Posts Tagged ‘Sportsmanship’
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPORTS PROFESSIONALS ~ ISPA
The Largest Accreditation Body Credentialing Sports Professionals in all Fields
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dr. John E. Mayer, President 312-917-1240
JMayer2@aol.com
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Chicago, IL—Dec. 18, 2009—The International Sports Professionals Association (ISPA) announced today that it has named Lance Armstrong as its Athlete of the Decade. Although Armstrong would have been named regardless of Tiger Woods recent problems Woods recent problems pushed him out of consideration.
“It was a fairly close race prior to the revelations that arose about Mr. Woods, but Mr. Armstrong was still our organization’s pick. When the stories broke about Tiger Woods’ infidelity and now the suspicion of his use of performance enhancing drugs that didn’t even make it close. Lance Armstrong is our pick for athlete of the decade.” Said Justin Mayer, Executive Director of ISPA.
“Our international organization’s mission is to assist in the safe and healthy participation in sports at all levels by credentialing those professionals who service sports and athletes. To accomplish this, our professionals uphold the highest standards and adhere to a code of ethics. Tiger Woods’ behavior took him out of the running for Athlete of the Decade.” Added Dr. John Mayer, President of ISPA.
The International Sports Professionals Association (ISPA) is the world’s largest credentialing service for professionals in sports. The ISPA sets standards for its membership by providing professional services to the sports world spanning children’s sports to professional athletes. The ISPA includes a wide variety of professional occupations from coaches, sport psychologists, physicians, accountants, agents, physical therapists, chiropractors, nutritionists, sport physiologists, trainers, and more. ISPA designates that member professionals adhere to a strict code of ethics and have met the highest standards in their fields to provide professional services to athletes and to sports. ISPA maintains a National Register of sports professionals; professionals listed in the register are the top professionals serving all domestic sports at all levels. www.TheSportsProfessionals.com
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Tags: Dr. John Mayer, Dr. Mayer, Family Fit, International Sports Professionals Association, International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA, ISPA, John Mayer, Lance Armstrong, President-ISPA, Sports, Sportsmanship, the International Sports Professionals Association, Tiger Woods
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Monday, December 28th, 2009
It was brought to my attention that when judging an athlete we should only focus on their athletic performance and leave out their personal life (which goes a long way in judging character). Which leads me to think, is it possible to judge an athlete solely on their athletic prowess? Is it fair to judge an athlete not only on their athletic performances but also on their character?
Certainly we know a lot more about the personal life of Barry Bonds then Babe Ruth; we can thank modern media for this fact! Every day we are bombarded with the latest sports scandals. These scandals are seared into our memories like the alphabet. Associating a scandal with an athlete has become second nature. When it comes time to judge an athlete for greatness in their respective sport is it possible to remove ourselves from including their character into the equation? Do we want our greatest athletes to not only be great at their sport but also decent human beings? I know I would like to be able to tell my children that the athletes I followed were not only great at their sport but also great individuals. Maybe I am asking too much. However, it is nice to have a dream particularly as the New Year is so close.
Justin Mayer- Executive Director-ISPA
Tags: Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Dr. John Mayer, International Sports Professionals Association, International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA, ISPA, New Year, New Years, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, Sports Credentials, sports jobs, Sportsmanship, Tiger Woods
Posted in Sports | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
News Release
Tiger Woods stripped of decade award
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Chicago, IL—Dec. 18, 2009—The International Sports Professionals Association (ISPA) announced today that it has named Lance Armstrong as its Athlete of the Decade. Although Armstrong would have been named regardless of Tiger Woods recent problems Woods recent problems pushed him out of consideration.
“It was a fairly close race prior to the revelations that arose about Mr. Woods, but Mr. Armstrong was still our organization’s pick. When the stories broke about Tiger Woods’ infidelity and now the suspicion of his use of performance enhancing drugs that didn’t even make it close. Lance Armstrong is our pick for athlete of the decade.” Said Justin Mayer, Executive Director of ISPA.
“Our international organization’s mission is to assist in the safe and healthy participation in sports at all levels by credentialing those professionals who service sports and athletes. To accomplish this, our professionals uphold the highest standards and adhere to a code of ethics. Tiger Woods’ behavior took him out of the running for Athlete of the Decade.” Added Dr. John Mayer, President of ISPA.
