JAMES MURRAY
ST09002029
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
(HONOURS)
SPORTS COACHING
HOW HARDINESS SHOWS ITSELF, THE THOUGHTS AND
BEHAVIOURS OF HARDY UNVIERSITY TENNIS
PLAYERS
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE
CARDIFF
HOW HARDINESS SHOWS ITSELF,
THE THOUGHTS AND
BEHAVIOURS OF HARDY
UNVIERSITY TENNIS PLAYERS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page Number
Acknowledgments
i
Abstract
ii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Introduction to the Study
1
Justification of Research
1
Aim of Thesis
1
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
The introduction of Hardiness
2
Early Occupational Research
2
Hardiness and Coping
4
Antecedents of Hardiness
6
Hardiness with Burnout and Anxiety
6
Hardiness and Performance
7
Hardiness and Skill Level in Sport
8
Hardiness Training
9
Aim of Study
10
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
Stage 1- Participant Selection- Initial Selection
11
Participants
11
Instrumentation
11
DRS
11
Procedure
12
Data Analysis
12
Stage 2- Main Study- Interview Stage
12
Participants
12
Interview Guide
12
Pilot Study
13
Procedure
13
Data Analysis
14
Validity and Reliability of Data Analysis
14
CHAPTER IV:
RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Introduction
15
Hardiness and Committed Behaviours
15
Hardiness and Challenge
16
Hardiness and Social Support
18
Hardiness and Reflection
19
Hardiness and Managing Stress from General Life
21
Hardiness and Managing Stress from Tennis
22
Hardiness and Courage
25
Courage and Appraisals
25
Sources of Courage
27
Hardiness, Courage and Self-confidence
28
Hardiness and the Perception of Control
29
Hardiness and Psychological Skill Use
30
Strengths, Limitations and Further Research
32
Conclusion
33
REFERENCES
35
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
Interview Guide
40
APPENDIX B
Transcript for Participant One (with comment boxes) 43
APPENDIX C
Quotes not included in the Results Section
56
The author wishes to thank his family for their support during University.
Particularly, thanks to Mum and Dad for their emotional and financial support
throughout the three years.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Rich Neil for his help and guidance through this process. In
addition, I would like to thank all the participants in the study who gave up their
time as it helped me greatly.
i
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to qualitatively examine the behaviours of hardy
tennis players at university level, with particular insight into the functional appraisal
and coping methods associated with hardy individuals. Five university team
players participated in semi-structured interviews to discuss certain themes in
relation to the role of hardiness in and outside of tennis. Content analysis
confirmed previous research in hardiness through illuminating the coping methods
associated with hardiness, including effective reflection, the use of social support
and psychological skills to cope with stressful situations. The study also found a
possible link between courage and self-confidence, with courage stemming from
self-confidence generated from being hardy. Strengths and weaknesses of the
study, as well as recommendations for future research are also provided.
ii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Literature looking at hardiness as a positive mental attribute has been widespread
in regards to business people, military personnel and sports performers. Within
these contexts, research has looked at the relationship between hardiness and
health implications (Bartone, Ursano, Wright & Ingraham, 1989; Kobasa, Maddi &
Khan, 1982; Kobasa, Maddi & Zola, 1983), coping patterns (Maddi & Hightower,
1999; Maddi, 1999) and more recently in sporting terms of hardiness on sport
performance (Maddi & Hess, 1992) and its interaction with skill level (Hanton, Neil
& Evans, 2003; Golby & Sheard, 2004; 2010).
1.2 Justification of Research
Previous research has looked at the antecedents of hardy individuals (Khobasha,
1990) and hardiness training studies have been conducted to see if any
improvements can be made through these interventions (Maddi, 1987; Maddi,
Khan & Maddi, 1998), however no research as of yet has studied the behaviours
and thoughts of hardy individuals in a qualitative manner. Consequently, research
that investigates hardy individuals’ relationship with stress (stressful situations and
coping methods), the use of psychological skills, courage, reflection, social
support and the manner in which the three subcomponents of hardiness are
shown will assist sport psychologists with information to devise sport specific
hardiness training programs to help improve levels of hardiness in athletes. This is
beneficial in two ways: 1) with reduced stress an athlete’s well-being can be
improved, and 2) the performance of an athlete can be improved (Maddi & Hess,
1992; Neil, Wilson, Mellalieu, Hanton & Taylor, 2012).
1.3 Aim of Thesis
Subsequently, the aim of this study is to examine the behaviours of hardy
individuals when coping with stressful situations.
1
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction to Hardiness
Hardiness was introduced as a construct by Kobasa (1979) when considering the
potential link between stressful life events, the personality of the individuals
involved and the impact these factors had on the individual’s health. Specifically,
Kobasa’s (1979) study showed that business executives could be separated by a
disposition that dictated how they evaluate the threat posed by the environmental
stressors they encounter, and how effectively they cope with the stressor.
Hardiness was associated with the reporting of a higher internal locus of control,
meaning that those higher in hardiness felt they controlled the occurrences that
happened to them. These preliminary results were important, as they gave an
insight into the construct of hardiness, by showing how hardy and non hardy
individuals differ in terms of appraising stressful situations and their use of coping
methods and the effect it had on their health.
Within her theory of hardiness, Kobasa (1979) proposed the form of dispostional
resiliency to comprise of the three beliefs of commitment, control and challenge.
Commitment was characterised by an individual being actively involved in their
environment and showing high levels of determination to meet their goals
(Kobasa, 1979). Control was defined by the individual having the perception that
they decide on their own actions and are not commanded on what tasks they do
(Maddi, 1999). Challenge was described as a zest for life and living that leads to
an individual to see changes in life as exciting and opportunities for growth,
instead of threatening (Maddi & Kobasa, 1984). Consequently, when a stressful
situation occurs through disruptions, failures or changes in life, hardy individuals
respond to it by approaching the situation with vigour (commitment), see the
situation as an opportunity to develop themselves by endeavouring to complete
the difficult task (challenge), and perceive they have influence over the situation
(control).
2.2 Early Occupational Research
Research looked at the affect the components of hardiness had on the effects of
stressful life events on producing illness symptoms in business managers with
high levels of stress (Kobasa, Maddi & Khan, 1982). The results of this study
showed that when levels of hardiness were higher, the illness symptoms in
2
managers were lower, so they were reportedly less ill. The reason for this was that
when confronted with stressful events hardy individuals may seek out contact with
others with social institutions to decrease the stress associated with the problem.
These findings start to confirm the idea of hardiness as a buffer to ill health in
individuals with highly stressful jobs.
Following this, researchers looked at personality, social assets and perceived
social support as moderators of the effects of stressful life events on illness onset
in a similar sample of business managers (Kobasa & Pucetti, 1983). The results
showed that social support through perceived boss support was positive for
health, as those with high stress but support from their boss had lower illness
scores than those without support. However, family support received by those with
low hardiness levels correlated negatively in relation to health indicators. In
relation to hardiness, the higher the hardiness levels, the lower the illness
symptoms scores, this may be because hardiness refers to a generalised ability to
use all available resources to most effectively perceive, interpret and cope with
stressful events. This further demonstrates that hardiness reduces illness
symptoms in individuals with highly stressful jobs.
Kobasa, Maddi and Zola (1983) then examined the relationship between the type
A behaviour pattern and hardiness on illness onset in business managers. The
results found that Type A behaviour and hardiness were found to be conceptually
different and empirically independent factors. As type A behaviour is correlated to
being impatient and externally motivated, unlike hardy behaviour. With highly
stressful life events, male executives high in type A behaviour and low in
hardiness tended toward higher general illness scores than any other executives.
Type A and hardiness emerge from this study as bases for extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation respectively. Finally, Type A was found to have a negative result on
health (increase in coronary heart disease), and hardiness had positive effects on
health. This may be as individuals with control, challenge and commitment have a
greater appreciation of and interaction with the events of one’s experience,
increasing the likelihood that these problems will be transformed to be less
stressful. These findings support the idea of hardiness as a concept, as through
coping methods and appraisals the hardy individuals decreased their chances of
becoming ill.
3
Following this, an investigation was conducted with military personnel (Bartone,
Ursano, Wright & Ingraham, 1989). In this study, the sample had highly stressful
jobs as they had to help bereaved families of deceased soldiers. The study found
that the hardy assistance workers could be protected from psychological and
physical downfalls through the belief in the three C’s and by utilising social
support. Consequently, hardiness was seen to modulate the stress levels of the
helpers directly, and through the mechanism of social support. The explanation of
this finding was that maybe hardy individuals adjust better to these difficult
circumstances, because they perceive these challenging conditions as an
opportunity to improve one’s self instead of a threat (challenge). Also, hardy
individuals see the job as important and meaningful, suggesting hardy these
workers would be more dedicated to the role (commitment). Finally, the hardy
assistance employees may be more comfortable stepping into this stressful role,
since hardy individuals have a high internal locus of control to be able to
independently deal with the situation (control). Social support was also found to
buffer from these effects as in extreme stressful circumstances such support from
family, work supervisors and friends may serve to enhance the sense of
commitment these workers have towards the task, which also diminish their sense
of role conflict and confusion. These findings are significant as they further
illustrate hardiness along with social support are buffers to stress and adverse
health implications.
2.3 Hardiness and Coping
Maddi and Hightower (1999) looked at the relationship between hardiness and
optimism on coping patterns of business executives. The results found that
hardiness was related to transformational coping, which included planning,
positive reinterpretation, and seeking instrumental help to solve problems. On the
other hand, individuals who were purely optimistic used regressive coping, which
included denial, and drug and alcohol consumption. The study discovered that
hardy individuals engage in transformational coping, and avoid regressive coping,
which represents that hardy individuals deal with problems in a more constructive
manner than those low in hardiness. These findings suggest that hardiness can
buffer from negative effects of stress through better coping strategies, a
proposition also offered by Maddi, Wadhwa and Haier (1996). They studied
4
alcohol and drug use among high school graduates about to enter college,
hardiness was negatively correlated with self-report of the frequency with which
these addictive substances were used. Specifically, there is evidence of a positive
relationship between coping with stresses by problem solving, rather than denying
and avoiding the problem.
Maddi (1999) looked at the effects of hardiness on coping and strain with 20 male
managers of a large utility company. Through a three design study, Maddi first
found that hardiness shows itself as a moment to moment feeling of commitment,
control and challenge for an individual in stressful situations. The following study
discovered that hardy individuals inherently engage in transformational (e.g.
problem solving) rather than regressive (e.g. wishful thinking) coping when faced
with a stressful situation. The final study uncovered that hardiness decreased
signs of psychological and physiological strain, which insinuates the coping efforts
are successful. Specifically, hardiness significantly correlated with anxiety,
depression, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity and total scores on the Hopkins
system checklist. These findings are supported by the validity of hardiness as a
construct and its measurement by questionnaire which both had high validity
scores (0.80-0.88 on the construct of hardiness in numerous studies). This
signified hardiness as a determinant of the types of coping strategies utilised by
business people, and that psychological and physical strain is mediated through
hardiness.
Current research has furthered insight into hardiness and anxiety interpretation,
specifically looking at coping usage and the effectiveness of these coping
strategies (e.g., Hanton, Neil & Evans, 2012).The outcome of this research was
that high hardy individuals reported lower levels of worry and somatic anxiety and
higher levels of self-confidence than those low in hardiness. In addition, the
interaction of hardiness and anxiety direction on coping usage and effectiveness
was significant, as the study provided support for the idea that facilitative anxiety
interpretation through high levels of hardiness result in effective coping strategies.
Consequently, these findings are significant, as they represent that practitioners
should consider utilising hardiness training programs to reduce anxiety and
improve self-confidence.
5
2.4 Antecedents of Hardiness
Antecedents of hardiness have been examined within the business sector
(Khoshaba, 1990), where business managers with high and low levels of
hardiness were interviewed to find out the antecedents behind an individual
becoming hardy.
A few interesting results came from the paper on the
