Challenges Encountered When Pursuing Sports - Essay Example

Introduction It is common knowledge that life is not always simple since throughout our lives, from birth to maturity, we face numerous difficulties, problems and drawbacks. The major difference between those who succeed and those who do not succeed is the difference in the ability to handle the challenges in the right manner. The fact that one has succeeded does not mean that he did not encounter difficulties but simply means that he dealt with the difficulties in the correct manner. On the other hand, failure of a person does not mean that he faced more serious challenges than those who succeeded but means that he did not know how to deal with the challenges in the correct manner. As part of my experience, this research is going to address the challenges encountered in the process of seeking to succeed in sports, more specifically hockey. Challenges encountered when pursuing sports The theory of planned behavior is one among the most significant and common conceptual structures employed in the study of actions done by human beings. There are three considerations that guide the model; normative beliefs, behavioral beliefs and control beliefs, which have greatly influenced my sports development. These three beliefs are that which shape the actions and the performance of every individual in the society. The behavioral beliefs are the ones that determine the attitude of a person towards a given behavior. The behavior will in turn shape the manner the person is going to perform in the given activity that relates to the behavior. The normative beliefs make up the fundamental determinants of the individual norms. Finally, the control beliefs determine the perceptions for the control of the behavior (Ajzen 179). The core factor regarding the theory of planned behavior is that my intention to perform a particular behavior, such as playing hockey, will grasp the motivational aspects that shape that particular behavior. This in turn will provide an indication of how hard an individual is going to try and the amount of effort he is going to exert to successfully, perform or practice the given behavior. For example, if a student is participating in athletics with the aim of winning scholarship in athletics, the student will have two motivating factors, academics and athletics. The behavioral belief that the student will have, is the need to work harder and exert high effort to be able to produce good results both in athletics as well as in academics. On the other hand, the normative belief that the student will have, is the necessity of performing well in particular classes with a given grade level as well as having the capability of performing well athletically, at an acceptable level. Finally, the control belief is that the student will find the need of performing well in both academics and athletics to be able to achieve his objective of winning an athletic scholarship. All these beliefs collectively, determine the behavior and the level of success the student will finally achieve in the field of athletics. The absence of motivation explains why a person fails in all the attempts he or she makes. The effort exerted depends on where a person is and where he wants to reach. Defining this path is therefore a very great challenge and it is from where most individuals fail (Ajzen 179). Again, another great challenge I faced in the process of achieving my objective is the difficulty is constructing self- worth that is also a component of success. There are four key psychological requirements that determine the level of motivation in any student pursuing a particular career in any field of choice. These requirements include autonomy, self-worth as well as grouping relatedness. Usually, hockey programs consist of their own already established structures that greatly assisted me in the achievement of all the four needs. Nevertheless, sports linked to schools may from time to time put more emphasis on academics as well as post-secondary learning, but small hockey agendas do not incorporate such plans. If an individual, involving in athletic life provides support to these requirements, the performance results, whether athletic, academic or social, it will result to boosted feeling of attachment as well as commitment to sport, school and to the establishment of student athletics after secondary, an aspect that has played an important role in my personal and professional development. In most cases, junior players in hockey are for the notion that the self-worth of a student athlete diminishes or negatively affected when linked with privileged players out of school-sponsored hockey (Covington 5). At the age of sixteen years, a male student who plays hockey must have acquired skills ready to participate in junior hockey competition. At this time as well as the expense of friends, family, education and any other career goals, the sport will become the focus of his athletic life as he struggles to make it like a professional. This was a very important step in shaping the my future as I have the role of achieving the desired outcome within the most appropriate time to be able to get the motivation of pursuing the next step as I gradually advances. The motivation will then drive the individual into working harder and putting more effort in trying to be perfect in practicing the particular behavior. In the process, he will assign more time and able to sacrifice