Do contact sports lead to off-the-field aggression?

Newswise Social and Behavioral Sciences News | Male Adolescent Athletes More Likely to Be Aggressors

full report: http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Oct07ASRFeature.pdf

“The results suggest that sports fail to protect males from interpersonal violence. Indeed, contact sports are positively associated with male serious fighting.”

Later in the short preview:

…sports programs, including coaches and parents, ultimately need to emphasize self-control and respect

Which begs the logical question: Do the programs studied lead to violent off-field behavior because they are violent sports or because they are violent sports taught in an unhealthy culture that doesn’t emphasize the values above?

Why do some teens get more out of youth activities?

Why do some teens get more out of youth activities?

According to the study, engagement in an activity may more important to a teen’s development than the activity he chooses, the researcher said.

It’s always interesting to prove common sense with an actual scientific study. Apparently, kids get the most out of an activity if they’re fully and passionately involved, but it doesn’t matter which activity it is. (Any of us probably could have simply told the U of I researchers that and pocketed the grant money, but there it is!)

If anyone needs more convincing, you can buy the full study from the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Sports psychologists and coaches

Dissecting the sporting life – Sports

DI: What do you think of the different types of coaching styles?[sports psychologist Dawn] Stephens: Well, I don’t know much of them…

Earlier Stephens says:

My work in sports has shown that kids do lie, hurt, and cheat in youth sports. The strongest predictor of why they do that is because they think that’s what their teammates would do. Why do they think it’s OK? There’s this group-norm idea that the teammates or coach would do it. The coach knows how to do and say certain things, so they sound good, but when Bobby fouls someone who is about to score a goal, the coach will turn to the assistant and say, “Oh, thank God.”

I’m a coach, and I respect and admire the work of good coaches. I probably add some fuel to the “all coaches are bad” flame with some of my posts, but I feel the opposite: most coaches are good, some are very good, a handful are heroic.
I rely a great deal on the fine work from the sports psychology community. Their research gives me insight on motivating athletes as well as keeping them safe both mentally and physically. Nonetheless, every now and then I catch an undertone from some sports psychologists that fails to recognize the positive role that so many coaches play. For all the fine work done in sports psych, coaches are its effective practitioners – the point at which theory becomes practice.

Dr. Stephens’ comments suggest that she may not hold coaches in particularly high regard. She certainly doesn’t seem to think that knowledge of coaching issues and styles is relevant to her work. Her characterization of Bob Knight as the “bad” coach and Mike Krzyzewski as the “good” coach seems particularly simplistic.

No more broken eggs

ContraCostaTimes.com | 10/20/2006 | Youth sports plagued with bad adult examples

Olympic swim coach’s views on the state of youth sports.

Anxiety in athletes

Athletic Insight – Psychological Skills for Successful Ice Hockey Goaltenders

One of the most obvious and debilitating effects of too much anxiety is muscle tension, reduced flexibility, and reduced mobility (Hanin, 2000). When anxiety is high, co-ordination is low. One way in which too much anxiety can affect a goaltender’s performance is by hampering his concentration, more specifically narrowing the attentional field (Weinberg & Gould, 2003). When anxiety increases, the goaltender may narrow the attentional field, decrease environmental scanning, which causes a shift to the dominant attentional style. Consequently, this shift to the dominant attentional style may lead the goaltender to focus on inappropriate cues.

Got into an interesting discussion with a group of coaches at a workshop about coaching practices (some of my own included) that may produce or increase anxiety in athletes.  The link above specifically discusses hockey goaltenders, but there are some references to research about athletes’ anxiety and how it affects performance. One of the most interesting things mentioned is the physiological impact of anxiety. The article is worth a read and some consideration.