The Athlete's Prayer

The article below from Athletic Insights illustrates the value of prayer to athletes.

The athlete gains great courage, confidence and perspective to perform optimally. The article does a much better job than I could ever do at examining the reasons why that is the case.

Athletic Insights: Prayer in Sports
http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol7Iss4/PrayerinSports.htm

The use of religious rituals in sport, especially Christian prayer, is one area of research that has begun to receive particular attention and will be the focus of this paper. A number of investigations have shown that the use of prayer by athletes before, during and after competition to be a common and valuable practice for enhancing performance and overall well-being (Czech & Burke, in press; Czech, Wrisberg, Fisher, Thompson, & Hayes, 2004; Park, 2000; Vernacchia, McGuire, Reardon, & Templin, 2000). This article will provide a brief review of existing literature on the use of prayer in sport, and will provide recommendations for sport psychology consultancy work and future directions for research and scholarship.

Coakley (2003) has suggested six possible reasons athletes utilize religious prayer: prayer as a coping mechanism for uncertain stressful situations; to help live a morally sound life; to sanctify athletes' commitment to sport; to put sport into perspective; to establish a strong bond of attachment between teammates; and to maintain social control. The use of religious prayer to alleviate anxiety and stress in uncertain situations is prevalent among athletes, and is consequently an important topic for sport psychology research. Previous studies have identified the often traumatic and stressful impact of career-ending injuries (e.g., Udry, Gould, Bridges, & Beck, 1997), athletic retirement (e.g., Kerr & Dacyshyn, 2001) and career transitions, such as moving teams and changing participation level (Nesti, 2004). When athletes are confronted with this type of adversity and suffering, it is highly likely that athletes will ask existential and spiritual questions (Watson & Nesti, in press). It is argued that for Christian athletes, prayer will be an important source of strength and means of coping with anxiety. However, to date, there are only two studies that have explicitly examined the role of Christian prayer in sport psychology consulting (Czech et al., 2004; Czech & Burke, in press).

Athletes may utilize prayer and other religious observances to help provide special meaning to sports participation (Coakley, 2003; Shafranske, 1996). A study by Storch et al. (2001) explored the religiosity of 248 elite college athletes. Participants were administered the Duke Religion Index to assess organizational, non-organizational, and intrinsic dimensions of religion. One finding was that athletes’ attendance at Church (which would include corporate and individual prayer) provided an opportunity to reflect on earlier accomplishments and future plans and thus to attach religious meaning to their sports participation. These results are supported by the study of Vernacchia et al. (2000) who found that “. . . an athlete’s spiritual and religious beliefs [including the use of prayer] seemed to promote a deeper meaning to their athletic successes, failures, struggles, and disappointments” (p. 22). Similarly, Balague (1999), drawing on her consultancy work with elite rhythmic gymnasts and track and field athletes, suggests that personal meaning derived from religious beliefs of the athlete is closely linked to motivation. She concludes that if sport psychology interventions do not account for athletes’ religious worldviews “. . . the likely outcome is not only that the intervention will not work, but that we lose the trust of the athletes by showing we do not understand something that is at the core of their identities and values” (p. 92). Many of the religious athletes identified in these studies frequently joined religious organizations such as Athletes in Action (AIA), which provides spiritual support for Christian athletes (e.g., Vernacchia et al., 2000).

Another possible reason athletes partake in prayer and religious observances is to put their sporting lives into perspective. Hoffman (1992) states that one way athletes can justify the self-focused, self-indulgent way of thinking that is so pervasive in competitive sports, is to define sports participation as an act of worship and an avenue of giving witness. This is supported by the research of Czech et al. (2004) who found that Christian athletes often use prayer in sport to “give glory to God” (p. 10). For example, one participant used the biblical verse Colossians 3:23: “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, but for the Lord, not for man”, as his motivation for sports participation. It is then apparent that when working with religious athletes, sport psychology consultants need to consider a number of important factors that may determine intervention design and approaches to counseling.

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ATHLETE'S PRAYER

Help me to play the game, dear Lord, with all my might and main;
Grant me the courage born of right, a heart to stand the strain…

Send me a sense of humor, Lord, to laugh when victory’s mine;
To laugh, if I should meet defeat, without a fret or whine…

Give me the grace to follow rules, to ‘fess up when I’m wrong,
When silence or some other thing wins plaudits from the throng…

When foes are tough and fighting fierce and I am getting weak,
Dear God, don’t ever let me show a broad, bright, yellow streak.

And teach me, Lord, life’s game to play just one day at a time.
With Thee as coach and trainer, Lord, real victory must be mine.

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PRAYER - Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. - James 5:16