antecedents of a hardy individual. The first was hardy individuals had disruptive
early lives with high levels of stress. The second result was hardy individuals were
selected by their parents to be successful, putting pressure on them. However
these individuals accepted the role and worked hard to justify this faith that their
family had in them. These outcomes of the paper illustrated that there are certain
theoretical antecedents that can make an individual hardy. However, as there is
only one study on this topic, therefore more research is needed to verify these
assertions.
2.5 Hardiness with Burnout and Anxiety
Hardiness research has investigated the potential link between hardiness and
burnout. Research looked at the relationships between hardiness, stress, anxiety,
and burnout in a sample of 264 healthcare providers (Rowe, 1998). The results
identified that individuals experiencing burnout reported greater stress and
diminished hardiness. In general, the variables best predicting burnout were stress
and anxiety, not hardiness, and most individuals expressed some level of burnout.
However, the link between stress and burnout was greater for subjects who were
in the low hardiness group (n=93) than those subjects in the high hardiness group
(n=88), however a Fisher's Z-Statistic showed that these differences were not
statistically significant. These results show that hardiness has some positive effect
in reducing the chance of the onset of burnout, however the link is not significant
from this study and stress and anxiety predicted burnout to a larger degree.
Kelley, Eckland and Taylor (1999) considered how hardiness, gender, coaching
issues, social support and win/loss record affected stress and burnout in collegiate
coaches. The results showed that hardiness predicted levels of stress and
burnout, that even with high levels of stress the coping mechanisms of the hardy
individuals allowed them to avoid burnout. This symbolizes that hardiness can
6
reduce negative health outcomes like burnout, and if hardiness can be engrained
into individuals through hardiness training, burnout may reduce in this
environment.
The link between hardiness and the competitive trait anxiety response was
examined across a variety of competing levels in a variety of sports (Hanton et al,
2003). The research discovered that elite performers had lower anxiety scores and
had a more facilitative interpretation of the anxiety symptoms, and that the higher
hardy individuals in the elite section of the sample had lower levels of somatic
anxiety and more facilitative perception of the somatic anxiety. This represents
that hardy individuals appraise the situation as less threatening because of the
lower levels of anxiety, and they may then cope more effectively when
experiencing anxiety as they view it as facilitative. These results show hardiness
allows the performers to perceive their anxiety as more facilitative through seeing
the anxiety in a more functional manner, which means that this could have a
beneficial performance effect, however future studies would have to verify this
idea (Neil et al, 2012).
2.6 Hardiness and Performance
Maddi and Hess (1992) analysed the effect hardiness had on basketball
performance. They found that assists, shooting percentage and steals per game
improved with hardiness. However, the validity of this claim is questioned
because of the admittance of a non causal relationship in the paper, as harder pre
season training by the individuals could have caused this improvement in these
individual’s performance over the non hardy performers. This therefore suggests
that hardy individuals may train harder. This study exhibits that hardiness could
have an effect on sporting performance; however more testing of this hypothesis is
needed to prove it.
Research has looked at hardiness in relation to performance in the military, asking
if hardiness predicted success in US army special forces recruits, as the stress
levels of this occupation are very high (Bartone, Roland, Picano & Williams, 2008).
The results showed that graduates were significantly higher in their hardiness
scores compared with non-graduates. As a further check, logistic regression
7
confirmed hardiness is a significant predictor of success in the course (graduation)
(po.02). The obtained odds ratio of 1.033 indicates that for each 1-point increase
in hardiness scores, the probability of graduating rises by approximately 3.3%.
These findings show that hardiness has a positive effect on performance in a
military setting.
In 2012, a paper looked at the role of hardiness and grit in predicting performance
and retention of USMA cadets (Maddi, Matthews, Kelly, Villarreal & White, 2012).
The results of the study revealed that hardiness and grit predicted unique variance
in first year retention, but only hardiness predicted first year performance at
USMA. These findings suggest that hardiness assessment and training may prove
valuable in enhancing performance and retention within military training
environments. However, grit appears to be the most important of these variables
in predicting retention. Therefore, cadets who were retained were twice as likely to
have higher grit scores as compared with cadets who were released. The binary
logistic regression analysis showed that whole candidate score, hardiness, and
grit were each positive factors in retention. This suggests that the emphasis on
hardiness to learn from changes and pursue what makes sense thereby is
valuable in developing oneself toward becoming an effective military officer. These
findings indicate that hardiness along with grit has a positive effect on
performance and retention in military personnel.
2.7 Hardiness and Skill Level in Sport
Golby and Sheard (2004) tested if hardiness was an antecedent between different
levels of rugby league players (division 1, super league and international levels
were tested). The findings ascertained that the players playing at the highest
levels (international) had higher levels of commitment, control and challenge than
the other individuals in the study. An interesting further finding was that
commitment and challenge discriminated between the three playing standards to
the largest degree. These findings suggest that higher levels of performer (elite)
have higher levels of hardiness than lower standard performers, which means that
lower level athletes may need to improve their hardiness profile to get to higher
8
levels of sport. This research proves that hardiness to some degree distinguishes
between elite and non elite performers.
These researchers then followed up their previous study by examining the
potential of hardiness in differentiating elite-level sport performers, these
performers were drawn from 16 sport classifications instead of purely rugby
league players (Golby & Sheard, 2010). The results revealed that international
competitors scored significantly higher in commitment and total hardiness
compared to counterparts in each of the other three competitive levels, and they
scored higher in control in comparison to national and club performers when
adjustments were made for age, type of sport, category of sport, and gender.
These findings identify that a psychological profile that includes high levels of
hardiness appears to distinguish elite-level competitors from sub-elite performers.
However, it is important to recognize that commitment, control, challenge, and
total hardiness explain only 5%, 4%, 1%, and 5%, respectively, of the difference in
competitive standard. Therefore, relative differences in levels of hardiness among
sport performers in this sample explained less variance in competitive standard
than in the previous study by the authors (Golby & Sheard, 2004). These findings
suggest that hardiness still plays a role in differentiating between elite and nonelite athletes, however other factors need to be carefully considered to see how
they contribute to an athlete becoming elite.
2.8 Hardiness Training
Hardiness training was looked into to increase the personality hardiness of
managers at Illinois Bell Telephone Company. This is so that they will cope with
stressful circumstances by transforming them into something less stressful, this
was done in an attempt to decrease strain of these IBT managers (Maddi, 1987).
The hardiness training consisted of getting the managers to use transformational
coping methods through guided exercises. The results of this study found that
when hardiness training was used in IBT between 1984-1985, personality
hardiness and job satisfaction increased, whereas numerous indicators of mental
and physical strain decreased. These results show some support for the use of
hardiness training to increase hardiness in individuals. Especially as 6 months
9
after the hardiness training was over, hardiness did not decrease, in fact the
hardiness of the individuals increased after training was over. This may be
because hardiness is a set of general underlying attitudes, so these characteristics
should be slower to change than simple behaviours
Maddi, Khan and Maddi (1998) then further investigated the efficacy of hardiness
training with business managers. The participants were split into three groups, one
group focused on hardiness training, another on social support and the final group
on relaxation methods. Hardiness training included the use of transformational
coping through problem solving plans of action. The results ascertained that all
three groups increased levels of hardiness, however importantly the hardiness
specific group improved their levels of hardiness by three times the amount of the
other groups. The hardiness group reported lower levels of strain, and higher
perceived social support, this may be because hardy individuals see stressful
events as developmental and not debilitating experiences, and use their support
social sources in a more effective way. These findings significantly suggest that
hardiness training can improve levels of hardiness in business people, and may
be able to help in other domains like sport and the healthcare industry.
2.9 Aim of Study
In summary, predominantly hardiness has been shown as a positive construct in
relation to appraising and coping with stress. However to date there is no research
qualitatively investigating the thoughts and practical behaviours hardy individuals
engage in. The aim of the study was to ascertain the thoughts and behaviours that
hardy individuals engage in to help coaches and psychology practitioners engrain
hardiness into sports players. This could be achieved by helping practitioners to
use hardiness interventions by looking at the thoughts and behaviours of the
hardy individuals in this study to increase levels of hardiness in sports performers
through workshops in effective coping, and constructive appraisals of stressful
situations.
10
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
3.1- Stage 1- Participant Selection- Initial Selection
3.1.1 Participants
The participants consisted of 10 university players (n=7 males, n=3 females)
selected from the UWIC tennis team. The standard of the participants went from
playing at university level to county level. All participants provided informed
consent.
3.1.2 Instrumentation
3.1.2.1 DRS
The Dispositional Resilience Scale (DRS) (Bartone et al, 1989) is a modified
version of Kobasa’s (1979) hardiness scale, it was used to measure commitment,
control, challenge and overall hardiness levels. The response scale comprises 45
items about general life that people experience differently, with 15 items
representing each of the three subscales; five of these items being positively
phrased and ten being negative. Participants rated the perceived truthfulness of
the items on a 4-point Likert scale that ranged from 0 (not at all) to 3 (completely
true). Consequently, by summing subscale responses, each overall subscale
intensity score ranged from 0 to 45, with the total hardiness score ranging from 0
to 135.
Funk (1992) suggested the DRS to have several advantages over other scales,
such as the inclusion of equal item size within each component and the use of
more positive indicators. Funk also stated preceding scales that measured
hardiness with negative indicators may be inappropriate because it entails an
attempt to index high levels of one characteristic (e.g. control) through low scores
of another (e.g. alienation). The DRS has been found to achieve appropriate
levels of convergent validity and attain high internal consistency for the composite
score of hardiness and its subscales, with Cronbach alpha coefficients all being
above 0.85 for hardiness, 0.75 for commitment, 0.66 for control and 0.62 for
challenge (Bartone, 1989; Bartone et al.,1989)
11
3.1.3 Procedure
The DRS was completed at the end of a training session by 10 participants (n=7
males, n=3 females). Before completing the DRS questionnaire the participants
were guided on how to answer following the standardized directions based on the
guidance of Bartone et al (1989). These recommendations were based on the
confidentially of responses, this was employed to reduce social desirability, elicit
honesty and signify there were no correct or incorrect answers.
3.1.4 Data Analysis
These 10 individuals were reduced to 4 (n=3 males, n= 1 female) through their
composite hardiness score (being above 90), in line with the procedures of
previous research (e.g., Allred & Smith 1989; Hanton et al, 2003; Hanton et al,
2012). Interviewees were then determined through a median split of the total
hardiness variable (median value, 90), with those above being selected for
interview and the participants lower than 90 not selected for interview. These
individuals were then interviewed on tennis and general life in semi structured
interviews.
3.2- Stage 2- Main Study
3.2.1 Participants
Four tennis players comprising of three males and one female were selected
through their composite hardiness score (being above 90), these individuals were
then interviewed on their feelings towards tennis and general life in semi
structured interviews. The standard of the participants went from purely playing at
club level to county level. All participants provided informed consent.
3.2.2 Interview Guide
An interview guide provides questions or issues to be explored during an interview
(Patton, 2002). The interview guide was comprised through looking at previous
research into hardiness and observing the constant and salient themes like coping
methods (Maddi & Hightower, 1999), stress (Maddi & Zola, 1986) and reflection
(Khoshaba & Maddi, 1999). Whilst an interview guide encourages a methodical
and comprehensive process of collecting relevant information from participants, a
12
semi-structured approach to the interviews allowed for questioning to be flexible
(Kvale, 2007). This means the interviewer is given an opportunity to further
explore any relevant themes through probes to gather additional data on these
topics. With the semi structured interview composition being utilised alongside
probes, the resulting interview guide aimed to verify previous research on stress
and other relevant themes previously discussed and find new data. Following this
process, some of the questions were reworded so that participants would more
