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‘Avoidance Preening’, Displacement Behavior and Co-Dependency in Professional Team Sport : When Wants Become More Important Than Needs
McLean, Blake Strack, Donnie S. Martin, David
McLean, Blake
Strack, Donnie S.
Martin, David
Abstract
An athlete’s body plays an important role in their performance and well-being. However, game-relevant skills are better determinants of success, compared with physical fitness, in technically-driven team sports. In the professional era, over utilization of resources, in pursuit of physical optimization, can detract from time spent on priorities. Athletes’ non-strategic, time-demanding focus on physical preparation/treatments resembles avian ‘avoidance preening’, whereby stressful situations trigger birds to excessively preen in place of more productive activities. The purpose of this commentary is to explore the behaviors of resource-rich professional teams and the roles of staff dedicated to
optimizing physical performance, including circumstances that foster avoidance behavior and create the potential for practitioners to encourage co-dependent relationships with
athletes. To cultivate healthy/productive environments, the following is recommended: I) recognition of non-productive avoidance behaviors; II) eschewing unjustified, fear promoting, pathoanatomical language; III) fostering collaborative approaches; IV) encouraging utilization of psychology services; V) recognizing that optimal physical function and feeling good is rarely the primary goal in professional team sports.
Keywords
physical performance, sport psychology, athletic training
Date
2022
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
17
Issue
5
Page Range
945-949
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(CCBY-NC-4.0). View this license’s legal deed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 and legal code at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode for more information.