Need for Sports Psychologist for Student Athletes

Implementation of a Sport Psychologist for King Athletics

Ben Allan

King University

Dr Lee

05/10/19

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance and benefit of implementing a sports psychologist within the King University Athletics Department. Sports psychology is an area of study that has been gaining traction within many athletic institutions. It is easy to forget about the effects that competition has on not only the body but also on the mind. Providing students with an individual who they can confess what they are struggling with mentally, can lead to improved performance both within their sport and within the classroom. A sports psychologist at King would benefit the students coaching staff, and athletic training staff as this would alleviate some of the burden that falls upon them due to the lack of resources provided to these student athletes. Diving into some of the beneficial reasons to implement such a practice, helps to further explain the need for such a position to be utilized within the athletic department at King University.

King Athletics background
        King University is a Presbyterian- affiliated school that has dedicated itself to the integration of academic learning while helping their students explore, enrich and understand their faith. King was established in 1886 with a mission to teach and create this faith based culture (King University’s Mission, 2019). As a non-profit organization, the institution does its best to serve students, faculty and alumni; all crucial to the progress and success of each academic year. King offers a total of 25 different sports on campus ranging from soccer to wrestling and most recently E-sports, bass fishing and triathlon. Due to the large amount of sports provided, King is able to attract a vast amount of student athletes who face constant pressure to excel in both the classroom and their sport.
On campus, the percentage of students who are athletes to non-athletes is in the 80% range. This helps demonstrate that there is a higher volume of students that compete in athletic programs. As mentioned, these individuals are subjects to not only stressors from the classroom but also stressors within their athletics. The mixture of academic and athletic stressors brought to a student-athlete can be extremely overwhelming and, in some cases, result in developments of mental illnesses. A potential solution to the problem is introducing student-athletes to different techniques of coping with these stressors.  Employing a psychological personnel at King for the student-athletes would be beneficial for students, coaches and faculty.

Mental Health of Student Athletes

For student athletes between the ages of 18-21, the pressure to perform is extremely potent. “Their wins and losses are seen by many, questioned by many, and often criticized publicly” (Carr and Davidson, NCAA). As a previous coach of mine once said, a student athlete’s career is a full time job. Grueling practices, gym sessions, competitions and on top of this the effects of traveling, a full academic schedule, as well as rehab for the days that they have off from their sport. These athletic commitments often result in many sacrifices being made. Social interactions with friends and relaxation time are few and far between as the physical and mental challenges force these desired actions to take a back seat. According to Chartrand and Lent, “the counselor’s role in athletics has been one of enhancing athletic performance and intervening with troubled athletes” (Chartrand & Lent, 1987). This of course is just one focus of the sports psychologist, in order to help impact the athletes positively, and provide them with a way of coping with these stressors in the future.

Rational and reason for change.

There is no current practice of sports psychology in place at King today. Numerous coaches across the athletics department have reached out to a Sports psychologist Dr. Pamela Lemons. Dr Lemons works independently, but also works closely with the US national Ski and Snowboard teams. In the past year, she has visited King several times, meeting a variety of teams and helping each one with strengthening their minds. All coaches that have asked for Dr. Lemmons services were extremely pleased with what she addressed to the athletes. Subsequently, coaches go out of their way to try and bring Pamela back to the school to continue working with their athletes as they believe that it is a beneficial and worthwhile investment to their programs. Hanin and Stambulova further these opinions on the benefit of sports psychology when they state that in order to “achieve collective excellence, it is important to find an adequate balance between the athlete’s individual goals and the team goals” (Hanin & Stambulova, 2009). Goals such as these usually overlap with one another and the ability for athletes to not only excel personally but collectively is a goal of many coaches. Due to the growing interest in the subject and the importance that is placed on mental illness and its effect, I believe it invaluable to create a position for a sports psychologist here at King University.

Arguably, many challenges arise from integrating a sports psychologist into the athletic department. Hiring psychologists on a permanent basis would be extremely costly for an institution like King.  However, thus far, the burden of many psychological needs of athletes have fallen to coaches and athletic training staff. These people may not necessarily possess the right knowledge of the appropriate approach when helping each student-athlete.

One significant factor causing stress to student-athletes is the inability to mentally and physically cope with injuries within their sports. Injuries are very common and pose many different psychological responses to the individual. One person could recover both physically and mentally without an issue. However, for another, the recovery could prove problematic since their psychological needs become more complex. Physical injury within athletics can lead to symptoms of grave mental illnesses, such as stress being a symptom of clinical depression. To aid this, Putukian conducted a study on a Division I football team and showed the effect that injuries have on level of depression. Results showed that “33% of injured athletes reported high levels of depressive symptoms, using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale, compared with 27% of non-injured athletes” (Putukian, 2016). Athletes battling depression and other stressors within their lives, are more susceptible to injury. Additionally, their mental health hinders their stamina and overall performance.

 Depending on the severity of the injury, athletes may find themselves out from athletics for months on end and will require to go through rehabilitation before participating again. In some cases, the student athlete may never be able to recover to their full capacity and for most that can be an extremely difficult change to accept. Possessing a sport psychologists at King would be a revelatory solution in alleviating the stress student-athletes experience and help them return to the game with a strong mindset.  

Daily pressure to perform and obtain results has led many college athletes falling out of love with their sport. For some athletes this may come sooner in their collegiate careers than for others. This often marks the end of their careers within their sport, one main cause for this mentality is the effect to which burnout impacts the athlete. Gauld and Whitley help to explain that burnout is not simply from excessive training but instead state that it is not necessarily the volume of the training that causes burnout but rather the intensity of the training paired with little to no recovery time (Gauld & Whitley, 2009). Personally I have witnessed many team members experience burnout throughout my years at King, and have witnessed individuals who completely lost their love for competition due to the stress that comes with it each day.

Limited Resources.

There are currently limited resources in place to help the student.  Consequently, an athlete might seek help from a coach or other member of staff when trying to find solutions to overcome their struggles.  However, often, athletes lack courage and feel discomfort in expressing their concerns to their coaches. An outside resource of guidance in the shape of a sports psychologist would provide an individual with the unbiased and professional help that they may be seeking.  

King, like many other schools across the NCAA affiliation, are reluctant to employ any full time or even part-time psychologists. Alternatively, they will simply rely on the campus resources already in place such as student counselors. Carr and Davidson point out a very true fact when they state that “the problem is that few student counselling centers employ a psychologist who has the training and education to address student-athletes’ unique psychological needs” (Carr, Davidson, 2017). Additionally, since most of the student body participates in collegiate athletic events, many of the psychological stressors originate in performance anxiety within their discipline. Meeting with a regular clinical psychologist may not provide student-athletes the necessary guidance to deal with these athletically based situations.

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