Ch.

24 Summary – Aggression in Sport – Ryan Collins

Aggression in sports is definitely an interesting topic. This chapter seems to focus like most others on the

athletes, but also gives information on spectators and fans. Aggression I believe is different through differing sports.

We in swimming for example, experience it differently in form and frequency from many interactive contact sports

like basketball, soccer, or football. Golf is another differing example. We see individuals become frustrated and

angry and perhaps throw clubs, but it seems to be directed more at themselves than an opponent. In swimming I

believe we primarily see aggression also in an individualized aspect and at times we speak of swimming

aggressively or having an aggressive stroke technique and tempo. Some kids enjoy being able to get in the water and

let out their aggression by swimming really fast and using it as fuel. These seem to be the most frequent cases for us,

but once in a while we’ll have confrontations between teams immediately after a race in the water or on the pool

deck. These few instances seem to be centered around one team or person being disrespectful in some way and

overstepping their bounds to showoff or taunt their opponent.

By definition aggression is “a behavior directed toward intentionally harming/injuring another living

being”. This most times means physically but can also be in a psychological form as well. I mentioned taunting and

similar examples and I believe these at times could fall into this category of aggressive behavior. We were given

examples of actions that are and aren’t aggressive in the text such as breaking a chair out of frustration isn’t

aggressive because it isn’t directed at another living being, but “icing” a field-goal kicker or telling a teammate

they’ll be replaced in a lineup are both aggressive as they psychologically affect and undermine another person’s

state of wellbeing. Causes of aggression are from a few different categories, primarily instincts, frustration, or social

learning/modeling by others.

Keys to reducing aggressive behaviors include understanding and identifying when likely to occur (rivalry

game or competitor team has previously had issues with), teaching and modifying aggressive reactions, teaching and

requiring appropriate behaviors, and establishing team norms. Behaviors that teams, organizations, or peers have

deemed as acceptable can contribute to or reduce aggressive actions, depending what these people value and tolerate

(and therefore promote). I believe skills covered in earlier chapters such as imagery can help teach to reduce

aggressive actions, or even positive body language. Athletes or anyone can imagine a stressful situation where they

normally would get aggressive and respond negatively, but instead imagine responding and acting in a new,
Ch.24 Summary – Aggression in Sport – Ryan Collins

appropriate fashion. Practicing this skill with repetition I believe will make it more likely to act in this new way the

next time faced with whatever circumstance.

Aggression relating to facilitating performance is an interesting topic. Some say that there is indeed a

relationship between aggression and performance, and others say no. Research from our text says they haven’t been

able to come to a clear conclusion on the matter, but I think many athletes would attest to the answer being yes. I

view this concept or relationship similarly to achieving peak performance and the inverted-U. It is individualized,

but for some people playing with aggression can help increase their performance to an extent, but too much will

cause them to lose focus and/or compromise their performance.