Extreme sports square measure sensible for your health: A phenomenological understanding of concern and anxiety in extreme sport

Extreme sports square measure sensible for your health: A phenomenological understanding of concern and anxiety in extreme sport

Eric Brymer, Robert SchweitzerFirst printed June eleven, 2012 analysis Article realize in PubMed

Article data

Article has Associate in Nursing altmetric score of ninety three Free Access

Abstract

Extreme sports square measure historically explored from a risk-taking perspective which regularly assumes that participants don't expertise concern. during this article we have a tendency to explore participants’ expertise of concern related to participation in extreme sports. Associate in Nursing interpretative phenomenological technique was used with fifteen participants. Four themes emerged: expertise of concern, relationship to concern, management of concern, and concern and self-transformation. Participants’ expertise of maximum sports was discovered in terms of intense concern however this concern was integrated and skilled as a probably significant and constructive event in their lives. The findings have implications for understanding concern as a probably transformative method.

Keywords

anxiety, extreme sports, fear, plants, ism, well-being

‘Extreme sports’ became a universal descriptor for a mess of non-traditional freelance and arranged journey sports. Terms like ‘action sports’, ‘whiz sports’, ‘urban sports’, ‘free sports’, ‘lifestyle sports’, ‘alternative sports’ and ‘fringe sports’, square measure used interchangeably to explain similar activities. we have a tendency to take a slender read on extreme sports and outline them as freelance leisure activities wherever the foremost seemingly outcome of a mismanaged mistake or accident is death (Brymer, 2005). The magnitude of distinction from different sports was highlighted by Associate in Nursing extreme athlete (Ulmer in Koerner, 1997: 2) United Nations agency offered a comparison with basketball: ‘Imagine if on every occasion you uncomprehensible a basket, someone would shoot you within the head.’ ancient theoretical views on extreme sports counsel that they're Associate in Nursing outlet for ‘crazy’ people with Associate in Nursing unhealthy relationship to concern, United Nations agency square measure pathological in their hunt for risk or living out a urge (Brymer, 2006 2002; Brymer and Oades, 2009; Delle favorite et al., 2003; Hunt, 1995b, 1996; Lambton, 2000; actor, 2006; Pizam et al., 2002; Rinehart, 2000; Self et al., 2007; Simon, 2002). this text builds upon conflict within the literature that seeks to know experiences of these United Nations agency favor to participate in dangerous activities like extreme sports and contributes Extreme sports cause challenges unparalleled in different voluntary leisure activities. for example, one person in ten United Nations agency with success summits mountain peak, on average, can die on the method down as a results of Associate in Nursing accident or exhaustion (Sutherland, 2006). Typical activities embrace BASE jumping (Buildings, Antennae, Span, Earth), extreme sport, falls kayaking, huge wave surfriding and high-level climb. BASE jumping is taken into account to be the foremost extreme of the parachute sports (Celsi et al., 1993), wherever participants jump from mounted structures like cliffs, bridges or buildings instead of out of aeroplanes.

Extreme sport is performed off-piste and on sheer cliffs wherever a fall ends up in the athlete tumbling out of management. Similarly, falls kayaking involves kayaking over stream structures of thirty metres or a lot of wherever a misjudged try would seemingly end in death. In 2009, the globe record for falls kayaking was a 55-metre descent (Weaver, 2009). huge wave surfers ride waves over twenty feet tall, during which even a number of the foremost famed surfers have died (Warshaw, 2000). High-level climb includes challenges like severally venturing on top of the ‘death zone’, sometimes thought of to be on top of 7500 metres wherever the atomic number 8 is skinny and therefore the body struggles to regulate (Breashears and Clark, 1998).

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and add to our understanding of such activities as positive human experiences (Willig, 2008). Willig has previously investigated the experience of participating in a broad range of sports .

 Participation rates in extreme sports have grownup exponentially (American Sports knowledge, 2002; Pain and Pain, 2005). Participation in extreme sports isn't ‘just a “flash within the pan” however an indication of the times’ (Puchan, 2004: 177). Theoretical views have sought-after to clarify participants’ motivations through a variety of risk targeted analytical frameworks that emphasize the abnormality of such behaviours. generally participation has been judged as negative and deviant (Elmes and Barry, 1999; Pain and Pain, 2005; Self et al., 2007). Participants area unit generally depicted as self-loving, teenaged boys ‘fascinated with the individuality, risk and danger of the sports’ (Bennett et al., 2003: 98). Media representations have reflected these presuppositions (Davidson, 2008; Pollay, 2001; Puchan, 2004; Rinehart, 2005). the idea is that risk acts as a rational motive for participants with very little talent and a pathological need to bond with pictures related to extreme sports.

Participant motivations are explained through a variety of analytical frameworks, as well as edgeworks (Laurendeau, 2008), sensation seeking (Rossi and Cereatti, 1993; Zuckerman, 2000), psychotherapy (Hunt, 1995a), neotribe or sub-cultural These views argue that a mixture of temperament traits, socialization processes and former experiences induce a need for a participant to place their life in danger through extreme sports. From theoretical, risk-taking views extreme sports participation is Associate in Nursing unhealthy, pathological would like for uncertainty, thrills and excitement (Brymer, 2010).

