Coping with Sports Injury

Running head: COPING WITH SPORTS INJURY
Coping with sports injury
Name of the University
Name of the Student
Author note

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COPING WITH SPORTS INJURY
a. What are the similarities between Pam’s and Harry’s experiences of injury?
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is a sprinter who suffered from an injury that forced him to retire
from action for six to seven long weeks. Pam, a 24-year-old football player of elite level who
suffered a Grade II level ankle injury and like Harry, had to distance herself from the playing
field for weeks. To Harry, running is everything. Pam also experiences the same emotion as it
gives her the mental stability that is missing from her life. Both Harry and Pam had given up at a
certain stage in their life during the injury. Like Harry, Pam too felt jealous and frustrated to see
her teammates train and practice and talk about it while she was forced to sit idle.
b. Discuss how psychological factors could have led to Pam’s injury.
Injuries in sports occur mainly due to four factors that include physical, environmental,
psychological and socio-cultural. Physical and environmental factors include injuries due to
fatigue, unsafe equipments, and muscle imbalances and so on. However, it is of less certainty
that socio-cultural and psychological factors would lead to an injury but these factors do have a
role to play. Psychological factors in particular, are a major contributor to sports injuries as
evidenced by several researchers. Stress, anxiety, depression and isolation are some of the many
psychological factors that lead to injuries.

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COPING WITH SPORTS INJURY
Weinberg and Gould (2007) have provided a detailed analysis of the relationship between
psychological factors and injury in sports. They referred to the work of Andersen and Williams
who regard stress and personality as the two main contributors of sport injuries.
Figure 1. Stress and athletic injury model
(Source: Created by author)
As it can be seen from the model above, the authors provided a simplified version to
explain the relation between psychological factors and injury (Andersen and Williams 1988).
They stated that any situation that the athletes perceive as a threat causes varied changes in their
attention and muscle tension resulting in higher chances of injury. Apart from stress, personality
Personality factors Coping resources
History of stressors
Psychological skill
intervention
Stress response Attention/distractions
Perception of threat Increased state anxiety
Muscle tension
Potentially
stressful
situation
Injury

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COPING WITH SPORTS INJURY
factors also lead to injuries as discussed by the authors. In a survey conducted by Rogers and
Landers (2005), it was found that soccer players who suffered from life stresses were more prone
to injury than those who were not. This explains the case of Pam, whom is also an elite level
soccer player going through several life problems. She had lost her father eight months ago and
her boyfriend, the sole earner of her house was jobless that further increased her stress level. This
led to an attentional disruption that restricted Pam from “seeing the challenge coming” and being
injured.
c. Using either a cognitive appraisal model or a grief response model, discuss Pam’s
psychological reactions to injury, taking into consideration what factors may have led to
these reactions and what effect they may have.
Pam sustained an ankle injury during a match that led to her suspension from the field for
over six weeks. She is undergoing rehabilitation but her frustration keeps growing due to the
injury. One of the key reasons of her frustration is being injured back to back that hampered her
physical ability to play soccer. She feels angry that she will have to miss many crucial games due
to the rehabilitation program that is likely to consume more than six weeks of life.
Pam’s reaction to her injury can better be understood by examining the Grief Response
Model developed by Kubler-Ross. According to the model, a sportsperson’s reaction to injury is
similar to that of an individual facing grieve over some significant loss like losing a close one to
death (Hall, 2014, p 1). Initially, the model was developed to show reactions to fatal illness but it
was later adapted to the field of sports to register reactions of sportspersons to extreme injuries.
According to the model, there are five stages of grief starting with denial. The next four stages
include anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance.