Psychological pressure on athletes during matches and practices

Abstract

We investigated the psychological pressure intentionally and unintentionally generated by coaches and athletes during matches and practices using semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, consisting of 14 athletes (mean age = 23.7 years, SD = 4.1, range = 19–33) and 11 coaches (mean age = 37.0 years, SD = 12.1, range = 23–56). A total of 58 psychological pressure categories were extracted through a qualitative analysis using the KJ method (Kawakita, 1967) and were classified into four situations: unintentionally generated during matches (e.g., significance of the match, changes in match situations, a sense of mission due to one's stance), intentionally generated during matches (e.g., athletes putting pressure on themselves, coaches putting pressure on players), unintentionally generated during practices (e.g., presence of coaches and senior players, not wanting to trouble teammates by one's error, high-performance expectations by others), and intentionally generated during practices (e.g., controlling training regimes, creating an environment close to a match, putting pressure on oneself). The psychological pressure intentionally generated during practice had two purposes: acclimating to match pressure and improving practice-session quality. This study's findings should help coaches and athletes develop an awareness of the numerous kinds of psychological pressure athletes can experience. They can use this knowledge to customize the psychological pressures intentionally induced during practice sessions to achieve the desired purpose (habituating players to game pressures or enhancing practice quality).