Dr Sofie Kent

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention intended to improve academy players’ performance under pressure. Male academy soccer players (n = 82; mean age = 14.12 years, SD = 2.28) completed a baseline pressure task producing performance scores (A) for decision making and skill execution. By completing a pressure task, players received pressure training (PT) (Wood & Wilson, 2012). Players were then randomly allocated to an intervention group (n = 41; receiving PT, three cognitive behavior workshops, and reflective diaries) or comparison group (n = 41; receiving PT only). Sixty-eight players (n = 29; intervention group; n = 39; comparison group) repeated the PT task at a six-week follow up (B), and of these, 26 (n = 15; intervention group; n = 11; PT only) also completed a re-test PT task (A) at 12-week follow up. Due to attrition at follow up, chi-square analysis was conducted across experimental groups A-B only. Analysis indicated intervention players scored significantly higher in their decision-making (p = .028) with a significant main effect of age-group on decision-making (p = .003) and skill execution (p = .005). Four players (highest scoring and lowest scoring player within intervention and comparison groups) from each academy age-group (n = 16) took part in individual interviews to explore intervention effectiveness. Thematic analysis found that some players perceived no benefits of the condition they completed, others perceived benefits to confidence, meta-cognitive skills, and challenge appraisals. Methodological implications for future pressure training interventions are presented. Lay summary: This study offers partial support in the effectiveness of contextualized pressure program to enhance elite academy players’ ability to cope with performance pressure. Some players felt the intervention had no benefits, whilst others said there were benefits for confidence, ability to understand helpful emotions and thoughts when performing under pressure. Implications for Practice: - A contextualized pressure intervention comprising of pressure training, cognitive behavioral workshops and reflective diaries can facilitate performance under pressure by enhancing coping skills. - Organizational support and endorsements from key personnel (e.g., academy manager, coaches, and senior coaches) for all components of pressure interventions is important in supporting player engagement. - To optimize pressure training, practitioners should focus on how to incorporate pertinent situational and personal incentives within pressure training.

In England alone, there is an estimated 12,500 young players aged between 9 and 16 years contracted to professional soccer academies. These players will encounter several critical career transitions throughout their lifespan that can potentially threaten their well-being and performance. With this in mind, this chapter will present three key career transitions, including: (a) deselection, (b) youth-to-senior, and (c) loans. In doing so, a definition, description, and comprehensive overview of each transition will be offered. Following this, the chapter presents considerations for future research, particularly regarding the utilisation of stress-based models and theories to design, deliver, and evaluate various interventions. From an applied perspective, this chapter will also offer key implications for practitioners to better support the transition experiences of academy soccer players that may influence both well-being and performance.

Athlete burnout symptoms are detrimental to athlete well-being. Obsessive passion has been identified as an antecedent of athlete burnout, with basic psychological need satisfaction potentially mediating this process. The aim of the current research was to extend on previous work and examine whether the relationship between passion and athlete burnout was mediated by psychological need satisfaction in a heterogeneous sample. Participants were 120 competitive athletes (Mage = 22.04, SD = 5.83) from 21 different sports. Each participant completed the Passion Scale, Basic Psychological Needs in Sport Scale, and the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. Multiple regression and bootstrapping procedures were used to analyze the data. Passion (harmonious and obsessive) was found to share a significant relationship with sport devaluation but shared no significant relationship with emotional and physical exhaustion and reduced sense of accomplishment. Bootstrapping results suggested that the basic psychological need of autonomy was the only significant mediating variable in the relationship between passion (harmonious and obsessive) and burnout (sport devaluation). Potential antecedents and consequences of athlete burnout, alongside applied and conceptual implications are discussed.

The present study generated a qualitative examination of male professional football players’ experiences of stress during the loan transition using the Demand Resources and Individual Effects (DRIVE) Model. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit participants (M age = 23; SD = 2.5) from various Premier League (n = 2), Championship (n = 8), and League (n = 1) clubs across the UK who have experienced a loan to another club. Guided by a critical realist philosophical orientation, semi-structured interviews were deductively developed based upon the DRIVE model to stimulate contextual discussion about the pre-transition resources (e.g. organizational support), perceived transition demands (e.g. performance pressure) and appraisals. Finally, players were asked to discuss their strategies for coping (e.g. situational coping) with loan demands and if they deemed this coping to be effective. Braun and Clarke’s (2013) thematic content analysis was utilised. Deductive thematic analysis was used to identify and evidence themes that were articulated in relation to the demands experienced, appraisals associated with such demands, and the coping strategies used to manage these demands. An inductive approach was used to code sub-themes from the data, on the basis of players’ specific experiences that had not yet been exemplified in the existing literature. This study presented loan transition demands (performance and organizational), contextual individual differences (situational coping, dispositional coping, and protective factors) and loan resources (transition preconditions and during loan) that may assist individuals’ performance and well-being. Practitioners would be advised to work with players on facilitating pre-transition resources and identify perceived demands they consider important to their transition process. Future research should seek to explore the loan transition within elite female football.

