香京julia种子在线播放

This study aimed to explore the nature of adversities faced by competitive elite athletes during the global COVID-19 lockdowns and to understand the complexity of the process of resilient adaptation.

Morse (1997, 1999) and Holt and Tamminen (2010) recommend “methodological coherence” (p. 419), which this study strived for by establishing consistency through ideation, research question, philosophical orientation, and theoretical perspective (Mayan, 2009). This study adopts a stance of ontological relativism (Creswell, 2013) and sits in an interpretivist–realist epistemology, concerned with understanding the reality of COVID-19 and resilience as engaged subjectively by athletes. The focus of analysis is on the unfolding of resilience in the lived experience of competitive elite athletes during COVID-19 lockdowns through their narratives. The hermeneutical differences and lived experiences of athletes were prized to secure authenticity to understand the nature of adversity and complexity of resilient adaptation during COVID-19 lockdowns. Narrative analysis was chosen to secure a detailed understanding at the individual level while retaining ecological validity since individual narratives are personal to them, but the structures that shaped them such as the lockdowns are not theirs alone (Riessman, 2008).

Purposive sampling was undertaken using the formalized classification of athletes (see Swann et al., 2015). Per the classification, competitive elite athletes are athletes who compete at the international level regularly and have had success. Participants who were over 18 years and in countries with lockdowns were recruited. Both team and individual/team sports were included to provide a holistic idea about the nature of the adversity and the process of resilience in a time of isolation since there could be potential differences as per existing theory (Morgan et al., 2015, 2019). Competitive elite athletes were approached since they were likely to have resilient characteristics that enabled them to withstand stressors for achieving success in their sport (Hardy et al., 1996; Krane and Williams, 2006; Fletcher and Sarkar, 2012).

Potential participants were informed about the background of the study upon first contact. Phase I screening was conducted using the Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008), in line with recommendations from Windle (2011) regarding its satisfactory reliability and validity. Participants self-reporting their resilience above normal threshold (i.e., 3) were invited for phase II interviews. Institutional Ethics Committee clearance was obtained prior to commencement. The participants were briefed on the aims, procedure, and outcomes, following which informed consent was obtained. The participants were told to inform the interviewer if they felt any discomfort in discussing COVID adversity due to its ongoing nature, in which case the interview would be terminated immediately without prejudice. The interviewee was a trainee psychologist and would suggest referrals to the participants should they require psychological support through this time.

In phase I, 15 competitive elite athletes (M_age = 26.33, SD = 7.96; male/female = 7/8) filled in the Brief Resilience Form (Smith et al., 2008). All athletes screened at phase I self-reported above-average resilience but were not informed about their psychometric scores until after the interview to reduce bias. Equal numbers of male and female athletes were chosen from countries around the world for representative results. Although attempts were made to secure a globally representative sample, major sporting nations such as the United States, Brazil, and Russia were excluded since they did not have an extended period of complete societal lockdown. All participants were contacted and invited for the interview. In phase II, 10 participants of equal gender representation participated in the interview (M_age = 26.10, SD = 6.41). Sample demographic details are illustrated in Table 1. The authors recognize a Eurocentric trend in the sample but highlight the narrative voices of competitive elite athletes from other societies. Although there are no fixed rubrics on sample size (Vasileiou et al., 2018), this study’s sample was limited by pragmatic concerns such as lockdown, ending in unanswered forms and participants not responding to interview invites.

The screened participants were invited for an online interview and were informed that the interviews would take approximately 45 m to 1 h of their time with no payment/incentive provided for participation. Microsoft Teams was used for a confidential and secure encrypted connection. In line with ethical research, to ensure participant confidentiality, anonymity, and safety (participant and researcher), the online interviews took place in a private room. Following written and verbal consent, interviews were conducted and audio-recorded with a Dictaphone. After the interviews, data were anonymized, transcribed, and encrypted with AESCrypt. The researchers had sole access to data in line with general data protection regulation (Voigt and von dem Bussche, 2017), the Data Protection Act (2018) regulations, and the BPS-GDPR guidance for researchers (BPS, 2018). The first author conducted verbatim transcription of data. The transcripts were anonymized and provided with a participant ID and code name linked to their sport, balancing the protection of participant identity and data integrity (Saunders et al., 2015).

