Ire Management for Players In Economic Sport - Essay Example

Anger Management for players Name University Lecturer Date Anger management amongst black and minority players Generally, everyone knows or has experienced anger, yet the cause and effects as well as ways to control anger are not well understood. Sports-based psychologists can help players recognize the pattern of anger and learn how to avoid or deal with anger. Sports activities are famous and bring together various personalities from different geographical, racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Sports events also attract diverse audiences including events managers, coaches, players, spectators and political figures. Different people have different attitudes or stereotypes particularly to other races. The stereotype affects the interactions in the sports and during events players may act indecently by being abusive or engaging in a fight with another player from a different team. Racism, based on skin color is a prevalent issue that has faced regional and international sporting events (Carrington, 2010). According to (Entine, 2008), the progress of racial relations among players has progressed and in various contexts has led to disbanding such people who extends it. The outcomes of racism based on skin color ultimately lead to regional prejudices, segregation of black and minority ethnic players and aggravate the social disadvantages between players. Various incidents have been reported by media, raising controversial debates within the society. Höglund & Sundberg (2008) argues that, sports are not separable from the society and as participants come together, they recreate the conditions that are detrimental to the play due to imbalanced viewpoints from different participants. However, when negative attitudes manifest in sports, people and particularly players, they respond and express dissatisfactions, resentment and anger. One of the highly supported aspects of sport is fair play. There are circumstances, repeated practices and issues that promote anger among the black and minority ethnic players. According to Melendez (2008), anger among the black and ethnic minority players can be caused by maladaptive behaviors, hostile thoughts and arousal of negative feelings. Unwanted actions trigger the anger and particularly when a person is perceived to be or act in a disrespectful manner toward a player or a team. A referee, a player or a fan from opposing side may see demeaning which affects the players. Anger result from certain thoughts for instance, a certain person criticizing a player in front of the other colleagues. The player may feel that the person should not have acted in a disrespectful manner. Anger in most cases energizes players to retaliate through the increased thought of revenge. The player may revenge by throwing back abusive words, yelling, arguing, sarcasm, cursing, spread rumors about their opponents or engage in a duel. Both verbal and physical expressions are used by player to warn the other of their displeasure. The perceived dominance and control by white players, referees, coaches and players can lead to intentional behavior that harms the others. Angered thoughts increases the players muscle tension, heart rates and headaches. The condition may affect the players input in the game resulting to loss of a match. When anger is not expressed externally and the players lack the effective way to control it, it remains as an internal rumination (Green, 2008). The thoughts may extend and cause a perception about how other races treats the others who are different from them. The players may end up overreacting when unintentional act resurfaces. Black and minority ethnic players may fail to participate in games due to frustrations. Deep career frustrations may also lead to depression and suicide when players perceive racism as an uncontrollable factor that denies them participation. Friendly interactions amongst the intentional players may be affected, reducing the effectiveness in developing skills and raising long-lasting organizations to rise and nature talents. The failure of players to engage in problem solving after being angered can lead to crimes that are also costly to team, individuals and justice system (Abrams, 2010). Excessive anger among the blacks and minorities may not simply be a psychological problem but has far ranging consequences to players’ health (Melendez, 2008). The nervous system and hormonal arousal are related to anger and changes. Psychological reactions increase the cardiovascular reactions and responses due to respiration, perspiration and need for high blood flow to muscles for strength. Anger increase among the players affects most of body systems including the immune, cardiovascular, central nervous and digestive systems. Increased reaction of the body systems increases the risks of a player to health risks such as stroke and hypertension, gastric ulcers, heart and bowel diseases. It also slows the wound healing and increase cancers. Physical expressions of players due to anger leading to hitting objects may also lead to physical hurts. Anger also fuel aggression and violence and a player may become hyper active and respond to kill others either the opponents or someone close to them (Entine, 2008). Carrington (2010) further argues that, anger among the players is an important problem with some negative consequences. It affects the aspects of play, interactions and behaviors of players. It highly lead to interpersonal conflicts, erratic drives, negative evaluations of others, career maladjustment, property destruction, drugs and substance abuse to players, crimes of passion and inappropriate risk taking by players. However, it has some positive outcomes which might present as short term benefits to players and sports federations. In various cases, anger has responded well to injustice as a