Athletes Socialization in Sports

Jennifer C. Hunt (1995, Winter) argues, "Risk is a socially recognized construct which defines group boundaries and internal subdivisions" (p. 439). These boundaries and subdivisions vary among different sports, but they exist in every one of them, enabling individual athletes to measure their progress and acceptance within their chosen field. The divers in Hunt's study, for example, learn that completing a safe dive to the wreck of the Andrea Doria, a deep and dangerous cold water descent, brands each as an experienced member of a very elite club.

Understanding, accepting, and even welcoming the risks that come with the pursuit of a particular sport are important steps in the athlete's advancement, and they are every bit as important as learning to master technical skills a

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86-187). Coakley implies that such situations are relatively rare. However, some theorists argue that violence within sports not only encourages violence within society but, in fact, makes such violence more common. Sports psychiatrist Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., (1987, April 23) suggests that, in at least some cases, aggressiveness on the field can become magnified rather than dispelled in real life: "The intense violent contact on the football field simulates hand-to-hand combat on the battlefield and meets the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder" (p. 1096). Some researchers have theorized that violence within sports allows players to try aggressive tactics they would not think of or dare to try in real-life settings, thereby serving to increase violence away from the playing field. Edmund W. Vaz (1984) argues, "The larger amount of physical aggression, especially fighting, that occurs at the Midget and Junior professional levels [of hockey playing] is normative, institutionalized behavior; it is learned during the socialization of the youngster, and it is part of the role expectations of the player" (p. 149). As the players are trained in aggressive and violent techniques within the sport, they may be more likely to t
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Approximate Word count = 4308
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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