Stress, Sports and Performance

1841 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reflections on stress management

Actors, athletes and students all have something in common. They all perform their tasks with varying stress levels. What is this stress that we all talk about? Stress can be defined as a physical, mental or emotional demand, which tends to disturb the homeostasis of the body. Used rather loosely, the term may relate to any kind of pressure, be it due to one's job, schoolwork, marriage, illness or death of a loved one. The common denominator in all of these is change. Loss of familiarity breeds this anxiety with any change being viewed as a "threat".

The issue of anxiety is an important aspect of performance. Whether it is during the tense moments of a championship game or amidst that dreaded History exam, anxiety affects our performance via changes in the body, which can be identified by certain indicators. One misconception though with performing under pressure is that stress always has a negative connotation. Many times, "the stress of competition may cause a negative anxiety in one performer but positive excitement in another" (3). That is why one frequently hears how elite players' thrive under pressure, when most others would crumble.

PHYSIOLOGY OF STRESS

Stress is an integral part of our lives. "It is a natural byproduct of all our activities" (4). Life is a dynamic process and thus forever changing and stressful. Our body responds to acute stress by a liberation of chemicals. This is known as the fight-or-flight response of the body, which is mediated by adrenaline and other stress hormones, and is comprised of such physiologic changes as increased heart rate and blood pressure, faster breathing, muscle tension, dilated pupils, dry mouth and increased blood sugar. In other words, stress is the state of inc...

... middle of paper ...

... in Sport. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1990.

4)Herbert, John. "Stress, the Brain and Mental Illness." BMJ. 30 August 1997: 530-535.

5) Peforming Your Best When it Counts the Most , by Kyle Kepler

http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/sports/perform.html

6) Choking in Big Competitions , by Kaori Araki

http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/sports/choking.html

7) The Online Journal of Sports Psychology ,

http://www.athleticinsight.com/

8) The Mental Edge , by Sandy Dupcak

http://users.rcn.com/dupcak/mntledge.html

9) Competitive Anxiety , by Brian Mackenzie

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/companx.htm

10)Nelson, Charles. The Effects of Early Adversity on Neurobehavioral Development. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.

11)Neufeld, Richard. Advances in the Investigation of Psychological Stress. New York:Wiley and Sons, 1989.

Show More
Related

  • Kabuo Assumed Guilty Because of Japanese Heritage in Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    Japanese Internment Camps were established to keep an eye on everyone of Japanese decent. The internment camps were based on an order from the President to relocate people with Japanese Heritage. This meant relocating 110,000 Japanese people. “Two thirds of these people were born in America and were legal citizens, and of the 10 people found to be spying for the Japanese during World War II, not one was of Japanese ancestry” (Friedler 1). Thus, there was no reason for these internment camps, but people do irrational things when driven by fear. In theinternment camps, many of the Japanese became sick or even died because of lack of nourishment in the food provided at these camps. The conditions in the internment camps were awful. One of the internment camps, Manzanar, was located to the west of Desert Valley in California. “Manzanar barracks measured 120 x 20 feet and were divided into six one-room apartments, ranging in size from 320 to 480 square feet.

    Read More

  • Agrarian Discontent 1880 To 1900

    1453 Words  | 3 Pages

    The period between 1880 and 1900 was a boom time for American Politics. The country was finally free of the threat of war, and many of its citizens were living comfortably. However, as these two decades went by, the American farmer found it harder and harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the sustenance of the agriculture industry, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit off them. Furthermore, improvement in transportation allowed foreign competition to materialize, making it harder for American farmers to dispose of surplus crop. Mother Nature was also showing no mercy with grasshoppers, floods, and major droughts that led to a downward spiral of business that devastated many of the nation’s farmers. As a result of the agricultural depression, numerous farms groups, most notably the Populist Party, arose to fight what the farmers saw as the reasons for the decline in agriculture. During the final twenty years of the nineteenth century, many farmers in the United States saw monopolies and trusts, railroads, and money shortages and the loss in value of silver as threats to their way of life, all of which could be recognized as valid complaints.

