Week 4
Prerna K -
Hey guys! This week I’m going to talk a little bit about my site placement! I am working with Dr.Steven Poon and Dr.Carter Jones from the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine and Orthopedic departments. I have been reading clinical trials and research studies done by Mayo in the past and some current ongoing studies.
Since ongoing studies are kept confidential, I will not be talking about those but for this week I am going to talk about a Mayo Clinic Publication that was on the “Psychological Issues in Athletes”.
A key idea was introduced by the author Edward R Laskowski who claimed that “ Because of the parity in physical size and strength in professional sports, often the “psychological edge” makes the difference between winning and losing”. This briefly identifies a motivation for athletes and a pressure that athletes face that I am hoping to pinpoint in my research, because most athletes don’t focus on their psychological side to injury recovery or even the psychological side of playing and competing. Often times, anxiety and stress, whether it comes from fear of re-injury or not meeting expectations placed by themselves or those around them, can cause more harm to athletes performance levels, which I have seen in some individuals responses to my research.
The Mayo study that was done on this focused on “The characteristics of injury at specific levels of participation in sports, preinjury mood status and self-esteem, and presence of preinjury stress were studied to determine the influence on postinjury emotional response.” (Laskowski). They did highlight the relation between injury severity and post injury depression, as Laskowski claimed that “Even though the physiologic damage may not be severe, athletes who perceive an injury as serious will likely experience more intense depression and a slower recovery than others”. They found that a treatment program that focuses on three characteristics of self confidence could improve the recovery process. The characteristics were competence, control, and commitment, which were identified in another study done by Fisher et. Laskowski elaborated on this plan by saying “Athletes should believe that they will be able to resume competitive sports activities, take command of their rehabilitation, and commit time and effort to the sometimes long and arduous rehabilitation process.” They also found that visualization and imagery within recovery would also help athletes as it could improve their abilities to control pain and shorten the time needed for recovery to return to competition.
Aside from reading studies like this one. I have begun interviews for my research and will soon begin data analysis.
Thank you!
Comments:
All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.