useful part of players and fans to demand for equality for the blacks and minority in sports. As Steinfeldt, Reed & Steinfeldt (2010) points out, anger evaluations has led to better outcome as mangers negotiates and chosen effective ways to motivate the right and react against the wrongs in the play. The reactions have resulted to stable interactions in sports through the support from key personalities, policies and campaigns against inequality. It has acted to alert others and call for the stakeholders to listen to the blacks and minorities. Agitation of players has made people to be alert of their actions and words to avoid indecent outcomes in sports events. The white dominance has been reduced and led people to comply with set rules that guide interactions. Better outcomes have resulted in when the right has been acted leading to more satisfied players resulting to zestful play. Green (2008) argues that, the responses that are geared to racism in sports for the purpose of anger control may not be effective. Laws and policies are created and later becomes a source of problem or show a need to be revised to address the matters that continues to arise. It is highly likely that racist expressions will keep on monitored and looked into time after time. New actions will be classified as controversial and require time for fixing the disputes. As all this goes on, the blacks and minority players will be situated as victim in the narratives. Their level of achievement and career development can be affected as they are stopped by potential racists. The effects may have wide range effects, its exposure might be delayed which may lead to high losses. The players will continue to feel humiliated, afraid to accuse or point fingers to their seniors and discussion set in private conversations (Carrington, 2010). The players may feel the defeat due to failure to see the equal treatment they demand due to poor definition, perceptions and responses to racism. Racism is a controversial issue and constant being addressed. The circular manner in which it has addressed means that dispute is capable of being triggered again. However, there are some steps that individuals, trainers and teams can take to deal with anger (Entine, 2008). A sport psychologist working with a player, a team and coaches can help them deal with anger in sporting events. First, a psychologist can explain that most of expressions are just unpleasant events but not catastrophes around players (Carrington, 2010). Transient interactions with strangers in most cases can lead to cultural shock, fear and unbecoming attitudes which might not necessarily be built on racism. Some events come once in a year or the set season. The ability of a player to respond to such changes is demanding. Considering that some players, fans and managers may be first timers in such events, it can prepare the players to be neutral to any unbecoming expression. The players may never meet again and it is important for players to consider the importance of the annoying situation. The player can learn that most of annoying situations are not important at all and may not focus their thoughts on it or seek attentions from seniors which may be delayed and aggravate the anger (Abrams, 2010). Second, a sport psychologist promotes the players to recognize between the events that they can change and those that they are beyond them (Steinfeldt, Reed & Steinfeldt, 2010). They might avoid interactions after the game is over where the defeated team may feel humiliated and react by verbal or physical expressions. The quickest way to avoid anger situations is to escape and avoiding interaction which may lead to anger. They can also advise the fans, coaches and referees of the trends that triggers anger in interactions. As Höglund & Sundberg (2008) points out, the perceptions about a racist player(s), team(s) and fans can lead to preparation to avoid anger as players may discuss the different ways they have or will use to control. Players can control anger by making it known to the management of their preferred commentator and referee which gives them more control over events. Where there are majority of fans who might be abusive, little can be done and at such instances, the players have to accept the situation and concentrate with the game. The approach can help players to relax, build their cognitive restructuring, escape and have an assertive expression (Steinfeldt, Reed & Steinfeldt, 2010). Thirdly, a psychologist will advise players not to face all the problems directly as it might not yield the best solution. There are some practices that a sport psychologist will encourage such players. Avoidance of interaction with someone who is a source of anger and allowing someone to mediate between is far better for players. Any disruptive player will respond to the general response of the members but not by individual response (Abrams, 2010). A player can still learn from other to work out on anger problems. Relaxation is best for a player and seeking for quiet time. Deep breaths also help muscles to relax and muscular relaxation can be practiced and used to respond to circumstances. Dealing with one issue at a time can highly allow the players to learn to perceive negative situations and avoid overgeneralizations about other players’ behaviors. There are general expressions that are highly prevalent in a certain group and expressions do not mean that they are stereotyping a certain player. Other players from different cultures might possess strong tonal expressions that might have nothing to do with racism. Cognitive restructuring can lead a person to avoid distortions, misappraisals and thoughts about bad behaviors. The players can get rid of brad generalizations they have about other people (Höglund & Sundberg, 2008). Fourthly, sport psychologists working closely with black and minority players can promote