2Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-koen, Kasuga-City, Fukuoka, Japan
3Factory of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-koen, Kasuga-City, Fukuoka, Japan
Keywords: Posttraumatic growth (PTG); stress-related growth (SRG); negative experiences; crisis; turning point
In examining previous studies on the yips, it becomes apparent that most studies have focused on the factors causing the onset of the yips and the coping methods for dealing with these factors. The factors that could cause the onset of the yips are mainly neurological factors such as task-specific focal dystonia [13] and psychological factors such as reinvestment (e.g., [14]). Additionally, the coping methods used to treat the neurological aspects of the yips that have been effective include solutionfocused guided imagery (SFGI, a form of imagery therapy [15], cognitive behavior modification [3], botulinum toxin injections [16], and acupuncture [17].
Thus, studies on the yips have investigated the factors involved in its onset and the methods for coping with it. This context suggests that the yips is a difficult-to-treat condition and a danger for athletes, which brings with it the risk of them dropping out of competitions [11,18]. For example, Marquardt [19] reported that many athletes suffer from the yips and that those who have experienced the onset of the yips notice an exacerbation in their symptoms the more they try to escape the problem. Moreover, Milne and Morrison [20] and Smith, et al. [2] stated that the psychological anguish caused by the yips is very intense, and they referenced players losing their careers depending on the situation. As this has a huge impact on such athletes, the experience of the yips is highly detrimental in sports settings.
Clinical psychology and positive psychology studies have reported that negative experiences in life accompanied by a psychological struggle or conflict have an impact in the form of depression, anxiety disorders, and stress on individuals who experience them. However, these fields have also reported that such experiences can become an opportunity to achieve psychological growth [21]. For example, posttraumatic growth (PTG) is a representative concept that explains this psychological growth that accompanies these sorts of negative experiences [22]. PTG is defined as “the subjective experience of positive psychological change reported by an individual as result of the struggle with trauma” ([23], p. 628). Another concept that is known as widely as PTG is stress-related growth (SRG). LoSavio, et al.[24] reported that psychological growth can also be spurred by stressful experiences when there is confrontation in everyday life such as a conflict with a friend, family member, or significant other or in the case of poor performance at school or work.
Moreover, in recent years, experts in sport psychology have taken note of such concepts [25,26]. For example, Sarkar, et al. [27] conducted semi-structured interviews on 10 Olympic gold medalists and had them describe their past adversity-related experiences (e.g., repeated non-selection, significant sporting failure, and serious injury). Many of the adversity-related experiences were considered a chance for personal psychological development as an athlete and as an impetus leading to success in the Olympics. Additionally, Sarkar, et al. [27] pointed out that based on these Olympic gold medalists’ narratives, the athletes likely used these adversity-related experiences to further their ambitions as athletes who “want to be great” or “want to be better than anyone else.” Furthermore, Stambulova [28] noted crises related to age, crises related to sporting career, and crises related to situations or the environment as the three primary crises experienced by athletes. This study suggests that these experiences of crises were turning points in athletes’ psychological growth.
Thus, various studies have been conducted on the psychological growth that accompanies negative experiences in sports settings. Nevertheless, most of these previous studies have used qualitative approaches for their investigations [29]. However, to measure the psychological growth of athletes, Sugiura[30] created a Psychological Maturity Scale for Athletes. This scale comprises the following five subscales: clear meaning of sports activity, self-understanding, independent achievement orientation, mental stability, and physiological controllability. This scale was used to examine quantitatively the relation between athletes’ psychological growth and the various experiences of crises they face. The results indicated that going through experiences of crises in sports made people prone to having seen improvements in clear meaning of sports activity, self-understanding, and independent achievement orientation; however, mental stability and physiological controllability were not easily changed by these experiences. The former point is related to the desire to practice and the will to continue with competitions, while the latter is primarily related to exhibiting actual ability.
As mentioned above, there is considerable prior research demonstrating that the negative experiences of athletes have the potential to promote psychological growth. However, negative experiences of athletes increase their anxiety and heighten loss of self-confidence, and these experiences have negative aspects that can cause a decrease in motivation. On the other hand, research seems to suggest that the psychological struggles and conflicts that accompany such experiences have a dual nature whereby they also contain positive elements (e.g., being the impetus to achieve psychological growth). Considering this, the yips, which has only been viewed as a negative experience for athletes, can potentially become something that promotes athletes’ psychological growth.
Studies have indicated that (1) the psychological growth that accompanies an individual’s negative experiences takes place in the process of adapting to the problem faced, and that (2) the resolution of a crisis or the lessening of pain is not a necessary condition for their growth [31,32]. However, some reports also state that the experience of these sorts of events does not cause growth by itself, and that crisis resolution and the lessening of pain are necessary for growth [33,34]. Accordingly, in cases where there is some sort of psychological growth that accompanies athletes’ experience of the yips, it is necessary to investigate whether it is essential to overcome the yips or if growth can occur without overcoming the yips.