    Read More

  • Workers In The Gilded Age Essay

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    American history between 1865 and 1900 is characterized as the Gilded Age. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coined this term; it means that this era, from the outside, appeared prosperous, but with a closer look, one could discover the corruption that lay beneath the thin layer of gold. This era was filled with urbanization, industrialization, and immigration; these three things gave the Gilded Age the appearance of being a prosperous time filled with progress. However, the American industrial worker, the bulwark of the age, did not prosper as much as one may have thought. American industrial workers faced extremely difficult lives, working very hard to receive little reward, and it did not take very long before they wanted reform. The industrial workers banded together, forming labor unions, in order to try to negotiate with their employers to have some of their demands met. Labor unions are generally thought of as having positive effects on workers, which certainly was true, but only to an extent. Labor unions also had some very negative effects on workers, specifically when their demands were not met, or when they were seen negatively by the government and the public. Immigration rates during the Gilded Age were extremely high, because the United States had great opportunities, especially in available jobs, which were greatly desirable to foreign people. Immigration generally had negative effects on American industrial workers. With large numbers of immigrants coming from foreign countries, there was a surplus of labor which caused unemployment and wages to remain low. Also, immigration had great effects on labor unions, generally negative as well, which would then in turn negatively affect the workers in that union. Last...

    Read More

  • The Japanese Internment Camps

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1942 Roosevelt signed the Executive order 9066 which forced all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. They were forced out no matter their loyalty or their citizenship. These Japanese-Americans were sent to Internment camps which were located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. There were ten camps all-together and 120,000 people filled them (2009). The immigrants were deprived of their traditional respect when their children who were American-born were indorsed authority positions within the camps. In 1945 Japanese-American citizens with undisrupted loyalty were allowed to return to the West Coast, but not until 1946 was the last camp closed.

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nevertheless, Japanese were resented and disliked by whites. Due to pressure from state leaders near the west coast, President Roosevelt, on February 19, 1942, signed Executive Order 9066. This resulted in the which resulted in the violent imprisonment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. When the government gave its internment order, whites rounded up, imprisoned, and exiled their Japanese neighbors. In 1942, 110,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States were relocated to ten internment camps. More than two thirds of those sent to internment camps, under the Executive Order, had never shown disloyalty and were also citizens of the United States. In April 1942, the War Relocation Authority was created to control the assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps, and oversee the relocation of Japanese-Americans. It took another forty years for the US government to recognize the violations of this population's constitutional rights.

    Read More

  • Society’s Creation of Soiled Doves

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    Society throughout time has always played a large role in humans’ day-to-day lives regarding everything from stylistic choices to the way they think and act. In the book Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Doeskyesjy, Sonja the daughter of Marmaladov and Katerina petrovina engages in in prostitution in order to support her family. Sonja however is no less of a person due to her poor economic standpoint, still having a faith base her reason is pure and her prostitution is to entirely support her family. Sonja as a person showed such selflessness that she puts herself before other regardless of what’s at stake. In her case like so many other young women Prostitution was a last resort in order to provide for her family. This being said society itself more or less forces the girls into prostitution and then proceeds to place a stigma on the soiled doves for committing impure acts. In crime and punishment the Russian society forced Sonja into prostitution in order to maintain societal regularities like so many girls before her throughout history.

    Read More

  • African Americans In Japanese Internment Camps

    279 Words  | 1 Pages

    The problem with Japanese American treatment during World War II was harsh and cruel but was approved of at the time. The japanese descendants were taken from their homes and businesses because the government had passed a law that said the Japanese Americans had to move inland to safe camps that were ready for them. The truth was that the government and the military was scared of the Japanese Americans going to fight with the japanese. Some may of wanted to go peacefully but others did not want to leave everything behind, there were protests from the Japanese Americans, that are listed in multiple documents, in which they wanted to stay by the coast. The government had made it sound as if the movement was like a wonderful vacation where everything was taken care of and the living conditions were amazing but the conditions were actually rough and cruel but everyone thought the government was treating them kindly.

    Read More

  • Concentration Camps for Japanese Americans

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    During WWII, many Japanese-American citizens were imprisoned. They were imprisoned for being from the Japanese decent. There was no evidence to convict these people but they still were imprisoned. Many Japanese came to the West Coast, which caused Americans some paranoia. Americans thought that the Japanese might be terrorists in disguise. In February of 1942, President Roosevelt ordered Americans of Japanese to be sent to concentration camps which were located in various areas of the United States. There were many aspects to the imprisonment of the Japanese-Americans such as their life before coming to the camps, the executive order 9066, and what it was like being in the concentration camps.