Data were collected using a semi-structured interview schedule, with probes and questions offering the space to discuss the experience of COVID-19-related adversity and how they engaged their resilience. The interview questions were open-ended, and the participants were told to be conversational. For example, “So you mentioned quarantine, which is the elephant in the room. How has that experience impacted you?” The interviewer encouraged all the participants to tell their own stories; however, they wanted to and took on the role of an “active listener” during the interview (Smith and Sparkes, 2005). Techniques from experiential interview scheme, such as reflecting on the lived situation, were implemented (Janz, 1982). Life story interview techniques were used to document the adversity experience over a period of time (Atkinson, 2007). This allowed exploration of adversity experiences and the process of resilient adaptation through the participants’ narratives. It was reiterated that there was no obligation to share narratives and that the participants could withdraw at any point. At the time of the interview, all participants were residing in countries with complete national lockdown.

Methodological rigor was established by incorporating authentication strategies such as peer debriefing during the research process to ensure credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (cf. Morse et al., 2002). Coding was done initially by the first author and independently checked by the second author and another critic friend. The results which emerged were critically debated to ensure consistency in the framing of the lived experience through the narrative analysis. Quality control was adjudicated using what Sparkes and Smith (2014) term time-and-place contingent characteristics. The results were judged via post hoc evaluation (cf. Fletcher and Sarkar, 2012) by using quality criteria of contribution (i.e., a worthy topic of inquiry, credibility, and resonance) (Tracy, 2010). To briefly explain, we feel that our research is a timely and essential contribution since sport psychology is still figuring out the impact of COVID-19 on the psyche of everyone involved in sport. As such, the “practical level of truth” (Giacobbi et al., 2005, p. 22) uncovered by this study holds relevance for policy development, applied sport psychology practice, and coaches since it provides an insight into lived experience. Credibility was also ensured through triangulation, where interview transcripts and interpretations were checked with the participants where possible, which ensured that the rigor and data analysis were not biased. Finally, we hope that providing descriptive quotes in the article illuminates the narratives to the readers and resonates with the experience of all in the sporting context who are affected by COVID-19.

Data were subjected to a narrative thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008). Specifically, the researchers read and re-read each transcript for familiarization and noted initial thoughts. Both the location of telling (subjective context) and the location of the story (macro context) were noted since the contexts shape the narrative and need to be explicitly considered in the analysis (cf. van Vuuren and Westerhof, 2015; Levitt et al., 2017). In line with recommendations, the focus was on what is said rather than for what purpose or how or to whom (Riessman, 2008). Blocks of text which represented a thought or meaningful point related to adversity experience were identified and labeled as a raw-data theme. Since the goal of thematic narrative analysis is to tell the “whole story” while preserving the sequencing of events, the themes reflect temporal elements of the experience of adversity caused by COVID-19 lockdowns. The themes noted below were reflected in all the participant narratives. Themes were compared and contrasted with each other and finally represented in a rich and layered narrative detail from multiple participant quotes.

Loss was a recurring part of the adversities faced by the athletes during COVID-19 lockdown. “Jack” summarized this succinctly when he exasperatedly stated, “I have never had 8 weeks where I have not stepped on a badminton court; so, it’s weird.” This feeling of losing a sense of normality is associated with the loss of their sport (i.e., ability to engage in sport, train, and compete was echoed by all participants). The narrative also encompassed adverse emotional reactions to this loss. As “Frisbee” recounts:

“Jack” related his situation to this line of thought as well reflecting on his experience through the narrative of what all athletes must be going through, “Quite a lot obviously, for athletes, this part of time is quite difficult because obviously we can’t play, so I’ve gone from playing… like I have never had more than 2 weeks off from badminton, maybe 4 weeks due to injury or something like that.”

