BEATS HELP ATHLETES BEAT OPPONENTS

By Ronald Mello

Speeches spoken by a coach or team captain, a traditional “good luck” saying by a proud parent right before their son or daughter is to take the field or fan made high-light reels are all sources of motivation for an athlete or team. However, arguably the easiest way to motivate the individual athlete is through music.

The benefits of music played during exercise have been known since the days that galley slaves were forced to row to the rhythm of drum beats. By keeping the beat with the drums, the slaves were not only able to row in rhythm but also row for longer periods of time than if there was no beat. It's only in the past decade that music has been scientifically demonstrated to help with endurance of people doing physical activity.

A study, done by students and faculty at the University of Southern Georgia and published in “Athletic Insight,” an online journal for sport psychology, resulted in a determination that higher tempo beats wound up improving game play because it made the athletes want to be more intense, aggressive and run harder. Slow tempo beats were used as a way for athletes to take their mind off of something like a crucial play or big match.

“Music plays an important role in the pre-game preparation for many athletes,” says Tuxedo High school coach Dave Powers. “With the invention of the I-pod and MP3 music players, many athletes like too center or focus themselves while listening to a song that has meaning to their lives. Once on the court, warm-up music often has a positive effect of getting the adrenalin flowing to play in a game.”

Coaches aren’t the only ones who believe in this idea that music helps athletes either get pumped up or mellow before a big game. The athletes have their own opinion as to what to think of music.

“Before every match while I was warming-up and getting to go out there on the mat I had my head phones on until the last possible moment,” said Corky Dulgerian, two-time section nine small school champion for wrestling and PSU sophomore. “I couldn’t stand doing a normal warm-up without music.”

Robert Burke, a section nine large school champion for soccer and a PSU sophomore who plays on the soccer intramural team OC Crusaders said, “Someone on the team would always bring a big stereo system to our field for home games so we could warm-up to music.” This would be one of the reasons why home field advantage is exactly that; an advantage over your opponents. “Having your own warm-up music right there on the field in front of the home town fans while taking shots on goal really got everyone into the right mood. That’s probably a big reason why we did so well.”

The mentality is the same here for athletes who compete on the college level. Alain Pepin, PSU sophomore and indoor track runner, runs around the track with his headphones in at all times during practice. “You can’t wear headphones running around the track during an actual meet, but during practice its ok. It just makes my workout that much better since I’m trying to match my running to the beats and basically makes me run faster.”

“Going to away games at other schools can make you sort of nervous just because you’re antsy wanting to play the game and get on the court as quickly as possible,” says PSU freshman and college basketball player. “The season hasn’t started for us yet, but I remember going on long bus rides during all four years of high school and I would never have made it without music. To start the trip I’d probably play something relaxing to get my mind off the game coming up and as we got closer and closer to the school I’d start playing faster music to get my mind set ready to play.”

It truly doesn’t matter what sport an athlete plays as all different types of athletes will tell you the same thing: Music was and will always be their motivation to do better.

“I couldn’t imagine playing any sport without music,” says PSU sophomore Gilbert Perez who played three high school sports and will be trying out for the baseball team either in the spring or next year. “Whether it was to get me pumped up or cooled down, music was there to help me get the job done.”