easily understand the questions and give data rich responses to them, for
example ‘what stressors do you find playing for UWIC?’ Was changed to ‘what do
you find stressful about playing for UWIC?’
3.2.3 Pilot Study
A pilot study was carried out to allow the interviewer to become familiar with the
interview guide and gain more confidence in interviewing individuals. Three people
were interviewed in the pilot interviews, two weeks before the interviews for the
study transpired. These individuals were a hockey player, a squash player and a
tennis player. The pilot study was carried out to check that the interview guide was
easy to understand, and allowed participants to provide their thoughts on the
topics in the interviews, for example to reword or omit questions from the study .
3.2.4 Procedure
Following an agreement to participate in the study, a convenient time and date
was arranged to conduct the interview. Forty eight hours before being interviewed
each participant was given the questions they were going to be asked to ensure
some level of preparation for the interview. This was carried out for two reasons,
firstly to increase the quality of the level of responses by giving the participants a
chance to think before the interview what matters they would discuss. The second
reason was to allow participants to avoid any questions they were not comfortable
answering, before each interview the researcher asked if the interviewee would
like any questions omitted from the interview. The interviews took place in private
study rooms to ensure privacy and no disruptions during the interviews. The length
of the interviews ranged from 28 minutes to 51 minutes.
All interviews were
recorded using a dictaphone with the participants permission. The recording of
each interview allowed the researcher to focus on participant responses and be
13
fully engaged with the interviewee (Gillham, 2000), instead of being sidetracked by
note taking. Interviews were later transcribed, so the data could be analysed.
3.2.5 Data Analysis
After the interview stage, the themes were depicted through firstly transcribing the
interviews by writing what the participants and the interview said, and then reading
them a few times to become familiar with the raw data generated (Bell, 1999).
Following this, a content analysis of the data was carried out to pick out themes
and group them together in a Microsoft Excel document by reading the transcripts
and picking out the relevant themes in relation to how hardy individuals appraise
certain situations, and then how they behave because of these appraisals. This
was then utilised to ascertain the significant themes of the study, these themes
were further scrutinised to check they reflected the interviews that were
conducted.
3.2.5.1 Validity and Reliability of Data Analysis
It is important that qualitative research is reliable and valid (Cresswell, 2007),
though qualitative designs offer in depth responses from participants, the results
may be misconstrued into incorrect findings. To make sure the transcripts
represented what the interviewees said in the interviews, the transcripts were sent
out to the participants to check the transcripts were accurate. The data was then
analysed with a triangulation technique, consequently findings from the study were
checked against previous research in addition to the number of participants who
discussed the topic.
14
CHAPTER IV
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Introduction
The aim of the present study was to investigate the appraisals and behaviours of
hardy university tennis players in match situations. Specifically, how these hardy
individuals used social support, engaged in reflection, interacted with stress, their
thoughts on courage and their use of psychological skills. The following chapter
will display the thoughts and behaviours of the sample interviewed through quotes
and discussion of the themes of the interviews, and then the results will be
discussed in relation to previous research. Practical implications of the findings will
then be considered for coaches and sport psychologists. The final sections will
include strengths and weaknesses of the study, along with future research
recommendations and a conclusion.
4.2 Hardiness and Committed Behaviours
Commitment is characterised by an individual being actively involved in their
environment and showing high levels of determination to meet their goals
(Kobasa, 1979). In this study commitment was considered in relation to the
manner in which an individual shows their dedication to tennis. The themes related
to commitment were going to the majority of training sessions and matches, going
for extra hitting sessions and showing high levels of effort at training sessions.
Subjects identified going to the majority of training sessions and going to extra
training sessions outside of those organised by the coaches as indicators of
commitment. Indeed, participant three revealed that he felt his high levels of
commitment through turning up to most training sessions and going for extra
hitting sessions as those set by the coaches of the team, ‘[commitment means]
turning up to training, I also try and hit [tennis balls] every week other than training,
I will hit two or three times a week depending on court availability’. Participant two
explained that he showed his commitment by going to every training session and
match, and additionally sorting out extra hitting sessions with a partner. He stated,
‘I always go to training, and train twice a week properly, and go for hits on other
sessions, and play every match’.
15
Additional behaviours related to commitment were showing high levels of effort
during training sessions and really focusing on the content of the session. This is
demonstrated by participant four:
I think commitment in training is hardly ever missing a session, I wake up
quite excited if I have a tennis session. During the sessions I will always
give my full concentration when a coach is giving me advice, talking to me
or when we are doing drills… I am really focused on what we are meant be
doing, so I guess I am really committed in that way.
The quotes provided suggest that hardy individuals show their commitment to the
sport of tennis by training at every opportunity, training outside of normal sessions,
and giving high levels of effort and focusing whilst in the training environment.
This is in line with the idea of committed hardy individuals get heavily involved with
their community and showing high levels of determination to reach their goals
(Kobasa, 1979). These findings also reflect research that has shown those who
achieve expert performance demonstrate high levels of commitment (Mcnamara et
al, 2010b).
4.3 Hardiness and Challenge
Challenge was described as a zest for life and living that leads to an individual to
see changes in life as exciting and opportunities for growth, instead of threatening
(Maddi & Kobasa, 1984). The main themes in relation to challenge to come out of
this study were the feeling that a change in content would be fine, if it improved
performance and the participants enjoyed the opportunity to challenge
themselves.
In relation to a change of content not being a problem, participant three revealed
that if training changed he would not be concerned if it improved his game:
I’ve always been in a situation where training changed every week, the only
example where it has been the same is when I changed my forehand
completely once so my coach spent a month with me doing forehand drills,
and towards the end of it I got fed up I just wanted to do different things. I
guess because I have always had change, it is what I am used to, but then
16
it depends, if it will improve my game doing the same drills I am happy to do
it.
Another important reason that makes tennis meaningful to the participants is that it
gives them the opportunity to challenge themselves. Indeed, participant three
talked about challenging his body as a source of enjoyment:
I know this sounds weird, but I just love pushing my body to the limit on the
tennis court, because I base most of my game on chasing balls down. I just
love the feeling of I shouldn’t have got that ball, but I got it, he knows I
shouldn’t have got it, so again it is another achievement in my eyes… It is
winning getting every ball.
Participant four talked about enjoying the challenge of improving his tennis game,
‘I really like the challenge of getting better and improving my game, yeah that
really makes it meaningful to me, when I can see the improvements in my own
game, seeing myself get better’.
This is indicative of individuals high in challenge as these quotes illustrate that
these individuals view challenging themselves as constructive and positive.
A practical example of a player enjoying the feeling of challenging themselves is
demonstrated by participant one:
I played a couple of weeks ago, and the first set was really tight and I
wasn’t playing my best because it was quite a tight match. Anyway it went
to a tie break at 6-6, at 4-4 in the tie break I went for a big second serve
which went in and was unreturned. I then went on to win that set and win
the second set 6-1. I think challenging myself to go for a big second serve
changed the match, as it helped me win the first and second sets more
easily.
These quotes also show that challenging yourself is a facet of the game that
makes the game meaningful to these three players. This is in line with Maddi and
Kobasa’s (1984) idea of challenge, as these individuals seemed to enjoy
challenging themselves in training and match situations to improve their game.
From a practical perspective, this information shows that hardy individuals enjoy
17
the feeling of challenging themselves, so coaches should set achievable but
testing goals and set up demanding drills in training to allow players to feel
challenged.
4.4 Hardiness and Social Support
Social support is a social interaction aimed at inducing positive outcomes (Bianco
& Eklund, 2001).
Informational support was utilised by four out of the five
participants in the study.
Social support was cited by four of the five participants to be beneficial in
improving weaker parts of their game. For example, participant five stated that the
captain of the team helped with the weaknesses in her game through functional
advice. She stated, ‘he’s told me how to build my fitness up to help me with my
performance, he told me the exercises to do’. Participant four was concerned
about the effectiveness of his backhand and saw it as a weakness, he then asked
a peer to help improve this through a conditioned game. Participant four disclosed:
I do remember speaking to one of the players actually, about how in a
match situation I seem to play it safe on my backhand, so instead of
attacking and hitting through the ball, I play a slice which is a safer shot,
which I won’t miss under pressure. Then I spoke to them saying I don’t
have the confidence in matches at the moment to play the more attacking
backhand that I am doing well in practice, so maybe when I get a bit more
tentative and nervous I pull out of it and end up taking the safer option and
hitting the slice. I actually worked with one of the players on it, we played a
practice match and we made a condition that I wasn’t allowed to take the
safer option if you like, so if I took the safer option during the match that
was the point over if it went in or not. I felt that really helped actually ...
Yeah it really gave me some confidence and I have been able to bring it
into matches since then.
These results are representative of previous literature that looked at social support
as an assistance tool (Kobasa & Pucetti, 1983; Bartone et al, 1989). Also, they
reflect the idea that a psychosocial shift occurs to social support from peers and
teammates instead of coaches and parents when an individual is at university, this
18
is because socialisation is an important part of the transition to university as
shown by the two players going to teammates for advice and assistance (Graber,
Brooks-Gunn & Peters, 1996). Practically, from this information coaches and
psychologists should try to assist players with their problems by advising them to
use social support from peers and teammates to deal with tennis related
problems.
4.5 Hardiness and Reflection
Learning from past experiences was also an important aspect of learning for the
participants. For example, learning from previous mistakes in past matches, and
how they would rectify the situation for the next time they had a match was cited
by four out of the five of the participants. Participant four stated that he has learnt
to improve his tactical awareness and utilise his time to relax and focus between
points more effectively for the future. Participant four stated:
I would take a little bit more time between points, I think my concentration
let me down a few times in the past, I think I just rushed into a point and
didn’t think and have a plan on how I was going to play the point before
serving or returning the ball… so upon reflection I realised my opponent
had quite an obvious weakness which I didn’t utilise enough. So really
trying to concentrate on how to use my strengths to hit to my opponent’s
weaknesses in future is something I will take time before I play a point
rather than rushing in.
Within reflection, participant five looked at the technical reasons behind making
unforced errors, and then looked at how to improve on these for the next match.
Participant five stated ‘when I have been making unforced errors I have thought
about why I am making them, so thought about my movement and not hitting spin
and then try to improve on that for the next match’.
These two examples display that hardy individuals reflect on their matches when
they have made noticeable errors in one or more areas of their performance, and
then formulate a plan on how to solve the problem so that it has less chance of
occurring in the future. This finding is supported by Khobasha and Maddi (1999)
who also found that hardy individuals learn from failures by analysing how they
19
can improve in subsequent efforts in similar activities. From an applied
perspective, these findings show that reflection looks to be a useful tool for tennis
player of this standard, as with self reflection, performance improvements are a
connotation of this practice (Rainer, Cropley & Adams, 2010). Therefore, coaches
and psychologists should try to persuade their players to engage in reflective
practice to learn from previous experiences to improve their game technically and
mentally for future performances. This is line with research that has looked at
expert performers being able to have realistic performance evaluations, in light of
being able to recognise weaknesses and work on them in addition to
understanding the factors behind good or bad performances (Mcnamara et al,
2010b).
An interesting finding was that two of the five participants used in game reflection
to improve on matches that they were struggling in. So, instead of reflecting after
the match and analysing what they did incorrectly, the participants reflected in
between sets or games to formulate a new game plan or adjust their tactics to
