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Learning to balance academic and athletic pursuits is perhaps one of the most obvious challenges that today’s student-athlete confronts. Student-athletes are challenged to find ways of maximizing their involvement, learning in both academic and athletic domains, and doing so in an effective and efficient manner.1 The biggest complaint about balancing athletics and academics is the significant amount of time demanded by each. In a study conducted by Dr.Gregory Wilson and Dr.Mary Pritchard, they concluded that for more than 40% of male athletes, and over half of the female athletes, factors related to “time” were the most serious causes of stress.2 Most student-athletes feel like there is simply not enough time to combine academics and athletics.
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On the academic side, the athlete must to attend class, meet with a tutor, and go to study hall. While on the athletic side, the athlete must go to practice, attend strength and conditioning programs, participate in their sporting event, and go to the trainer for treatment if needed. Meeting the academic demands seems especially challenging for the student-athlete who has poor or inadequate academic preparation.1 In fact, the only academic-related differences between student-athletes and non student-athletes, is that non student-athletes reported more stress from making important decisions about their education. In order to balance academics and athletics, the athlete must to be well-balanced and committed. In truth, these competing demands frequently force the student-athlete to make difficult decisions about the percentage of time that will be devoted to each endeavor. Unfortunately athletic pursuits are often given the greater amount of time and attention.1 In addition many athletes find that they are unprepared for academic life, because they believe that they will be treated differently in the classroom compared to regular student.2
References
- Parham, W. (1993). The Intercollegiate Athlete: A 1990's Profile. The Counseling Psychologist, 21(3), 411-429. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from the SAGE database.
- Wilson, G., & Pritchard, M. (2005). Comparing Sources of Stress in College Student Athletes and Non-Athletes. The Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 7(1), 1-7. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol7Iss1/StressAthletesNonathletes.html
I agree, school alone can be very difficult for some students and when you add in being on an athletic team it can make life very difficult and stressful. The amount of time required to succeed at both can also be a major factor. As you talked about, at times you must decide which is more important. This can make things very stressful and most likely there will be some type of issues from whatever was put on the back burner.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and as a former college athlete it was very rough dealing with essentially a full time job, playing baseball 6 days a week for 4 to 5 hours, while also having a full course load. I don't think people fully realize the amount of time student athletes spend practicing their sport. It is also not just the sport but also the conditioning, the lifting, the study hall, the meetings, it was atlas for me, every second i had outside of classes and studying.
ReplyDeleteI find this to be a very interesting topic that hits close to home. In high school, we had some top notch student-athletes that just couldn't get it together in the classroom. It's important that these athletes know that academics should always come first since sport may not always be there. Many students may feel they have an advantage in the classroom but when they get to college it comes back to haunt them. My parents always made sure my grades were top priority and sports came after. The stress that comes with the lack of time is just one of the factors student-athletes have to cope with. I always found it easier to take one thing at a time and know what is coming next. For example, after basketball practice I would go to club practice, then dinner, then homework that I hadn't finished in class. I always tried to keep a tight schedule that way I knew what needed to be done next. When you said, "Unfortunately athletic pursuits are often given the greater amount of time and attention. In addition many athletes find that they are unprepared for academic life...", I think you really make a good point that athletes sometimes don't think about life after sports and are ill-prepared at the end of the day because all of their focus is on the next big game. Good read!
ReplyDeleteThe debate between athletics & academics goes very far. Well, it is very difficult to balance time between both of them. In this context, the author is absolutely right in stating that, nowadays the toughest challenge confronted by a student-athletes is dividing time between his athletic activities & academics. However, there are also many student-athletes who are good at balancing their time between their game & academics. This is possible only due to their commitment & staying well-balanced. But, it is often seen that athletic pursuits are given a greater amount of time & attention than academics.
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