Therefore, the present study aimed (1) to examine whether there is a relation between athletes’ psychological growth and their experience of the yips and (2) to investigate if overcoming the yips plays a role in this psychological growth.
This profile contained questions on sex, years in college, years of experience competing, achievements in competition, main position, and whether the participant had the experiencing of being a captain.
|
Non-Yips Group |
Yips Group |
Group That Overcame The Yips (N = 69) |
F-Value |
Multiple Comparison |
Expectation Anxiety |
10.76 (4.16) |
17.76 (5.16) |
13.47 (4.77) |
52.49* |
2 > 3 > 1 |
Body-Image Distortion |
7.11 (2.77) |
14.38 (4.31) |
9.41 (3.67) |
105.54* |
2 > 3 > 1 |
Lack Of A Natural Stance |
4.18 (1.77) |
7.86 (2.29) |
5.67 (2.57) |
71.73* |
2 > 3 > 1 |
Advice From The Environment |
4.89 (2.14) |
8.64 (2.30) |
6.41 (2.54) |
59.4* |
2 > 3 > 1 |
Affirmations From Others |
6.31 (2.49) |
10.36 (1.82) |
8.15 (3.06) |
55.57* |
2 > 3 > 1 |
|
Non-Yips Group |
Yips Group |
Group That Overcame The Yips (N = 69) |
F-Value |
Multiple Comparison |
clear meaning of sports activity |
28.29 (5.57) |
26.71 (5.76) |
29.97 (4.47) |
5.27** |
3 > 1, 2 |
self-understanding |
22.43 (4.40) |
22.40 (3.88) |
24.2 (3.76) |
5.94** |
3 > 1 |
independent achievement orientation |
21.18 (4.86) |
20.83 (4.45) |
22.65 (4.11) |
3.31* |
3 > 1 |
mental stability |
17.32 (4.73) |
15.38 (4.63) |
16.76 (4.31) |
3.34* |
1 > 2 |
physiological controllability |
22.22 (5.37) |
17.57 (4.93) |
20.84 (5.02) |
15.07*** |
1, 3 > 2 |
During this period, these players considered questions such as “Why do I play sports?” or “Is it necessary for me personally to continue with sports?” As shown by the results of the present study, while people are experiencing the yips, they are naturally prone to reduced scores on the clear meaning of sports activity or are in a state where it is difficult to provide support on the clear meaning of sports.
However, Sugiura[37] assumed that an athlete’s crisis about their reason for participating in sports or a crisis in motivation for participation in sports “makes athletes think about why they are playing sports and what type of athlete they are”([37], p. 191). Moreover, Sugiyama proposed that resolving a crisis in the motivation for participation in sports could lead to psychological development as an athlete. If those findings and the results of the present study are considered jointly, one can conclude that people who have experienced the yips think deeply about their own reason for continuing baseball in the process of handling the psychological conflict that accompanies the experience, and use overcoming the yips as the impetus to find a new purpose or develop a clearer purpose than they had before experiencing the yips.
Tamminen, et al. [26] conducted semi-structured interviews on elite athletes to study the negative experiences of athletes in sports settings or their daily lives and the accompanying psychological development of the athletes. The results of this study show that some players gain a strong understanding of the limitations of their own abilities and the strength of their body and mind through their negative experiences, and some players gained an understanding of their own identity beyond their identity as an athlete. Additionally, Wadey, et al. [38]examined the psychological transformation of injured athletes in the process of recovering from their injuries, and found that in their struggle to recover from injuries or in the psychological conflict that they face, injured athletes reflect on themselves, try to understand their own emotions, and actively disclose information about their own emotions to other people. It is possible that through these processes, these athletes come to have a strong understanding of their own emotions. In addition, it was reported that athletes’ negative experiences result in positive transformations such as gaining a strong understanding of their own abilities and what they can and cannot do [38, 39]spurring personal realizations and acquisition of insight [40].
There have been many reports of how negative experiences in everyday life or sports settings can present a good opportunity for self-reflection, allowing a deeper understanding of one’s own abilities, circumstances, and identity. It seems clear that the experience of the yips is a chance for baseball players to reflect on themselves; moreover, it seems that overcoming the yips is an opportunity to reach a deeper understanding of athletes’ own abilities and themselves.
In recent years, however, many studies have reported positive transformations with regard to mental stability that takes place through these negative experiences in a sports setting. These transformations include increases in mental toughness [42] and resilience and decreases in performance anxiety [43], as well as improved coping skills[38,44,45]. Accordingly, further research is required.