A pitfall of this approach is that the development of a negative stereotype which could not truly replicate the expertise of participants. additional recently studies have found that participation in extreme sports triggers several positive psychological edges. as an example, Willig (2008) enclosed a broad choice of sports historically related to risk and located a range of positive psychological edges from participation.

 Participation may develop spirit and humility (Brymer and Oades, 2009). during this article we tend to examine the link between extreme sports and one explicit manifestation of risk, fear, to realize a stronger understanding of the expertise, motivation and potential outcomes related to the expertise from the attitude of maximum sport participants.

Fear and extreme sports

The most usually associated feeling with extreme sports is worry that successively is one among the nice impermissible aspects to being human. worry refers to a sense state during which there's each a theme Associate in Nursingd an object.  Adults area unit presupposed to management their intense emotions, worry is meant to be curtailed (Elias and Dunning, 1986). whereas kids area unit allowable a component of unexpurgated feeling an identical exposition of reactions within the face of worry by adult men and girls may be a matter of embarrassment and demonstration of aberrant behaviour. Curtailing worry {is no|is not Associate in Nursingy|isn't any} longer a aware call however an automatic response (Elias and Dunning, 1986). worry isn't one thing to be felt, however ought to this be so? The late president Roosevelt noted, paraphrasing the French thinker writer, ‘all we've to worry is worry itself’ (Marshall, 1968: 65).

In extreme sports the final assumption is that participants should have either Associate in Nursing unhealthy relationship to worry or they have to be pathologically fearless. though few studies have tried to explore the link between worry and extreme sports, those who have specialize in negative explanations. as an example, Hunt (1996: 610) explored a deep ocean diver’s participation Associate in Nursingd recognized her findings as a series of fear-related manifestations and over that the diver typically lacked ‘an applicable sense of fear’ and had an inappropriate love of pain. From Hunt’s (1995a) perspective extreme sports participants area unit noxiously socialised into willing to unacceptable levels of worry and anxiety. 

Overview of gift study

To understand higher the link between the experiences of maximum sport participants and concern, this text attracts on findings from a bigger phenomenological study of maximum sport expertise.

 the present study focuses upon one facet of that have.

Phenomenological analysis seeks to illuminate the essence of Associate in Nursing expertise, as understood by participants. interpretative philosophy accepts that lived experiences square measure created sense of through language and so participant accounts can mirror this method (Willis, 2001). though language and express accounts square measure a vital tool in understanding expertise, a lot of of immediate expertise is pre-reflective and therefore not completely determined or captured by language (Ajjawi and Higgs, 2007). interpretative philosophy aims to penetrate on the far side the reflective interpretation of a happening so as to reveal the essence of Associate in Nursing expertise. This method includes parts that may elude language or be underemphasized in express accounts as a result of language isn't capable communicate dimensions of expertise (Van Manen, 1997). we have a tendency to therefore interpret accounts of maximum sports participants and their expertise of concern and anxiety with a read to recuperating the elusive importance of intense, even transformative extreme sport experiences.

Method

Participants

Following ethics approval, fifteen extreme sport participants (10 men and 5 girls aged thirty to seventy years) were recruited from Europe, Australia and North America. Extreme sport participants required to fulfill the subsequent inclusion criteria: (a) they participated in ‘extreme sports’; and (b) were older than the population typically thought of as primary participants. now was important as a result of there's a substantial body of analysis that maintains children (16–25 years) hunt for risk-taking opportunities in various activities (Janssen et al., 2007; Jonah, 1986; Sharland, 2006). Interview participants were chosen primarily based upon snow-ball sampling and their disposition to explore, through reflection, the intense sport expertise.

Participants’ affiliation with extreme sports enclosed BASE jumping (n = 4), massive wave surfriding (n = 2), extreme athletics (n = 2), body of water kayaking (n = 2), extreme mountain {climbing|climb|mount} (n = 3) and solo rope-free climbing (n = 2).

Interviews

The phenomenological approach needs the investigator to enter the project with Associate in Nursing open mind; pre-existing understandings square measure ‘bracketed’ or put aside (Giorgi, 1997). Interviews were conducted face-to-face or by phone. One question target-hunting the interview process: ‘What is your expertise of your activity?’ innings prompts were accustomed explore additional deeply aspects of participants’ expertise.

Data analysis

Each interview was recorded and listened to closely, transcribed, scan and thematically analysed, that is observed as explication. Transcripts were revisited as themes became additional express. each formal and non-formal understandings of potential themes were regularly questioned, challenged and assessed for connexion. A series of queries checked the analytical process: ‘What is to a lower place the text as presented?’ ‘Am I decoding this text from a footing of interference from theory or personal bias?’ ‘What am I missing?’ The investigator highlighted attention-grabbing phrases and relevant non-verbal concerns were noted. These notes were reconsidered in terms of potential underlying thematic phrases or that means units (DeMares, 1998; Moustakas, 1994).

