WLC Research Paper Body Paragraph Example 2023-2024

Key:
Green is the topic sentence.
Purple is contextualization
Orange is selected evidence
Blue is analysis/commentary
Red is synthesis
Pink is transition words/phrases

Thesis:

Sports injuries have a lot of negative effects on an athlete’s mental health; however, there

are beneficial ways to recover from that injury.

Body Paragraph 3:

There are several healthy and beneficial ways to mentally recover from a sports injury.

Professors Leslie Podlog and Robert C Eklund put together 12 athletes in order to see how much

goal-setting really improves an injured athlete’s mental health. Their study found that the

“athletes who adjusted their goals based on their rate of progress during the rehabilitation process

reported feeling more successful during their return to sport compared to the injured athletes who

did not adjust their goals” (Sheinbein 9). This illustrates how goal-setting helps athletes thrive

during the recovery journey back to their sport. The study suggests that setting goals based on

one’s recovery progress is an effective way to recover one’s mind from an injury and be able to

return to their sport feeling more confident. During the period after an injury, many athletes feel

hopeless and are often discouraged. They might feel as though creating goals is pointless and

won’t actually help improve their recovery progress. However, designing and modifying goals

can give athletes something to look forward to in their recovery journey, providing them with

motivation to partake in their rehabilitation activities. Sheinbein also stated that coaches,

athletes, and sport psychologists often use “motivational imagery paired with diaphragmatic

breathing…to enhance skill acquisition and recently cognitive specific imagery has shown to be
effective in reducing injured athletes re-injury anxiety.” These findings demonstrate how

combining diaphragmatic breathing and motivational imagery can be effective ways to keep

athletes away from anxiety and protect their mental health. Along with being goal-oriented and

observing your progress, motivational imagery and diaphragmatic breathing (abdominal

breathing) can also be beneficial ways for an athlete to mentally recover following a

sports-related injury. Motivational imagery is a useful coping strategy that requires the athlete to

imagine themselves being confident and focused in tough situations. This can improve the

athlete’s mentality because by imagining their success, their self-confidence will boost and their

fear of getting injured again will subside. Furthermore, diaphragmatic breathing helps an athlete

relax in a stressful situation (such as right after getting injured) and it is the key to controlling

anxiety. The athlete will have more control over their emotions making it easier and faster for an

athlete to regain their mental strength. Besides motivational imagery and breathing techniques,

socializing with teammates/therapists can also be a healthy way to mentally recover from an

athletic injury. Golden’s article acknowledges that there are several ways to help keep a good

mental health during recovery. For example, talking about “these fears and struggles with others,

including therapists and peers who have experienced similar struggles, can help curb some of

these negative emotions.” Having someone available to share feelings with is the key to keeping

a clear mind. In most cases the aftermath of suffering a sports injury consists of athletes isolating

themselves from their family and friends, which just leads them down a rabbit hole of negative

thoughts. This piece of evidence is significant because it highlights the importance of having

someone there to talk to about those negative thoughts. Socializing with trustworthy people is a

great way to keep a positive mindset which will help make the recovery experience more

enjoyable and allow for it to go by a lot more quickly. Although goal-setting, motivational
imagery, diaphragmatic breathing techniques and sharing one’s feelings with a trusted person are

all very different things, together they all represent healthy ways to mentally recover from a

sports injury. Athletes should take advantage of the variety of “solutions” and commit to at least

one in order to be able to psychologically heal from the harm caused by the physical activity.