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Stress in College Athletics

Causes, Consequences, Coping

• By Robert E. Stevens, David L. Loudon, Deborah A. Yow, William W. Bowden, James H. Humphrey

• Price: $47.50
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 202
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 25th May 2000
• ISBN: 978-0-7890-0935-7

About the Book

Stress in College Athletics: Causes, Consequences, Coping addresses the causes and consequences of stress in college sports and offers effective coping mechanisms that will help individuals understand and control stressors and emotions in their environment. Athletic administrators, coaches, student athletes, parents of athletes, educators, and social and behavioral science researchers will benefit from this examination of what stress is, the different types of stress, and what factors can contribute to anxiety. Containing insight from hundreds of student athletes, coaches, and administrators, this vital book offers you proven research, clear explanations, and recommended suggestions that will enable you to cope with stress and not let it affect your job or your game.

Examining how both males and females perceive stress, Stress in College Athletics explores developmental differences between the genders to explain the ways in which the two groups react to and deal with stress.

Discussing the challenges that you deal with every day, this valuable book offers you several proven suggestions and methods to help reduce stress, including:

• Using coping techniques, such as physical exercise (other than the sport you play), recreational activities, muscle relaxation, biofeedback, and meditation
• Doing things for others and looking to your own spirituality in order to alleviate anxiety
• Eliminating factors such as fatigue and inferior health in order to avoid the negative emotions of jealousy, fear, and anger that can lead to tension and anxiety
• Learning how to relieve stress in your immediate environment (on the sidelines, in the audience, or during a test) through simple, effective, and inconspicuous exercises
• Adapting procedures for self-modification of behavior, such as identifying a behavior you want to change, thinking about the result of that behavior and how often it occurs, and reforming that conduct

Through practical research, theories about stress and its causes and effects, and insight from peers, this excellent resource offers suggestions for further inquiry in the field of college athletics and stress. Complete and thorough, Stress in College Athletics will provide you with the necessary tools to help you create a personal stress management system that will improve your well-being in and out of the athletic forum.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
•  Chapter 1. Understanding Stress
• The Meaning of Stress and Related Terms
•  Theories of Stress
•  Reactions to Stress
•  Classifications of Stress
• Causes of Stress
• Effects of Stress
•  Chapter 2. Perceptions of Stress in College Athletics
•   Perceptions of Coaches
• Perceptions of Athletic Directors
•   Perceptions of Athletes
• Summary
• Chapter 3. Stress Among College Athletes
•  Gender Differences
• Causes of Stress Among College Athletes
•  Consequences of Stress Among Athletes
•  Coping with Stress Among Athletes
•  Chapter 4. Stress Among Coaches and Athletic Directors
•  Stress Among Coaches
• Stress Among Athletic Directors
• Chapter 5. Dealing with Emotions in College Athletics
• Factors Related to Emotional Stability
•  Emotional Reactivity of Coaches Under the Stress of Competition
• Opportunities for the Development of Emotional Stability in the Athletics Environment
•  Evaluating Influences of the Environment on the Development of Emotional Stability
•  Emotionally Healthy Persons
•  Chapter 6. A Healthful Stress-Management Lifestyle
• The Meaning of Health
• A Lifestyle that Encompasses the Health and Fitness Triangle
• Chapter 7. Reducing Stress Through Relaxation
• The Meaning of Relaxation
• Progressive Relaxation
• The Quieting Reflex
• Mental Practice and Imagery in Relaxation
•  Chapter 8. Reducing Stress Through Meditation
• Types of Meditation
•  A Procedure for Meditating
•  Scientific Evidence Supporting the Benefits of Mediation
• Chapter 9. Reducing Stress Through Biofeedback
• The Meaning of Biofeedback
• Biofeedback Instrumentation
• Chapter 10. Reducing Stress Through Self-Modification of Behavior
• Toward an Understanding of Self
•  Self Concerns That Can Induce Stress
• Processes of Behavioral Adjustment
•  Some General Procedures for Self-Modification of Behavior
•  Systematic Self-Desensitization
•  Afterword
• Notes
•  Suggestions for Further Reading
•  Index