Psychology

Sports in almost every way are involved with risks, some with greater damage or higher occurrences than others. In case of extreme sports, these risks dwell even closer to each individual due to the nature of activities involved. Despite this fact however, many seek for even more extreme sports possibly engaging themselves in the line of life and death. According to Slanger and Rudestam (1997) people are drawn in favour to sensation seeking and self-efficacy which leads to extreme and high-physical risk taking behaviour. People are also constantly being called upon to prove themselves in a society where reference points are both countless and contradictory and where values are in crisis, people are seeking, through a radical one-to-one contest, to test their strength of character, their courage and their personal resources. By putting themselves in the line of danger it is observed that these people are able to overcome fear and much more forward in taking risks pressure. Even though physical danger occurs from time to time, these people react to environment with pressure much better than those who are not usually exposed to the danger. Slanger and Rudestam (1997) also suggested that risk takers can overcome the potentially inhibiting influences of anxiety, fear, and the recognition of danger. This in turn leads to better risk management for the people involved in the extreme sports with proper safety measure to the risk of physical danger.

Looking at risks of extreme events as discussed by Slovic and Weber (2002), risk management is unseparated from risk analysis or assessment itself. Extreme events, by definition, cause much harm to people, property, and the natural world. People caught into such extreme events  willingly or not  is facing the games against nature. Not only looking into extreme sports, the authors described many types of risk involved from different field studies and try to understand how each of them can be associated with one universal perception on how to deal with risks. While this could serve as general guidance, risks in extreme sports is rather unique compared to another field. In the extreme sports, people are well aware of the risk involved in it, but it is the risk that they are chasing and this is the part the authors of said papers missing. If the authors could look into the mental state of the people who are accustomed to risks, risk management process might change a lot.

One of the examples of extreme sports is snowboarding. Rooted from older conventional surfing sports according to Donelly (2006), snowboarding is one of the fastest growing extreme sports in the world and considered middle-class to high-class sport for the youth due to the cost of the snowboards, snowboarding gear, lift passes, and transportation to the resorts. According to the author snowboarding became popular to the results of teens trying to find themselves sports other than their parents sports which are skiing. Teens who are playing snowboarding while considered in the middle-class or higher-class sectors are exposed to the same danger as those children who are seeking cheaper and easier to practice sport such as the normal skate boarding. This can be the starting point to assess the risk management for both types of children and finding out how the risks might differs from one another.

Sports risk management are also brought to control by many governing sports association underlying the basics of the sport activities. In fact, one of the major responsibilities for each governing sports association is to identify the levels of risks factors and the level of damage associated with the activities (Fuller  Drawer, 2004). This is information is to be used by the sports governing bodies to identify preventive and therapeutic interventions. Fuller and Drawer however pointed out that the acceptability of risk within specific sports, however, is dependent on the perceptions of the participants involved. This is particularly true in extreme sports. Acceptability of risk by people practicing extreme sports can be perceived as pleasure cutting action when rules are created out of the fair discussion with people involved in it.

While many people minds quickly aligned to risks when it comes to extreme sports it is however important to enter the mindset of people who loves to do such sports and understand that risks might be the last thing on their minds. While risk of death is much to be concerned, according Breton (2000) death in extreme sports is such as natural cause as any other accident that could happen on earth. The sensation of death occurs often to the athletes involved in extreme sports, but very little actually went to the other side because of it. Breton gathered many athletes comments from many sources and found out that many of them had ever experienced sensation of death while in the middle of the extreme sport and survived because of the sense of pleasure coming from the sense of death. In one particular source one man who attempted to cross the Atlantic in a microlight said he saw death many times and they are pushing him above his limits every time. While Breton managed to achieve collectively it can also be a good starting point to show that while risk is the main driving point of the extreme sports, what might be able to be done to reduce risks at the same time does not reduce the thrill produced by the sport itself.

To further explore the mindset of people involved in sports with high risk we can take a look in to the book by Armstrong (2000) titled Performing in Extreme Environment which clearly describe what people think and do when they are in extreme environment or when they think they are. Extreme environment as described here is an environment that radiates threat of risks to people and thus creating stress. Physical state of people is going through significant changes when people minds recognize danger or risk such as the increase of heart rate due to the hormones though the actual case might be the people might not be in that severe of danger as they think they are. Stress, is what activates the hormones and forces the body quickly and try to adapt to the changing environment. The same factor in turn, could result in personal growth, temporary perturbations or permanentdeleterious effects. This varies in each people to respond to challenges, danger and threats but however the author pointed out that every person is capable of taking significant amount of stress and achieves growth as permitted by their own limit. This growth is critically dependant on the emotional response to the environmental situation such as the pleasure of completing tracks in jungle track and also number of similar previous experiences. Armstrong (2000) at the same time stressed that people exposed to such stress and risk and managed to meet physical or psychological demands successfully usually granted with increased physical stamina and more effective coping style.

