Athletes At Risk

Much too often, the mental aspect of sport performance is overlooked. While all top athletes are in outstanding physical condition and technically exceptional, mental preparation is often what separates the best from the rest. This is just as true for young athletes as it is for pros and Olympians. And even though relatively few athletes will ever reach the top of their sport, the attitudes and life lessons learned from mental training—such as motivation, confidence, focus, perseverance, and resilience—will serve them well in all aspects of their lives. In Train Your Mind for Athletic Success: Mental Preparation to Achieve Your Sports Goals, Dr. Jim Taylor uses his own elite athletic experience and decades of working with some of the world’s best athletes to provide competitors of every ability with insights, practical exercises, and tools they can use to be mentally prepared when it really counts. His Prime Sport System explores the attitudes that lay the foundation for athletic success, the mental obstacles that can hold athletes back, the preparations they must take, the mental muscles they should strengthen, and the mental tools they need to fine tune their competitive performances. Most importantly, Dr. Taylor shows athletes practical strategies they can use to become mentally strong so they can perform their best when it matters most. Train Your Mind for Athletic Success goes well beyond the typical mental skills that are discussed in other mental training books. Readers will not only learn why mental preparation is so important to athletic success, but also where they personally are in each area thanks to brief mental assessments in each section of the book. In addition, each chapter includes exercises to show athletes how to incorporate mental training directly into their overall sport training regimen. The most comprehensive and in-depth book on mental preparation for athletes available, Train Your Mind for Athletic Success is an essential read for athletes, coaches, and parents.

"Managing Risk in Sport and Recreation includes numerous forms, checklists, and documentation strategies as well as safety questionnaires for each of the sports covered. This lawyer-created toolkit will help you take the necessary steps to reduce injuries, decrease lawsuits, and pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses in your programs. All of the forms and checklists are also reproduced on a CD-ROM included with the book so you can easily access and use them when needed."--BOOK JACKET.

This book is a comprehensive source of information and guidance on health risk management and medical care across the entire range of sports, in athletes of all ages and ability. General health aspects, injury prevention, first aid and emergency management, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and return to play are all addressed, with presentation of practical recommendations throughout. All medical disciplines with relevance for athletes - from psychological aspects to dermatological issues - are as well as main pathologies, overuse injuries and indications for surgical treatment of all certain parts of the musculoskeletal system, covered. Key features include a clear structure, short chapters in protocol format, and the inclusion of helpful checklists and tips and tricks for a quick and in-depth overview. Detailed attention is paid both to the medical care, specific to injuries of different parts of the body, and to special considerations relating to individual sports. Among the sport disciplines team sports, athletics, winter sports, track and field, martial arts, motor sports and cycling, extreme sports, swimming and water sports, racket sports, other IOC sports, and Paralympic sports are covered. Due to raising population of certain modern non-IOC sports, e.g. E-Sports, beach sports, flying sports and canyoning, and paltry medical information in this disciplines we put a focus on them. The book is a collaborative work from the newly created ESSKA section European Sports Medicine Associates (ESMA), which brings together the various disciplines of sports medicine. It will be an ideal resource and decision-making tool for doctors, athletes, coaches, and physiotherapists.

There are numerous books documenting the challenges of student athletes and presenting recommendations for academic success. They primarily focus on understanding the issues of student-athletes and recommendations are oftentimes overly simplistic, failing to explicitly provide interventions that can be executed by student-athlete support personnel. In addition, the topic of supporting student-athletes who are academically at risk and/or are diagnosed with high incidence disabilities has been overlooked by scholars resulting in few publications specifically focusing on providing strategies to the staff/personnel who serve these populations. The general target audience is college/university practitioners who interface with student-athletes who demonstrate academic and social risk in the realm of athletics. These stakeholders include but are not limited to: academic support staff, student athletes, parents, coaches, faculty/educators, counselors, psychologists, higher education administrators, student affairs professionals, disability services coordinators/personnel, as well as researchers who focus on education leadership, sports, and special education. All of these groups are likely to find this book attractive especially as they work with student-athletes who are at-risk for academic failure. Also, it is ventured that this book will become the staple text for the National Association of Academic Advisors (N4A), the official organization for all personnel who work in collegiate academic support and can be used by members of intercollegiate athletic associations to reform policies in place to support at-risk student-athletes.

