Temporal Patterns of Subjective Experiences and Self-Regulation during Ramadan Fasting among Elite Archers: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Some major competitions (e.g. London Olympics, 2012) are scheduled during the Ramadan fasting month. Little attention has been given to explore the archers' performance related subjective experiences with a qualitative method. Therefore, this study addressed individual archers' subjective experiences within the framework of self-regulation during Ramadan. Methods:Eleven elite Malaysian Muslim fasting archers volunteered to participate in the study. Grounded theory was the qualitative approach used to examine the subjective experiences of athletes during Ramadan. Interviews were conducted and inductive content analysis was adopted to identify the temporal patterns of self-regulation of subjective experiences across the fasting period. Results: Inductive content analysis identified (a) physical, (b) mental,(c) emotional, (d) behavioral, and (e) spiritual experiences.Overall patterns revealed that experiences associated with physical, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual dimensions dominated in the first phase of fasting, while the mental dimension surfaced increasingly in the latter phase of fasting. Conclusions:The trend showed changes in the patterns of experiences among the major domains across the temporal dimension. Athletes reported increased subjective experiences in mental factors toward the latter half of the fasting period. Practitioners should emphasize on mental aspects of training, as these appear to be salient in archery performance.

Self-Coping Strategies Among Jordanian Athletes During Ramadan Fasting: A Questionnaire Proposal

“…In their choice of repetitions, the athletes declared favoring the quality of their training rather than quantity with a reduction in the number of sessions per week (34% for a reduction in the number of sessions). This choice of strategy has been recommended to athletes in order to avoid possible metabolic stress, which could be caused by daytime fasting, as well as by chronic sleep deprivation resulting from the cumulative loss over several days (13,16,26,27).…”

“…Such a disturbance in sleep patterns, which could be the cause of a disturbance in eating habits and fluid intake, has a direct effect on human circadian rhythms (28)(29)(30). This can give general feelings of discomfort and fatigue, which could have a negative influence on physical performance (13,26). Several studies have shown that an average of 8 hours of nighttime sleep, even with a cumulative decrease over the Ramadan period, Ramadan fasting does not compromise the quality of sleep (3,31).…”

“…It is interesting to note that 18% of the athletes have seen the average number of hours of sleep decrease during the month of Ramadan. Several studies have emphasized this point and have justified this reduction by a socio-cultural impact as a direct effect of Ramadan fasting (7,13,26,28,32). In addition, Margolis and Reed (33) have shown in students an adaptation of a self-regulatory process by increasing daytime hours in order to avoid an increase in sleepiness during Ramadan.…”

Ramadan Fasting and Competitive Sports: Psychological Adaptation within Socio-cultural Context

“…Research related to Ramadan and performance in Malaysia have been helpful in understanding how Ramadan fasting affects sports performance (see Aziz & Weileen, 2008;Roy et al, 2011a;Roy et al, 2011b;Singh et al, 2011). Despite the existence of such research, there is a deficit of literature that examines the distinction and essential socio-cultural influences in sport setting during Ramadan.…”

“…Schinke et al (2010) proposed adaptation as a comprehensive intervention strategy for elite athletes where he emphasized the importance of providing additional psychological guidance and practical knowledge on how to transfer the learning from a sterile environment to a real world context. Roy et al (2011a) studied the temporal patterns of subjective experiences and self-regulation during Ramadan fasting among Malaysian elite archers. This study reported an increase in experiences related to mental factors in the latter phase of Ramadan fasting.…”