Sports Counselling:Helping Student-Athletes
During the past ten yearsthere has been a dramatic increase in interest and participation in sports atthe collegiate, as well as professional and leisure levels. The 1970s and 1980shave brought increased commercialization of sports. Despite the involvement ofsanctioning bodies, countless student-athletes are suffering from exploitation,personal excesses, and abuse including drugs and alcohol, as well as exhibitingvarious psychosocial problems. Approximately ten percent of American collegeathletes suffer from problems appropriate for counselling. At the collegiatelevel, many sports programs have become expensive preparatory programs forprofessional teams. Rarely a day passes without a news report of astudent-athlete in some type of psychosocio-behavioral difficulty directly orindirectly associated with sports performance. Student-athletes are subject toemotional difficulties as a function of sports participation. Anxiety resultingfrom the threat of evaluation by others, lack of self-confidence, andunreasonable expectations from coaches and fans are but a few of the problemsexperienced by student-athletes. Educational, developmental, and remedialprograms are needed for student-athletes. Such programs are not available toall who need them, and programs which include any form of counselling areespecially limited.
COUNSELING ATHLETES
Referral to sports counsellorsis becoming more common, resulting in a demand for counselling professionalssensitive to interventions for student athletes. Since sports psychologistsfocus on performance and coaches typically have physical education training,neither are qualified or prepared to work with individuals psychoemotionaldifficulties. Counselling professionals are needed to address the psychoemotionalneeds of the student-athletes.
Counsellors are wellprepared for the provision of educational and clinical services designed forstudent-athletes, including lifestyle consultation, developmental programming,career development, and stress management. Direct performance enhancement perse may be out of the realm of most counsellors' training. This area istypically best handled by sports psychologists or psychologists withmotivational sports training. This is not to infer, however, that counsellors'involvement with athletes does not enhance performance. Such enhancement isoften indirect and as a result in improvements in areas associated with thecounselling process. For example, a student-athlete who overcomes a drugproblem as a result of counselling will likely improve relative sportperformance. The optimal sports counsellor should be familiar with the sport.However, the counsellor's interest in sport should not inhibit the helpingprocess. The counsellor should not neglect the individual for the sake ofsports performance or the organization/team for which the student-athleteperforms.
In contrast to sportspsychology, sports counselling's focus is on the athlete's development as anindividual, including personal and clinical issues associated with sportperformance. For example, sports counselling assists student-athletes withreducing stress and anxiety, overcoming fear of failure and success, andburn-out. It also addresses interpersonal issues such as family and maritaldifficulty. In addition, counselling can assist with problem prevention, copingskills, relaxation training, decision-making, life management and careerplanning, therapeutic strategies, and crisis intervention. Ineffective attemptsto deal with stress can result in the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Timelyassessments and treatment by sports counsellors can provide student-athleteswith educational programs and information about drugs and substance abusetreatment.
Transitional periods areparticularly stressful for student-athletes. For example, many high schoolstars make limited progress on a college team while others have troubleadjusting when their college sports careers are over. Unfortunately, someexamples of such phase of life problems are more extreme. Athletes experiencingdifficulties with transitions have been known to become clinically depressedand even suicidal. Thus, sports counselling services sensitive to the magnitudeof the effects of sports on student-athletes are crucial.
Relatedly,student-athletes not involved in revenue sports at the collegiate level maysuffer from a lack of recognition and the disparity of the college sportssystem. Crew members, swimmers, runners, gymnasts, wrestlers, triathletes, andothers have their share of stress and difficulties that can be alleviated bycounselling. As a result, sports counsellors apply methods for becominginvolved with and providing services for these "least known"athletes. Many of the difficulties experienced by student-athletes will notrequire unique counselling techniques or therapeutic competencies. However,they do require the development of theoretical models that will increase theknowledge base of sports counselling and related proactive interventions.
In addition, athletestypically are not counselled in a vacuum. Coaches, parents, and significantothers can learn effective communication skills from sports counsellors and howto best serve as influential role models. Coaches can also learn relationshipbuilding skills from sports counsellors. Similarly, the cultural aspects ofstudent-athletes are important components of the sports counselling process.
COUNSELING AND ATHLETICDIVERSITY
As with any endeavor,diversity abounds. Counsellors involved professionally with student-athletesmust recognize the individual and group differences that characterize theathletic population. Women and minorities may differ in their needs toparticipate in sports and in the issues which arise as a result of theirparticipation. Thus, the process of sports counselling needs to respect theirindividual needs. Women's sports, women's coaches, male coaches on femaleteams, and special athletes (e.g., wheelchair) also can benefit from sportscounselling services.
Minority athletes also maydiffer in their motivations to take part in sports. Levels of preparation forsport may differ from one ethnic or other minority group to the next. Theacademic needs of minority athletes may also be different. For instance, Brown(1978) has referred to the "jock trap" in which athletes become caughtat the collegiate level. This trap refers to the athlete who is left without aneducation after the institution has used the athlete's physical abilities andeligibility. Brown adds that although all types of athletes are affected, itappears that this happens to African-American athletes more often than toothers.
CAREER COUNSELING AND THESTUDENT-ATHLETE
Collegiate athletes rarelymake it to the pro ranks or to the Olympics. In fact, the majority do not makeit to graduation. This reflects a need for career development and life planningwith student-athletes in the early stages of their careers. Student-athletes'career decisions are often postponed due to the intense level of commitmentrequired by their sport participation. Sports counsellors have been successfulusing interventions which focus on development across the lifespan. In theseclasses, student-athletes are informed and educated about the need forawareness of difficulties that may lie ahead and are taught skills necessaryfor effective personal problem management. Sports counsellors working withstudent-athletes are sensitive to the need for a wide range of careerinformation. Moreover, sports counsellors help student-athletes evaluate theiracademic performance and its important relationship to achieving athletic goals(Lee, 1983). Planning for athletic retirement can be a frustrating experienceif prior considerations for this phase of life have not been addressed.Planning for a second career and transferring athletic skills to life skillsare important issues for most student-athletes.
CONCLUSION
Effective models andstrategies for the implementation of sports counselling are needed. Such modelsshould include career life planning, promoting collaboration between physicaleducators, coaches, and sports counsellors, and adopting frequently used counsellingformats to sports counselling. Reality therapy, for example, has beendemonstrated to be an effective therapeutic modality in sports counselling. Afew counsellor education programs are currently offering sports counsellingcourses as an area of interest (e.g., Florida State University, University ofNorth Carolina at Greensboro, University of South Carolina, Southern IllinoisUniversity, Syracuse University, and Springfield College).
Sports counsellors workingwith student-athletes assist this population with the various aspects ofpersonal development affected by sports performance. Counsellors also educatethe public about the problems of living associated with athletic involvement.As our colleges and universities continue to utilize and make demands ofstudent athletes and as the recognition of the work performed by sports counsellorsgrows, the need for counsellors to work effectively with the psychosocialconcerns of the student-athlete will continue to increase.
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