CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

This phenomenological study is to discover and understand the lived

experiences of the student athletes. We are interested on discovering on how

students describe their life and the struggles that they been encountered. This

offers relative insight for researchers, teachers, athletes and students of Atty.

Orlando S. Rimando National High School.

Experiences of the Students Athletes

The life of being a student athlete ain’t that easy, you always have to make

time for your practices and in your studies also. If you are planning to become

one then you got to think a lot of times before joining such because it is a big

responsibility. Body pain, lack of sleep, time management, and missed lessons

are few of the stuffs that you must deal when you are a student athlete. Its

experiences might not just all about fun but there could be a lot of lessons you

can learn from it.

Tiredness

As an athlete and a student, it is very hard to deal with the physical pain

as well as maintaining a normal sleep. In recent years there has been increased

attention toward the importance of sleep and its essential role in athletic

performance, cognition, health and mental well-being. Many of these studies

examine elite athletes and some focus on athletes in general. Despite all the
efforts expended, by any definition, numerous athletes still experience

inadequate sleep. Compared with nonathletes, athletes tend to sleep less on

average. Furthermore, athlete’s quality of sleep seems lower than their

nonathlete peers. Additionally, it is has been suggested that certain types of

athletes are more prone to developing sleep difficulties, such as sleep. Sleep

plays an important role in the repair process following an injury, and lack of

sleep impairs injury recovery (Schwarz, Graham, Li, Locke, & Peever, 2013).

According to Reilly & Edwards, 2007; Halson, 2008 that the impairments to the

immune and endocrine systems that result from sleep deprivation may impair

the recovery process and adaptation to training.

Difficulties

There is uncontrollable lack of literature on international student athletes

despite the extent to which colleges and universities are increasingly relying on

them to heighten the winning reputation of their sports programs these student–

athletes still face difficulties in combining both their academic and athletic

pursuits. Specifically, whilst all participants acknowledged receiving some form

of support to complete their studies alongside their sporting requirements,

difficulties resulting from long absences away from their place of study,

inflexible sporting demands and a lack of flexible course delivery options

compounded athletes’ struggles. Additionally, despite the university embracing

the guidelines set out by the AFTN policy, an apparent lack of awareness and

understanding amongst front-line teaching staff has meant that it is yet to fully
meet its obligations under this agreement, thus suggesting the importance of

clear policy communication throughout sporting and university infrastructures

(Ryan, Thorpe & Pope, 2017).

Time management

It was never easy to balance time especially when you are a student and at

the same time an athlete. A student athlete will have to balance their time in the

day between athletics, academics, and a social life. Some sports can demand from

2 to 8 hours’ worth of time on any given day, including, team practices

mandatory meetings, weight training, individual practices, medical treatment,

community service, and travel time (Daniel & Davidson, 2014). After completing

their athletic responsibilities, a now tired student athlete needs to balance his or

her time for everything else a college student needs or wants to do. One of the

biggest keys to success in all these different aspects is mastering to the concept of

time management.

However, managing the time to commit to their academics can be

challenging due to the fact that they are so focused on making it to the next level

in their sport. The problem with excessive focus on their sport is largely because

the odds of becoming a professional athlete are very small. Nevertheless,

children between the ages of 13-17 chose it as their top career choice and the

majority of college athletes see athletics as a higher priority compared to their

academic priorities (McDougle & Capers, 2012). This is a problem because the

students that do not manage their time properly and spend all of their time and
effort focused on their sport, fall behind in their academics. According to Steven,

Loudon, Yow, Bowden and Humphrey (2013) found out that nearly half of

student athletes did not think that they had enough time to fully focus on

athletics and academics. Furthermore, due to the low number of student athletes

that make a career of their sport, it is important that collegiate athletes focus on

both their athletic and academic performance.

Cope up with the challenges of the Student Athlete

As a student athlete coping up with the challenges that they have

encountered is important because it is the only way an athlete can make those

challenges a lesson and inspirations to manage well their time and correct their

wrong doings to comply the requirements they have missed as a student and to

attend their practices on time. Being a student athlete requires strong

determination and passion to be able to move on to any struggles easily and to

not give up to whatever circumstances they might encounter.

Positivity

National study shows organized sports have positive effect on students.