The group that had overcome the yips had significantly higher scores on physiological controllability, suggesting that these physiological or psychological issues related to the body improved when the yips were overcome. The athletes gradually regained self-confidence, becoming able to relax and execute proper performance.
Are the significantly higher scores (in comparison to the yips group) of the non-yips group and the group that overcame the yips of the same quality? The main symptom of the yips is losing control of a specific part of the body. Therefore, even if symptoms improve in athletes who have experienced the loss of such control, it is difficult to believe that their sense of their body and self-confidence about controlling their body could return to as it was before they experienced the yips. In short, it seems possible that the non-yips group members and the members the group that overcame the yips would have different characteristics in terms of psychological development. Accordingly, there is still room for further study on physiological controllability.
Sugiura[30] reported that experiences of crises in sports tend to make it easier to see improvements in the clear meaning of sports activity, self-understanding, and independent achievement orientation. However, these experiences make improvements in mental stability and physiological controllability more difficult. Thus, the results of the present study support Sugiura [30]. Because the group that overcame the Yips had significantly higher scores on clear meaning of sports activity, self-understanding, and independent achievement orientation compared with the non-yips group, the experience of the yips and overcoming it may have triggered psychological development. On the other hand, the study did not show a higher psychological development score for the yips group or the group that overcame the yips for mental stability or physiological controllability compared with the non-yips group. This suggests that there is a tendency for the experience of the yips and overcoming it to act as a trigger to make it easy to improve on the former three subscales; however, it tends to be difficult to improve on the latter two. Accordingly, it may be that experiencing and overcoming the Yips mainly promotes the desire to practice and encourages people to participate in competitions rather than spurring psychological development related to the demonstration of ability.
Lastly, a noteworthy finding was that the subscales on which the group that had overcome the yips showed significantly higher scores than did the non-yips group were clear meaning of sports activity, self-understanding, and independent achievement orientation. Contrastively, there were no subscales where the Yips group had significantly higher scores than did the nonyips group. This result seems to substantiate the findings of Kamijyo and Yukawa [33] and Taubman-Ben-Ari, et al. [34], who noted that personal growth as a result of negative experiences does not happen simply because of the experience but because of the important roles played by resolution of the crisis or alleviation of the pain of negative experiences. In other words, the psychological development observed in people who have experienced the yips is not merely because of the experience of the yips, as overcoming the yips also plays an important role in this development. Accordingly, making effort and not evading painful experiences and the increased self-confidence resulting from being able to overcome an issue [47] affects psychological development. Further, Sugiura[30] noted the possibility that athletes gain a clear understanding of sports activities, a clear self-understanding, and an independent achievement orientation by overcoming performance-related problems or frequent slumps. Considering these findings and the results of the present study, it is understandable that only the group that has overcome the yips had higher scores than did the non-yips group.
This was a cross-sectional study, and hence, we cannot establish a causal relationship. Therefore, while the group that overcame the yips was observed to have significantly higher scores on the three subscales clear meaning of sports activity, self-understanding, and independent achievement orientation compared with the non-yips group, it is not clear whether this difference really came from experiencing and overcoming the yips.
Accordingly, more detailed investigations are necessary in the future. These investigations should conduct surveys of individual baseball players who have experienced the yips with questions such as “Did you experience any type of psychological development that was not included in the Psychological Maturity as an Athlete Scale?” or “Did experiencing or overcoming the yips really trigger you to experience psychological development as an athlete?” Additionally, the advantages of using this type of qualitative approach is that it is possible to explore in depth the characteristics of the psychological transformations among people who have persisting symptoms of the yips (the yips group). The results of this study did not indicate a significant difference between the non-yips group and the yips group, but it is possible that people with persistent symptoms of the yips (the yips group) experience psychological development that cannot be measured using existing scales, due to a mixture of ambivalent feelings about psychological struggle that accompanied the experience of the yips. Sugiura [30] used (1) a quantitative survey that employed the Psychological Maturity as an Athlete Scale and (2) a qualitative survey on the same target group to clarify the relation between psychological development and the experiences of crisis as an athlete. That survey reported the characteristics of psychological development that were not measurable in the survey, observed in the results of the free descriptions.
Additionally, Hiraki[48] reported that in the interviews done regarding PTG, there were signs of growth in people who were still suffering the pain of not being able to solve their problem.
The next limitation related to the target group of the survey is that the selection of the target group in the present study was only based on the results of subjective responses given by respondents to a questionnaire. However, whether these respondents had truly experienced the yips or had overcome it could not be verified objectively. Thus, when a target group for a survey is selected in the future, responses should also be taken from the players’ coaches or teammates. Alternatively, conducting objective tests on physiological, praxiological, or neurological aspects might enable a more accurate measurement of the relation between experiencing or overcoming the yips and psychological development.
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