improve their chances of winning the match. For example, participant three
reported a time where he reflected on his serve and changed his game plan by
improving his first serve percentage to win his own service games by taking pace
off his serve to help him win the set:
With serve, against I think it was in the [team name] match when I was 5-1
down, I missed 4 out of 5 serves in a game, as most of the games went to
40, so I was missing a lot of first serves. I hit all first serves in the game that
I won to go to 5-2. Then when I reflected on it, I realised I hit 4 first serves, I
won the game by taking a bit of pace off and made sure I got every first
serve in. I think that won me the set, so yeah I guess that is an example.
Participant one changed their tactics by becoming more aggressive to dominate
and ultimately win the match. Participant one stated:
Yeah, with that example of the second serve in the tie break (mentioned
earlier), I was too defensive in the first set but then in the second set I was
more attacking as I thought I need to be more attacking and force him back.
I guess it helped with the second serve and winning the tie break, it gave
me confidence to change my game plan.
20
These two examples demonstrate that these hardy individuals have the ability to
realise when a situation is unfavourable, and more importantly how to rectify the
situation by changing their tactics within a match, instead of after the match.
A characteristic of hardy individuals is the fact that they learn from past
experiences (Khobasha & Maddi, 1999), this with their increased coping skills
mean that they can reflect to formulate an alternative game plan during the match
(Cropley, Hanton, Miles & Niven, 2010). Practically, coaches and psychologists
should attempt to induce players into utilising reflective practice to get to a level
where they can reflect in game to formulate a new game plan (Cropley et al,
2010). This would be incredibly beneficial as athletes could change their tactics
during a match, to maybe change the outcome of a match. This has occurred with
a sample from a study by Mcnamara et al (2010b) that has looked at the
development of expert performers, one of the characteristics of these performers
was being adaptable, so being able to change plans if necessary to meet the
demands of the situation.
4.6 Hardiness and Managing Stress from General Life
Stress is engrained within hardiness literature, with many studies looking at the
relationship between how individuals perceive and cope with stress (Bartone et al,
1989; Bartone, 1989; Kelley et al, 1999; Maddi, 1999). Consequently, this study
also considered the coping strategies of hardy performers during stressful
situations.
Hardy individuals seemed to develop coping strategies through life experiences,
one being exams. In the examples provided, the participants reported being
stressed when taking exams, but learnt to only focus on this stressor when trying
to address the problem. These examples illustrate that hardy individuals effectively
deal with stressful situations by separating themselves from the stressor when not
directly dealing with the problem.
The second strategy that was employed to cope with stressors was to
acknowledge circumstances that they couldn’t control. This was shown by
participant three, who’s grandmother died when he was young and he didn’t focus
on the situation, he stated ‘I just got on with it, as I couldn’t do much as I was
21
young, so I tried to get on with it. I tried to let my parents deal with it’. Participant
five discussed her father becoming disabled when she was young, and used a
similar coping strategy to not focus on it, she said ‘I just got on with it really, as
there is not much that can be done’.
These findings go along with previous research from Khobasha (1990) that looked
at early life disruptions as being causal antecedents for an individual becoming
hardy. This may because they have had to cope with a highly stressful situation
and deal with it in early life meaning other problems may appear more
manageable. The practical implication of this is coaches and psychologists could
integrate trauma type situations in training sessions to increase the coping skills of
the participants in these training sessions. This may increase the facilitative coping
skills of an individual to interpret situations in a functional manner and deal with
problems effectively. Resulting in the performer becoming mentally stronger
because of these stressful situations they have encountered, to give them
increased levels of motivation and focus on their sport (Mcnamara, Button &
Collins, 2010a).
4.7 Hardiness and Managing Stress from Tennis
The coping methods of the sample will be examined in this section in regards to
the stress they feel related to tennis. These coping methods include working
harder to deal with and overcome problems, using closure to forget poor past
performances, and keeping calm to reduce performance slumps.
Losing in tight matches helped two of the performers work harder to overcome the
issues that caused them to lose the match. Performer four talked about how he
attempted to improve on some of the facets of his game that let him down in the
match. He said:
I think there was areas of my performance that were letting me down in that
match, so I went back to training the next few days and really tried a lot
harder to improve these aspects. I have worked on my backhand and my
pre point routine so that I can focus on each point effectively. I practised my
pre point routine in practice matches at training and used a conditioned
game to improve my backhand.
22
Participant two discussed how he has made an effort to improve some aspects of
his game also. He stated:
I tried to work harder on improving my serve and be more positive in the big
points as I missed too many serves and was too defensive in the big points,
as I allowed the other guy to get control of the points and win them. So, I
specifically worked on serving when I went for hits and also worked on
being more attacking.
These two examples show that hardy individuals made a conscious effort to
improve certain parts of their game through focusing their extra hitting sessions on
these aspects of their game. This demonstrates that hardy individuals work harder
to alleviate stress and make the stressor manageable, working harder is a
transformational coping method that these tennis players used and in the context
of tennis. This is line with the idea of commitment, as working harder is in
accordance with an individual being actively involved in their environment and
showing high levels of determination to meet their goals (Kobasa, 1979).
Practically, research has found that increased effort was found to counteract the
potentially debilitating effects of competitive anxiety in tennis situations. Therefore,
practitioners and coaches should encourage and reward highly determined
players who display a lot of effort, as increased effort leads to higher levels of selfconfidence which means participants’ performances may improve through lower
levels of anxiety, and more facilitative interpretations of their anxiety (Wadey &
Hanton, 2008).
In relation to the concept of leaving poor tennis performances in the past, three of
the participants named this as a coping method. Participant two talked about
leaving it in the past and returning to training and enjoying it. Participant two said
‘yeah forget about it … and get back to training and try to enjoy it’. Participant
three revealed that disregarding a poor previous performance was a coping
method he utilised. Participant three said:
My dad came to me and said tomorrow is a different day, and said pick your
head up and play how you can play, which was really good for me, as I
have done the hard bit now talking to him, and we can overcome this.
23
These two examples show that closure is a common strategy employed by hardy
individuals, this may be to reduce stressful symptoms arising from the situation.
Keeping calm in match situations was revealed by four out of the five participants
as a technique to deal with the stress they feel in stressful match situations.
Participant two talked about keeping relaxed to decrease the likelihood of slumps
in your performance by saying:
When you’re losing it is harder, you have to stay composed. Number one
you don’t want to get angry and annoyed as it won’t help you. Also, you
don’t want your opponent to know you’re getting annoyed. So you need to
try and stay composed and relaxed and play your own game really.
Participant five talked about keeping relaxed to improve her performance also by
stating ‘I just try to calm myself down, as I if I get stressed or nervous I will play
rubbish. So calming myself down will help me play better’. These quotes
demonstrate that the sample interviewed believes that keeping calm and relaxed
will have positive performance outcomes. This ability to effectively deal with
stressors and regulate arousal under pressure is a key component of successful
athlete development (Côté, 1999).
The coping methods mentioned in this section are all of a transformational nature,
which previous literature articulates is the method hardy individuals use to cope
when operating in stressful situations (Maddi, 1999). Theoretically, forgetting
about a poor performance is not necessarily transformational, however as these
individuals also reflect on performances the majority of the time to plan how to
address a similar situation the next time it occurs, this makes it transformational
(Maddi & Hightower, 1999). Therefore, to leave poor performances in the past to
reduce stress about these performances is a positive behaviour to employ.
Keeping calm in match situations is a transformational coping behaviour, as it is
positive for performance and addresses the issue of getting over aroused in the
performance setting, which could be of detriment to the participants’ performance.
The ability to regulate arousal and stay confident in pressure situations is stated
as important for the development of athletes (MacNamara, Button, and Collins,
2010b). Therefore, practically relaxation methods should be utilised by
24
practitioners to assist in keeping an athlete calm in pressure situations, so they
can play to the best of their ability (Hanton, Mellalieu & Hall, 2004). In addition,
pressure on athletes to succeed should be carefully monitored, as with too much
pressure an athlete can get overstressed and negative health and performance
effects could occur.
4.8 Hardiness and Courage
Courage was a key theme that came from the interviews, in line with Maddi stating
‘it is my view that the combined hardy attitudes of commitment, control, and
challenge constitute the best available operationalisation of existential courage’
(Maddi, 1988), which means these hardy individuals in the sample may be
courageous as the two may perhaps be linked.
4.8.1 Courage and Appraisals
The main ways in which these performers perceive they are courageous generally
come from hitting risky shots, not being afraid to play anyone and lastly coming
back from a losing position to go onto win a tight match.
Three out of the five participants believed that hitting risky shots was a way in
which they exhibited their courage. Participant one revealed that hitting risky shots
is enjoyable because of the challenging nature of the shots. He said ‘by hitting
difficult shots, some people would say it was a rash shot... I like to think of it as a
challenge, and when it pays off it feels good’. Participant four talked about hitting
risky shots in match situations through having self-belief. He stated:
During the match having the courage to take on some shots that maybe
don’t always come off and still believing I can pull them off in a match
situation, so having the courage to go for them, and not taking the safe
option all the time, it’s usually more on my forehand though, like I
mentioned earlier I often take the safer option on my backhand.
These two examples show that hardy individuals are not fearful of hitting risky
shots in match situations through their high levels of self-belief and seeing these
shots as a challenge to hit. Consequently, both appraise these shots in a
functional manner.
25
Two of the participants named not being fearful of playing against performers that
are more highly ranked. Participant four described that he did not fear playing any
opposition, Participant four said:
I’m not afraid to play against anyone. I am quite courageous by challenging
anyone whether I know they are rated better than me, on paper they are
better than me but I still believe that I can beat them or give them a good
match, give them a run for their money so yeah I think that shows some
courage.
Participant three stated in a similar vein:
I always think that it is only on paper, I guess I thought I never produce my
best tennis, I can always play better. So when I was playing that match
against the county number 1, after a couple of games I was like it is only on
paper, figures are figures but it goes back to the whole walking out on court
and thinking you are the best, and it helps me get through these situations
These examples show that these individuals uses their high self-belief that is
associated with hardiness to perceive the match as a challenge, so in a functional
manner instead of a perceived threat.
Participant two named coming back from a losing position and going onto win a
closely contested match was an act that he perceived to display courage.
Participant two described showing composure and finishing off a match when the
opponent is of a similar ability, he said:
When you come back from a set down in a match when you shouldn’t
necessarily win or in a tight match, you show courage by showing
composure and confidence in the end... And when it gets tough in a match
and you can scrape through it, it shows quite a bit of courage.
This instance indicates that showing composure and self-confidence facilitates an
athlete to be courageous in match situations. The ability to regulate arousal and
stay confident in pressure situations is stated as important for the development of
athletes, especially as all the examples in the section are related to having high
self-belief (MacNamara et al, 2010b). Therefore, practically mental relaxation
26
methods linked in with confidence building techniques (e.g. verbal persuasion)
should be utilised by practitioners to help athletes develop to play to the best of
their ability (Hanton et al, 2004; MacNamara et al, 2010b). In a more general
sense these individuals perceive courage as hitting risky shots, not being afraid to
play anyone and coming back from a losing position to go onto win a tight match.
As a result of this, mental toughness interventions could be invaluable to allow
these players to think and behave in these courageous ways (Jones, Hanton &
Connaughton, 2002).
4.8.2 Sources of Courage
The sources of courage were professional players, parents and from within.
Participant four talked about trying to emulate the courage and self-belief
professional players showed in their matches. He stated:
I have been inspired by a few role models in the past. A few tennis players I
