Emotional and Physical Barriers
There are a number of sacrifices made by striving sportsmen to become international stardom of soccer. The goal-oriented hunter must undergo several psychological and physical barriers in order to be a successful athlete. The main physical struggles include extremely intensive and stressful training routines alongside the strict dietary regimen. All of these require a solid discipline and constant improvement of a physique.
Today, a person’s achievement of heights and success in the work depends not only on the efforts made, physical data, or talent but also on the ability to properly regulate their behavior, control emotions, and mood (Berg 177). Such skills are partially developed at the expense of education, the need to discipline oneself in educational institutions, and collaboration with others. However, to master the ability of self-regulation, an athlete needs special physical training. Otherwise, talent and work may be useless on the road to success.
Undoubtedly, all of the above directly applies to every sport. Competitions are a stressful situation when the biggest share of success depends on the emotional state of an athlete. Excessive mental stress can reduce the effectiveness of the actions performed, which will lead to loss, and then to a depressive mood (Berg 178). Modern sport is characterized by a powerful increase in training loads, which entails an increase in mental loads, a state of apathy caused by the monotony of labor, and congestion. This requires systematic psychological preparation, training in methods of self-control, and psycho-regulation.
Nonetheless, the manifestation of a psychological barrier occurs due to the reasons of physical or emotional obstacles. Physical causes will correctly include future competition, bad physical fitness of an athlete, responsibility for athletic performance, and poor health. They also might involve individual psychological personality traits, success, or failure of achievements in such competitions in the past, and disorientation caused by an unfamiliar environment (Berg 187). The emotional reasons are dependent on the strength of the rivals, the mood, the relationship to refereeing, the reasons directly reliant on the coach of the participant, and pre-competitive preparation. Severe barriers are developed in the form of anxiety, fear, and self-doubt. In this situation, a great role is played by the competence of the coach.
American Sport Culture
My personal reflection of the game is that it teaches and promotes the competitive spirit and the importance of solid determination. It is highly in tune with youth athletic culture in the United States, where the sport is celebrated and cherished on the national and cultural scale (Bondy). The modern structure of American sports includes four main areas, such as sport in educational institutions, recreational sport, amateur sport, and professional sport. All of these segments are mainly occupied by youth with the exception of the latter. Sports in educational institutions are training in physical skills, tactics, and knowledge in the framework of the official academic program (Young). This usually refers to the concept of physical education or PE. Recreational sport is an organized physical activity for the purpose of receiving pleasure, the so-called mass sport, in which millions of young Americans are involved (Berg 184). However, amateur sports programs orient people to competitive sports within various associations, unions, such as the National University Sports Association (NCAA) (Young). The basis of amateur sports with the highest achievements in the United States is precisely student sports.
Professional sport is mainly a commercial enterprise with an emphasis on entertainment. The largest sports organization with a broad structure is the US Olympic Committee (USOC), which includes a number of national sports federations. USOC has three major functions. They include the general assembly of sports organizations, an association that performs certain types of services for its members, and sports business corporations (Young). Nevertheless, the story journey mode is different from both American athletic culture and my personal reflection. The main reason is that it treats sport as a tool either for health or career achievements. The given model lacks a cultural aspect, which is an essential part of American culture.
Video Games and Sport
Video games, such as FIFA, can both promote and diminish the popularity of the sport. The main reason lies in finding the connection between key determining factors, as the computer industry is gaining momentum in development, and computer technology is becoming increasingly available to the public. It is necessary to identify the positive impact of computer games on adolescents, as they are the main users. Due to age and psychological and education features, they are the most susceptible to computer addiction. Despite negative side effects, the video game industry offers cybersport as an alternative for regular one (Rosenberg). In the theory of game behavior, computer games do not stand out as an independent phenomenon, since this phenomenon does not have a large history.
However, video games make a person highly competitive and eager to succeed. These qualities can have a positive effect on increasing the popularity of the sport. It is also important to note that video games do not physically improve a person due to the sedentary nature of the activity. A video game is a free activity, to which a person appeals at will, the game takes place subject to interest if this condition is not present, then the person can simply stop the game. In most cases, it is characterized by isolation, if the game is not a network.
There is a high risk of injuries in sport, especially in soccer. The data shows that the athletes are getting more injured due to the rise of competitiveness (Hansen). Injuries include concussion, bone fracture, and tendon rupture (“Men’s Soccer Injuries”). The occurrence rate is also present in the youth section (Kounang). A computer game, just like an ordinary one, is not an independent reality, the player is aware of the unreality of what is happening. The game is mainly limited to space, time, and location (Pasch et al. 57). A video game is different from the traditional one since the wide visual possibilities of the game make its space a product of mental activity not of the player, but the developer. The place of the game gradually loses its meaning, which is not a promotional factor in cosmopolitan sports popularization (Berg 174). Game time has a similar meaning to traditional sport time. In a video game, compliance with the rules is also obligatory, which is inherent in its algorithm.
There are beneficial effects of video games because they develop motor and tactical skills, which can be useful in sport. By mastering the given abilities, a child can be eager to learn a sports activity, which is more rewarding both physically and emotionally (Jacobs). The classification of video games is somewhat different from the real ones, although it is possible to detect some common points. Specially created programs can replace the role-playing game for children, setting the conditions of the plot and giving them the right to choose any role. The elements of the subject-manipulative game are peculiar to simulation games and training programs. However, such simulators perform the same function as subject-manipulative games, because they help to consolidate skills.
Works Cited
Berg, Andrew. “Exploiting Nationalism and Banal Cosmopolitanism: EA’s FIFA World Cup 2010”. Playing to Win, edited by Robert Alan Brookey and Thomas P. Oates, Indiana University Press, 2015, pp. 172-188.
Bondy, Filip. “Soccer Will Soon Be America’s Third-Favorite Spectator Sport”.Forbes. 2018, Web.
Hansen, David. “Hansen: Youth Football Versus Soccer: Injury Statistics Tell The Story”. Los Angeles Times. 2016, Web.
Jacobs, Tom. “The Positive Effects of Sport-Themed Video Games”. Pacific Standard. 2017, Web.
Kounang, Nadia. “Youth Soccer Injuries Have Skyrocketed”. CNN. 2016, Web.
“Men’s Soccer Injuries”. NCAA, 2013, Web.
Rosenberg, Gabriel. “Go To College, Play Video Games. E-Sports Make A Play For The Big Ten”. All Tech Considered. 2018, Web.
Pasch, Marco, et al. “Movement-Based Sports Video Games: Investigating Motivation and Gaming Experience”. Entertainment Computing, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015, pp. 49-61.
Young, Jared. “Are we growing soccer fast enough in America?”. SBNation. 2017, Web.