Adolescents participate in sports for a variety of reasons but many of them seem to enjoy participating in what some might consider very-high-risk or extreme sports activities. Patel and Luckstead (2000) stated that for some adolescents risk taking becomes pervasive and can be detrimental to normal health and development. The majority of adolescents will do well in the context of athletics, and the many positive benefits of regular physical activity and sports participation should be appropriately emphasized. While the risk involved is high, many associations must think of a much better way of managing the risk that does not take off the thrill from the risk involved. It is very possible that risk management that favours in the extreme sports fans to be applied than a risk management that restrict the essence of the extreme sport itself. Exposing people to extreme environment results in growth as described earlier and at the same time allow people to adapt to risk in real environment. This is major point that we should be looking at and any risk management that people should do towards extreme sports if being directed to lower the physical damage and not to reduce the risk might be more appreciated. As brought forward by Berton (2000) the legitimacy of surviving in such extreme sports brings to light the radical truth for the subject, as the more intense the suffering, the more the achievement has a reassuring personal significance, the more fulfilling the satisfaction of having resisted the temptation to give up. People do grow a lot from danger, risk and most importantly from the success of going past it.

Most of the previous study such as Armstrong (2000), Berton (2000), Donelly(2006), Fuller  Drawer (2004), Pater  Luckstead (2000), however, lack of the motivation to relate extreme sport and risk management. Much of the study proven that risks have the impact that critically chained to extreme sports, and such impact are often viewed as a positive benefit such as better physical stamina, satisfaction and better reaction to risk exposure. The purpose of this paper then, is to observe the direct relation of individual risk management quality of those who were able to finish the job (exclusively towards extreme sport that has the ending state) compared to those who did not and a statistical measurement to be taken to see the correlation between them.

Methods
Participants would include 20 male risk taking snowboarders and 20 male snowboarders with moderate risk appetite. The participants will be selected from the registry maintained by the United States Snowboard Association. The snowboarders mentioned in the registry would be given numbers. The participants are randomly selected with the assistance of numbers assigned to snowboarders. The participants will be compensated by giving free entry to them for the events organized by American Snowboarders Association.

Apparatus
Ten snowboard trainers would be used in order to identity the attitude of participants towards risk.  In addition 40 computer-based simulators will be used. The simulator will allow participants to experience rotational motion of snowboard. The simulator will also consist of input and output, which can be connected with a TV or Personal Computer. Before embarking the experiment, the participants will be given training through video simulation. Participants will be given specific instructions concerning the dangers that they face while using this apparatus. A video scene of snowboarding event will be used to give further training to the participants. The video scene will be from Colorado, the actual snowboard terrain. Previously recorded video will be used to assist participants in understanding the terrain. They are expected to complete their ride on a terrain, which approximately covers the distance of ten miles. Forty snowboards will be used. The participants will be allowed to bring their own snowboards so as to enhance their comfort level, while indulging in this extreme sport. The participants will be asked to bring free ride snowboards, which can be used for terrains with fast and sudden turns. The snowboards will be connected to a remote electronic device, comprising a video camera, which can be used to measure the speed of the rider and response of the rider to difficult riding situations.

Procedure
The conditions of this project involve division of participants into two control groups and one video visualization group. The first control group will consist of high risk taking, but highly skilled snowboarders. The second control group comprises moderate risk taking snowboard riders with moderate and high level of skill in riding the snowboard. Representatives from these two control groups would become part of video visualization group. The two control groups will be asked to participate in this sport. They need to ride for a period of five days-one hour each day. Over this period, the different experiences of the riders will be recorded through video recording, remote electronic devices, and interviews with selected participants. Such procedures are necessary to know the different attitudes exhibited by riders while riding difficult terrain. The data for five days will be collected and collated for the reference of researchers. On the sixth day, the participants will be asked to take part in snowboard race. The experiment expects that high risk taking sportsmen will ride snowboard freely without any fear and they will exhibit better satisfaction with their snowboard session, whereas moderate risk taking snowboarders exhibit less passion with snowboard sport. The video of the final day race will be taken. This video will try to identify the changing emotions of participants when they counter dangerous terrains such as long turn and sudden fall. The performance of participants will be studied. If the moderate risk taking group shows greater risk taking ability, such videos will be showed to the participants. On the other hand, when the two control groups continue to exhibit their assumed risk taking ability, it will be considered as the data supporting the experiment. The final race will include representatives from both the groups. The participants will be asked to participate in this event as if they are trying to win the top position.  If the high risk taking group exhibits better skills, ability, and show enjoyment despite dangers involved in this sport, then it will imply that the hypothesis is vindicated. During this period participants will be asked to use snowboard in a normal way, without any changes in their routine playing strategy. Social cognition explanation will be used in order to identify differences in the attitudes of participants towards extreme risk sports. The participants will be showed video of their performance and they will be asked specific questions. There will be questions such as Why did you take risk while riding the snowboard Why do you show fear while playing this sport How did you learn the skills What are your priorities while playing this sport Despite possessing defensive gears why do you show fear Answers given by participants can be used to strengthen the conclusion reached by researchers. The participants answers will be compared with the data collected from actual experimentation in the form of behavior of two control groups and video visualization group. The researchers will collect and collate data that they obtained during the period five day sessions and the final day race between two control groups.