The Anxiety of the Splash

Often, people hold the stereotypical notion that athletes and mental health have little to do with one another. Regarding student athletes, a lot of the time it is overlooked that there is a large amount of student athletes dealing with mental health concerns and issues.

Some say that student athletes suffer metaly because of the stress of training and pressure of academics; in reality, there is a deep amount of outliers and variables that can affect how a person feels. Every athlete has different struggles, just as every unique individual has struggles.  

Some people do not have any struggle with a mental illness, where another person could be struggling a lot with their mental health. In itself what event categories as a mental health issue in a person. Some people never have to struggle with anxiety or depression, so what makes an athlete have this kind of pressure. If it is caused by influences of their training environment or how they are dealing with how their school works. There are different forms of mental health that can affect a person, from depression to anxiety. These things can all affect how a student athlete will perform in training as well as in school. 

By examining research about meanth health and its effect on student athletes, looking at the specific cases of student athletes, it is illustrated that swimmers are more likely to experience anxiety  throughout their athletic and academic career. 

Anxiety and depression can go hand in hand with each other, but they both have different effects on athletes. With anxiety, it affects how they approach a situation and how some may feel an over wheeling amount of stress that comes with performing. With depression, it can make an athlete unmotivated to come to their training sessions or stay on top of their workload. In a study done by Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, by Rosalyn Stoa, Jana Fogaça, and Logan Johnsen. The purpose of the case was to look at the stress that is put on student athletes special swimmers. Stress has a large role on someone that suffers from anxiety and depression. Most of the stress that comes out of a swim season is from training, school, and making time cuts for championship seasons. The study states, “intrinsic motivation changed over the season in a quadratic manner, hitting its lowest point where stress was also at its highest,” (284). With this quote we are able to see that even when a swimmer or student athlete is at their highest point in their career, they are also struggling with the amount of stress they have to face. With the added stress of school and competition season, it heightens the level of anxiety that an athlete faces.

 In The Sport Psychologist, by Stephen Pages, that focuses on female college students’ experiences with anxiety. The purpose of the study was to see if imaginary tequics could help lower a swimmers stress. Over the course of their season a swim season, a group of swimmers took a test before their first competition and their last. There was a decrease in the amount of stress that the swimmers faced. Stephh Pages writes, “ this study suggests that imagery may be able to improve an individual’s perception of anxiety from less positive to more positive”( page 466). With this it brings in a new perspective that, maybe not all anxiety, that a swimmer has a negative effect on their performances. Both of these studies show what kind of stress that can affect college swimmers. It may not always have to

Student athletes have a higher chance of experiencing anxiety and depression due to the amount of workload they experience from their training and athletes. With swimmers there is one of the most common groups that have suffered from anxiety throughout their sport. Looking at the study done by Sean Cia, that focused on techniques that can help swimmers worth through their anxiety. They used different methods to help to help work through their anxiety, the methods where, Tia chi, a calming atmosphere, and a lesson where athletes received what they learned before. The student athletes did this over the courses of 8 weeks, the groups that practice tia chi have a lower level of anxiety and depression. However it is noted that  two weeks after the courses were completed, swimmers’ anxiety went back to the same level before the study had happened. According to Seans Cia conclusion, “ the main reason that the short-tenor practice of relaxation exercises did not produce significant differences in the participants’ anxiety and depression levels compared to the self defense exercise”(paragraph 22). Out of all the methods tia chi was able to help out the athletes. Without the structure of the courses, athletes were unable to keep the anityx levels low. It is clear to see that anxiety does not affect everyone one person the same. When it comes to swimmers it can affect their motivation to train and continue their school work. 

This different study has shown how anxiety affects a student athlete, especially in a swimmer. Two of the studies had to do with imagery work to help lower a person’s anxiety. Where another looks at how stress can affect a swimmer’s outcome in their season. This all has in common is that they helped lower a swimmer’s anxiety. Swimmers are one of the hgh groups of athletes to experience anxiety that has been shown by the examples. There are methods that are used to cope with anxiety, but it will always have an influence on a swimmer. As a swimmer, there is a truth behind how it affects a person performans. There have been times where the anxiety of the idea of swimming has brought me to the point where the idea of swimming turned from a safe place, to a place of pain. Anxiety is not something that should be overlooked by coaches or athletic trainers, it is something that needs to be addressed and talked about. 

References: 

Cia, S. (2000). Physical exercise and mental health: A content integrated approach in coping with college students’ anxiety and depression. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/233005480?fromopenview=true&pq-origsite=gscholar

Page, S. J. (1999). The Effects of imaginary on Female College Swimmer’s Perceptions of Anxiety. Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=c4ad7709-1034-4531-92a9-a2bc6d2cd265%40sdc-v-sessmgr01

Stoa, R., Fogaça, J., & Johnsen, L. (2020). Feel the Pressure: Stress and Intrinsic Motivation in Collegiate Swimmers. Retrieved 2021, from http://csri-jiia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RA_2020_13.pdf