    Read More

  • Essay On Japanese Internment Camps

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Japanese-American internment camps were a dark time in America’s history, often compared to the concentration camps in Germany (Hane, 572). The internment camps were essentially prisons in which all Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were forced to live during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii. They were located in inland western states due to the mass hysteria that Japanese-Americans were conspiring with Japan to invade and/or attack the United States. At the time the general consensus was that these camps were a good way to protect the country, but after the war many realized that the camps were not the best option. Textbooks did not usually mention the internment camps at all, as it is not a subject most Americans want to talk about, much less remember. Recently more textbooks and historians talk about the camps, even life inside them. Some Japanese-Americans say that their experiences after being released from the internment camps were not as negative as most people may think. Although the Japanese-American internment camps were brutal to go through, in the long run it led to Japanese-Americans’ movement from the west coast and their upward movement in society through opportunities found in a new urban environment such as Chicago and St. Louis.

    Read More

  • Japanese And Japanese Internment Camps

    2232 Words  | 5 Pages

    Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, as a result of pressure, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which relocated more than 100,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans from their homes in the West Coast and were placed in numerous camps around the country. Leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington, believed that by moving the Japanese American citizens inland would prevent another attack and keep their West Coast homes safe. According to the article “Did the United States put its own citizens in concentration camps during WWII?” by Jane McGrath, FDR and the US government referred to these camps as “concentration camps”, that t...

    Read More

  • The Psychological Impact of Injury on Athletes

    2839 Words  | 6 Pages

    Walker, N., Thatcher, J., & Lavallee, D. (2007). Psychological responses to injury in competitive sport: a critical review. The Journal of The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 174-180.

    Read More

  • What Stress Is

    2588 Words  | 6 Pages

    Stress means different things to different people and stress effects people in different ways. Some people think stress is something that happens to them such as an injury or a promotion and others think that stress is what happens to our mind, body and behaviors in response to an event. While stress does involve events and how one responds to them these are not the critical factors, but our thoughts about the situation in which we are involved are the critical factors. Essentially, stress exists whenever homeostasis is disturbed or cannot be maintained (Stress and the Social System Course Guide, 2013). Homeostasis refers to the body's ability to keep the internal chemical and physical environments constant. As your body begins to react to stress several changes occur. These changes include increased heart rate, blood pressure and secretion of stimulatory hormones. Ones body prepares itself in stressful situations to either stand ground and fight or to flee from the situation. Walter Cannon called this stressful reaction the fight-or-flight response (Greenberg, 2012).

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Essay On Stress

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to both good and bad experiences which can be beneficial to your health and safety." (8 Ways Stress Is More Dangerous Than You Think) Everyone 's body responds to stress by releasing hormones, also, you brain receives more oxygen. Stress starts to occur when we become worried about a task or responsibilities we face. Major stress is called chronic stress. It can cause symptoms that can affect your health in a larger way. Some people may say that they succeed more under stress, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Research has shown that "stress makes a person more likely to make mistakes" (Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes). For most people, stress is extremely normal for them that they don 't see it as anything but ordinary. However, stress can motivate someone while under pressure and even get you through a tough or dangerous

    Read More

  • Causes And Effects Of Stress Essay

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.

    Read More

  • Sports: The Ultimate Stress Reliever

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Life is full of troubles, demands, pressures and hassles—these are all factors related to stress. Stress is a state of mental or emotional tension resulting from adverse or difficult situations (Merriam-Webster). When you are in potential danger, your body responds with a “fight-or-flight” response to protect you from any harm. Situations like being robbed at gunpoint or studying last minute the night before the test can activate stress in your body. Although situations in life can increase stress, there are plenty of methods to diminish it. Methods like meditating, talking to family/friends, drinking tea, or even taking a quick nap--all of these methods are proven effective (The Franklin Institute). One method that is prominent to many is physical exercise. Exercise is considered to improve physical conditions and strength, but maintains mental fitness in the process. Although many assume that exercising is healthy, some may not be familiar of how it relieves stress in detail. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of exercise, the pros and cons must be considered. Some pros are: managing the levels of stress in your body, boosting your self-esteem, and improving learning and memory. The cons are: being time consuming and tedious, being costly and expensive, and risking injury while exercising. Let’s look at the pros of physical activity.

    Read More

More about Stress, Sports and Performance

Open Document