sports psychology Essay example -- essays research papers

     Sports is by far one of the fastest evolution past times in the United States (Rainer1987). Even if people dont record it to the professional level, sporting events argon happeningin our backyards, and at in all of our local schools around the country. With the growingpopularity and the increasing competitiveness of the sports, it will capture more than just aphysical advantage to compete at the highest level. This is where the psychology of sportscomes into play.      Goal setting is a enormously powerful proficiency that shadow yield strong returns in all areasof an athletic supporters life. At its simplest level the process of setting goals and targets allowspeople to choose where they lack to go in life. By haveing what a person wants toachieve, they chicane what they have to concentrate on, and what is merely a distraction.Goal setting gives long-run vision, and short-term motivation. By setting goals theathlete can achie ve more, alter performance, improve the quality of the training,increase the motivation to achieve, increase pride and ecstasy in their performance,and improve their self-confidence (Bull, 1983).Research (Bull, 1983) has shown thatpeople who use goal-setting effectively nurture less from stress and anxiety, concentratebetter, show more self-confidence, perform better, and are happier with their performance.The way in which an athlete sets his goals strongly affects their effectiveness. Beforesetting goals, the athlete should have set the background of goal setting by appreciationtheir commitment to sports, understanding the level they want to reach within the sport, learned the skills that will have to be acquired and the levels of performance that will beneeded, and k direct where this will fit into their overall life goals. The following broadguidelines do to setting effective goals. Positive statements, be precise, set priorities,write goals subjugate to avoid confusion a nd give them more force, and keep operationalgoals bitty (Rainer, 1987). "Your body is a beautifully evolved sporting machine,comprising, among other things, muscles that can be trained to a peak of fitness and poise that control the muscles" (Morris 1992). The nerves are massively linked in anathletes head teacher vast numbers of nerve cells are linked with a hugely greater number ofinterconnections. Many of th... ...in negativethinking (Bull 1983). The athlete ask mental energy to be able to concentrate theirattention and declare good mental attitudes. If the athlete is concentrating effectivelythen the athlete can conserve physical energy by maintaining good technique when theirmuscles are tired. The athlete can waste mental energy on worry, stress, fretting overdistractions, and negative thinking. Over a long competition, these not only disablementenjoyment, but also drain energy so that performance suffers. It is then important toavoid these by good use of sports psychology, and by resting effectively between eventsand by ensuring that the athlete sleep properly.     Sports psychology is a relatively new idea and just now it is becoming more of anormal thing rather than something only pro athletes do. The study of the chief and how itrelates to sports is a beneficial thing that even our own school uses to assistance improveperformance. Over the last two years our Varsity and JV boys basketball team has used asports psychologist from Boulder two or three times during the year. Sports psychology isno longer looked down upon, it is now a legitimate practice.