Endurance athletes' coping efforts throughout competitive suffering episodes

Abstract

Endurance athletes must effectively cope with competitive suffering, a negative affective state brought about by perceived goal failure, for optimal performance during competition. The current study aimed to distinguish the sequential coping efforts of athletes who endured shorter, and longer, episodes of competitive suffering. Eleven male and 15 female competitive runners (Mage= 35.8, SD= 12.1) completed a 5km time-trial task and were unknowingly provided with pace-times that were slowed by five percent to induce competitive suffering. Following the time-trial, suffering duration and coping function use (problem-focused, PFC; emotion-focused, EFC; and avoidance, AvC) were assessed using video-mediated recall. Prior to analysis, the sample was divided by competitive suffering duration into long and short duration groups. A significant mixed RM ANOVA interaction effect, F(4, 96) = 2.569, p < .05, partial ?2 = .097,indicated differences in coping function use between each group across three phases of competitive suffering. Post-hoc analysis revealed that the short duration group used more EFC during initiation and at the peak of suffering, while also using less AvC during the initiation phase, in comparison to long duration competitive sufferers. These findings suggest that athletes adapt their coping efforts throughout emotional episodes, and that coping function use may distinguish athletes who are quickly able to regain a positive affective state.

Acknowledgments: This research was supported through funding from the Sport Sciences Association of Alberta (SSAA)