have watched over the years. Some professionals, just actually aspiring to
be like them, try and play some shots that they play and trying to show the
self-belief the professionals show in matches. They never give up until the
match is over, that shows a lot of courage.
This illustrates that this individual perceives professionals as having high levels of
self-confidence and self-belief which he admires and would like to possess.
Participant three talked about his father giving him the courage to think he can
achieve anything if you have the self-belief, he said in relation to where his
courage came from ‘my dad, he has always said that if you want to be the best at
something, nothing can stop you. So I thought if I want to be the best and believe I
am the best, it might happen’.
Two of the interviewees believed the courage came from within purely, but the
third talked about it coming from past experiences as well as from your personal
traits. Participant two stated:
I don’t know, I don’t think courage is something you can learn... I think it
comes from your traits and within really. You might come back from a
27
match and you can improve your mental toughness, but I feel courage is
something you can’t really work on, it is natural.
The meaning of this statement is that other people cannot assist in courage
development but tennis experiences can help build on personality traits, as
courage is an aspect of mental toughness (Jones et al, 2002).
The practical sources of courage cited by the participants appear to instil selfbelief and self-confidence into the players to help them be courageous in match
situations (MacNamara et al, 2010a).
4.8.3 Hardiness, Courage and Self-Confidence
The link between courage and hardiness has only been directly examined in one
previous paper (Woodard, 2004). The two variables were not found to correlate
with one another. However, in this study the link between courage and selfconfidence was examined to understand if there was any relationship between
them.
In relation to the link between courage and self-confidence, four out of the five
participants felt showing their courage improved their confidence levels.
Participant two talked about the courage to finish close matches by showing
composure, he said ‘especially using the courage to win a tight match... to give
you the confidence to know you can win these tight games, which is there for the
future’. Participant four revealed that not being afraid to play any opponent made
him feel confident. He stated:
[on feeling confident because of his courage] It does going into a match,
when you are about to play someone who on paper is a better player. I go
into a match with the feeling I have nothing to prove or lose, it does give me
a bit of extra self-confidence that I can just go out there and relax. I usually
play much better tennis because of this.
These two examples show that the performers’ levels of confidence increase
through displaying their courage in match situations.
However, participant five disclosed that the successfulness of hitting the risky
shots was a mediating factor in whether the performers’ levels of confidence
28
increased. She said in relation to hitting risky shots ‘if it works then yeah, but if it
doesn’t then no, it takes way confidence to be honest’. This represents that the
link between courage and confidence may originate from being confident enough
to display courage in match situations.
No research thus far has found any link between courage and self-confidence.
However, this study found a causal relationship between courage and selfconfidence, with four out of five participants believing possessing courage
improves their levels of confidence. The dynamics of the relationship between the
two variables seems to be that when an individual has high levels of self-belief,
self-confidence is exhibited by the performer by being courageous in match
situations, as there may be less fear of failing. This idea is supported by a
definition of existential courage, stating courage being secular with self-confidence
and life acceptance (Tillich,1952). This is particularly apparent as within the
sources of courage section, the sources of courage all supplied the individual with
self-belief. This finding signifies that if players are high in self-belief, courage in
match situations will be enhanced along with other positive attributes that previous
research has shown. Practically, coaches should try to instil self-belief into players
through discussing past performance accomplishments by the performer
(Bandura, 1977), and possibly set up high pressure practice matches so that
performers get the opportunity to show their courage by taking calculated risks in
these matches.
4.9 Hardiness and the Perception of Control
The methods in which the participants make themselves feel in control will be
analysed in this section. Control is concerned with an individual having the
perception that they manage their own actions and are not dictated to (Maddi,
1999). The main techniques to make the participants feel in control in match
situations were to focus on their own strengths to give themselves confidence and
to use self talk to improve their focus on the match.
Two of the participants mentioned using their strengths to make them self feel in
control in matches. Participant four talked about using his strength of getting balls
back in play and being consistent. He said:
29
I think I realised that I know how to make it really difficult for my opponent,
so that makes me feel I am in control. Although I will not always win with
this style of play if I can make one more ball than my opponent, I will win
that point, so yeah just by running balls down and making life as difficult as
I can for my opponent by not making mistakes, yeah that makes me feel in
control.
Participant one talked about using his strengths in a very different manner, but as
he is more comfortable being an attacking player the theme is similar. He stated:
Being quite attacking... usually most of the time unless you come up
against a really good player that’s too good, that will work. So if I have a
good day I accept I might win, but if I lose it is by making too many
mistakes it still means the match is still in my hands if I win or lose it.
These two examples show that hardy individuals acquire confidence from mentally
recalling their strengths to feel in control in match situations. These instances are
in line with previous research that suggested that hardy individuals have an
internal locus of control (Kobasa, 1979), this is shown as these behaviours in
matches allow the performer to keep an internal locus of control. Practically,
coaches should get players to focus on their strengths and how they can utilise
them in preparation for matches, as well as getting the athletes to recall these
strengths in match situations to provide them with higher levels of self-confidence
and self-belief to increase their perception of control in match situations (Bandura,
1977).
4.10 Hardiness and Psychological Skill Use
The use of psychological skills was mentioned by all of the participants with the
two skills cited being self talk and the use of goal setting. In a sporting context,
Orlick (1996) highlighted that research has established the effectiveness of
employing psychological skills (e.g., goal setting, self talk) in dealing with difficult
times, for instance losing in a match situation.
Four out of the five participants stated that they engaged in goal setting to focus
on their performance. Participant two revealed that he tried to use process goals
to keep the successfulness of the goal under his control:
30
I do not use outcome goals, but try and make every ball and see what
happens. Not necessarily think about winning this game and the next game
because that depends on your opponent. But if you say I’m not going to
miss a ball, it is under your control. So I use process goals, to keep it under
my control.
Participant three talked about enjoying using goals to challenge himself, he stated
‘I like challenging myself and setting loads of goals to keep myself motivated to
improve on certain parts of my game’. These quotes show that hardy individuals in
this sample like to use goals to keep themselves focused in matches, or keep
themselves motivated to improve in tennis by challenging themselves to complete
these goals.
Self talk was also cited by the participants, with four out of five of the participants
disclosing that they use self talk. Participant three disclosed that he used self talk
to keep himself calm and focused, he stated:
I struggle quite a lot with my backhand because I come up on it too much
so I always tell myself to ‘drive through the ball’ and ‘one more ball, hit one
more ball in play’, just things like that. Then on change of ends because I’d
get quite angry whilst playing I say to myself ‘you need to calm down’ and
‘you might get too aroused and do stupid things’.
Participant one talked about using self talk to motivate yourself by using
motivational phrases, he stated ‘when you say ‘come on’ to yourself during a
match, or in a big point you say to yourself ‘get the ball in’ or ‘make him play a
shot’ that is sort of self talk’. These two examples demonstrate that these
performers use self talk to help improve focus in technical aspects of their
performance, to control their motivation and decrease their chances of over
arousal.
The psychological skills of goal setting and self talk were used to calm the
participants down, keep them focused on the match as well as motivate them,
which is in line with previous anxiety research (Hanton & Jones, 1999).
In a
practical sense, coaches should facilitate athletes focusing in matches and
keeping motivated through psychological strategies like positive self talk and goal
31
setting, as both of these techniques suggest that they positively develop athletes
and quite possibly improve performance.
4.11 Strengths, Limitations and Further Research
A strength of the study is that it was the first study of its kind to examine the
thoughts and behaviours of hardy individuals through a qualitative approach. The
semi structured interview guide allowed the interviewer to investigate, in-depth, the
numerous techniques, behaviours and appraisals of these hardy tennis players. A
limitation of the study is that as the researcher was a novice interviewer, some of
the themes were not as well explored as they may have been by a more practised
interviewer. A more experienced interviewer may have been able to extract the
intricate details of the thoughts and experiences of the participants, as a few of the
themes were not fully explored for all the participants, so a limited understanding
of some of the themes of the study occurred. Future research needs to conduct a
similar study and explore the themes investigated in this study to confirm them.
A limitation of the study comes from the method that participants were selected for
interview. Funk (1992) suggested that hardiness levels should be determined
through identifying those who are high and low in commitment, control, and
challenge separately, not through the composite score of hardiness. However,
Bartone (1989) stated that the separate analysis of commitment, control, and
challenge is instructive, but outlined hardiness to be a more powerful discriminator
of health than its three components. In addition, such an approach would require a
larger pool of players to find players with high scores for all three subcomponents.
Interviewees were determined through a median split of the total hardiness
variable (median value, 90), with those above being selected for interview and the
participants lower than 90 not selected for interview. This idea is shared by
numerous researchers as their split of high hardy participants reflected this (Allred
& Smith 1989; Hanton, et al, 2003; Hanton et al, 2012). Future research should
user larger pools of participants so that the individuals in these samples have high
levels of all three components of hardiness, to increase the validity of the
research.
A progression in this study from previous research is that the appraisals and
behaviours in match situations were explored qualitatively, which has not occurred
32
previously. Consequently, details of behaviours that hardy individuals engage in
as well as their interactions with stress, the three sub components of hardiness
and others hardy behaviours are exposed in this study. These findings provide
sport psychologists with information on the behaviours and appraisals in practical
situations of hardy university level tennis players. From this information, they have
a better opportunity to engrain hardiness into players through hardiness
development interventions with tennis performers and possibly generic sports
performers. However, a limitation of the study was that qualitative research
generally allows the researcher to evaluate answers from samples of a small size
and as a result of this the findings have restricted generalisability (Patton, 2002).
Participants in the study were all selected from one university tennis team
because this gave the researcher high levels of availability of the participants,
therefore interviews could be conducted at an early stage of the research process
to allow the results and discussion to be completed thoroughly. However as the
participants in the sample were of a similar nature to one another, the results are
mainly applicable to these university level tennis players. Future research should
focus on the appraisals and cognitions of a wider range of sports people, therefore
research should look at how individuals from different sports behave and appraise
situations in their sport. This would increase the applicability of the findings in this
study, as different samples may lead to different findings.
4.12 Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the thoughts and behaviours of hardy
university tennis players in relation to the three components of hardiness
(commitment, control, challenge), social support, managing stress, reflection,
courage and the use of psychological skills. The study confirmed previous
research in hardiness through illuminating the coping methods associated with
hardiness. The study also confirmed previous research on effective reflection, the
use of social support and the use of psychological skills. In addition, the current
study showed how there was a link between self-confidence and courage, with
self-belief allowing performers to show their courage on court, especially if they
had a strong role model who increased their levels of self-belief. Developmental
learning was shown by engaging in reflection and learning from others through
social support, interestingly two of the participants used in game reflection to
33
change their tactics, showing adaptability. Finally, the source of social support
mainly came from peers, as the participants perceived their peers to have the
most relevant tennis experience. Therefore, the participants went to peers for
informational advice.
34
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39
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
INTERVIEW GUIDE
1. In early life can you describe a stressful time?

