Fan's attitude to their idols

Enough is enough. Every game, no matter what sport or who’s playing, have you ever noticed how brutal sports fans could be towards their favourite athlete after they make one simple mistake or one bad play? These players are their inspirations to become better. They are their role models, their heros, the people they wanna become, but every bad play they make, they become so caught up in their emotions that they become completely oblivious about what they are saying or doing. Fans don’t realize that these games are physically and mentally demanding towards the body and when they add that extra pressure or that extra demand, the athletes who are supposed to be focused on the game have no urge to perform at the level they are capable of.

Usain Bolt once said, “ Skill is developed by hours and hours of work”. Athletes such as Usain have been devoting themselves to become better and better everyday. They truly commit to the sport, by working hard and they achieve their success knowing they worked hard to attain it. When playing in games with millions of people watching, there is always pressure that comes within whether it’s from yourself or from fans, but sometimes instead of pressure being a way to help athletes perform their best and to shine the light on them, fans use it as an opportunity to project their voice negatively. Sports that are performed at the highest level are always considered to be one of the largest entertainment sources in the world.

Being put into the spotlight and always trying to perform your best can never come easy, especially with millions of people watching your every move. To be playing in one of these games and when expectations are through the roof, it’s not only physically demanding but also mentally. When fans add pressure to these situations, it almost makes it impossible to concentrate and it can shatter their confidence in a matter of seconds. What fans don’t realize is that these athletes are also human beings that live normal lives outside of the arena, with family that they care about and friends they hangout with. It’s common that these athletes play bad games just like how it’s possible that they have troublesome times at home.

Fans would never know what is going in their personal life and that is a certain boundary that they could never get across. With these issues plus the constant demand to play at the top of their game, pressure by fans is incredibly tough on players, even when these players have been training their whole life for these games. It changes their whole perspective on their performance and it adds another weight onto their shoulder which sometimes could be unnecessary and detrimental. Not only is pressure created from fans, but now parents are constantly pressuring their kids to become better in sports.

The atmosphere around youth sports isn’t the same anymore with kids playing one sport all year round and parents demanding them to become better and better every single day. With the constant increase of college and university scholarships, parents turn into a driving force for their kids to get recognized as quickly as possible. My friend, someone who makes hockey look so easy, is regularly pressured and demanded to play well every single game by his parents. His talent makes him seem like he has the potential to become another Crosby but even if he performs awfully well and maxes out his capabilities, it’s still not enough. The pressure from his parents is like he is being forced into going on one route in life.

They demand more production in points even if it costs them to not make the proper plays that would benefit the team just to be more recognizable by scouts. Even sometimes before the game starts, his parents are able to get inside his head with the same pressure, the same negativity and the same demands and that crushes his focus which leads to a poor performance. Parents are supposed to be supporters for you as well as fans are supposed to be supporting and cheering on their favourite athletes, but these athletes are constantly criticized for every move and every pass they make. However pressure does not always have a negative impact on players whether it’s from parents or from fans. Pressure is used by great players as a source of motivation to play their best and can sometimes be the reason they play. They think of pressure as a challenge that they must overcome to become better as an overall athlete.

Quite simply, without any pressure is like having no fuel in the tank for athletes. They won’t feel the need to perform to the level that they are capable of. Even though this mentality is great, we know that sometimes fans push it too far. It’s obvious when fans are adding to much pressure and what they’re doing is wrong. They need to know there’s a certain limit to how much they can push regardless of the performance. Thus speaking, we as fans are able to change the way we react towards professional athletes. If we act naturally, we could change our attitude so that the athletes that we all know and love could play and perform the way they were paid to do so. They don’t deserve to always be looked so closely and have no room for error. They need to know that their fans are always there to support them no matter what because at the end of the day, despite how many mistakes were made or how many turnovers were created, these athletes are people just like us.