“Bruce” expressed frustration while noting how the pandemic and lockdowns have impacted training and his routine, “We have got a white-water course in ^******* which is basically why I moved there, but that has been closed since well forever, well 9 weeks.” He also discussed how this has made sport and “training on my own less enjoyable,” a sentiment also expressed by all other participants.

Loss of sport and training was a major focus in the narrative of “Veronica.” Painting a detailed picture, she noted:

Loss of sport and training also had a tangible effect on the mental health and psychological side of sport, which was also lost. “Alex” noted how the “psychological environment is important… if you’re around people who are negative then it’s a factor, and now there are a lot of people who are understandably negative.” The performance-oriented side of psychological preparation was also severely hampered with the loss of sport. “Tessa” notes: “But the thing I’ve struggled with is not being able to go to the gym…. And I think I spoke earlier about having goals… right now, it is almost impossible to. My problem is I don’t really have any goals at the moment.” The narrative of “Julia” also highlighted similar adversity themes as she explained how “I have tried to, like, stay fit. I am doing, like, strength sessions and conditioning sessions still, but maybe not as many as I would be doing, like, normally, and there are some things that I just cannot cope with, like I just can’t cope with even thinking about the testing so I have just completely ignored that… like, for example, I used to have, like, this fear of God, of missing the testing, or something like that, but I just have not done any of the testing, and for me, you know, work has also been very challenging and stressful… so just yeah… things in my mind.”

Another major loss experienced by athletes has been the loss of support and “having a good sport system” (i.e., sport support systems). Linked closely to loss of sport as shown above, “Jack” noted how:

This major adversity has led to other difficulties for the athletes such as skill acquisition and talent development. “Frisbee” narrates a recent experience, “There is something I have been trying to do during quarantine, its fluid movement, so handstands, rolling into flips and what not, and I have tried to do it by myself, and it get stuck …And without someone showing me, I feel like I would not have to get anywhere.” “Veronica” also narrates how loss of support (technical, emotional, social) has also forced other forms of innovation during lockdown:

“Bruce” also noted that losing the direct support offered by coaches and others in the sport system has had adverse effects as well, “’cause quite a lot of the things that athletes and coaches are struggling with at the cause if they have guided an athlete the whole way throughout their career, now they can’t because of the restrictions… and the athlete is sort of lost.”

Although not explicitly stated, the participants indicated a loss of identity caused by the prevailing psychosocial conditions. This is seen in the dialectic descriptions of the way the participants struggle to describe self away from the dominant sport-culture performance narrative despite no actual sport participation and competition (Douglas and Carless, 2006). Interestingly, all participants followed this pattern identification of athlete role and hinted at a sense of reduced accomplishment due to the COVID-19 reality and the corresponding loss of cognitive and social utilizations of the athletic identity (Brewer et al., 1993). However, this evidence is not an inference on whether athletic identity is a Herculean muscle or an Achilles heel (cf. Brewer et al., 1993) but an acknowledgment that there is a sense of loss of a major aspect of self-identity for competitive elite athletes. Although there is no direct indication to this loss, this acknowledgment secures its rationale because narratives are the “sea of stories that seeps into our consciousness and our very identity” (Murray, 2003, p. 98). Therefore, its implied presentation by the participants can be taken as preliminary evidence of its operation in their phenomenological reality.

Analysis also confirmed incongruence in the narrative presented by the athletes. This incongruence represented a form of dissonance between the usual structured, goal-directed environment they are acclimatized to which the relatively aimless COVID-19 isolation situation brought. This incongruence manifested in feelings of impotence because of the psychosocial reality versus a need for mastery which elite athletes are acclimatized to. This incongruence has surged into psychological distress, ruminations, negative emotions, and loss of motivation, constituting a major adversity. As “Julia” narrates in relation to collaborating with rugby players for training:

All participants also noted a corresponding impact of this incongruence on their athletic identity general worldview. “Tessa” recounts how the incongruence and unstable COVID-19 situation has led to “So I really struggled with aiming toward something…. And I got a bit out of the habit of doing or giving my full effort to some of my workouts because I really was struggling my motivation, because I kind of felt what’s the point?”

