Sports Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Sports Psychology - Essay Example The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches thats going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING between LIVING and DYING,† the character of Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday. Motivational speeches are necessary as any sports psychologist will tell you. Mental preparation allows athletes tap that extra strength that usually comes out when at the height of enthusiasm. That’s why you hear about people lifting cars to save someone or jumping at heights not even Michael Jordan could have one for a game winning shot. Sport psychology professionals use all devices to help an athlete get motivated such as imagery and, like Al Pacino, deliver a speech as if humanity’s existence depends on it. Psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson developed a hypothetical law that relates arousal with performance in 1908, based on biopsychology and neuroscience research. This is called the Inverted-U hypothesis. The theory says that as the arousal of an athlete increases, so does the performance. It will continue to increase until it reaches its peak. After that, if the arousal continues, the performance deteriorates. This hypothesis explains how the person’s arousal can affect its performance. It tells that a person’s performance can be maximized on a certain level of arousal. But the relationship between the level of performance and the level of arousal comes with the condition; both too low and too high level of arousal can produce low level or poor performance, while a moderate level of arousal can produce a high positive level of performance. This theory is illustrated on a diagram with two lines representing the arousal and the performance