Parental Pressure and Motivational Climate †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Parental Pressure and Motivational Climate. Answer: Introduction: It is common knowledge that players use performance-enhancing drugs or PED to improve their performance before a particular sport. These substances are generally deemed illegal as it provides unjustified advantage to the person using it (Bahrke 2012). This practice dates back to ancient Greece, when the athletes participating in Olympics, ate sheep testicles and heart which were high in testosterone content (Gleaves Llewellyn, 2014). However, in the 1920s this practice was recognised internally and was declared illegal. An organization called the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was founded which aimed to control the drug use in sports (Tscholl, 2010). The commonly preferred substances are either variants of stimulants or anabolic steroids. The stimulants enhance the heart rate of the athlete and make them less susceptible to fatigue. The anabolic steroids make the athlete to build muscle-mass faster and gain the ideal weight according to the requirement. Ot her variants are cannabinoids, which are essentially narcotic analgesics, peptide hormones, glucocorticoids and beta-blockers (Reardon Creado, 2014). Each of these substances have a different role in the body physiology. Some of the substances reduce fatigue and the sensitivity towards pain and injuries. Hormone stimulating substances can induce growth factors, intensify the red blood cell count, and enhance oxygen absorption to reduce hypoxia. Certain anti-inflammatory drugs also reduce pain sensitivity, by numbing the sensation of prostaglandins. Parents and coaches: Parents have a huge impact in shaping the need and habit of an individual. Parental control is the locus of control in a childs life and by extension a junior athletes life (Keijsers et al., 2010). Research has shown that the influence of parents and coaches of athletes influence the use of PED from a young age and that affects their career later. It is a competition nowadays to keep up the performance of a kid, be it in academics or sports or any other form of extracurricular activities (ORourke et al., 2011). It is considered socially unacceptable if a child or adult athlete fails to perform or even provide average performance. In many countries athletes receive sports scholarships, which open doors for them to receive high quality education in elite colleges. This also impacts the thought process of parents who might want their children to receive best education and make a successful career out of it. According to a study Madigan in 2015, parental pressure often times makes junior athletes succumb to PED and maintain their success (Madigan Stoeber Passfield, 2016). Parents should not be practicing moral disengagement, which might affect the mental health of the child and they start to feel pressurized and demoralized at their failures. Athlete coaches oftentimes face the pressure as the athletes they train to improve the performance and maintain the success rate of the organization they represent. Oftentimes stakeholders invest a lot of money in international sporting events for which it is stressful for both the athletes and their coach to train and to receive victory. This puts the position of the coach in jeopardy as well as their image which is unacceptable to them. Nowadays sport has become a form of business where the players are paid huge amounts of money for winning international or national competitive games (Tsiotsou, 2011). Staring from Olympics, to Football or even basketball there have been many recorded incidents where the athletes have been c aught and disqualified for using PED. Athletes and their coach feel threatened at the thought of losing their countrys faith when it comes to international sporting events. Money and Status in Sports: Ever since the inception of sporting events, from ancient Greece, athletes have held a high distinction in the social class (Gleaves Llewellyn, 2014). Sporting events and their victories made the spectators believe in the athletes performance and enjoy the entertainment it comes with it. This provides athletes with recognition in the common mass, which is desirable to many as it provided certain advantages and special services that others do not receive (Hardman Jones Jones, 2010). In the modern era, social status is directly proportional with popularity and economic state of an individual. This is the reason many sports organization run a full forced business both nationally and internally. Sporting events like Olympics, international football, basketball as well as baseball have a lot of economy and recognition in stake, for which athletes feel the need to rely on PED to live up to their expectations. Huge amount of investment is made in terms of money in these events with stakeh olders, organizers, judging panels, government of various countries as well as commercial brands that want to be associated with the event (Tsiotsou, 2011). Athletes perform to the best of their abilities and work hard to win these competitive sporting events as well as aspire to receive the massive population, money and secure their future by having a successful career. The competition is so high and is growing each year as young athletes compete each year starting from schools and colleges and enter the international scene (Calmeiro, Tenenbaum Eccles, 2014). Therefore, established athletes have to maintain their success records for which they take PED to improve their performance. This is mostly observed in cases of older athletes who face physical disability sometimes and are unable to perform for prolonged period (Huybers Mazanov, 2012). These athletes succumb to these PED habits and face legal actions and loss of the recognition. Sports can also be a way to establish power of physical strength in front of the public and grant respect from them. In addition, these sporting events in the junior level provide scholarships in many countries for aspiring athletes to get into elite colleges and get high quality education and secure a bright future. Junior athletes are oftentimes dependant of PED for this reason, which should not be encouraged. Concerning Reasons for Doping in sports: Sporting events generally associated with social respect and value for the athletes along with recognition and economic stability. Spectators enjoy sporting events and come for entertainment and pleasure in millions. The victors of such sporting events happen to put in a lot of effort and hard work to win such competitive events. In addition, athletic talent is related to genetic construct of an individual to some extent. This is why not all athletes are successful, and perform extensively well and others have mediocre to below average performance (Eynon et al., 2013). The pressure of performance makes the athlete succumb to PED and enhance their performance, which is unethical as they are not naturally