“Jack” also pointed to several factors of the situation as leading to this incongruence, which better illustrates the nature of adversities faced by competitive elite athletes, illustrating that:

“Maria” also noted the negative impact of losing control over sport as losing control over her coping, stating that “I have also been going through some personal things off the court, with boyfriends and things like that, uhm… so I have really struggled actually this past week to try and draw upon my resilience…” The sense of impotence shared by the athletes is best captured in the narrative of “Tessa”:

Another aspect of this incongruence experienced by athletes was the struggle to be “perfect” athletes and normal “victim” human beings. This is reflected not only in the narrative throughout as the participants noted their struggles but also by the fact that they have to keep being athletes and do all that is expected of them. “Julia” narrates the difficulty of managing this incongruence:

This incongruence is also reflected through the attempts made by the participants to continue being elite athletes despite the COVID-19 reality and losing access to all sporting facilities. “Veronica” describes what it has been like:

All the participants were frank and discussed feeling the need to live up to ideal perception of what an elite should be and their struggles with it. “Perfect” and “should” came up multiple times in every participant’s narrative. “Maria” noted that, at times, she has tried to maintain a routine and “control the controllable, so I trying to control the things that are in my control and all the little things that I do, I can’t say I am a perfect example because I have definitely struggled as well ‘cause it has not been easy not having those distractions in your life, like, playing, that is my passion.” Despite the far-reaching nature of this incongruence, a majority of the participants explicitly displayed a tendency reframing and undergoing challenge appraisal (Fletcher and Sarkar, 2012). “Natasha” framed this eloquently by describing how “I have been going, like, things are changing, we are all learning and we are all on the same page and it’s a bit of a rubbish situation, just let’s get on with it.” “Tessa” also echoes this sentiment, saying:

“Rohan” also looked beyond onto the larger psychosocial reality that he was a part of by stating: “been a bad effect not only on sports but also on the economy and many other things.” It is logically postulated that the process of reframing the adversity faced and engaging in challenge appraisal by all participants to mitigate the psychological impact of COVID-19 is because all participants self-reported high resilience scores. It needs to be highlighted that the themes of loss and incongruence prominently featured in the narrative are not mutually exclusive but rather two sides of the same coin of the COVID-19 psychosocial reality for competitive elite athletes.

Narrative structural–quest analysis was chosen since resilience unfolds primarily at the individual level and can be traced much like a character arc in a narrative. It is suitable since it focuses on how the resilient adaptation narrative functions rather than the context of the analysis, i.e., COVID-19 adversity which has been explored in depth by study 1. Riessman (2008) outlines the six parts of a narrative structure: abstract, introduction, complication, evaluation, resolution, and coda. This congruently fits with adopted theoretical perspective of resilience (cf. Bonanno and Diminich, 2013; Gupta and McCarthy, in press) and provides study 2 with methodological coherence. The quest narrative has a plot structure story in which the person meets suffering head on, accepts the disability, seeks to use it, and commits by developing uncertainly (Smith and Sparkes, 2009). This is like the structure of resilience adaptation outlined in theory, i.e., the individual meets adversity which is major and exceeds available resources, which causes a disruption, then a depletion, followed by a metacognitive learning process, and finally a rebound with new learning and resources into positive adaptation (cf. Bonanno and Diminich, 2013; Gupta and McCarthy, in press).

The structural analysis teases out the resilient narrative of the individuals and helps understand the thoughts, actions, hopes, emotions, and psychological complexity (Smith and Sparkes, 2005, 2008). The focus of analysis was not on the performance narrative (Douglas and Carless, 2006) but on the resilience narrative as it was unfolding for positive adaptation during COVID-19 adversities.