Middle and high school students who participate in sports express less hostility

towards their classmates and more likely to graduate from high school and go on

to college. Sports also require teamwork in the pursuit of mutual goals to achieve
success. With sports young people learn to recognize and value the unique and

important contributions of their diverse teammates.

Sports positively affect college aged student athletes on an emotional level

in regard to their level of confidence. Athletes have displayed higher levels of

self-confidence which research has shown is a direct result of involvement in a

motivational climate. The motivational climate is anywhere that student athletes

can be encouraged in their sport with constructive criticism and support to better

the student athlete not only in his or her sport as well as any other area of their

lives including academics. This motivational climate can be created by fellow

teammates, managers, coaches, as well as team chaplains. It also extends as far

out as parents, siblings, and other close family members.

However, if any of these displays negative or berating attitudes, this

supportive motivational climate will quickly become destructive. What the

student athletes were able to achieve within their sports was also a determining

factor for the self-confidence developed. In other words, if the student performed

the tasks in his sport well, his self-confidence would rise. This self-confidence

carries over into academics, personal relationships, and future endeavors,

creating a foundation of personal strength for any athlete’s future. As the athlete

learns to work hard, put in the time, pay attention to small details, and be a

positive part of a team, he or she is also learning these skills to one day be

applied to his or her future career (Machida, Ward, & Vealey, 2012).

Strive Hard
 When students begin their education at community colleges, they may

face more obstacles to obtain their college education and being a student -athlete

is more than just fun and games. The idea that student-athletes have it easier

than the average student is a myth that is a lived and well today (Bender, 2017).

Being a student athlete in college is clearly not an easy task, but it is something

that many athletes strive for to reach their goals (Le Crom et al., 2009). The

NCAA estimates that only 2-5% of high school student athletes will participate in

athletics at NCAA institutions (NCAA, 2016). This number can vary among

sports and can be higher for sports with much lower high school participation

like golf and diving (NCAA, 2016). These selected student athletes often dedicate

a large portion of their college experience to athletics. While some will be granted

scholarships to help pay for tuition and expenses, all Division III student athletes

cannot be awarded athletic scholarships (Le Crom et al., 2009). Most Division II

athletic programs only give out a limited number of full-time scholarships and

often divide aid. Usually only Division I programs provide full scholarships and

aid for dorms and additional needs: so many athletes compete just for the love

of the sport (Le Crom et al., 2009)

Setting priorities
 Athletes prioritize their social life and academic task before focusing on

anything athletic or swimming related. Student-athletes could rely only be

present in the moment at practice or competition if their social and academic

lives were going well and they were taking care of themselves as people first.

Having a good social life did not mean partying, but simply maintaining solid

relationships. A healthy academic life meant being organized and diligent

enough to finish task efficiently. Setting priorities in this manner allowed for

complete focus on the sport during practices and competitions so that athletes

could get the most out of their time and not have overwhelming social or

academic problems creep in and take away from the experience (Fischer, 2017).

Hopes and Aspirations of the Student Athletes

Every individual has someone who inspires them to remain motivated

and inspired to the goals and desires that they have set. As for the student

athletes, most of their hopes and motivators were their parents, friends, coaches.

Most of them have also stated that among all of their motivators, God also

contributed a lot on their success as a student and an athlete.

Achieving goals
 Developing goals is critical to realizing the future envisioned by an

organization (Ramasamy, 2010), and the importance of well-defined goals is also

recognized in intercollegiate athletics (Sack & Kretchmar, 2011; Trail &

Chelladurai, 2002). Collegiate athletic departments need to analyze their goals

and the process of achieving those goals to ensure a program’s success (Trail &

Chelladurai, 2000). Moreover, institutions of higher education can benefit from

the success of athletic programs that attract students and large alumni donations

for academic or athletic purposes (Hutchinson & Bennett, 2012; Won &

Chelladurai, 2016).

According to Trail and Chelladurai (2000), developmental goals are

primarily oriented toward athletes’ education and amateur athletic competition,

comprising the student athlete’s academic achievement, health and fitness, social

and moral citizenship, and career, and promoting a culture of diversity.

Performance goals are mainly oriented toward winning and profits, focusing on

university visibility and prestige, financial security, winning, entertainment, and

national sport development. Trail and Chelladurai (2000) also showed that

developmental goals were rated as more important than performance goals were

for intercollegiate athletics by both faculty members and students.

