Autoethnography
Autoethnography
Autoethnography
In this paper I will be discussing my life of me or my culture of what I believe in and what I go by on a daily basis in life and sports. I will be going over what my life consisted of as a child all the way to the present time. It will explain my culture of what I believe in and what I did in sports to connect that to what I believe in. The few sources I will be resorting back to will be an interview I had with my father about a basketball memory when I was younger, a Ted Talk video by Martin Hagger about the emotions in sports, and a video about sports psychology, motivation, and the anxiety an athlete goes through daily.
My culture is a strict course of just giving it your 100 percent effort and believing in God with anything you do. My parents always taught me to give something your full effort or do not do it at all. If you are not giving your full effort, then you are wasting your time and the others around you. This does not just partake with just sports but with anything you do in life. If you want to get that internship or new job. You should work your butt off and always give maximum effort to achieve your goal. And that is just how it should be. Work hard for something you want and most of the time you will get it eventually. That is one part that I believe. But the second part I believe is worship and believing in God. My parents always had me in the church early on Sunday mornings praising the lord and that is what got me to where I am today. Hard work, praising the lord, and having a great supporting cast around. That is just a small part of what my culture consists of. Nothing too big or crazy just something you should always have in your mind or with you.
In this next section I will relate my culture to a conversation I held with my father about a basketball game memory. This game can easily be one of my favorite games and it's not even close. A quote straight from the reading says “The time had dialed down to 8 seconds left, I was guarding their point guard full court, and I stole the ball from him and laid the ball with time falling off the clock, and the buzzer sounded. Game over. I scored the game winning points and sealed the win for my team. This is easily one of my best memories of my basketball career”. The quote shows the emotions in the sport world, but in a positive way. The writer had won the game for his team and was extremely happy about what he had accomplished. This memory relates to my culture because back then I was given my full maximum effort, and the results were positive and worked in my favor. So that just shows what giving your full effort does for you. And, I cannot forget about one of the most important things in my culture is giving thanks to the lord. Without him I would not have been able to accomplish the goals I had set and win the game. He set me up for the opportunity in the game and I did what needed to be done. Another part of my culture is manifestation. My father and I believe in manifestation and what it does for you. We believe that if you surround yourself with positive vibes and things you want accomplish, then at some point you will find a way to accomplish those goals. For example, we manifest we are going to be millionaires in the future. So, we surround ourselves in YouTube pages and Instagram reels about becoming wealthy and what it takes to become that status. We always send each other advice from other millionaires, and we just work and study on how to make that money. This is a part of our culture, and not just with money, we do everything we want. Say my mother is working towards a new car, we manifest that she will work towards it and have it the future. And this is just another small section of my culture.
For my second source I will be discussing and analyzing the video and aspects of how it relates to my culture and way of life. So, another section of my culture would be intellectual achievements. This basically means that you grasp a concept and ideas you have learned and then use them to produce something new. So, I will be relating that to this video from YouTube that talks about motivation and focus on sports. It explains a lot of basic facts and information about the emotions, psychology, and the anxiety behind sports and what athletes must go through. This video really focuses on a unique perspective of the topic. It focuses on the athlete's side, what they go through daily or on a game day. It also talks about motivation which comes back to intellectual achievements. You need to be focused and motivated to obtain achievements in life. In the video it says a lot of great points and interesting things. But the most valuable information I received from the video was, “When doubt and worry become too much the body reacts” (time 6:01). This quote from the video just explains that the body can only take so much at one time and that everyone has a limit. This just shows that you must stay motivated and focused before your body breaks down on you because everyone has a limit.
My last source will be about the inside of an athlete’s head. The mental state of an athlete. What they go through on game days and preparing for their games and what they must go and struggle through. I will relate this to mental stability. In my culture my family values a strong mental and being a leader in whatever you do. To put this in perspective my family members always have conversations with me about my mental state. We check on each other to make sure one another is doing fine and their head is right where it needs to be. Checking on loved ones should be something everyone does. Because you never know what someone is going through and when they need someone to love them or for them to feel like they're loved. One of my brothers had been through depression and it really took a toll on him. So then forward my parents always took their time out to make sure each one of my brothers was always okay and had loving. The most important quote I received from this video is ‘make sure your goals are measurable” (12:02). I like this quote because it does not just relate to sports, but anyone can use it any part of their life. Martin explains that setting reachable goals helps the mind think and know they can get something done or reach that goal. And that helps with athletes and their mind. If they have goals set, that sets a trigger in their mind that they can achieve it and most likely they will. And after all this it comes back to mental stability and why it should be a part of everyone's culture, and what they should do with their loved ones. It is just a small act of just texting or calling them to let them know you are thinking of them and that can push someone to keep going to have a strong mental, when they someone cares about them.
In conclusion I believe everyone should have a type of culture that fits them and the people around them. Culture could have many different definitions but, the one I am talking about is the way of life of a group of people—the behaviors, beliefs, values and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them. So, from this paper I have discussed the culture I go by or the beliefs and values that I represent. So, for the first value it is giving 100 percent effort and believing in God. I say this because My parents always taught me to give something your full effort or do not do it at all. If you are not making your full effort, then you are wasting your time and the others around you. This does not just partake with just sports but with anything you do in life. If you want to get that internship or new job. You should work your butt off and give maximum effort to try to reach your goal. And that is just how it should be. And always remember to keep God in your life. The next section would have to be intellectual achievements and staying motivated. I say this because You need to be focused and motivated to obtain achievements in life. In the video it says a lot of great points and interesting things. But the most valuable information I received from the video was, “When doubt and worry become too much the body reacts” (time 6:01). This quote from the video just explains that the body can only take so much at one time and that everyone has a limit. This just shows that you must stay motivated and focused before your body breaks down on you because everyone has a limit. And lastly, I say mental stability. This could be easily the most important one on the list, but I say Mental health because you never know what someone is going through and when they need someone to love them or for them to feel like they're loved, and this can connect to mental state. This paper was an autoethnography, the definition for this is a form ethnographic research in which a researcher connects personal experiences to wider cultural, political, and social meanings. To end this paper, I would say “Keep going” with anything you're doing in life.
Avner, Zoë, et al. “Affect and Emotions in Sports Work: a Research Agenda.” Sport in Society, vol. 26, no. 7, 2023, pp. 1161–77,
Donnell McDaniel. Personal Interview. 11 September 2023
Sports Psychology : Motivation, Anxiety, and Focus. Infobase, 2012.
Sport psychology - inside the mind of champion athletes: Martin Hagger at TEDxPerth
Winslow. (2013). CBS Sports seconds that game day emotion: an app to complement the telecast is now seen as sound business strategy. In Broadcasting & cable (Vol. 143, Issue 4, p. 25–). NewBay Media LLC
Page Description: This page is my Autoethnography and this was our first writting when we had to discuss our culture and something we belived was important to us.