a lot for it (Covington 171). My self-worth as a core junior hockey players and the identity I have, has its roots in hockey and that the sport acts as the motivating force in my development. This therefore makes it very difficult for the hockey players as well as I to effect the transition in their career. This means that it becomes very difficult us to migrate from being key junior hockey players to attending college or university successfully. Therefore, self-worth that in most cases referred to, as the self-worth motivation, is the need that every individual will struggle to improve, preserve and provide protection to the perceptions that I hold concerning my image (Covington 5). The theory of Covington suggests that every individual needs to look for experiences that will help to produce or construct a feeling of victory, success and self-esteem. The theory also suggests that every individual has to avoid all the experiences that will produce a feeling of failure, societal disapproval and worthlessness (Cigman 561). This therefore means that, sport sponsored by the school will connect to self-worthiness and the achievement in school athletics will connect to student athletic scholar award. With the separation of hockey from school, it means that the individual who has been playing hockey in school has the challenge of seeking for self-worth within the new learning environment. Contrary to that, literature proposes that a varsity need for self-worth mostly comes in the perspective of school environment. This explains that the need for self-worth is very important in building the motivation that one needs to be able to perform well in his campaign. This helps to overcome the various challenges and difficulties that he will encounter in the process of building his career. It will also have the positive effect of improving class attendance (Covington 5). There is good evidence that participating in sport sponsored by the school causes a good student experience in athletics. This is because, if the athletic atmosphere connects to education, and if the people are equally serious about the student as in athletics, then desirable changes like enhanced studying habits as well as improved attendance will occur in the academic life of the student. It is common knowledge that sport is an integral element of the community in the school and is an extension of the learning environment that greatly contributes to academic success. The opportunity to win a chance of participating in school-sponsored athletes is therefore a good start towards achieving success in the future and failure may result if this does not happen (Tymowski 55). To overcome all the challenges involved and achieve enough development in athlete, I had to implement a humanistic method towards the development. A humanistic method applied to any sport will consider a development focus built on values, in which the lesson learnt through sport will find application in real life situation. This method therefore greatly assisted me to advance physically, socially and intellectually. Additionally, it enabled me to be a good contributor to the society when I complete schooling. This will also build my morale in the game and hence achieve much success. When making schedules for practice, when formulating game plan, or when making psychological preparations to deal with the daily challenges of the players, coaches noticed that they had to influence me to live a positive life rather than just struggling to win championships. This wide philosophical idea is very vital for successful development in any particular sport. This describes why a failure may result despite the high effort invested in developing the particular skill (Beck and Icek 285). The social environment of an individual, where he is living as well as the environment in which the individual was living in the past, greatly affects his behavior and motivation towards a given field of knowledge. This is because there is a very clear connection between the social environment of a person and the perceptions or learning capabilities of a person. In addition, the problems encountered in the course of learning the game originate from the social environment of the hockey setting. This means that if an individual considers involving himself in minor hockey, he has to carry out a good examination of the structure of the sport. This is because it will determine the manner and the group of people that he is going to interact with in the process of learning. Some of the most serious problems I encountered in minor hockey include stiff competition, aggressiveness, bad relationship between the player and the official, bad relationship between parent and son as well as bad relationship between the coach and the player. A major problem surrounding the hockey environment is the social interaction, an aspect I have been striving hard to enhance. This poses great challenge to all the individuals involved, ranging from executives, officials, coaches, parents and the players. Therefore, the idea of building a connection between hockey and education aims at solving the problem (Tymowski 55). To avoid experiencing the impacts of the current culture of minor hockey, violence, unfair tactics, unwanted aggression, inequality, abuse, harassment and lowering of self-esteem, the main objective of my participation in hockey was physical, mental and social development. This also minimized the challenges faced and make