How did you and your parents respond to this?

What did you do to overcome this?
2. In early life and throughout adolescence, what jobs did you parents have?

Did your family have any financial struggles in this time?

How did your family cope with it, in particularly your parents?

Were you picked out from your family and given additional praise?
3. Can you describe the most stressful situation you faced in the previous
tennis season?

What made the situation stressful?

How did you cope with this situation?

Why did you do this?
4. Do you find playing for UWIC stressful?

What parts of it do you find stressful?

Why do you find these parts stressful?

How did you cope with this?

Why did you do this?
5. If you have a tennis issue, who would you go to? Why?

Would you go for informational support or emotional support?

What exactly would you expect from this source?
6. In what ways do you show your commitment to the game of tennis?

Are there times when you do not feel very committed to tennis?

How do you keep yourself going to training

How do you keep yourself giving effort?
40
7. What aspects of the game of tennis make the game meaningful to you?
Why?

What parts of training/matches do you find less interesting?

How do you make yourself engage in these aspects of the game?
8. You have scored high in control, which means you feel you have control
over the situations you face

How do you keep yourself feeling in control during a match? (for
example down two sets to one)

Why do you use these methods?
9. What importance do you place on morals, values and goals in general life?

What morals do you have in regards to tennis?

Who inspired these morals in yourself?
10. How do you feel about change regarding tennis?

Do you enjoy you having a set, routine for all of the season?

What is appealing about having this routine? Why?

What is unappealing about having this routine? Why?
11. How many injuries have you had in the past 5 years?

Can you describe each of the injuries shortly?

How did you find the rehab experience of the injuries in general?

How did you get through the rehab experience, what types of
support did you use? Who were they?

How did you learn from these experiences?
12. Courage is associated with hardiness, you are high in hardiness

In what ways do you show courage regarding tennis?

