An athlete who takes part in a sport where you need to hold your nerve would see the benefits of taking beta blockers because it would help stop the pressure getting to you e.g. a golfer on the last hole of a tournament would have to hold his nerve to make the putt so he would need to be calmer.
However there are some side effects to this drug the most common Side effects with beta-blockers are cold hands and feet, tiredness and sleep disturbance (nightmares). Less common side effects include impotence, dizziness, wheezing, digestive tract problems, skin rashes and dry eyes.
Beta-blockers are only available on prescription. Many are available as oral preparations (e.g. tablets, capsules), some as injections, and some in eye drops (for glaucoma). Beta-blockers are often prescribed in combination with other drugs such as diuretics (water tablets) or calcium channel blockers. You should not stop taking a beta-blocker suddenly, as your symptoms could worsen and you could even have a heart attack.
Golfer Nick Price, who took beta-blockers for high blood pressure, said that the medication was actually a detriment: "When you get excited and get the adrenaline going, you play your best golf....Beta blockers might help on greens, but they hurt on the tee." The effect on his golf game, as well as other side effects that included bad dreams and depression, finally encouraged Price to stop taking beta blockers. He believes that Parry's call to test professional golfers for drug use would prove how 'clean' the sport is.This research is important because it will see if it will help a profesinal golfer to effectivly cheat in major competitions and maybe take chances away from the better golfers who deserve to win fairly. It will also help to find out first hand about the side effects of beta blockers and the dameage they could cause on the heart. There is already a lot of golfers and people higher up in golf who think that drug testing should be introduced to stop the us eof beta blockers in the sport and this reasearch could help put a definition on whether or not it is possible to cheat in golf and whether or not there should be drug testing.
Method
to carry out this reasearch I will be using 20 golfers the top ten amaters in the world and the top ten proffesionals in the world.both sets of golfers will be kept in the same conditions and will have the same diet for a week before the testing so they will all be at the same condition they will not be allowed to drink a week before the test. Then all of the golfers will be asked to make a 2 metre put 10 times on the same green indoors to help keep all the factors effecting each golfer the same, their results will be recorded and then for the next week they will be living in the same conditions but for this week they will be taking beta blockers to slow the heart and to take the pressure off.then they will be asked to make the same putt again 10 times and there scores for the hole will be recorded and compared to there scores they recorded on the hole a week before.
Health and safety
all the people that take part in the research will be looked after and their health will be monitored by trained medics they will not be allowed to continue in the research if it is deemed dangerous to their health and or safety.the green will be indoors so they will not be putt at any risk during the putting and they will all be looked after by proffesionals to ensure safety
validity and reliability
the research will be reliable because of the conditions that the people will be kept in will all be the same to they will not have that many factors effecting the putt itself. But things that will effect the reliabliity of the research is the fact that all the golfers will be playing at different levels the rest of the time they will all have different strengths and putting might or might not be one of them.some golfers will be better than ofthers e.g. tiger woods will be better than the tenth best amater in the world but since the putt is bieng tested against your own score the research will be valid
expexted outcome
the outcome that is expected is that the golfers will record a better score for their second putt because they will feel less pressure because of the drugs and they will feel more confident knowing that they should make a better putt due to the drugs they have taken during the research.
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