The International Sports Professionals Association (ISPA) is the world’s largest credentialing service for professionals in sports. The ISPA sets standards for its membership by providing professional services to the sports world spanning children’s sports to professional athletes. The ISPA includes a wide variety of professional occupations from coaches, sport psychologists, physicians, accountants, agents, physical therapists, chiropractors, nutritionists, sport physiologists, trainers, and more. ISPA designates that member professionals adhere to a strict code of ethics and have met the highest standards in their fields to provide professional services to athletes and to sports. ISPA maintains a National Register of sports professionals; professionals listed in the register are the top professionals serving all domestic sports at all levels. www.TheSportsProfessionals.com
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Tags: careers in sports, Dr. John Mayer, Dr. Mayer, Family Fit, Family Lifestyle, International Sports Professionals Association, International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA, ISPA, John Mayer, Lance Armstrong, President-ISPA, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, Sports Credentials, Sportsmanship, the International Sports Professionals Association, Tiger Woods, TV Sports
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
ISPA likes Charles Barkley! In fact I have always liked Charles Barkley. I met him once casually when he was still playing. I was in a hotel and Charles ambled down to a lounge area next to a sports themed bar in the hotel lobby. There were no seats in or near the bar, so he waddled over and sat where I was sitting. I have used words like amble and waddle because he had just played that night and he walked as if he had a hundred pound lead weight on his back. He introduced himself politely (Remember he was at the height of being tagged as the original bad boy of the NBA.) and stated he just wanted to get one beer and relax. Well, he was soon spotted by the sports bar knuckleheads who immediately began taunting him and even throwing crushed up bar napkins and straws in our direction. Throughout this entire ordeal Charles didn’t even flinch and he conducted a pleasant conversation. He was gentle, polite and intellectual. I was as impressed with him as a man, not just an athlete, as anyone I have met in my career.
I just read some comments Charles Barkley made on the Tiger Woods situation and they echo what I mentioned yesterday in this blog space. He said, “I think any celebrity who pays these ‘crises management’ people to speak for them is an idiot. Say your thing, say you screwed up, my bad, move on.” Vintage Charles Barkley. Common sense, practical, candid and smart.
Charles will be on a new special this Sunday on the HLN channel called, “With all due Respect.” He will co-host with CNN host Robin Meade. I’m going to tune in just to support this man who appears to mirror the same values and voice of ISPA and a man I am very impressed with.
Dr. John E. Mayer, President-ISPA
Tags: Basketball, Dr. John Mayer, Dr. Mayer, Family Fit, Family Lifestyle, International Sports Professionals Association, International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA, ISPA, jobs in sports, John Mayer, President-ISPA, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, Sports Credentials, sports jobs, Sportsmanship, the International Sports Professionals Association, Tiger Woods, TV Sports
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Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Tiger Woods was seemingly an athlete that you could look up to, an athlete that you could let your kids hang a poster of in their rooms. Now of course this too has changed like so many other things in modern sports. Raising the question are athletes heroes? Is it still okay to view athletes as heroes? Has it ever been okay to view athletes as heroes?
Of course back in the days of Babe Ruth athletes private lives remained private and their indiscretions never saw the light of day. Now, in a society where information is distributed in seconds and nothing is private, the lives of athletes is front-page news. There seems to be more interest in some athletes lives then the actual sports they play. How then can anyone view athletes as heroes? How can a parent allow his or her child to proudly hang a poster of someone who is an adulterer or gambles excessively? Perhaps, we need to be careful not view the individual as a hero but view their athletic prowess as heroic. Parents can point out to their children how teams work together and the dedication required to become a great athlete and how this can translate into every facet of life from school to sports. Let’s keep the focus on the field and view the performances as heroes and not the individuals.
Justin Mayer, Executive Director-ISPA
Tags: Dr. John Mayer, Dr. Mayer, Family Fit, Family Lifestyle, Hero, Heroes, International Sports Professionals Association, ISPA, jobs in sports, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, sports jobs, Sportsmanship, Tiger Woods, TV Sports
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
The media has been reporting several personal difficulties for former professional basketball player Antoine Walker. Reportedly he owes $900,000.00 to a casino and the Chicago Sun-Times has been reporting his ownership of “slum houses” in Chicago. So run down are these houses that one has a basement filled with feces from a broken sewage pipe. I personally have a number of colleagues around Chicago who know Mr. Walker (He grew up in Chicago.). Many of them characterize him as having a huge “entitlement” attitude. Now before you jump to the conclusion that this piece will be yet another blast on Mr. Walker, stop, I say we need to rally around an athlete in this condition. In fact, one of our ISPA professionals, Kurt David, specializes in helping athletes in the twilight of their careers. Helping athletes cope with life’s pressures is exactly what ISPA is about. Credentialed professionals assisting athletes in and out of the arenas and fields of play. Antoine Walker’s plight is another call for us to band together and rally for these athletes, not condemn them or even shake our heads and walk away.
We build sports careers at ISPA. Look into joining our legion of qualified professionals.
Dr. John E. Mayer, President, ISPA
Tags: Antoine Walker, Basketball, Boston Celtics, Dr. John Mayer, Dr. Mayer, Family Fit, From Glory Days, International Sports Professionals Association, International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA, ISPA, John Mayer, Kurt David, President-ISPA, Pro Basketball, Pro Player, Pro Player in Trouble, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, sports jobs, Sportsmanship, TV Sports
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
It seems that us professionals, who serve athletes, come under much scrutiny when the teams (or individuals) we work with do not win. It is very popular these days to fire coaches when a team does not perform. Typically this process starts from the bottom up, a hitting coach may be the first to go and if the team keeps losing not even the head coach is safe. My hometown team the Chicago Bears is one such team where speculation is that coaches are going to start losing their jobs. This begs the question who is to blame? Is Lovie Smith, head coach of the Chicago Bears, to blame? Or are the players who have played less than inspired football to blame? Clearly a great coach can guide a team to victory and a bad coach can steer a team into troubled waters. Poor coaching decisions can hurt a teams chance to win (i.e. Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s decision to go for it on 4 and 2, this is purely an example of a poor decision not a bad coach). However, at the end of the day a coach is only as good as the talent that surrounds him/her and while a great coach can squeeze the most talent out of his/her players there is only so much that a coach can do with substandard talent.