The results provide narrative evidence support to the conceptual model of Samuel et al. (2020) of the coronavirus pandemic as a change event in a sporting career. Study 1, capturing adversity experiences, fits squarely within coronavirus stage A, and the findings of study 2 showing the complex process of resilient adaptation reflect coronavirus stage B (cf. Samuel et al., 2020). A helpful parable to understand the COVID-19 adversity and resilience is to liken it to other similar acute, long-term, restrictive adversities and uncertain, non-controlled change events. Faced with these unexpected changes, elite athletes have to considerably change their sport engagement (Samuel et al., 2015). A textbook example is a sudden long-term injury or other complex experiences. Both in COVID-19 and long-term injury, the endpoint to return to “normal” sport is unknown, but athletes still have to process and continue with their career preparation. COVID-19 is a novel psychosocial threat to health, life, and livelihood. One strategy for applied practitioners to support athletes is to engage them in a metacognitive challenge appraisal by drawing evidence from experiences of overcoming similar types of adversity in their sporting careers, for example, reflecting on strengths and experience of overcoming a chronic adversity such as injury and how those same capabilities can combat COVID-19 adversity.

This study holds relevance since it provides coaches, sports psychologists, and sporting organizations with the lived reality of adversity and resilience as experienced by athletes. It is not a general assumption, but it is a demonstration of the depth and breadth of the experience. This richness will help better understand and therefore better direct support. The insight into the resilience process that highly resilient athletes are engaging in demonstrates an emphasis on acceptance and constant relearning as key. We recommend that an applicable practice philosophy or intervention theoretical frame would be to move away from fixed mindset to a growth mindset which improves resilience (Brady and Alleyne, 2017). This would allow better resilient adaptation to new sport protocols such as quarantine, testing (MacInnes, 2020), and re-entering a changing financial market which might alter career trajectories (Transfer Market, 2020). We concur with Schinke et al. (2020b) who advocated the need to develop an organic approach (i.e., placing the focus on the person behind the athlete). This study gives the raw narrative experiences, allowing practitioners to get an understanding from the athletes’ perspective and guide intervention design with that cognizance.

We are cognizant of the fact that we conducted the study during uncompromising lockdowns, but we are now moving forward in changed circumstances. Sport and the athlete’s sporting careers are continuing on in different ways, such as lack of formalized training or rehabilitation support, bubbles, and/or closed-door competition. There is also a possibility of various forms of lockdown should outbreaks occur. Therefore, the results and the topics of the study hold importance as a navigational marker for sports psychologists, coaches, and sporting organizations. Should sport psychologists have to support clients who have returned to local lockdown because of outbreaks or a positive test, this study provides an idea of what athletes faced, giving them a perspective of their clients. Therefore, we recommend that psychological support should be focused on the maintenance of mental health and the development of psychological coping skills for self-care rather than performance indices. For work with adolescent and early collegiate athletes, introducing psychoeducational life skill training in addition to psychotherapeutic support is a holistic approach for intervention (cf models Hodge et al., 2013; Sudhesh et al., 2020). Another recommended intervention strategy is to facilitate the development of self-regulation behavior in athletes, which is an important protective factor of resilience among youth at risk of social exclusion and in sport (cf. Artuch-Garde et al., 2017; Gupta and Sudhesh, 2019). This would also promote a sense of control and environmental mastery, which promotes resilience (Sarkar and Fletcher, 2014). Practitioners should ensure digital upskills to be effective in the online modality of support while keeping service delivery considerations of accessibility, working alliance, confidentiality, disinhibition, verbal/non-verbal cues, time delay, and technological issues in mind (cf. further open-access reading, Price et al., 2020).

The findings constitute the lived experiences where the athletes are coming from and can serve as a map of the psychological terrain that the new-normal sport is heading toward. There has been a very real impact on the athletic lives because of the COVID-19 adversity, and athletes are still engaging in their individual resilience trajectories. This study shines a light on some aspects of the impact, but it is as yet unknown what its long-term impact on psychological fitness is. For instance, a limitation of the study is the collection of data at a single point of time rather than at multiple temporal points. We need further research to establish a timeline of COVID-19 adversity experiences.