Mental Health Within Collegiate Athlete

Feature Story, Video, Audio, Graphics, and Photographs by Luis Montero, Bryan Aleman, Madeline Joseph, Cassandra McLeod, Janiah Hamilton

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An athlete's performance is simply not just their physical capabilities, but also their

mental abilities to perform just as strong. Mental health amongst collegiate athletes plays a crucial influence in how they play within their sport, build relationships with other athletes and coaches, and balance their own personal lives. Mental health is a muscle that needs to be worked on to improve an athlete’s overall strength.

An athlete’s success is greatly impacted by their mental health because it acts as a support system for the rest of the body. The coach from the Miami-Dade College Women’s Soccer Team, Mario Concha, conducted a study with the members of the soccer team. His study reported that 80% of his athletes would greatly improve their performance if they had better mental health or if they could be in a better mindset. He highlighted that better mental health will make it easier for these athletes to do better amongst their sport because of how much of an impact mental health has on their performance. This points to the fact that mental health has a direct link to the success of these players in how they perceive themselves within their own individual sport.

Another key point about mental health within collegiate athletes is how their mental health can have an impact on their physical health. An individual with bad mental health is more likely to have higher levels of stress and fatigue, which impacts athletes in how they are consistent within their sport and performance (Putukian, 2016). When an athlete is facing higher levels of stress and fatigue, it can cause them to do significantly less than their counterparts that do not face these levels of stress and fatigue. Moreover, higher levels of stress and fatigue can

impact the body through other outlets. Stress can trigger an increase in cortisol, which then can be long term, then can result in weight gain, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system (Gruner, Sarris, 2014). These athletes are facing physical limitations whenever they have a negative influence on their mental health such as stress and fatigue. This further proves how mental health can play a major role in how these athletes are able to perform within their sport.

Bad mental health can have an impact on how the athlete can work with the team overall and carry their own personal lives. These collegiate athletes have to work with other team members, coaches, and personal relationships in order to navigate how they play. Mental health issues within an athlete can cause inconsistency within performance, irritability with others, and conflict with the team and coaches (Simons, Bird, 2023). This is major because of how many of these sports rely on a team aspect in order to succeed in the sport. These athletes must work together to secure success for the team, but mental health issues can create a barrier for the team to succeed. An athlete's mental health is vital in how they are able to not only perform for their own team, but live their personal life. Mental health issues can cause an array of problems such as stress, conflict, and lower performance of the sport. It is just as important for these athletes to workout their mental as their physical in order to become better athletes.

References

Gruner, T., & Sarris, J. (2014). Stress and fatigue. Clinical Naturopathy: An evidence-based guide to practice, 350.

Putukian, M. (2016). The psychological response to injury in student athletes: a narrative review with a focus on mental health. British journal of sports medicine, 50(3), 145-148.

Simons, E. E., & Bird, M. D. (2023). Coach-athlete relationship, social support, and sport-related psychological well-being in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I

student-athletes. Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education, 17(3),

191-210.