winning but relying on externally modifiers to achieve success (Hardman Jones Jones, 2010). This undue advantage cannot be accepted, as the other athletes who work hard will not be appreciated when they cannot supersede the drug users. The prospect of doping in sports is synonymous w ith cheating, as the athletes are undertaking unauthenticated and illegal methods to achieve success. This is the reason why such practices are considered punishable offence in many countries. Many athletes are reliant on PED to improve their performance, but not many of them know or understand the health risks associated with it. The different categories of PED have different effects on the physiology of the athletes body (Nikolopoulos, Spiliopoulou Theocharis, 2011). According to the official website of the USADA, the long-term effects of anabolic steroids are acne, baldness, stunted growth in adolescent athletes as well as increased physical aggression, sexual appetite. Female athletes, who take testosterone as PED, have increased baritone in voice, abnormal hair overgrowth, cessation of breast development and abnormal menstrual cycle (Nieschlag Vorona, 2015). Peptide hormones and growth hormones induce hypertension, cancer, anaemic condition, strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, imbalance of thyroid hormones et cetra. Beta-blockers induce headaches, nausea, perspiration, muscle cramps et cetra. Diuretic drugs induce dehydration, muscle cramps, light-headedness , and sudden blood pressure drop and loss motor response. Performance stimulants induce insomnia, anxiety, weight loss, addiction, tremors and increases susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases. Cannabinoids are known to induce heart rate, short term memory loss, slow reflex and motor skill, reduced concentration abilities, distorts the sense of time and space and presence as well as induces respiratory diseases. Also mood swings, impairs thinking and understanding. Glucocorticoids are known to reduce muscle mass which can have long-term defect as breakage of bones and tendons and ligament. Blood doping also has bad side effects as it puts pressure on the athletes cardiac system for pumping more blood suddenly. This process can enhance sudden blood clotting leading to pulmonary embolism, strokes (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, 2018). Adverse Public Relation The public success and recognition of athletes comes with a lot of responsibilities. As mentioned earlier that the athletes are constantly at pressure to maintain a public image along with their performance. Once an athlete is caught doping before sports, he/she not only has to suffer through the humiliation which comes along with it, answer to stakeholders as well as the government but also make public statements in front of international media which further ruins their reputation (Tsiotsou, 2011). The fear of loss in addition of loss of fame, recognition and success makes these athletes develop a hyperactive defence mechanism to protect themselves from public. It is not uncommon that a certain athlete who has been caught for doping will show aggressive behaviour towards the media. This is a major problem for the public relations company that represents the athlete as their reputation is also at stake and those results a scandal (Boyle Haynes, 2014). In the 1998 Tour de France, a series of athletes representing the Festina team were caught using erythropoietin for the cycling events just minutes before the start of the game in their team car. This gave rise to a team of investigators for the suspicion of a vast network for doping. Resposnig officers stopped the car of soigneurWilly Voet and found hundreds of grams of anabolic steroids, erythropeotin syringesand other PED. As a result Voet was arrested but the sports director denied the allegations. Former players as well as current associates were all questioned in addition searching of the hotels and staff members room. This led to the withdrawal of other teams from the event. The investigation went on till 2000 when the riders confessed of using erythropoietin which led to their suspension from participation (Lentillon?Kaestner, Hagger Hardcastle, 2012). Operacin Puerto (Operation Mountain Pass) is the code name of a Spanish Police task against the doping system of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, began in May 2006, which brought about an outrage that included a few of the world's most well known cyclists at the time. Media consideration has concentrated on the modest number of expert street cyclists named, just the same, sportspeople from different orders including football and tennis have likewise been associated with the outrage (Lentillon?Kaestner, Hagger Hardcastle, 2012). Fifteen had been absolved by May 2007, while three had conceded doping or proof of blood doping was found. On 23 May 2006, Spanish Guardia Civil captured the directeur sportif of the Liberty Seguros Wrth group, Manolo Saiz, and four others including Fuentes, blamed for doping rehearses with riders. Spanish police attacked living arrangements. In one, having a place with Fuentes, they found a thousand measurements of anabolic steroids, 100 parcels of blood items, and machines to control and transfuse them. The Guardia Civil found a rundown naming different cyclist involved with the doping. Freedom Seguros pulled back their sponsorship, which left Wrth as the only sponsor. Conclusion: Sports are form of entertainment that dates back to ancient Greece and come with immense fame, success and recognition for the victors. This victory does not come easily as athletes have to display the best of their physical and mental strength to win against other contenders. This leads to pressure of competition which makes athletes succumb to PED based techniques to maintain a certain image. Aspiring athletes from a young age a trained by coaches and influenced by the expectation of their parents. They feel pressurised for not being able to meet up to the high standards of expectations which lead to depression. To avoid such situations this kind PED based techniques are supported both by parents and coaches in junior level sports. The scholarship programs of elite colleges for sporting athletes make it even more desirable for parents to push their children into the competition in lieu of high quality of education. This kind of behaviour cannot be encouraged and parents need to be made aware of the adverse effects of PED in children. The scenario in case of senior athletes is a little different; they are threatened by the competition provided by the young competitors as they start to age and lose their physical strength. As a result they succumb to doping to maintain a certain public image and continue living a life of luxury. The genetic construct of every individual is different which is why, some athletes perform exceptionally well while others fall a little behind. 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