Where do you believe this courage comes from

Did this give you extra self-confidence and worth?
41
13. Hardy Individuals learn from experiences, can you comment on this in
relation to yourself

Can you give an example when under high pressure?

How do you stay committed during a match?
42
APPENDIX B
TRANSCRIPT FOR PARTICPANT
ONE
Interviewer: In early life, can you describe a stressful time?
Participant: Probably A levels
Interviewer: What about it did you find stressful?
Participant: Umm just like the workload because it is quite a step up from GCSEs,
and i cruised through GCSEs and the work got harder at A levels which I wasn’t
expecting and found it hard to adjust
Interviewer: How did you respond to it?
Participant: Umm I saw it as a challenge, umm ye to start off with it was quite hard
and i wasn’t too keen on it but then I tried harder and then got into it and found it
was alright
Interviewer: So you put your mind to it?
Participant: Yep
Interviewer: When it was hard how did you got down about it?
Participant: Umm, yeah I didn’t get down about it even though it was hard, I took
my mind off it by doing other things, probably did other things except work like
sports and went back to it and tackled it again
Interviewer: What did you do to overcome the times when it was difficult?
Participant: Umm I worked a bit harder, i didn’t do anything too hard to overcome it
but I made sure I did the work a bit better and it paid off in the end
Interviewer: In early life and throughout adolescence was jobs did your parents
have?
Participant: Umm my dad is and was a PE teacher, and my mum is and was a
primary school teacher
Interviewer: Did you have financial struggles growing up?
Participant: No
Interviewer: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
43
Participant: Yes one sister
Interviewer: With your tennis do you believe you were given any extra attention or
praise through it over your other siblings?
Participant: Umm from my dad maybe, and because he was a PE teacher and into
his sport, and he always made sure that I was at training and if I wanted to go to
training he would give me the option to by paying for it or giving me a lift. But ye
my maters like football, football he was in to and i played football and then I played
tennis and he was interested in that and I guess he gave me a bit more attention
Interviewer: Can you describe the most stressful situation of the last tennis
season?
Participant: Probably ummm playing doubles with [name], because he is awesome
and I felt the pressure to do well and not let him down as he is a better standard,
and the players we were playing were pretty good as well, so everytime I played
with him I felt I didn’t want to let him down
Interviewer: So you didn’t want to be the weak link?
Participant: No I didn’t want to be the weak link
Interviewer: How did you cope with this?
Participant: Umm, I just stayed relaxed and do everything i could to do everything
right i possibly could
Interviewer: So focus on your own performance?
Participant: Yes, I wasn’t too aware of him, and ye control what i could do in the
match
Interviewer: Do you find anything about playing for UWIC stressful?
Participant: No, not really ummm I’m quite laid back in that way... the lads the
other day were joking around because I don’t show much emotion. Like last year
at the awards I got the most emotionless player and they were taking the mick
because I don’t get too angry and show too much emotion
44
Interviewer: Going back to playing with [name] in doubles, why focus on your own
game?
Participant: That’s the only thing I can control, there is no point on focusing on
other things out of your control as you can’t change them
Interviewer: Any other parts you find stressful?
Participant: No, not stressful
Interviewer: If you have a tennis issue who would you go to?
Participant: Umm, if I had one I would go to [name], who is the tennis co-ordinator
and is top guy.. a really nice guy to talk to and he basically sorts out the tennis
here
Interviewer: Would you go to him for emotional support?
Participant: No, I don’t really have any problems that I need help with like that
Interviewer: If you had any problems would you go to your family?
Participant: If it was really serious ye I might go to them, but I would probably just
deal with it myself
Interviewer: For informational support would you got [name] for informational
support then?
Participant: Yes, I would, he is helpful
Interviewer: Have you got any specific example of him helping you?
Participant: Umm, ye he sorts out training on Sunday and I ask him if I can have a
hit and if he can sort out a court to have a hit on. Or there was a coaching course
yesterday and I went to him if I could sign up to it
Interviewer: Ok that’s fine, umm what do you expect from him?
Participant: I expect ummm... I am 99% sure if I wanted information to do with
UWIC tennis he would know because it all goes through him
45
Interviewer: Ok, with the informational support, any examples of [name] helping
you with your technique or tactics?
Participant: Ummm I guess in training [name] (the coach) sets out these drills
which make me think, but make me think tactically
Interviewer: Ok, in what ways do you think you show your commitment to tennis?
Participant: Umm, I play every match and turn up to them, that’s about it really
Interviewer: What about training, do you go to every training?
Participant: No, we have fitness on Monday mornings but I go home most
weekends and come back Monday morning after the fitness starts, so I often miss
that, and on Friday morning I miss sometimes as I have a lecture near that time
that sometimes overruns meaning I can’t make it, if I could go to them I would
Interviewer: Ok, that’s absolutely fine, ummm are there any times you don’t feel
very committed to tennis?
Participant: Yes quite a lot, I know I could well.. I was saying with the training i
could probably make more effort to go to fitness on the Monday morning, and it is
easier to get the train back on Mondays.. yeah I guess.. yeah people say on court
it doesn’t look like I’m trying my hardest but.. sometimes I don’t try my hardest.. it’s
just the way i am I am more relaxed and gives off the impression that i am not
really bothered about it
When you don’t feel committed to tennis, how do you make yourself go to training
anyway?
Umm it’s just physical activity, like university is quite like unhealthy sometimes so I
need to keep fit and I see it that way
Interviewer: Do you think about keeping up the levels of the game and long term
development?
Participant: Yes definitely, I like to keep going to improve my game. And without
playing football anymore I like to keep myself playing sport, so going to tennis is
important for me
46
Interviewer: If you go to training and don’t feel like it how do you make sure you
give 100% effort?
Participant: Ummm, I guess just focus on what the training goal is and make sure i
am getting involved and give my best at the whole point and give my best in the
drills
Interviewer: Is there any reason you do this?
Participant: Ummm, well then if I give 100% effort I can’t do anything more and I’m
rewarded, and if you don’t try you won’t get much out of it
Interviewer: Do you think about the long term when you’re not in the mood?
Participant: Yes, you want to keep up to a certain standard and I’m always trying
to improve really, and to be honest to keep healthy
Interviewer: Ok umm what aspects of tennis make it meaningful to you?
Participant: Hitting, ummm hitting really hard shots, like challenging yourself to hit
shots that most other people can’t do, like fancy shots... like serving aces, winning
matches, stuff like that
Interviewer: Any parts of training you find less interesting?
Participant: Uhh, the fitness side of it and the drills, I prefer match play
Interviewer: Uh, ok, why do you find these parts less interesting?
Participant: Umm I guess with drills aimed at consistency this isn’t really how I play
as my game isn’t really about consistency, there are people in the tennis team
who love rallying and hitting balls but that’s not me and don’t enjoy that at all, most
of the rallies i play are not very long as I like to finish off the point quickly
Interviewer: Is there any parts of matches you find less interesting?
Participant: Uhh no not really, I enjoy playing matches as they are quite fun, it’s a
good chance to see where your game is at versus other people
Interviewer: How do you make yourself engage in the aspects of tennis you find
less interesting, aka consistency drills?
47
Participant: Uhh I know my game is not consistent and in times in tennis you need
to be consistent, it’s just an area to improve as it is a weaker area of mine, even if i
don’t enjoy the drills as much I do need to work on it
Interviewer: You scored high in control which means you feel you have control
over situations you face, in a match situation how do you keep yourself feeling in
control?
Participant: Uhhh, I guess being quite attacking... usually most of the time unless
you come up against a really good player that’s like too good but most of the time
it is about how I play, so like if I have a good day I accept I might win but if I lose it
is about me making too many mistakes so the match is still in my hands if I win or
lose it
Interviewer: Ok, have you got any examples of being a set down or similar, what
type of things you think about to keep yourself in control?
Participant: Ummm quite recently i was a set down but this guy i was playing was
quite a big guy so I though the longer the match goes on i can tire him out so I
was playing drop shots and moving him about and made a comeback but if I’m
playing an opponent who is too good a match might get away from me but I feel I
can still come back from a set down because I do feel confident about turning it
around, say if I wasn’t playing too good I would tighten my game up and hopefully
play better in the second set and come back
Interviewer: Would you change your tactics?
Participant: Yes, if I was missing too many easy shots I would be more consistent,
and if I wasn’t being attacking enough be more attacking
Interviewer: Do you use any psychological methods like self talk?
Participant: Ummm when you say ‘come on’ to yourself during a match, or in a big
point you say to yourself ‘get the ball in’ or ‘make him play a shot’ that is sort of
self talk
Interviewer: Ok, that’s fine, what importance do you place on morals and values in
general life?
48
Participant: Uh well quite highly I think, I just think it is good to have good morals
and be polite and have a good attitude and be a good person really
Interviewer: Ok, that’s good, what morals do you have in regards to tennis?
Participant: Uhh I guess sportsmanship, to be a fair player. So no cheating, ye
play fairly and be a good loser
Interviewer: So not calling the ball out when it is in?
Participant: Ye, you get some people who on a big point will cheat but I’ve done it
in the past and rarely. I felt awful about it so it is not worth it, so if you are good
enough to win you win by your ability and not cheating
Interviewer: Do you engage in any gamesmanship?
Participant: Umm it depends on what the opponent is like, if the opponent is a nice
player and person I would be fair... if he was too arrogant or cheating I will try to
frustrate the player with annoying shots like a drop shot and then lobbing him to
make him run around and acing people to annoy my opponent to get them
flustered
Interviewer: If they were playing well would you slow down your game or take
longer on the serve or anything like that?
Participant: No not really... I’m quite quick between points and to keep going and if
they are playing too good, they are playing too good
Participant: Ok, ummm who inspires these tennis morals in yourself?
Interviewer: Ummm I guess Nadal and Federer in tennis for their sportsmanship
and they are the top guys and they play fairly, and in general from my parents
Interviewer: Ummm, has anyone else inspired it?
Participant: Back at home I don’t get coached anymore, but my ex coach quite
often taught me how to conduct myself on court... when I was 13 or 14 I used to
be I used to throw my racket a lot and get angry and shout and snapped a few
