Emergency medicine residents and performance under pressure: learning from elite athletes' experience

OBJECTIVE

The skills of coping with stress and pressure within emergency medicine are conveyed informally and inconsistently throughout residency training. This study aims to identify key psychological competencies used by elite athletes in high-pressure situations, which can be integrated into a formal curriculum to support emergency medicine residents' performance in high acuity settings.

DESIGN

We conducted a scoping review spanning 20 years to identify the relevant psychological competencies used by elite athletes (Olympic or World level) to perform under pressure. We used controlled vocabulary to search within Medline, PsycInfo and SportDiscuss databases. A standardized charting method was used by the team of four authors to extract relevant data.

RESULTS

The scoping review identified 18 relevant articles, including 707 athletes from 49 different sports and 11 countries, 64 data items were extracted, and 6 main themes were identified. The main psychological competencies included the ability to sustain a high degree of motivation and confidence, to successfully regulate thoughts, emotions and arousal levels, and to maintain resilience in the face of adversity.

CONCLUSION

We used the main psychological competencies identified from our scoping review to develop a hypothesis generated framework to guide the integration of performance psychology principles into future emergency medicine residency programs.

The Talent Development Pathway for Elite Basketball Players in China

A large portion of previous sport talent development research has been conducted using Western countries study subjects such as Canadian, Swedish, Spanish, British, or American athletes. However, the factors that affect oriental culture athletes remain an unexplored field. The aims of this investigation were to consolidate the exploration of the pilot study that studied the key factors for Chinese elite basketball players' careers and understand what facts have helped them to achieve the highest sportive level through qualitative research. The pathway to excellence of 11 Chinese elite basketball players were analyzed through a semi-structured interview with different categories such as social context, sport context, tactical factors, or anthropometric factors. Results showed that cultural factors, family tradition, academic studies, coaches, mental strength, training structuration, and international competitions had a great effect and influence in the talent development of Chinese basketball players.

The Temporal Ordering of Motivation and Self-Control: A Cross-Lagged Effects Model

Mechanisms leading to cognitive energy depletion in performance settings such as high-level sports highlight likely associations between individuals' self-control capacity and their motivation. Investigating the temporal ordering of these concepts combining self-determination theory and psychosocial self-control theories, the authors hypothesized that athletes' self-control capacity would be more influenced by their motivation than vice versa and that autonomous and controlled types of motivation would predict self-control capacity positively and negatively, respectively. High-level winter-sport athletes from Norwegian elite sport colleges (N = 321; 16-20 years) consented to participate. Using Bayesian structural equation modeling and 3-wave analyses, findings revealed credible self-control → motivation → self-control cross-lagged effects. Athletes' trait self-control especially initiated the temporal ordering of the least controlled types of motivation (i.e., intrinsic, integrated, and amotivation). Findings indicate that practicing self-control competencies and promoting athletes' autonomous types of motivation are important components in the development toward the elite level. These components will help athletes maintain their persistent goal striving by increasing the value and inherent satisfaction of the development process, avoiding the debilitating effects of self-control depletion and exhaustion.

Use of mental techniques for competition and recovery in professional athletes

BACKGROUND

The present study aims to describe knowledge about and usage of mental techniques to prepare before competitions and after sport-associated injuries (SAIs) by professional athletes (team sports) in Austria.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, 191 professional athletes (basketball, football, hockey, ice hockey, and volleyball teams, m:f = 142:49, 24 ± 5, 18-39 years) filled in a questionnaire assessing socio-demographic data, duration/frequency of sport practice, rate and severity of SAIs. Furthermore, the use of mental techniques and of spiritual practices before competitions and for recovery after SAI was assessed. The use of mental techniques before competitions and after SAI was correlated with socio-demographic data, duration and frequency of sport practice, and injury patterns of SAIs of the last 24 months.

RESULTS

Approximately, 96 % reported knowledge about at least one mental technique. Only 13 participants used them for regeneration after SAI. Approximately, 31 % of males and 13 % of females reported the use before competitions (p = 0.017). 54 % of participants using spiritual practices used mental techniques before competitions, whereas only 13 % of participants not using spiritual practices used them (p < 0.001). 67 % of participants not using mental techniques before competitions and 88 % using them believed in the effectiveness of mental techniques in the regeneration after a SAI (p = 0.03). A significant increase of the probability of using mental techniques before competition with increasing age was found [Odds ratio (OR) = 1.101, confidence interval (CI) = (1.03, 1.18), p = 0.006].

CONCLUSION

Mental techniques seem to be well-accepted but rarely used among professional athletes. Further studies are needed to give new information about this relevant topic in professional sports.

The Great British Medalists Project: A Review of Current Knowledge on the Development of the World's Best Sporting Talent

The literature base regarding the development of sporting talent is extensive, and includes empirical articles, reviews, position papers, academic books, governing body documents, popular books, unpublished theses and anecdotal evidence, and contains numerous models of talent development. With such a varied body of work, the task for researchers, practitioners and policy makers of generating a clear understanding of what is known and what is thought to be true regarding the development of sporting talent is particularly challenging. Drawing on a wide array of expertise, we address this challenge by avoiding adherence to any specific model or area and by providing a reasoned review across three key overarching topics: (a) the performer; (b) the environment; and (c) practice and training. Within each topic sub-section, we review and calibrate evidence by performance level of the samples. We then conclude each sub-section with a brief summary, a rating of the quality of evidence, a recommendation for practice and suggestions for future research. These serve to highlight both our current level of understanding and our level of confidence in providing practice recommendations, but also point to a need for future studies that could offer evidence regarding the complex interactions that almost certainly exist across domains.