Perhaps, we should not be so quick to blame the coaches and take a step back and evaluate the talent on the field and ask the following questions. 1) What is the talent of the players? 2) Are the players playing to their fullest capabilities? If the players are extremely talented and playing to their fullest capabilities and a team is still losing then it is time to stare at the coaches and say, “what the heck is going on here!”.
Even if the players are the problem the chances that they will get fired before the coaches are slim. More on this tomorrow!
Justin Mayer, Executive Director-ISPA
Tags: careers in sports, Coaches, Dr. John Mayer, International Sports Professionals Association, ISPA, jobs in sports, NFL, Sports Careers, Sportsmanship
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
The New York Times ran an article about boxer Manny Pacquiao’s entourage. There is so much to discuss about this article that I am actually at a loss for words. Perhaps, when I have had the proper time to digest the contents, I will have something more insightful to say. In the mean time here is the link to a rather interesting (disturbing may be the better word) article: In Pacquiao’s Corner, a Dysfunctional Entourage Let me know what you think!
Justin Mayer, Executive Director-ISPA
Tags: Boxer, Boxing, Dr. John Mayer, Entourage, International Sports Professionals Association, ISPA, Manny Pacquiao, New York Times, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, sports jobs, Sportsmanship
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
It seems nowadays you are hard pressed to find an airline flight where “baggage comes Free”. Increasingly you have to pay to bring baggage with on your journeys. However, at the other end of the spectrum, the NFL, apparently baggage comes free. Unlike, in the airline industry this is not a perk! An increasing number of players have baggage. What do I mean by baggage? Arrests, assault, late night carousing, drug use (both recreational and performance), unbecoming language, greed, immaturity, I could keep going but I think you get the point. Modern sports teams not only have to evaluate the talent of a player but they also have to inspect the baggage a player carries with him/her. If a team finds a player with little baggage they are really flying high (I will stop with the airline analogies).
This blog has dedicated several posts to former Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, whom could be the poster boy for troubled NFL players. Note the use of “former” above, the Chiefs have decided to part ways with Johnson. I would like to think my blog had something to do with this, but I am not that naive…yet! I applaud the Chiefs decision. It sends a clear message to players that unbecoming behavior will not be tolerated. Now the question becomes which team, if any, will pick up Johnson’s contract? Hopefully, the message that the Chiefs sent will not die quickly with another team indulging Johnson by allowing him to play this season. Let Johnson sit at home for the rest of the season and evaluate his behavior. Perhaps this time away will allow him to appreciate the opportunities he once had and inspire him to improve is off field behavior.
Justin Mayer, Executive Director-ISPA
Tags: Dr. John Mayer, International Sports Professionals Association, ISPA, jobs in sports, Kansas City, Kansas City Chiefs, Larry John, Larry Johnson, NFL, Performance Enhancing Drugs, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, Sports Credentials, Sportsmanship
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Monday, November 9th, 2009
At the annual meetings of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Philadelphia, PA this past weekend (see http://www.apha.org/meetings/) the APHA came out with the results of a survey of teens that stated that teenage boys who played football are more likely than their peers to engage in risky behaviors such as drugs, drinking and violence.
We at ISPA and I independently in my clinical practice (see www.DrJohnMayer.com) have been saying for some time that we must be concerned about the youth culture within sports and how it can be a delicate environment, one where young people can learn negative behaviors just as much as they can learn the positive behaviors that we traditionally think sports can foster.
In my experience the negatives traits and behaviors that can grow out of sports can be prevented and even reversed by those adults who are in leadership roles in sports. It is our passion at ISPA to reach sports professionals in all fields, coaches, trainers, and the media to make a difference in this very issue of the fragile balance in sports at all levels between good values and harmful ones.
We need your help to spread the word about the International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA and our mission to improve the world of sports.
Dr. John E. Mayer, President
Tags: American Pubic Health Association, APHA, Bullying, bullying and high school football, bullying and teen football, Bullying in Sports, careers in sports, Child Development, Coachability, Coaching Credentials, Dr. John Mayer, Dr. Mayer, Family Fit, Family Lifestyle, high school football and drinking, high school football and violence, International Sports Professionals Association, International Sports Professionals Association-ISPA, ISPA, jobs in sports, John Mayer, Kids at Play, negative aspects of high school football, negatives and high school football, President-ISPA, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Credentials, Sportsmanship, teens and football, the International Sports Professionals Association, TV Sports
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