SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY: Overcoming the 'Me' Syndrome

All about "ME", that is much of what sport has come to be. It is clear that many athletes have trouble checking their egos both on and off the court.

In Lost Angeles Kobe and Shaq are currently vying to be the man. Except for the fact that part of being a man is to take on a certain degree of maturity, traits that certainly young Kobe has yet to display. Seems that young Kobe has decided that this is going to be his year. Win or lose, he is going to "hoist em up", and in response Shaq has both sulked and become a statistician in the process.

All about ME, it doesn't matter that the team won a championship last season. Doesn't make sense? That is because emotions often override rationale cognitions. People like young Kobe and Shaq have difficulty sublimating their own needs for the greater good of the team. So in essence their fragile egos need to be fed in order to emotionally sustain them.

Second, they have difficulty living with feelings of being in a diminished or secondary position. The inability to not act out on these feelings plays a major factor not only in athletic performance, but in the way athletes purport themselves both on and off the field. It is also a huge factor in the violence we consistently witness on our country's playing arenas.