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Date
Dec 6, 2023
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docx
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Uploaded by BailiffSeal7712
Kevin Pierson
09/26
ENG 102
Professor Olson
WP3 Rough Draf
Stress in Athletes
Athletes over the course of time have been plagued with different kinds of stressors.
Some of the stressors being internal conflicts, winning, being the best, and training, other
stressors are external conflicts, coaches, parents, and fans. These different stressors can have
the same impact and some of them have different impacts on the athlete. There are multiple
different ways that we can prevent stress being so bad that athletes want to quite the sport all
together. Big retail companies like Nike, Adidas and others have a huge sway and impact on all
athletes from youth all the way to the professional stage. Coaches and parents have the biggest
effect on youth athletes as that is their biggest form of communication and in most instances
the role model that they look up to at that time.
Nike is the largest sports apparel company in the world. Nike supplies athletes and
humans all over the world for every age group. Nike has many adolescences that look up to role
models that they have signed over the years like Kobe Bryant, Mike Trout, Lebron James,
Christiano Ronaldo and many others. These athletes are who many would consider icons of the
sport that they play are role models for these young athletes. When those athletes speak
people listen, kids especially listen. If Nike released a campaign where these athletes would do
talks about mental health to educate the youth and the adults a full movement could start to
advocate for the ones who struggle with mental health.
In 2021 Nike released a program that is called Mind Sets. The goal of this program is to
“move in any way that feels good for their mental being” (Killingstad). Nike released this
program when many famous and well-known athletes decided to stop competing in their
sports. As an avid Nike user, I had no idea that this program existed yet it has been out for
almost three years now. It seems as if the program hasn’t existed due to its lack of advertising
and media reference yet everyone knows what the next new pair of shoes is going to be since it
is broadcasted and advertised everywhere. Instead of doing a campaign for shoes, clothes and
athletic equipment if they ran a campaign for this program that they released it would get a
much bigger audience than the one that it already has.
Coaches tend to be too hard on their athletes year afer year since competition has
started. Coaches at higher levels are given trainings at the beginning of every athletic season.
These coaches are taught what the stressors are, how to avoid them but also how to handle the
situations when their athletes are struggling from a mental illness. Youth coaches tend to be
parents that are not aware of these kinds of issues in athletics. Some parents are aware because
they have older kids that they have coached or have watched over the years. All youth coaches
should be given a training provided by the league that they are coaching for mental health
awareness.
In the state of Ohio they just passed a law that all school athletic programs coaches have
to take a mental health training. This kind of law is a step in the right direction for mental health
awareness. “The training course must be approved by the department of Mental Health and
Addiction Services” (Rudy). This is the first state in the United States that requires their coaches
to do a training in order to coach that team. Every time the coach wants to coach another team
they are required to take the training again. This is a very key aspect to helping coaches
understand the issue that is being presented to them when it does occur and are
knowledgeable on what to do when something like this happens. Moving towards a system like
this across the United States can help many youth athletes and even decrease the suicide rates
among youth athletes in the long run if every state makes this a requirement moving forward in
the future.
Parents across the country have different levels of experience and different parenting
styles. Some parents are more involved in their youths athletic experience than others. All
parents should be given either a small course or a packet at the beginning of the year that talks
about stress and mental health. This will be beneficial because it will go over what are the
leading causes to parents stressing out their athletes and it leading to mental illnesses in the
long run. Parents across the world just aren’t properly educated on the mental health that goes
on with their kids and athletics. Results from a study concluded that “
children perceived
moderate to high levels of parental involvement and pressure, moderate levels of directive
behavior, and low levels praise and understanding” (Bonavolonta). It seems that parents are not
made aware that they are one of the issues causing things like this to happen. A simple
education on this can be life saving to some of these young athletes.
Competition is the leading cause of stress and mental illness in athletes. This isn’t just
something that you can give a training on because of the different variables and potential
outcomes of events. The best way to help athletes handle mental illness is with support and
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different resources that can be of help to them when they are in need. Counseling is something
that has helped athletes overtime with these issues. Two of the leading causes of stress in
competition is “fear of failure and self-pressure” (Ward). No matter what this is always going to
be a fear that individuals are going to experience but it is the resources that are available and
given to them that will help them succeed in the long run.
Training varies from athlete to athlete and sport to sport. Some athletes don’t train very
much while others train multiple times a day for multiple hours. You see the most injuries
among athletes happen in the gym, some athletes have very little knowledge on how to be
successful in the gym without injuring themselves. As a youth it is important that we teach
these kids in school how to be production and successful in the gym without injury. In this you
can teach them the proper way to exercise but also make it into a class that teaches mental
health awareness in athletes. With this it can lead to coaches and teachers helping youth
athletes understand the struggles that are associated with their sport and how to handle those
struggles before it gets out of hand.
The biggest issue regarding athletes and their mental health is the lack of knowledge for
the athlete and the people around the athletes. The lack of education regarding the topic is
what has caused the catastrophic events to occur overtime and why nothing has improved
because of it. Knowledge from the biggest companies in the world with the most resources and
role models that people will listen to are not being talked about on a big stage to educate
people. Those role models and companies are the best chance that we have to get the message
and information out to the entire world on how serious of an issue this is it also can provide
resources that are available for people to read and understand how it happens. With the more
knowledge that we can get out there to people regarding mental health awareness, when
people are educated and know about the topic it is a lot easier to handle. This will help athletes,
parents and coaches develop healthy ways for this kind of situation to be handled and dealt
with.
Works cited
Killingstad, L. (2021, November 23).
Nike doubles down on Mental Health
. Front Office Sports.
https://frontofficesports.com/nike-doubles-down-on-mental-health/#:~:text=Nike
%20announced%20its%20new%20“Mind,users%20prioritize%20their%20mental
%20health.
Rudy, M., & Fox News. (n.d.).
New Ohio law requires coaches to get mental health training to
help student athletes: “support our kids.”
Fox News.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/new-ohio-law-requires-coaches-get-mental-health-
training-help-student-athletes-support-kids
Bonavolontà, V., Cataldi, S., Latino, F., Carvutto, R., De Candia, M., Mastrorilli, G., Messina,
G., Patti, A., & Fischetti, F. (2021, August 17).
The role of parental involvement in youth
sport experience: Perceived and desired behavior by male soccer players
. International
journal of environmental research and public health.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391271/
Ward, T., Stead, T., Mangal, R., & Ganti, L. (2023, February 21).
Prevalence of stress amongst
high school athletes (V2)
. Health psychology research.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9946800/#:~:text=Approximately
%2091%25%20of%20all%20the,most%20common%20causes%20of%20stress.
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