Week 4 Discussion

Prompt

What is one value added to a person’s health and well-being through sports participation that you had not considered before?

Answer

One value added to a person’s health and well-being through sports participation is the achievement of goals. I never really stopped and thought about this while being an athlete. The whole point of becoming an athlete is to achieve the ultimate goal. This can be winning something, reaching a particular place, or simply looking a certain way. Sports always help people understand that hard work pays off and this is achieved through sports. When a task is involved, an athlete's primary purposes are to gain skill or knowledge, to exhibit effort, to perform at one's best, and to experience personal improvement (Williams & Krane, 2021). What I did find interesting is how it spoke about people judging athletes on what they achieve. For example, Dan Marino is one of the most decorated quarterbacks to ever walk on this earth, he was league MVP, once held the most passing yards by a quarterback, and was inducted into the hall of fame. Yet he is never on any top 5 list of best quarterbacks because he never won the Superbowl. This clearly shows how athletes are judged on the sole basis of what they have achieved. Sports teach kids from a young age how achieving goals brings recognition and can lead to fame. Indeed, research also reveals that how one engages in sports can affect the cognitive goals that are pursued and these, in turn, can determine the benefits that one derives from such engagement (Cyr & Vallerand, 2021). This additional article proved how beneficial the achievement of goals can be for a person's health and well-being, it brings into light the old saying everyone loves a winner.

 

References

Williams, J. M., & Krane, V. (2021).  Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth To Peak Performance. McGraw-Hill Education. 

St-Cyr, J., Vallerand, R. J., & Chénard-Poirier, L. A. (2021). The Role of Passion and Achievement Goals in Optimal Functioning in Sports.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,  18(17). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179023