Family Support

When it comes to training and competition, having the support of family,

friends and teammates may just be an athlete’s secret weapon to improving

sports success on game days. It may seem obvious that social support systems
would help an athlete stick to a training program or eat a healthy diet, but does it

really help you perform better during competition.

Parental involvement remains an important factor throughout their child’s

athletic career (Beets et al., 2010; Wuerth et al., 2004). That means parents are still

influential after their child has gone to college. This was supported when Nuñez,

Martín-Albo, Navarro, Sánchez, and Gonález-Cutre (2009) found that family

factors need to be taken into consideration when studying the behavior of a

collegiate student-athlete. They believed parents had an impact on how the

student-athlete behaved with their athletics. Collins and Barber (2005) discovered

that collegiate female athletes’ who believed their parents found success in their

sport to be important had higher levels of confidence and anxiety than the

athletes who perceived their parents placed less importance on success. These

athletes thought they were better, and worried more about failing when their

parents pushed success. Their attitude toward their sport was impacted by their

perception of the value their parents put on winning. Comeaux and Harrison

(2011) shared that parental support was one of the most important family

characteristics to impact a student-athlete’s success in college. Parents have the

ability to impact the expectations this population holds for their college athletic

and academic experiences (Comeaux & Harrison, 2011).

Race appears to have some relationship to how parents socialize

their children toward sports. According to Beamon, 2010; Shakib & Valiz, (2012)

that males are more likely to be pushed into athletics by their families as a
possible career path.. Shakib and Valiz (2012) found that male and female youth

were more likely to receive encouragement to participate in sports. They

received more encouragement from their families and from non-kin (Shakib &

Valiz, 2012). Parents often see sport as a chance for their child to get a college

scholarship and possibly a professional sport career (Beamon, 2010; Shakib &

Valiz, 2012).

Becoming successful

The amazing aspect about student-athletes is how they still flourish in

academics, even when teachers are not always flexible. Succeeding in academics

all comes down to how students manage their time in class. Multitasking these

two lifestyles are already difficult, but for some high achievers, it can be even

more challenging to balance. In higher education today academic support staffs

are presented with a toolbox from which they must determine how to best

support the academic goals of the student athlete (Comeaux & Harrison, 2011).

Implications for Further Research

This study aimed to understand the struggles of the student athletes.

Despite the student-athletes experience on doing practical research, they feel

stress, depressed, tired, exhausted, find time management hard to do, lot of

struggles, lack of sleep, and financial management. On the other hand they build
strong relationships, gathered memorable memories and they have learned also

how to be honest, and become time conscious.

The study bought to face that in practical research it is full of struggles

and you need to face it in order for you to stand alone. By the time you face a

challenge in your life you do know what to do. Lastly, it changes the perception

of the students in regards with practical research.

Recommendation

Based on the results the following concluding remarks foe the lived

experiences of the student athletes hereby presented:

Participants

Recommendation for the participants would be, continue to strive hard

and reach all your goals in life.

Teachers

Recommendation for teacher is to motivate and encourage their student to

strive hard and be a good role model to their fellow student. To help student

athletes identify their goals and emphasize the importance of academic success

and what can it do to help athletes to reach beyond being viewed as an athlete.

School Administration

Should support the athletes

Parents
Recommendation for parents is to reinforce with your child to be good in sports,

understand the efforts and struggles that your children has been through and

also to sustain all their needs as an athlete. Be a supportive parents

Future Researchers

Recommendation for future researcher would be to minimize identified

limitations. Seeking to provide a more reliable and representative sample size

athletes across here in Atty. Orlando S. Rimando National High School. A more

in-depth interview is more

Concluding Remarks

The researchers have concluded that, becoming a student athlete can be a

training ground to enhance their skills and passion towards the sports that they

have chosen. It also helps them to have a positive insight towards whatever

struggles and challenges that they might encounter. As Researchers, it is difficult

to be one. But we need to cope with its difficulties because if we will reach

college it will not be that hard and stressing to conduct such for we already have

experienced here in senior high. Research is also the fundamental of our

knowledge and without it we will not be able to discover new things and new

learning's.