Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • In the words of Nelson Mandela, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Winner: Sithembele Isaac Xhegwana of Makhanda
  • Flooding at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Second Place: Jeannie Wallace McKeown of Makhanda
  • Residents of Extensions Nine, 10, Transit Camp, Phumlani and Enkanini voice discontent!
  • Makhanda Creatives Speak Out
  • Running towards a drug and alcohol-free Makhanda
  • What’s On 23 – 30 March
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»The price of shame in school sports
Uncategorized

The price of shame in school sports

Grocott's MailBy Grocott's MailJune 14, 2012No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

With K-Day upon us, parents, teachers, coaches and most of all, young athletes have been preparing themselves for the weekend of winners and losers. Although extreme care is taken with physical preparation, how much effort has been put into the psychological well-being of these young sport stars?

With K-Day upon us, parents, teachers, coaches and most of all, young athletes have been preparing themselves for the weekend of winners and losers. Although extreme care is taken with physical preparation, how much effort has been put into the psychological well-being of these young sport stars?

Sports psychologist and counsellor Greg Wilmot shed some light on sports psychology in the context of schools at an academic lecture held at Fort England last week.

“Do we have the right support for these school sportsmen and women that are now appearing in a big way on television and in the local news, continually under scrutiny by the public?”, he asked.

The enormous pressure we put on players can often lead to problems like eating disorders, body dysmorphia and depression, Wilmot said.

Earlier this year at Hoërskool Hans Strijdom, in Naboomspruit, Limpopo, a rugby player left the game's referee unconscious on the field after headbutting him. Cases like this of young sports players snapping is not isolated and happens far too often, according to Wilmot.

Physiotherapist Jane Holderness mirrored Wilmot's concerns about unhealthy minds on the sports field. “When approaching big events like K-Day, our practice is just full of sports-related injuries, the majority being school sportsmen and women who want to speed their recovery up so they can play their game,” she said.

“They have no concern for what could be the lasting impact of stress on their injuries but rather just making it onto the field.”

A shift in the perception of the goals of sport appears to be the answer.

Wilmot advised a focus on playing sport to one's best ability, instead of harping on rivalry and competition. “Let's rather look at task mastery, rather than the ego orientation we see now. Players need to have an internal focus of 'Did I learn something from this? Did I improve my game?'”.

This will help sustain an internal motivation for the player to want to better themselves, he believes, which eliminates a fear of failure and brings back the fun in sport.

“With K-Day coming up, we need to remember that there will be as many losers as winners. But instead of placing all the positive energy on the victors and all the negative on the losers, we need to observe the bigger picture of how everything went,” Wilmot advised.

“So long as each team improved on their games and worked well together, they should not be made to feel shame.”

Previous ArticleTitanic K-Day rugby clash tomorrow
Next Article Gift of a lifetime
Grocott's Mail

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.