The ability to perform under pressure is necessary to achieve goals in various domains of life. We conducted a systematic review to synthesise findings from applied studies that focus on interventions developed to enhance an individual’s ability to cope under performance pressure. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a comprehensive search of five electronic databases was conducted. This yielded 66,618 records, of which 23 peer review papers met inclusion criteria of containing an intervention that targeted coping skills for performing under pressure. Using the Standard Quality Assessment for evaluation of primary research papers (Kmet et al., 2004) to assess quality, included studies performed well on reporting research objectives, research design, and statistical procedures. Sixteen studies showed poor quality in controlling for potentially confounding factors and small sample sizes. A narrative aggregate synthesis identified intervention studies that provided an educational focus (n = 9), consultancy sessions (n = 6), simulation training (n = 5) and emotion regulation strategies (n = 3). Findings highlight a need to; 1) establish a contextualized pressure task which will generate high levels of ecological validity for participants. Having established a suitable pressure task, 2) research should assess the effects of pressure by evaluating conscious and nonconscious effects and associated coping mechanisms, which should inform the subsequent development of interventions, and 3) assess interventions to enhance understanding of the ways in which they improve coping with pressure, or may fail, and the mechanisms which may explain these outcomes.

The romantic partner of a professional athlete can play a pivotal role in preserving performance and well-being (Brown et al., 2018). However, through their direct or indirect experiences partners have to cope with the stressors of professional sport that can impact relationship functioning, well-being and performance. Therefore, to help sport organizations better support romantic partners, the aim of this study was to explore partner’s stress experiences within professional sports by adopting an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. Eight romantic partners (female partners n = 5; football (n = 2), paralympic rowing, boxing and long-distance running; male n = 3; middle-distance running, football, and tennis) participated in semi-structured interviews. Explained through the metaphor of ‘two on a tightrope’, partners balanced a dynamic range of stress-related themes; navigating the romantic space, sacrifices- some willing and some reluctant, feeling undervalued and unimportant, the sporting performance, receiving or dealing with abuse, and life after sport. To handle unfolding events, partners employed proactive coping, social support, avoidance coping, re-appraisal, supportive dyadic coping, protective buffering, acceptance, and problem-focused coping strategies.

Guided by transactional stress theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), this study aimed to explore elite U.K. soccer coaches’ perceived stressors, the situational properties, appraisals and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also aimed to explore any variation in stress experiences across football league standards. Thirteen professional first team male U.K. association football coaches aged between 38 and 59 years (M = 43.00, SD = 6.94) participated in telephone (n = 5) or online (n = 8) semi-structured interviews. Informed by the philosophical position of critical realism (Danermark et al., 2019), Braun et al.’s (2016) six-phase approach to thematic analysis (TA) was used to generate competitive, organizational, and personal stressor themes. Deductive thematic analysis generated themes reflective of all situational properties of stressors identified by Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984), and an array of appraisal, and coping strategies. Future research and recommendations for supporting coach performance and well-being post-COVID-19 pandemic are offered.

A dual-career that combines academic and sporting pursuits can be stressful, as such, it is of importance to explore how dual-career athletes appraise and cope with stress. Existing dual-career literature is limited by retrospective methodologies. In seeking to address these limitations, this study utilized ecological momentary assessment three days a week for four consecutive weeks to explore the stress and coping experiences of six highly trained dual-career student badminton athletes aged between 18 and 26 years (Mage =20.75, SD = 2.4). Deductive thematic analysis of EMA diaries highlights that dual-career athletes experience various competitive, organizational, and personal stressors. Situational characteristics underpinning identified stressors were novelty, ambiguity, imminence, duration, and timing, which aligned predominantly with threat and harm appraisals and occasionally with challenge appraisals. The applied implications of study findings are discussed, particularly regarding EMA methodology for future dual-career research and coping interventions for dual-career student-athletes.

Male professional soccer is characterised as a highly volatile, performance-focused environment in which players gain celebrity status that may result in privacy invasion. However, research examining the stress experiences of players’ romantic partners within this context remains limited. Seven women partners (Mage = 30; SD = 3.6 years) participated in semi-structured interviews that explored their stress experiences of being a partner of a professional soccer player. Employing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and utilising the metaphor of ‘border control’, the study elucidates how prolonged involvement in soccer heightens partners’ monitoring, regulation, and decision-making to safeguard against threats or have benefit to ‘us’ (e.g. invasion of privacy, soccer as a business, safety in help-seeking, life after sport), ‘me’ (e.g. ‘wives and girlfriends’ [WAGs] stigma, receiving and dealing with abuse), and ‘this’ (e.g. sport performance, sacrifices for his soccer career). The intensity of ‘border control’ activities escalates with the player’s status and prominence. Partners reported diverse and effortful coping strategies, including problem-solving, negotiation, self-reliance, avoidance, accommodation, escape, information seeking, opposition, support seeking, helplessness, and dyadic coping. This research offers novel insights to the unique stressors faced by partners of professional soccer players and highlights the necessity for proactive and comprehensive support systems within the soccer industry. Future research should investigate interventions that foster self-compassion and coping flexibility among romantic partners, considering the potential implications for players’ performance and dyadic well-being.