rackets and lots of people talked to me about it, I think that’s why I’m relaxed now
because I don’t see the point in getting angry now
49
Interviewer: Did your coach say something to you about it?
Participant: Ye, he had words with me, he sat me down ... there has been times
when I had a lesson.. I’ve just lost my head he just sat me down and had words
with me... the manager of the club threatened to ban me from the club
Interviewer: Did your coach say anything in particular?
Participant: Ye he said something about one of his other players who was similar
in the anger and he told me that the player realised if he saw himself playing he
thought about how he would react, and from the outside I must of looked like a
complete idiot so I stopped doing it as it wasn’t worth it
Interviewer: Ok, umm how do you feel about change regarding tennis, so in
regards to the schedule of training (as in Monday always being forehand and
Fridays always fitness etc, do you enjoy this set routine)
Participant: No not really, if it was a routine I wouldn’t mind that but if there was
change I would not be bothered, I’m fairly laid back about it, whatever the coach
feels is right, that is fine
Interviewer: Ok, if they changed the days of the training sessions would you care?
Participant: I wouldn’t mind, that wouldn’t be a problem for me
Interviewer: Ok umm what do you enjoy about having a set routine?
Participant: I guess you know what to expect, you know what you are going to
work on, so you might set your own goals on what you want to achieve in the
session, because you know what you are working on
Interviewer: Umm, what is unappealing about it?
Participant: I guess it might get a bit boring, I get bored quite easily if they change
it regularly I will keep more focused
Interviewer: Umm, so would you like to keep the structure of days but change the
Participant: content within the session?
50
Yes that would be good, as you are working on the main shots but working on
different areas of the shot, as I said I would be easy with anything the coach
decides, ye work on whatever
Interviewer: Why do you not mind what the coach prescribes to you?
Participant: Umm I don’t know really, even if I wasn’t happy about it I wouldn’t
speak up about it because I’m not really like that, I’m quite a quite person and I
don’t really speak my mind, I’m not really fussed about stuff like that, like I said if
there is something set I will just try to do that to the best of my ability... when it
comes down to it, it is all about matches and in matches I back myself to deliver in
matches
Interviewer: Is it because you trust what the coach says, do you have belief in their
skills?
Participant: Ye, I think at this age most of the players know the technique and how
to play a tennis match, I think it is just practising matches, I think there is certain
areas of technique you can still improve but mainly it is to do with practising
matches really and stuff like that
Interviewer: Match day decisions?
Participant: Ye
Interviewer: Ok, have you had any injuries in the past five years?
Participant: Ye, I had a problem with my hand like umm the muscle between my
thumb and finger just hurt, it still isn’t properly healed , when I hit a certain shot it is
very painful to hold the racket so playing the backhand slice is painful to play, it
comes and goes
Interviewer: Have you had any injuries that have kept you out for any time?
Participant: Um actually no not really, I had an operation that kept me out for 6
weeks because of appendicitis, it got taken out and it was 4 months ago, it kept
me about for about 6-8 weeks
Interviewer: Coming back from that, did you find it frustrating at all?
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Participant: Ye because I wanted to play sport as I am quite an active person and i
wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity as I couldn’t really walk without being in
pain, in terms of tennis I went back too early as I was still in pain playing some
shots, I felt really lazy
Interviewer: Umm, with the coming back, did you have to use any support
emotionally?
Participant: No, it didn’t affect me, it was frustrating as I wanted to play but I knew
if you have an operation you will be out for a certain amount of time but no I didn’t
need any emotional support
Interviewer: So you didn’t talk to any friends or family?
Participant: No not really, it’s just one of those things
Interviewer: Umm, did you learn anything from the time off?
Participant: Ummm I learnt I came back too quickly, and how much I enjoy tennis
and sport when you are not playing, like when you’re watching it on tv you just
want to get out there and play it
Interviewer: Why would you not come back too early?
Participant: It is ok with small injuries like my hand injury but with something like
having an operation and having holes in your stomach it is dangerous to come
back too early as the muscle around the main part of your body is still healing, if
any damage is caused it could cause internal bleeding, which is serious, I would
give it a bit longer
Interviewer: Umm ok, courage is associated with hardiness, in what ways do you
believe you show courage regarding tennis?
Participant: Ummm by hitting difficult shots, like some people would say it was a
rash shot... but I just find it quite fun hitting a difficult shot and I like to think of it as
a challenge and when it pays off it feels good
Interviewer: Can you give an example of a shot people think is difficult?
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Like when you have a second serve, i like to hit my second serve quite hard, I get
a few aces from my second serve, now again you will double fault but sometimes
if it is a really big point and they are not expecting a big second serve then I see it
is quite fun and I feel it is a game with yourself... you know you shouldn’t go for it
but I find it quite fun to test yourself and go for it with the big second serve
Interviewer: So you enjoy challenging yourself?
Participant: Ye, ye I enjoy hitting risky shots that you probably shouldn’t go for, I
find it quite fun
Interviewer: Umm, is there anything else you think that shows your courage in
tennis?
Participant: Umm I can’t really think of anything
Interviewer: That’s fine, with the risky shots do you have any examples in match
when you’ve done it against anyone?
Participant: Ummm ye I played a couple of weeks ago, and the first set was really
tight and I wasn’t playing my best because it was quite a tight match, anyway it
went to tie break at 6-6, at 4-4 on the tie break i went for a big second serve which
went in and was unreturned and went on to win that set and win the second 6-1, I
think it changed the match it helped me win the first set and win the second set
more easily
Interviewer: Where do you believe this courage comes from?
Participant: Ummm, I’m not sure really, with anything I ever do, is always have a
confidence in myself I can do a lot of things, like I don’t know with whatever I do I
feel confident I can do it and I don’t know really
Interviewer: Is there any source you can think of, like your coach, or your family or
your peers?
Participant: Ummm I guess just past experiences of executing the shots
Interviewer: Ok, that’s good, does showing your courage give you extra
confidence?
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Participant: Ye, if you’re feeling confident enough to hit the shot and it goes in you
feel good and it will give you extra confidence
Interviewer: Is it quite cyclical?
Participant: Ye, then it will give you confidence to go for more big shots and
confidence to win
Interviewer: Hardy individuals learn from experiences, can you comment on this in
relation to yourself?
Participant: Umm ye I guess if there’s like a big point and I made mistakes in the
past, like if I play too defensive in a big point or just got the got the ball in and they
have been able to attack and win the point. I will say to myself I need to try and
get control of the rally from the return or from the serve, so basically get control of
the point
Interviewer: Do you have any specific examples of this?
Participant: Ye, with that example of the second serve in the tie break (mentioned
earlier), I was too defensive in the first set but then in the second set I was more
attacking as I thought I need to be more attacking and force him back, and I guess
it helped with the second serve and winning the tie break it gave me confidence to
change my game plan
Interviewer: So you reflected and thought of the game plan whilst playing?
Participant: Ye, when I was playing during the set. I decided after the second
serve to play more attacking, I hit a big shot to on set point to win the set. Before
the second set I made a conscious effort to be more attacking in the second set,
as this would win the match for me
Interviewer: If an opponent is much better than you, how do you keep yourself
staying committed in match?
Participant: Umm if the opponent is too good it is quite good as there is no
pressure, as you can just go for your shots, you end up playing better against
better players of a better standard; you see how many games you can get off
them, so you try to get 3 games in this set for example
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Interviewer: So you set yourself goals to keep focused?
Participant: Yes, I mainly try to hold my serve to make sure I stay in the match
Interviewer: Thank you, I think that is it
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APPENDIX C
QOUTES NOT INCLUDED IN THE
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
SECTION
Challenge Appraisals
Participant one: When you have a second serve, I like to hit my second serve
quite hard, I get a few aces from my second serve, now again you will double fault
but sometimes if it is a really big point and they are not expecting a big second
serve then I see it is quite fun and I feel it is a game with yourself... you know you
shouldn’t go for it but I find it quite fun to test yourself and go for it with the big
second serve.
Using Social Support to Improve on Weaknesses
Participant two: Uhh, I’ve always like.. My serve is not always amazing and like... i
quite often go to mates and ask what’s happening and get some advice and try to
like do what they say really
Participant three ’veah asked him in doubles what I should be doing every now
and again I guess, what I am doing wrong, and umm he is like give me examples
and I say I cut across too much and play more like a singles player than a doubles
player so ye I have before matches but that is probably about it
Learning from Past Mistakes
Participant one: Umm ye I guess if there’s like a big point and I made mistakes in
the past, like if I play too defensive in a big point or just got the got the ball in and
they have been able to attack and win the point. I will say to myself I need to try
and get control of the rally from the return or from the serve, so basically get
control of the point
Participant three: Every match is an experience, every match I play I look back
and think right why didn’t I win, like maybe hitting too many first serves into the net
because I am trying to hit it too hard. So in the next match I will think about it and
try to improve on it. I always reflect on everything I do, it is usually when I am
laying in bed, I hate it because I want to lay in bed and I want to sleep, but the
next day I’ll try to apply it
Courage- Hitting Risky Shots
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Participant five: Ok, ummm depending on how I’m doing if I’m fired up I will always
just try and smack winners, is that what you mean, like going for risky winners. I
don’t do it that much
Goal Setting Used
Participant one: (on being asked, so you set yourself goals to keep focused) Yes, I
mainly try to hold my serve to make sure I stay in the match
Participant five: (on being asked if they use goal setting) I used to, I don’t
anymore, I used to have them for each match I had
Self Talk
Participant two: I do always like use self talk, not always in a positive way... try to
keep yourself, more so when you’re winning...try to keep focused...one point at a
time
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