How Do Coaches Experience Psychological Momentum? A Qualitative Study of Female Elite Handball Teams

Abstract

Psychological Momentum (PM) is commonly referred to in competitive sports, but still has to be considered elusive from a scientific perspective. This study explores coaches’ perception of triggers, strategies and characteristics of PM in female elite handball teams. Semi-structured interviews with nine coaches were evaluated using a qualitative content analysis. The results revealed that positive and negative PM were characterized by factors regarding behavior, cognition, confidence, emotions, and the team. Triggers for positive PM were categorized into confidence, players’ individual factors, team factors, and team-opponent-factors, whereas triggers for negative PM related to coach factors, confidence, external factors, players’ individual factors, and team factors. Moreover, strategies emerged that are considered beneficial for controlling PM. The results are discussed with emphasis on behavioral aspects, confidence, emotions, team factors, and application. Foundations based on this study and recent research lead to the assumption that PM is probably best portrayed in a circular approach.

Nonverbal post-shot celebrations and their relationship with performance in elite handball

“…The results of these analyses were non-significant, thus revealing that the display of nonverbal post-shot celebrations after scoring cannot be considered as a sufficient intervention to enhance subsequent performance. This result is in contrast to qualitative research: Handball players (Ronglan, 2007) respectively coaches (Moesch & Apitzsch, 2012) considered celebration behaviour to have a positive impact on performance. This belief, however, cannot be supported with the data of the present study.…”

“…In line with previous conceptualizations of PM (e.g., Vallerand, Colavecchio, & Pelletier, 1988), these authors thus suggested that both individual and situational factors made up a complex interaction to create perceptions of PM. Affective responses have emerged as an important factor in PM from both qualitative and quantitative research (e.g., Briki, Den Hartigh, Bakker, & Gernigon, 2012;Briki, Den Hartigh, Hauw, & Gernigon, 2012;Cornelius, Silva, Conroy, & Petersen, 1997;Jones & Harwood, 2008;Moesch & Apitzsch, 2012). The expression of such affective responses through nonverbal behaviours has also been in focus in PM research: Moesch and Apitzsch (2012) revealed that handball coaches considered showing positive reactions within a team as a useful strategy to enhance positive PM, while negative body language is considered a trigger of negative PM.…”

“…Affective responses have emerged as an important factor in PM from both qualitative and quantitative research (e.g., Briki, Den Hartigh, Bakker, & Gernigon, 2012;Briki, Den Hartigh, Hauw, & Gernigon, 2012;Cornelius, Silva, Conroy, & Petersen, 1997;Jones & Harwood, 2008;Moesch & Apitzsch, 2012). The expression of such affective responses through nonverbal behaviours has also been in focus in PM research: Moesch and Apitzsch (2012) revealed that handball coaches considered showing positive reactions within a team as a useful strategy to enhance positive PM, while negative body language is considered a trigger of negative PM. A similar study within PM in soccer showed that negative body language of the opponent functions as a trigger for positive PM of the own team, and, correspondingly, negative body language of the own team was considered to be a result of being in a negative PM (Jones & Harwood, 2008).…”

“…The process of emotional contagion has been proposed as a possible mechanism underlying the development of positive and negative psychological momentum (PM) in teams (Moesch & Apitzsch, 2012), and nonverbal behaviours in general have been connected with PM (Adler & Adler, 1978;Jones & Harwood, 2008;Young, 2011). Based on a dynamical system approach, Gernigon, Briki, and Eykens (2010) defined PM as "a positive or negative dynamics of cognitive, affective, motivational, physiological, and behavioural responses (and their couplings) to the perception of movement toward or away from either an appetitive or aversive outcome" (p. 397).…”

Perceptions of psychological momentum of elite soccer players

“…Research suggests that perceptions of PM exist and alter in response to gaining or losing ground in a competition (i.e., scoring or conceding) (Briki, Den Hartigh, Hauw, & Gernigon, 2012;Eisler & Spink, 1998;Iso-Ahola & Dotson, 2014;Moesch & Apitzsch, 2012;Perreault et al, 1998;Stanimirovic & Hanrahan, 2004) and therefore might be a possible explanation why a player's performance changes in relation to the score line. Therefore, in this paper the definition of PM as a "perception that the actor is progressing towards his/her goal" (Vallerand et al, 1988, p. 94) will be used, as it considers the perception of the performer as well as the act of scoring which has been shown to be a key determinant of PM in soccer (Higham, Harwood, & Cale, 2005;Jones & Harwood, 2008).…”