their ability to be assertive, by expressing their anger directly but in appropriate tone. The players’ response is not meant to demean the other players. When players are offended or feel disrespected, it is possible to let the other know that they felt angry when one insulted or did something like throwing or hitting. The player may show their intention to talk about the issue and improve their relationship. Professional help can be sought to deal with infrequent, mild and anger that dissipates quickly (Green, 2008). At this point, the player may assertively highlight their annoyance which can lead to problem solving. Moderate to intense anger which may occur frequently and player’s ability to endure lead to grudges and a plan to be even, requires alarm and assistance. Professional help, allow the player to avoid aggressive expressions like verbal and physical actions. Ultimately, mediation leads to positive relationship, avoidance of health and legal repercussions which are related to anger expression (Abrams, 2010). As Höglund & Sundberg (2008) points out, anger management gives the players the dominance in solving their own problems. Sport psychologists are thus relevant to promote the application of the approach to anger to wide teams for the same purpose. Unlike the policies which are applicable to certain contexts, self-skills, management and responses can be dynamic and useful to many situations. The skills can be transmitted to incoming coaches and teams leading to concentration on sports rather than searching for racist actions and attitudes during sports. The approach is far effective from grassroots level where players are trained and qualifies along the pathway of sports. The governing bodies may also create better chances for such learning leading to preparation of clubs and individuals. The mechanism enforced by law and order can fail due to the requirements of witness or sanctions that are ineffective. As a community, players can get motivation to work on anger management, control and get expert advices to cope up with post-events experiences. The black and ethnic minorities’ players can effectively work as community which can work relatively with policies and achieve better relations in sports. According to Green (2008), anger management as seen above can work and lead to improvement of relations among the players in worldwide events. Anger management programs can be provided to players and be applied in different cases with much efficiency. Psychologist treatments are also effective in treating anger for different groups of people. University and college settings, hospitals, correctional and community treatment facilities can provide with the services. Treatment sessions can result to players’ adjustments. Multi component treatment programs can provide with strong effects and best therapy. Follow-ups schedule in a month or year time can greatly improve the experience. The treatment responses are intervention based, cognitive behavior therapy, skill training and psychodynamic therapy. A player can undergo relaxation programs, exposure based interventions and anger inoculation programs that are very helpful. Personal experiences, update research, knowledge and training can lead to proactive anger management for the best outcomes. In conclusion, there are visible and invisible expressions of racism which victimize the blacks and ethnic minorities’ players in sports. The existence and expressions of racism during events has disparaging fear and anger for players and might frustrate their participation and the level of excellence in their career. Despite the wide-range of actions geared to the phenomena, the resources, money , policies and discussions may not yield any ultimate solution as racist is an aspect deep rooted in the society. Players may live in a world full of gross stereotypes, untruths and myths that have negative consequences. Some of the pronounced racist disputes in sport naturally involve the intensity of controversy outside the sport world. The clashing of perceptions resulting from what one culture call acceptable and what is disregarded by the other characterize the search for solution. The global liberal and conservative arguments on moralistic nature of which action is right or wrong may increase unfruitful discussions. However, sport psychologists’ approaches to anger can promote techniques, skills and effectiveness in anger management for black and ethnic minority players. The techniques involves; learning, therapies and applied personal practices on daily basis which might improve the sports outcomes, players and teams’ relationship and reduce the heightened focus on racist actions during sport events. Sport psychologist therapies, if applied well and consistently, can have positive results by promoting players to recognize situations and react differently. References Abrams, M. (2010). Anger management in sport: understanding and controlling violence in athletes. Human Kinetics. Carrington, B. (2010). Race, sport and politics: The sporting black diaspora. Sage. Entine, J. (2008). Taboo: Why Black athletes dominate sports and why we're afraid to talk about it. Public Affairs. Green, B. C. (2008). Sport as an agent for social and personal change. Management of sports development, 130-145. Höglund, K., & Sundberg, R. (2008). Reconciliation through sports? The case of South Africa. Third World Quarterly, 29(4), 805-818. Melendez, M. C. (2008). Black football players on a predominantly White college campus: Psychosocial and emotional realities of the Black college athlete experience. Journal of Black Psychology, 34(4), 423-451. Steinfeldt, J. A., Reed, C., & Steinfeldt, M. C. (2010). Racial and athletic identity of African American football players at historically Black colleges and universities and predominantly White institutions. Journal of Black Psychology, 36(1), 3-24. Read More