has both positive and negative impacts on students. 15 percent of the students who were unable to perform due to some health issues consider them losers throughout their life and those 85% who cleared has quite positive impacts on their lives. Early sports can put an adverse effect on one’s mental thinking and this could completely change one