Causes of Mediocre Performance in Elite Athletes: Physical and Mental Disorders

It is so disappointing and sad to see some of our best athletes cannot perform at their best during the final stages of a championship game. More often than not, they are blamed because not doing very well is interpreted by others as not doing their best. Unknown to others, these athletes are experiencing some low moments or ailments which resulted to a poor performance. Athletes, however good they may be, are still human who experiences Physical, Mental and Behavioral disorders. These mostly cause mediocre performance in elite athletes.

Physical injuries include those that had harmed or abuse the body causing it to function improperly. These involve injuries, fatigue, eating disorders and substance abuse. Osteoporosis is one of those old-age degenerative diseases that are seen as unending and persistent. Medical risk factors along with physical risk factors of osteoporosis were discussed thoroughly to further understand why osteoporosis was treated as a dead-end bone disease especially to the aged people.

In another study, the effects of a performance intervention were studied on patients with arthritis. Controlled observations were based on the variables that represented pain, strength, motion, joint circumference, tenderness, and hand function using the Stanford Hand Assessment questionnaire.  To get the results for their study, selected osteoarthritis patients were randomly assigned to undergo the yoga program and others received no therapy.

On the other hand, the number of individuals that suffer from both substance abuse and mental disorders in the United States is estimated at 10 million. Approximately 50% of the individuals that have a sever brain disorder also have a substance abuse problem. The two disorders are interrelated in that the substance abuse inhibits the individual from obtaining adequate treatment for the mental disorder while the mental disorder contributes to the substance abuse. With some types of mental disorders such as schizophrenia, the substance abuse is the outcome of self-medication in an attempt to alleviate some of the symptoms of the disorder. Most experience fear and anxiety or even lack of motivation and anger resulting to low self-esteem which has a very strong relationship with morale. The loss of self-confidence or a feeling of discouragement may also be caused by frustration, which in turn causes mental efficiency to be lowered. In this case, it affects the performance of Elite players.