Sports provide people around the world with unmatched entertainment, from the excitement of victory to the agony of defeat. Unfortunately, it also has become painfully clear that the agony of sports goes well beyond athletes losing games or competitions. Playing through concussions, the abuse of pain medicine, the use of performance-enhancing substances, and other health-related issues have become a constant reminder that being a professional athlete can be as dangerous as it is lucrative. In The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame, John Weston Parry examines the health-related transgressions and hot-topic issues in America’s top spectator sports, particularly in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, cycling, tennis, and Olympic competitions. Parry delves into the unique health risks that pertain to each individual sport and scrutinizes how the various leagues and organizations have handled these issues. Controversies and scandals surrounding elite athletes are also included, highlighting the need for changes in how sports are governed and regulated in the United States and worldwide. From football and soccer players returning to the field too soon after concussions to Olympic athletes using performance-enhancing substances, The Athlete’s Dilemma provides a broad perspective on the health risks prevalent in sports and what can be done to reduce these risks in the future. Accessibly written yet carefully researched, this book will be of interest to athletes of all levels, sports fans, academics, and health professionals.

In the past decade, few subjects at the intersection of medicine and sports have generated as much public interest as sports-related concussions - especially among youth. Despite growing awareness of sports-related concussions and campaigns to educate athletes, coaches, physicians, and parents of young athletes about concussion recognition and management, confusion and controversy persist in many areas. Currently, diagnosis is based primarily on the symptoms reported by the individual rather than on objective diagnostic markers, and there is little empirical evidence for the optimal degree and duration of physical rest needed to promote recovery or the best timing and approach for returning to full physical activity. Sports-Related Concussions in Youth: Improving the Science, Changing the Culture reviews the science of sports-related concussions in youth from elementary school through young adulthood, as well as in military personnel and their dependents. This report recommends actions that can be taken by a range of audiences - including research funding agencies, legislatures, state and school superintendents and athletic directors, military organizations, and equipment manufacturers, as well as youth who participate in sports and their parents - to improve what is known about concussions and to reduce their occurrence. Sports-Related Concussions in Youth finds that while some studies provide useful information, much remains unknown about the extent of concussions in youth; how to diagnose, manage, and prevent concussions; and the short- and long-term consequences of concussions as well as repetitive head impacts that do not result in concussion symptoms. The culture of sports negatively influences athletes' self-reporting of concussion symptoms and their adherence to return-to-play guidance. Athletes, their teammates, and, in some cases, coaches and parents may not fully appreciate the health threats posed by concussions. Similarly, military recruits are immersed in a culture that includes devotion to duty and service before self, and the critical nature of concussions may often go unheeded. According to Sports-Related Concussions in Youth, if the youth sports community can adopt the belief that concussions are serious injuries and emphasize care for players with concussions until they are fully recovered, then the culture in which these athletes perform and compete will become much safer. Improving understanding of the extent, causes, effects, and prevention of sports-related concussions is vitally important for the health and well-being of youth athletes. The findings and recommendations in this report set a direction for research to reach this goal.

This eye-opening study adds to the scarce scholarly literature on professional athletes, bringing empirical rigor to issues often clouded by mystery and hearsay. It identifies socioeconomic, demographic, and career variables as risk factors for mortality among former NBA and NFL players, along with hypotheses to be tested relating to elite athletes and other U.S. populations. A detailed multivariate analysis compares mortality factors, rates, and outcomes within and between the two leagues, comparing them also with the general U.S. male population. The findings and conclusions gleaned from this research offer possibilities for future research to improve health and quality of life in this specific athlete cohort, among athletes in general, in other groups, and in the larger society. Potential risk factors analyzed in this groundbreaking study: · Race · Body Mass Index (BMI) · U.S. birthplace region (Northeast, West, Midwest, South) · Years of playing experience · Playing position Mortality and Its Risk Factors among Professional Athletes will spark interest among professionals and researchers in public health, sports medicine, and epidemiology; current and former NBA and NFL players, their families, coaches, trainers, and union representatives; non-professional basketball and football players, athletes from other sports, and their families, coaches, and trainers; social scientists; policymakers; obesity researchers; parents of children who play contact sports; students, teachers, and researchers in occupational health and racial disparities; and health care providers.