Resilience in elite level sport

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Resilience in elite level sport

• Professor Jim McKenna
• Carnegie Faculty for Sport and Education, Leeds
  Metropolitan University
• j.mckenna_at_leedsmet.ac.uk

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What we know about motivationmotive-action x
energy

• People motivate themselves
• Our energy flows from our strengths and values
• Talking helps others to tap into our energies
• Some Talking blocks or drains others energy
• Organisations succeed or fail, one conversation
  at a time
• People do NOT respond to reality, onlyto their
  PERCEPTION of reality

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Resilience Links to Broaden and Build theory
of positive emotions (Frederickson 1998, 2001)

• The label given to bounce-back-ability coping
  and personal growth (bounce-beyond-ability)
• The process or capacity for successful
  adaptation in conditions normally associated with
  psychological dysfunction and low competence
  (Fonagy et al., 1994)
• Growth perspective Links to notions of
  capability and competence
• Transfer of adaptations

Dr. Steve Cobley
John Allan
Nick Wattie
Arabella Ashfield
Jon Finn
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The aim is NOT to make the caterpillar a better
caterpillar.
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but to turn it into a beautiful butterfly
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PYD model of change
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Hardship happens (grit) Resilience (the pearl)
might result
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Resilience results from combining the power of
the positive with the negative
3 1
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Sequences of coping

• Emotion-focused coping
• Problem-focused coping (PFC)
• Moving to PFC is supported by Meaning-focused
  coping

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The ordinary magic of becoming resilientA
socially constructed notion
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Build their resolveSystems must create
realistic, yet challenging, tests
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Perfect is incompleteProblem-free is not prepared
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Learning from Lizzies story

• Perfect is incomplete (brings entitlement), so
  recruit from groups with adversity in their
  background
• The severity of adversity you can handle
• Depends on the qualities of
• your system
• your people

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Responding to Adversity
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Resilience

• More than recovery
• Only 8-20 exposed convert to PTSD
• A common (grounded?) experience
• Many pathways (a process AND an outcome)
• Hardiness
• Self-enhancement
• Repressive coping
• Positive emotion and laughter

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And it gets more complicated.Problemsfrom
within and beyond sportthey coincidelast for
different (often long) periods
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What makes junior to senior career transitions
difficult?
The development career transition model Wylleman
and Lavallee (2003) See also Finn and McKenna
(2010) IJSSC
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What is RESILIENCE ?
Score (1-10) 1 not very good at this, 10
very good at this ------- I am compassionate
and contribute to society ------- I am
empathetic ------- I am stress hardy ------- I
establish realistic goals and expectations -------
I feel in control of my life ------- I feel
special (not self-centred) and I help others to
feel the same ------- I learn from both success
and failure ------- I live responsibly based on
considered values ------- I use effective
communication and interpersonal skills ------- I
use solid problem-solving and decision-making
skills

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Use powerful aids for balanceRelying on money
undermines personal solidarity
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Some behaviours undermine othersWeapons of self
destruction
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Sport/ Life eventsGrowth opportunities
System
Person
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Building Resilience Links to Super-compensation
in training?
Time
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Options for Building Resilience Growth
Challenge Support.
Time
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Find the bigger meaning