hockey more interesting and easier to pursue (Pashby 159). Another very common problem that may psychologically, hinder the effort of pursuing my career is the desire to win. The desire to win should not be either too high or too low, an aspect that guided my professional development in hockey. This is because; if the desire to win is too high then failure to win in the first attempt will cause one to lose morale and hence very difficult to advance. Failure to reverse the condition means that the process will recur and at the end, it is going to result to a continuous series of failure. In addition, one should understand that there is always a person who is better than you are. This means that for you to earn recognition and become reliable means that you should always be capable of gauging yourself from where others have reached. This helped me eliminate the false belief about an achievement that is not there. This therefore means that failure to gain recognition will make you lose motivation and succeeding becomes very difficult (Renger 180). I also understand that it is not possible to control the outcome of any given event. This means that one is only capable of controlling the process and event. The process of learning how to play hockey is very easy to control, as one has to just gauge himself from where he is and look for the means of improving through additional effort and adoption of better tactics. However, it is impossible to control the desired outcome since this is dependent on the effort made by everyone and therefore failure in the first attempts does not mean inability to success in the future. If one fails to understand this then it will be very difficult for one to prosper and reach his desired destination (Tymowski 55). A frustration is another very serious problem in the process of seeking perfection in any sport. This occurs during a game when one fails to utilize a good opportunity to score, bad bounces, bad plays or even questionable callings from the game officials. Frustrations can also be because of inconsistent decisions by the referees and stifling by the opponents during the game. Failure to manage frustration can lead to failure and poor performance all the time. To manage frustration, I had to prepare myself psychologically and have a prior understanding of all the challenges that I was going to face during the game. This enabled me to accept the challenges and incorporate them in my mind to make them part of the game. I had to understand that in any match or game, there is both the possibility of winning and losing. Likewise, in any goal attempt, there is the probability of both scoring and failing to score. This means that under all the conditions prevailing I must prepare for the results (Stuart and Aynsley 458). Conclusion To become a champion on the playing ground will require me to be physically and mentally strong. This means that there is no shortcut in achieving success, hence I must always invest and follow the correct procedure towards achieving my goal. I must focus and have a target from where I am going to derive the necessary motivation that is going to inspire me. I must overcome all the psychological problems surrounding me as this determines the level of devotion and the amount of time and resources I am going to sacrifice in order to meet the standards required. Additionally, I must have the ability to focus on what is most important and arrange my activities from the most important on to the least important one. Moreover, I must understand that concentration is the key for achieving good performance when controlled well. However, if I lost control my focus, and instead concentrates on what is not right either during the training or during the game, then there is very high chances that I will lower my confidence, become very nervous as well as underachieve. Hockey is a very fast game that playing well requires high concentration in the appropriate place. For me to succeed, I need proper physical as well as mental preparations. Works cited Ajzen, Icek. From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1985. Ajzen, Icek. "The theory of planned behavior." Organizational behavior and human decision processes 50.2 (1991): 179-211. Beck, Lisa, and Icek Ajzen. "Predicting dishonest actions using the theory of planned behavior." Journal of research in personality 25.3 (1991): 285-301. Cigman, Ruth. "Self‐Esteem And The Confidence To Fail." Journal of Philosophy of Education 35.4 (2001): 561-576. Covington, Martin V. "The self-worth theory of achievement motivation: Findings and implications." The Elementary School Journal (1984): 5-20. Covington, Martin V. "Goal theory, motivation, and school achievement: An integrative review." Annual review of psychology 51.1 (2000): 171-200. Pashby, Tom. "Eye Protection in Ice Hockey: An Historical." Safety in ice hockey, second volume (1993): 159. Renger, Ralph. "Identifying the task requirements essential to the success of a professional ice hockey player: A scouts perspective." Journal of teaching in physical education 13 (1994): 180-180. Stuart, Michael J., and Aynsley Smith. "Injuries in Junior A Ice Hockey A Three-Year Prospective Study." The American journal of sports medicine 23.4 (1995): 458-461. Tymowski, Gabriela. "Rights and wrongs: Childrens participation in high-performance sports." Cross Cultural Perspectives in Child Advocacy, Greenwich, CT.: Information Age Publishing (2001): 55-94. Read More