engleski

The challenge of role balance in sport

The role of athlete takes the main place in athlete's self. Many athletes equalize their whole personal potential with success in sport experiencing satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their own self depending on their sport results. This could be critical factor especially in the case of sudden injury or in the phase of sport career termination. Lots of elite athletes organize their whole life around their sport career. The serious dedication is considered as ultimate and necessary for top level sport achievement. The consequence of such orientation could be misbalance in life roles, that is typical for most of them, and pressure combined with competitive fail, that is especially typical for those with high perfecionistic tendencies. In such case athletes usually perceive competition as more than sport event ; as life and death question where their whole self-esteem is threatened with non-achievement. The challenge is to find the balance between different life roles and to develop and tune different athlete's potentials aiming disburdening in athlete's competitive approach and its perception. The first step is awareness of different interests and the development of different habits, behaviors and goals in different parts of athlete's life besides sport. Such approach could be useful for different reasons. First, it prepares an athlete for real life challenges and makes some different solutions for post-sport life. Second, it has some emotional effects, athletes become more satisfied, self-confident and more optimistic. Third, athletes become more socially integrated and develop wider social network that is important source of support. Finally, athletes become more relaxed that enables better sport performance, on training and on competitions. Such process could be led more effectively with the help of sport psychologist and should be initialized in early stages of athletic development because it prevents different negative side effects of competitive sport. Also, such approach ensure a comprehensive development of young athletes who have better chances for becoming satisfied adults and reach higher long term quality of life.

sport; school; different roles

nije evidentirano