Thematic concepts that emerged from this careful examination were clustered and more outlined. Second order themes were thought of against the initial transcripts to make sure accuracy of interpretations. for instance, we have a tendency to created certain that the analysis didn't cluster along ideas that participants accustomed build fine distinctions that they found necessary. this whole method of moving between the elements and therefore the whole was perennial recursively to the purpose of saturation.

Results

Findings are often planned in terms of 4 themes: expertise of concern; relationship to fear; management of fear; and fear and self-transformation. Following the explication of those themes we'll discuss the expertise in terms of concern and anxiety within the context of maximum sports.

Experience of concern

Fear could be a crucial and doubtless dislike a part of the intense sport expertise. Participants delineate a variety ways in which|of the way|of how} within which concern might emerge and therefore the ways concern may impact their experiences. concern was intimately associated with higher cognitive process in terms of selections have interaction|to interact|to have interaction} in or not engage in activities and potential consequences of such engagement. That is, the longer term that concerned the potential destruction of the physical self emerged within the gift. concern was expressed as a way of being overcome however conjointly somatically, in its most primitive type. concern was conjointly full-fledged as a barrier which could be perceived as too immense or worked through, within which case a replacement expertise emerged.

The dislike nature of concern is articulated by a BASE jumper United Nations agency delineate his experience:

The depth of concern that I’ve felt in my life, the intensity – it’s miserable, it very is. the full plan of ‘no fear’ – it’s rubbish! concern in journey could be a miserable, gut-wrenching, terrible expertise. It’s awful. those that say they love the concern, that’s bullshit! The concern a part of it's Associate in Nursing awful, loathsome feeling – nobody’s there for that. Some individuals don’t get past it, they go forth. (Participant B)

Fear is full-fledged as miserable. This term springs from the Latin, miserabilis that refers to Associate in Nursing expertise characterised by misery and ill-being. concern is therefore disclosed as Associate in Nursing embodied expertise. The higher than participant expresses Associate in Nursing acute conflict between 2 poles, the want to interrupt through concern and attain the goal, and knowledge of concern as intense, dislike and bodily. constant BASE jumper conjointly challenges unremarkably control perceptions regarding the ‘no fear’ angle. The participant talks concerning concern in an exceedingly new means, touching on ‘push past it’ that's,

the most traditional factor to be spoken language at a time like that's I’m afraid, I hope I don’t wet my pants! Ohio God! Ohio please, let ME try this. They’re the items we are saying. If you would like the reality, if you would like a real expression for these forms of sports it's Ohio please-don’t let ME die! That’s a standard response. (Participant B)

Bodily experiences of worry emerge as a primitive feeling connected with the potential to urinate uncontrollably. before participating in an exceedingly crucial facet of the acute sport expertise the participant describes a way of worry that is each ever gift and overwhelming. The sense of worry is extreme as he refers to the potential to ‘wet my pants’ and therefore the potential for death. Despite the presence of such intense worry the participant makes a rational call to continue.

In common with alternative participants United Nations agency envision the last word worry, that of non-being, a feminine mountaineer spoke regarding her worry as a possible barrier to participation. At identical time she spoke regarding a chance to face her fears and continue:

Shit, simply extremely chilling ANd desperate to flip back and run and in fact you can’t try this as a result of you came there to try to to it and then you've got to really face your fears that is an exciting bit too as a result of i feel that after you’ve done enough of what you’re doing, during this case mount, your expertise gets you out of any troublesome state of affairs. however even once you’re knowledgeable about you recognize once it’s chilling as a result of it ought to be chilling, that’s the approach it's. (Participant C)

Participant C recognized that bound things square measure knowledgeable about as chilling as a result of they're horrifying things and intrinsically should be revered. Participant C provides additional proof of the human capability to acknowledge worry and to check edges from electing to maneuver into and past that which provides rise to the worry.

In summary, a way of worry in itself wasn't a reason to prevent participation. so participants were still ready to operate effectively despite the intensity of worry knowledgeable about, so the enfeebling effects of worry didn't appear to require hold (Holleman, 1996; Robinson, 1985).

Relationship to worry

Conflict knowledgeable about in association to worry ends up in participants having a specific relationship to worry. From a phenomenological perspective this could be best understood by drawing upon the notion of deliberation. That is, participants sleep in relationship to worry. Extreme sport participants understand the expertise of worry as a vital component to their survival. worry is spoken regarding as if it's a healthy, productive expertise. One participant represented his relationship to worry as if the expertise ought to be embraced:

I think worry is maybe the foremost necessary single aspect in survival. yea i feel it’s a decent healthy feeling, fear. individuals square measure scared of worry however worry is what keeps you alive, it’s your worry that stops you from standing right the terribly edge; worry is that the {most necessary|most vital|most significant} factor in survival; the foremost important factor. (Participant D)

The participant supports antecedently represented feelings of worry. but they're conjointly ready to objectify worry. worry is so not one thing to be avoided, however embraced as causative to private survival. worry ‘keeps you alive’, revealing AN intimate relationship between worry and therefore the living self.